Fstorm render

[joconnell]

The more competition the better!

Recent renderers are better because of the path that Vray's cut for them. If they can try features in a different way than the vray guys do, it's almost as if there's a second company doing a different approach to solve similar problems and they might come up with better results which can be taken into account - the more smart people out there the better it gets for everyone

[^Lele^]

I make the materials the same way, it just looks better.

It'd be real helpful if you could make some comparison test, pointing out what it is you think works better for fStorm.

[Sbrusse]

Sure I'll try to

One quick note for example : you can actually get away using any glossiness map with FStorm, if you change the bump, it actually acts as you had those little displacements in the texture that alter the glossiness of the texture and looks matte.

I'll try to make a complete feedback of why FStorm is better than Vray and if I can get also visual examples

[Moriah]

Nice looking renders Sbrusse!

One question, i've been trying Fstorm myself but since i'm a VFX guy and not archviz i need a lot more features than it currently has (render elements for example...) but one thing i noticed is that even with an HDRI that's somewhat nicely calibrated and a reflective shader, i usually get lots of fireflies. You seem to have a few bright sources but no fireflies on your shaders? Any tricks? Or post cleanup?

@ Lele - one thing i noticed so far is that FStorm's noise looks very "photographic", it doesn't look CG, it's hard to explain, but let's say that at 0.03 noise threshold i could get away with it because it looks like film grain, while Vray's noise looks very CGish. I also saw some other archviz guys claiming the same, and that they would usually stop their renders sooner because of it. Also, real time glare it's a big plus, something that vray lacks right now. The Lens Effects thingy could use a complete overhaul (messy controls, too many parameters imo)

[mitviz]

the renders from fstorm on their forums are crazy realistic, grant warwick was one of the first guys i ever heard saying he chooses to octane renderer because of the level of realism it posseses over vray in a shorter period of time and now here comes Fstorm, i have been testing it and i have to say with small scenes just the way it renders ordinary things from the start is incredible, i have not much time to waite for renders to complete because of my crappy graffics card but based on what grant says i wonder what the gpu renderers seems to have over the cpu renderers and why the level of realism is so much easier to achieve in shorter period of time, GPU guys shed some light on this. indeed vray is the big boss of all renderers because it handles just about anything but in the chase for realism this new renderers are indeed lacking all the features vray has but they are producing amazing renders

[Donfarese]

Sbrusse, how would you compare this to Redshift?

[Donfarese]

Some quick comparisons between Fstorm and Redshift.

[glorybound]

The Fstorm is softer and the other one is much sharper. It looks like the AA filter is different. The right is warmer and the left is colder.

[Donfarese]

I think the only reason Fstorm look Softer is because it didn't clean up enough, if you look where the sunlight is hitting the cabinets where it cleaned up easier you can see it's just as sharp as Redshift. Fstorm does get odd lighting from it's Fstorm sun/sky, do cold, a lot of blue bounce. This was to show quality and speed.

[mitviz]

or maybe its that the glare option is on in fstorm which is enabled by default which is really nice if i may add but nice tests! i like F storm more though, seems more natural

[Donfarese]

or maybe its that the glare option is on in fstorm which is enabled by default which is really nice if i may add but nice tests! i like F storm more though, seems more natural

Actually I turned Fstorm Glare option off to make the tests more the same.

Just to add, Redshift is also still using an older sky model not the new Hosek Sky model which it desperately needs.

[Oleg_Budeanu]

FStorm is the first true alternative I found to Vray that is literally awesome and better than Vray for some crucial points that have been asked for a long time but never made it.

Really would like to see explanation of those features, what we are missing here ?

[^Lele^]

@ Lele - one thing i noticed so far is that FStorm's noise looks very "photographic", it doesn't look CG, it's hard to explain, but let's say that at 0.03 noise threshold i could get away with it because it looks like film grain, while Vray's noise looks very CGish. I also saw some other archviz guys claiming the same, and that they would usually stop their renders sooner because of it. Also, real time glare it's a big plus, something that vray lacks right now. The Lens Effects thingy could use a complete overhaul (messy controls, too many parameters imo)

This is great, thanks!
I can surely do measurements, both qualitative and quantitative, on residual noise.

One quick note for example : you can actually get away using any glossiness map with FStorm, if you change the bump, it actually acts as you had those little displacements in the texture that alter the glossiness of the texture and looks matte.

I take it you mean using NO glossiness map?
Have you tried the same thing with the color2Bump on a GGX shader in V-Ray?
f.e.:

[Mokiki]

Lele in regards to this is it possible in vray to get the anisotropic spread (probably using the wrong terminology) seen here on the circular metallic part in the attached image just via bump? I tried it a few times but never really manged to do this.

[Oleg_Budeanu]

Lele in regards to this is it possible in vray to get the anisotropic spread (probably using the wrong terminology) seen here on the circular metallic part in the attached image just via bump? I tried it a few times but never really manged to do this.

There's an old evermotion tutorial about this : http://www.evermotion.org/tutorials/...1-5-final-sp-1
Is this what you are after ?