In Depth: Which 3D render engine is best? (Updated 20 September 2021) #3drenderer

Indeed, there are so many 3D Renderers available. So, how does an artist know what to choose? Essentially, renderers really do the same thing. However, they work differently will give different results. Below is a breakdown of what the different renderers offer, not reviews, so you can decide which renderer is right for you.

Header image credit: PIRO4D

3D Renderers: An Introduction

This article on 3D Renderers was difficult to put together. As a result, there is a lot of information to digest. Indeed, I hope this will be a highly used resource. My goal was to create a document to help artists decide which 3D renderers work best for their work while presenting only facts. No opinion. So, users can compare 3D Renderers on a logical level. This comes with a lot of terminologies of which you must have a basic understanding. First, I’ll go over some terminology, then a comparison chart of some criteria with renderers. Then a bit more about each 3D rendering engine with some videos.

Criteria for this 3D Renderers Comparison

• GPU/CPU
• Biased/Unbiased
• Physically Based Renderer
• Platform Support
• Host Support
• System Requirements
• Price

Note: Pricing and system requirements are accurate as of the publishing of this article. We will keep this document updated when we get around to it. Please check for current versions.

3D Renderers Terminology

We’re going to go super basic and barely scratch the surface here. so make sure that you see the “Further Reading” list below if you want to know more about each term.

CPU vs. GPU Rendering

Think of the central processing unit, or CPU, as the brain and control center of your computer. A graphics processing unit, or GPU, is there to render 3D graphics and to help the CPU perform its calculations. The CPU is based on single cores so it works on one bit of data at a time. The GPU is designed for parallel processing so they can work with a lot of data at once. To sum it up, a quote I came across from Kevin Krewell from Nvidia explains it well: “Architecturally, the CPU is composed of just a few cores with lots of cache memory that can handle a few software threads at a time. In contrast, a GPU is composed of hundreds of cores that can handle thousands of threads simultaneously.”

Some 3D renderers will utilize the GPU instead of the CPU, which can mean faster renders, but the downside is that GPUs are limited to the amount of VRAM or video memory. Many renderers are hybrid and use both the CPU and GPU.

GPU vs CPU Video Rendering and Video Editing

Roberto Blake gives a great overview of whether you should choose GPU or CPU rendering.

Biased vs. Unbiased

Biased means that the renderer will estimate values, or do a bit of educated guessing using mathematical functions, and not calculate every single pixel. The benefit is that it’s much faster. The downside is that the results may not be absolutely accurate.

Unbiased, on the other hand, means that every pixel is calculated with no interpolation between pixels. Biased rendering methods include light tracking, path tracing, bidirectional path tracing, and metropolis light transport.

Many renderers are capable of producing both unbiased and biased renderers.

Grant Warwick about Bias and Differences of 3D Rendering Engines

Further reading:

• The Truth About Unbiased Rendering 
• Should your renderer be biased or unbiased?
• Octane vs Corona vs Redshift has a nice explanation of bias vs unbiased.

Global Illumination

Global Illumination is the algorithm that the software uses to recreate natural lighting from the real world. There are several types of algorithms such as radiosity, ray tracing, beam tracing, cone tracing, path tracing, Metropolis light transport, ambient occlusion, photon mapping, and image-based lighting. Even more, these can be used on their own or in combination with each other to create better results. [Source:Wikipedia: Global Illumination]

C4D Fundamentals | 07 – Advanced Rendering – Understanding Global Illumination

While this video is targeted to Cinema 4D, much of the information applies to any other 3D software.

Monte Carlo Method

This is a common algorithm for photo realism used by 3D software and it seems to be tied in with probability in gambling! To explain, “Monte Carlo methods are also efficient in solving coupled integral differential equations of radiation fields and energy transport, and thus these methods have been used in global illumination computations that produce photo-realistic images of virtual 3D models, with applications in video games, architecture, design, computer-generated films, and cinematic special effects.” [Source: Wikipedia: Monte Carlo method]

Further reading:

• Monte Carlo methods for improved rendering – This is an academic paper from the Institute for Applied Computational Sciences, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Embree Ray Tracing Kernels

Embree, developed at Intel, is a collection of high-performance ray tracing kernels. Hence, it is explained in the video below from Intel.

Many renderers use Embree ray tracing kernels. In addition, V-Ray Next includes a custom Embree ray tracing library “which speeds up anything from proxies to motion blur.” [Source: Interview: V-Ray Next and the Future of Rendering – CG Channel] FluidRay RT, Corona Render, and others also use it.

Further reading:

• How Embree Delivers Uncompromising Photorealism | Intel® Software
• Download Embree here
• The Embree Example Renderer – This is a photo-realistic path tracer that builds on the Embree high-performance ray tracing kernels (Note: not a full-featured renderer and not designed to be used for production rendering)

Physically-Based Rendering

Finally, Physically based rendering, often abbreviated PBR, uses mathematical theories that allow for photorealistic renderings.

What is PBR? Physically-Based Rendering Explained

Further Reading:

• Physically Based Rendering From Theory to Implementation, Second Edition, by Matt Pharr and Greg Humphreys
• Basic Theory Of Physically-based Rendering
• PBR Guide from Allegorithmic – Wes McDermott and his friends at Allegorithmic have updated The PBR Guide. It’s a 2 volume guide to physically based rendering. In order to keep pace with evolving 3D technology, they are keeping the information and techniques in the book up to date. Of course, it’s available as a free download on Substance Academy.
• Maya Monday: How Physically Based Rendering Shaders Work
• Webinar Replay: NVIDIA: Transform Your Workflow with Physically Based Materials

3D Renderers

Comparison Chart – Quick Reference

Autodesk Arnold Render

The description from the developer:

Arnold software is an advanced Monte Carlo raytracing renderer. Another key point, it’s designed for artists and for the demands of modern animation and visual effects (VFX) production.

Corona Renderer

The description from the developer:

New advanced high-performance renderer for 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, and other platforms. Corona Renderer delivers high-quality, physically-based shading in production rendering. Significantly, all of its features are tightly integrated into Autodesk 3ds Max.

Further Reading:

• New: Corona Renderer 6 for 3ds Max and Cinema 4D Released
• Update: Corona Renderer 5 for Cinema 4D is Now Available
• Corona Render Blender Addon
• Update: Corona Renderer 5 for Cinema 4D is Now Available

Insydium Cycles 4D

The description from the developer:
Cycles is an unbiased GPU/CPU render engine developed by the Blender Foundation and made available under the Apache 2 licensing system. Additionally, Cycles 4D is a dedicated bridge plugin allowing Cinema 4D users to access the Cycles rendering engine directly inside Cinema 4D without the need for an external application.

With Insydium’s own real-time preview and fully featured node editor, along with our eye for detail and quality, Cycles 4D is the ultimate render companion. Of course, it has unparalleled access to X-Particles.

Cebas finalRender True Hybrid

The description from the developer:

finalRender is a photographer’s dream come true
trueHybrid™ technology – bringing the power of CPU and GPU together! finalRender for 3ds Max is the perfect choice for 3d artists and studios alike wanting the maximum in image quality and photo-realism, without experiencing a brain melt when setting up complex scenes for rendering! And no compromises.

KeyShot

The description from the developer:

Luxion KeyShot is a stand-alone, real-time ray tracing and global illumination program used to create 3D renderings, animations, and interactive visuals. With its CPU-based architecture, photorealistic real-time rendering can be achieved on both Mac and PC.  In fact, real-time rendering is possible even on laptops, without the need for high-end graphics cards.

In addition, KeyShot supports more 3D file formats than any other rendering software, importing over 25 different file types. It has a simple user interface with drag-n-drop material and environment presets, interactive labeling, texture mapping, physical lighting, animation, and much more.

Maxwell Render

The description from the developer:

Maxwell – 3D rendering software for architects and designers.

To summarize, Maxwell is legendary for its quality and realism. It delivers great results via a simple set-up, which lets you focus on lighting. Now, Maxwell easily integrates a powerful denoiser (by Innobright’s Altus), while preserving texture and geometry details, effectively saving a lot of time. You can obtain your images around two to six times faster, depending on the scene for a similar amount of detail. Instead of having to render your images to a high sampling level, you can keep it low and let the denoiser do the job.

Octane

We’ve left Octane off of the list previously because we do not sell it. A couple of people recently asked us why we are snubbing Octane. We are definitely not snubbing it. In fact, we think it’s a great renderer and we’d love to carry it. However, we’re not going to put the energy and time into keeping it updated here since we do not sell it, and it’s tough enough to keep what we do sell up to date. Hopefully, we’ll be able to add it to this list in full detail in the future! We’d like that very much!

Redshift

The description from the developer:

Redshift is the world’s first fully GPU-accelerated, biased renderer.
Redshift is a powerful GPU-accelerated renderer, built to meet the specific demands of contemporary high-end production rendering. In other words, Redshift is tailored to support creative individuals and studios of every size. In fact, Redshift offers a suite of powerful features and integrates with industry-standard CG applications.

 Redshift – The Details

Current release: 3.0.51, 5 August 2021.

Platforms: Windows, Mac

Host Support:   

• Maya
• Softimage
• 3DS Max
• Cinema 4D (Note: R25 IS supported)
• Houdini

License Options: Redshift is a licensed per machine with no limit on the number of GPUs*. To clarify, there is no distinction is made between workstations and render nodes. In other words, 1 license is good for 1 machine.

Price: $500

Learn more

Redshift News:

• News: Maxon Announces Redshift for macOS
• News: Maxon Acquires Redshift Rendering Technologies

Shaderlight Pro for SketchUp

The description from the developer:
Shaderlight is an interactive rendering software plug-in to SketchUp that lets you create high-quality images, quickly and simply.

Current Release: 2021 (9.0)

Platforms: Windows

Host Support: SketchUp

License Options: Full/Retail, 2 Pack, Academic for student or educator,

Price: $120

Learn more

U-Render

The description from the developer:

High-Quality Real-time Rendering for Cinema 4D

Current Release:

• v2021.9, released 15 September 2021. Cinema 4D R25 compatible. Learn more

Platforms: Windows

Host Support:

• Maxon Cinema 4D
• Standalone

Price: $339

Learn more

News

• R25 Compatibility: Update: U-RENDER v2021.9 – Now with Sheen and C4D R25 Support
• Update: U-Render 2021.6: Improved DOF, S24 Viewport Integration
• Update: U-RENDER v2020.04
• Changelog: Redshift, Lightmap, e-on, U-RENDER, Redshift, 3d-io…
• The Changelog: Soundtoys, Silhouette, U-RENDER, More
• Update: U-RENDER 2019.12 with Material Converter
• Update: U-RENDER 2019.09.01 Available
• U-Render v2019.05.01 Improves Stability and Correctness
• UPPERCUT U-RENDER 2019.03.01 – Improvements for Live Mode
• UPPERCUT U-RENDER v2019.01.17 Release

FormZ RenderZone

The description from the developer:

RenderZone Plus adds photorealistic render capabilities to formZ
Add photorealistic rendering with global illumination, ambient occlusion, and radiosity effects to formZ! Single user license of RenderZone plugin for form·Z 8.

Chaos V-Ray

The description from the developer:

Smarter. Faster. Render.
Built for artists, designers & jacks-of-all-trades, our 3D rendering software helps you visualize anything imaginable. Undoubtedly, you will save time and create your best work with tech from Chaos.

Chaos V-Ray – The Details

Platforms: Windows, Mac

Host Support:   

• Cinema 4D
• 3ds Max
• Maya
• Softimage (no longer in development)
• Rhino
• Modo
• Nuke
• Sketchup
• Revit
• Unreal
• Universal Render Nodes for V-Ray for 3ds Max, V-Ray for Maya, V-Ray for Softimage, V-Ray for NUKE, V-Ray for KATANA, V-Ray Standalone, and V-Ray for Blender. (*V-Ray Render Nodes are required to render with V-Ray 3.0.  Will not work with v2.x and below.)

License Options: Standard license includes 1 Render Node. Additional Render node licenses are available. Additionally, rental options and academic licensing are available.

Price: Starting at $695, depending on host support.

Learn more

Chaos V-Ray News

• Update: Chaos Updates Add Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya 2022 Support
• Update: Chaos V-Ray 5 for 3ds Max, Rhino, and Sketchup Update 1 + Chaos Cosmos
• New: Chaos V-Ray 5 for Sketchup is Now Available + Webinar Info
• Chaos V-Ray Collection + V-Ray 5 for 3ds Max
• Beta: V-Ray 5 for 3ds Max
• Chaos V-Ray Education Collection is Now Available
• Midweek Motivation: New Chaos V-Ray Showreel 2019
• Update: Chaos V-Ray for Cinema 4D Now Supports R21 – 11 September 2019
• Update: Chaos V-Ray Next for Sketchup, Update 1 – More Power – 15 October 2019
• News: Chaos V-Ray Next for Rhino Update 1 Available – 25 September 2019

Older V-Ray news

• Chaos V-Ray for Houdini is Now Available – 20 July 2019
• Blur Studio Taps V-Ray for Netflix’s New NSFW ‘Love, Death & Robots’ Short Film Anthology – 24 July 2019
• Update: Chaos V-Ray Next for 3ds Max, Update 2 – 5 June 2019
• Chaos V-Ray Next for NUKE is Now Available – 29 March 2019
• Chaos showcases breakthroughs in GPU rendering – Post Magazine talks to Chaos demonstrated new performance breakthroughs in GPU rendering and real-time ray tracing at the latest GPU technology conference. They are working on a new version of its V-Ray rendering engine that fully utilizes Nvidia RTX ray-tracing cores for the fastest render speeds yet.
• V-Ray for Blender Plug-in – Free and open source plug-in, but you must have the Universal Render Node installed.
• Laublab VrayforC4D – Chaos has made V-Ray for Cinema 4D an official Chaos product. Read on to learn more and how to migrate your license.

3D Renderers Updates from 2021

• 20 September 2021: Several products have been updated to support Cinema 4D R25, including Cycles 4D, U-Render, and Redshift.
• 19 July 2021: updated V-Ray for Revit and Maya. In addition, Redshift updated to v3.0.50.
• 30 June 2021: We updated a few recent updates for V-Ray, finalRender, and U-RENDER.
• 3 May 2021: Corona Renderer 6 Hotfix 2 adds support for 3ds Max 2022, V-ray for Cinema 4D 5.00.45 (Hotfix 3) adds support for Cinema 4D S24.
• 15 April 2021: Redshift and V-Ray for 3ds Max updated
• 9 March 2021: Maxwell Render 5.2 updated
• 24 February 2021: Major Chaos updates for V-Ray, an Arnold point update
• 12 February 2021: Updated Luxion Keyshot
• 5 February 2021: Updated Arnold,  U-Render, V-Ray for Cinema 4D, Redshift

3D Renderers Updates from 2020

• 17 December 2020: Updated several V-Ray versions, KeyShot, and Redshift
• 16 November 2020: V-Ray 5 for Sketchup available.
• 2 November 2020: Added Shaderlight for Sketchup. Updated Arnold Renderer.
• 7 October 2020: Corona Renderer for 3ds Max Hotfix, U-Render Update, Arnold Renderer update, and, of course, Redshift. FinalRender also works with 3ds Max 2021.
  
• 16 September: Added support for Cinema 4D to Cycles 4D and Redshift.
• 1 September 2020: Major updates to Corona Renderer, updates for Maxwell, Redshift, V-Ray
• 11 August 2020: Major update to V-Ray for Maya. Smaller updates for V-Ray for Rhino, U-Render, Redshift,
  
• 21 June 2020: Updated V-Ray, U-Render, Redshift 3D
  
• 16 June 2020: In summary, V-Ray for 3ds Max 5 has been released. In addition, the Redshift update came out last Sunday.,
• 13 May 2020: Maxwell 5.1 released, Redshift Experimental Build updated, Corona Renderer update, FormZ updated to v9
• 4 May 2020: U-Render, Redshift, V-Ray for 3ds Max Beta, and Keyshot updates.
• 8 April 2020: We’ve added lots of updates, including Corona, V-Ray, U-RENDER, Cycles 4D, and much more.
• 29 January 2020: In summary, we updated several V-Ray products with point updates.
• 6 January 2020: Overall, we updated Redshift and U-RENDER.