As I mentioned in my last post, recently at work we did some comparisons between Mental Ray and Vray. It was a bit of a competition. The Super Bowl of Render Engines. This post is to give you some insight on our results:
What we found is that Mental Ray and Vray are VERY competitive. There is little difference in the end result and the aesthetics of the renders come down to personal preference; however, we have a consensus that it is much quicker to just dive into a scene and in a matter of minutes make photo realistic renders using Vray. Mental Ray seemed to take much more time adjusting settings and textures to obtain the desired results. Keep in mind this is with 4 years experience using Mental Ray and only a couple months of experience with Vray. This was a major factor in our decision to use Vray over Mental Ray.
Here are some comparison renders of the same object with similar render preferences, lighting, and textures between the two render engines. The model was purchased from Evermotion
Mental Ray
Vray
We were very impressed by both the renders; however, we felt that the shadows, reflections, and crispness of the Vray render was more realistic. The Render time of both was pretty equal. I am a die hard Mental Ray fan; however, the ease of using Vray and benefits of Distributed Rendering make Vray a great choice.
Things to Consider:
On the other hand, if you are just getting into doing advanced rendering, Mental Ray is a great starting point for a few reasons: 1) It comes free with both 3ds Max and Maya. 2) If you are not experienced with texturing, Mental Ray has a vast amount of preset textures that come with the software (including presets for plastic, metal, car paint, stone, and many other advanced textures) and in a matter of a few clicks you can have a decent relatively professional texture. 3) Mental Ray can be easier to grasp for beginners in the sense that Vray can be a little more complex if you consider having to learn how to use Vray Cameras, Textures, and Lighting to be a challenge; however, once you know your way around basic rendering, texturing, and lighting settings -as I said above, Vray seems to be much faster when the goal is to obtain crisp, noiseless, high quality renders. Vray also comes with several of its own perks as well such as an easy to use Distributed Rendering system.Try doing a comparison for yourself and you be then judge! Share your results in the comments section below :)
Things to Consider:
On the other hand, if you are just getting into doing advanced rendering, Mental Ray is a great starting point for a few reasons: 1) It comes free with both 3ds Max and Maya. 2) If you are not experienced with texturing, Mental Ray has a vast amount of preset textures that come with the software (including presets for plastic, metal, car paint, stone, and many other advanced textures) and in a matter of a few clicks you can have a decent relatively professional texture. 3) Mental Ray can be easier to grasp for beginners in the sense that Vray can be a little more complex if you consider having to learn how to use Vray Cameras, Textures, and Lighting to be a challenge; however, once you know your way around basic rendering, texturing, and lighting settings -as I said above, Vray seems to be much faster when the goal is to obtain crisp, noiseless, high quality renders. Vray also comes with several of its own perks as well such as an easy to use Distributed Rendering system.Try doing a comparison for yourself and you be then judge! Share your results in the comments section below :)
I like this dude!
ReplyDeleteThanks brother!
ReplyDeleteVery nice...
ReplyDeleteNice comparison indeed!
ReplyDeleteIf I was to point out something it's the glossiness difference of the marble between the two. In the Vray render the stone has, as it looks like, a higher glossiness value which gives it a bit more "pop".
Im a big fan of both renders too, currently working 95% with Vray.
Thanks for the comments! Since learning Vray I too am using it about %95 percent of the time. Mental Ray is nice when you are using certain glow and lighting effects that are not supported by Vray but even with the "Architectural" texture presets that Mental Ray has built in to both Maya and 3ds Max once you get the hang of Vray it is very quick to build stunning textures from scratch. I also feel that the Distributed Rendering system of Vray is superior to Mental Ray's which is extremely helpful in boosting render time and very easy to set up if you have access to more than one computer to render with. Thanks for checking out the post!
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