The Future

[glorybound]

Okay, I guess I can't ignore it anymore. I think I have been told a dozen times, over the last several weeks, that V-Ray will be dead within two years. When I read question on forums about V-Ray I see single word answers, which is Corona. I am sure there will be a new flavor next month, but I am hearing Corona as being a game changer. Several months ago it was Octane... What's some opinions?

[jacksc02]

Yawn!
IS anyone else bored of these statements?
Apparently VRay was supposed to be dead years ago but as you can see it isn't and it won't be for a very very long time.
So don't believe they hype and keep rendering!

[glorybound]

After writing that post I went on over to the Corona website. I liked the $29 a month

[flino2004]

the most probably way that Vray could be dead is if Autodesk buys Chaosgroup.

[glorybound]

Apparently, with the new 3DS MAX 2016 physical camera, they are in bed together

[theedge]

I use more and more corona for interiors. It's not faster than v-ray but so much easier and quicker to setup and the result is always excellent.
I certainly wouldn't use it if there wasn't the rental system. It's great to have that flexibility when you use a software occasionally.

[squintnic]

what if one day computers can build themselves

[Mokiki]

what if one day computers can build themselves

No worries. Alienware etc. is still in business of selling overpriced hardware even when at this day and age building your own workstation is as easy as it ever was.

And Vray dead in 2 years? Sure Corona is the "new" kid on the block so ofc everyone is talking about it. And yes it is a solid product and the low cost entry is definitely a plus but I highly doubt vray will go anywhere it stands now.

[AJ Jefferies]

I think I have been told a dozen times, over the last several weeks, that V-Ray will be dead within two years.

I was just saying to my colleague yesterday that I see V-Ray being mentioned EVERYWHERE nowadays, and it's really heartening to see that so many studios are realising what an incredible renderer it is. I don't know where the doom and gloom is coming from.

[VI_MOVE]

Obviously Corona is giving artists the freedom to achieve impressive results. So does Vray. So do other Render Engines. But someone telling Vray is dead just because a new player came up to the stage always feels a bit like someone hasn't ever really worked with one of the renderers. But instead probably someone saw one of the feature presentations that always show a perfect world in which we don't live unfortunately. To me quality mostly depends on the artist skill and less on the software.

[vlado]

Okay, I guess I can't ignore it anymore. I think I have been told a dozen times, over the last several weeks, that V-Ray will be dead within two years. When I read question on forums about V-Ray I see single word answers, which is Corona. I am sure there will be a new flavor next month, but I am hearing Corona as being a game changer. Several months ago it was Octane... What's some opinions?

I guess the best thing you can do is try it out and see how it works. It's a good renderer and for many people it certainly does a very good job; being simple to use also helps a lot (although here I can argue that V-Ray can be just as simple to use). Render speed could be slower or faster depending on what you do. It does have some shortcomings, which will no doubt be addressed in the future, but even so it's very usable. For the moment, V-Ray needs to stay somewhat more complicated, but not everyone needs that complexity and for some users Corona would definitely be a better match.

As to which render engine will be dead in two years, it's a tricky question There are lots of things going on, some of which you don't see right now. On the GPU front, there's Redshift coming out sometime soon and it's an awesome GPU renderer, the various new iray incarnations from nVidia (not the one you see right now in Max), and other fast and easy to use CPU renderers coming your way. There's also cloud rendering, which may not be suitable for everyone initially, but will probably be a factor at some point. Who knows what will be left in two years when the dust settles...

Best regards,
Vlado

[thablanch]

I remember quite a few years ago, when Brazil was so much better than Vray..
And after that,
I remember quite a few years ago, when Maxwell was so much better than Vray..
And after that,
I remember quite a few years ago, when FinalRender was so much better than Vray..
And after that,
I remember quite a few years ago, MentalRay ( that was just revamped at the time) was so much better than Vray..
And after that,
I remember quite a few years ago, FryRender was so much better than Vray..
(please read irony everywhere here, just in case it is not clear)


Lots of threads about all of them, predicting the death of vray
And even if it would be the case, your dongle and software would still work for a few years, the time to find and learn replacement software ( would be hard to replace, but this is only my opinion )

[joconnell]

Holidays and pay raises are better than vray.

[thablanch]

Holidays and pay raises are better than vray.

true.......

[alexyork]

I have no allegiance to any particular renderer. The one I use is the one that allows me to do what I need to do, quickly, reliably and with excellent support and Vray stands ahead here for me by a country mile. The support here on the forum and the extraordinarily rapid bug fixing process is worth its weight in gold, really. I too am quite excited about Corona and all the buzz surrounding it seems justified. I don't think it's there quite yet for the kind of work I'm doing day-to-day but it will be soon, and more competition is always a good thing. I'm sure there are interesting things in the works planned for Vray as well, so this can only end well for us as customers.

For me, the next big major development would be dedicated, affordable real-time Vray Production Rendering in the cloud. Imagine being able to render a 5k image in completely in the cloud and have it update on your screen, progressively, in realtime. After you've finished tweaking, that's it - no "final render" needed. You just let it cook for a few seconds/minutes and you're done. This would be a revolution, I think. Whether this is achieved through GPU rendering or something else doesn't matter to me, but currently GPU rendering is out the door due to its many rendering limitations. I mean it can be done now already with VrayRT and the others, but the limitations are too severe currently and the price is way out of reach for most. Let's imagine paying £100/month for this service... would be a game changer.

I think the next big push is for real-time/near-real-time, whether it's realtime engines like UE4 or "near real time" like GPU-accelerated rendering with Teslas in the cloud etc. They will both remain separate things for separate end products but the results will converge and, perhaps in another 5-8 years, will become one.