Hi Tommy,

I totally agree with you.

Anyway I hope that Solid Iris will improve the Standalone Studio, 'cause i think that its UI is still not streamlined enough.


- Marco (mdkm)

KeyShot doesn't support PTEX or Vertex Painting, so you have to use good old UVs.

Hi guys,

I've read this thread with interest, and I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Cycles yet. It's Blender's integrated path tracing renderer with lots of flexibility and great quality, and it's free. Ok, to learn Blender and Cycles requires some degree of obsessive video tutorial viewing, but it's not that hard to learn.

Adding to this: MoI wizard Max has created an experimental MoI plug-in for the standalone version of Cycles, enabling you to render from within MoI itself. Pretty cool:

http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=7208.12

<< I've read this thread with interest, and I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Cycles yet.

I have said Blender yet in the messsage 17! ;)
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=8034.17

5. Has a human-friendly interface

it is not about blender.

<< 5. Has a human-friendly interface
it is not about blender.

:)

Some time ago I switched to KeyShot. Such an amazing piece of software. Now it's my preferred renderer.

are you kidding, guys? I wrote at least 4 times about Keyshot! does anyone read my posts? my ass...

Sorry Pilou, I didn't notice that you had already mentioned Blender. Well, it doesn't hurt to mention it twice.

Next to Blender's Cycles, my other favorite renderer is Keyshot, mentioned many times in this discussion already. I agree that the full version is too costly, but I've got the very affordable ZBrush-connected license. I use it mainly to render ZBrush creations, but sometimes I use ZBrush as a bridge between MoI Obj export and Keyshot.

@ Mseven Absolutly no problem!
A french Friend of me Pitiwasou has made these 3 cool plugins for Blender :)
https://cgcookiemarkets.com/all-products/speedflow/
https://github.com/pitiwazou/Scripts-Blender/blob/Older-Scripts/Wazou_RMB_Pie_Menu
http://www.pitiwazou.com/asset-management/

Altair Acquires Solid Iris Technologies



https://thearender.com/site/index.php/news/press-release/238-altair-acquires-solid-iris-technologies.html


Thea has been a great solution for me with its stunning unbiased engine realism and ease of use.
Plus it (currently) costs the same as Moi.

An acquisition always spells uncertainty for any software platform.
When Trimble acquired SketchUp its strengths went more in the direction of the civil engineering crowd but it's still around and a powerful, easy to use solution, so it wasn't a bad thing ultimately. However, has anyone else noticed that the pro version's price, once at around $500, is now $700? Maybe that's due to normal inflation - maybe I should talk to my boss.

Let's hope that any new development in Thea only enhances its current strengths for simplicity and spectacular renders.

Hi Mike K4ICY (MAJIKMIKE),

I'm glad to see you're back here !!

I still remember your awesome Moi tutorials! The best (not video) tuts I've ever seen IMHO :)

I agree with you about the acquisition of Solid Iris Technologies.

I hope that this "marriage" will bring new enhancements of that fantastic renderer.

For some time i'm using TheaRender (standalone and with Rhino plugin) and i must say that it's a super product!

Nice day,

- Marco (mkdm)

"However, has anyone else noticed that the pro version's price, once at around $500, is now $700?"

WHAT????

That is capitalism rules! :)

the price remains the same according to Thea website

He's talking about Sketchup Pro ;-) That's ~700 now.

I don't think anybody knows what the acquisition will bring for Thea. I have no clue about Altair, never heard of them, but I'm very wary about acquisitions in general.
In the end, only time will tell. But investors normally want to see their money back or have their own agenda regarding supported software - I saw that Altair has also bought Solid Thinking which was very crappy when I bought a license many years ago and is supposed to be better these days (I probably can't update anymore ... ;-) ).

Fingers crossed...

Cheers,

Tom

so, should I buy Thea as soon as possible or I can wait? If they raise the price it would be better to buy Maxwell (they just switched to GPU)
anyway - raise the price is not a good way to see their money soon. there are a lot of alternatives for 800-1000 euro, so for now Thea is a good solution only for its low price.

Hi glmr,

> so for now Thea is a good solution only for its low price

I'm sorry but I don't agree with you. :)

I almost daily use Thea and i can say that its speed and render quality are amazing!

If you want very good quality and excellent speed, its Presto CPU+GPU biased engine is awesome,
while if you want ultra realistic rendering at lower speed, its Unbiased engines are very close to the best high-end products of the market,
certainly much better then the famous KeyShot!

It's unbelievable that currently it costs under 300$!!

Nice day.

- Marco (mkdm)

No argument there.

For me, it was the modest price and stunning realism of the unbiased engine - not to mention the simple UI.

As far as the long-term effects of the acquisition, it worry that there will be a time someday when I go to install Thea on a new PC only to find that their server no longer validates my license.

Well, at least there is competition out there.

How does Thea for Rhino compare with Octane? I have Octane and like it.
eric