We've done a few of these, and most probably will do many more, however we have to use Mental Ray. The reasoning for this is two-fold. Firstly, Mental Ray has done a good job of touting itself as being able to do solar analysis, so the people in charge insist on using it. Secondly, VRay doesn't have a 1:1 feature set with Mental Ray when it comes to physical accuracy. It may well be down to a difference in terminology, but MR says it takes into account physical material properties by being able to tell something to be Concrete, Glass, etc.
We would very much like to use VRay for this, but I would say a few things need to happen to convince clients and directors. First, a paper or study focused on solar analysis and accuracy, by stepping through the workflow, and comparing/verifying the results with Mental Ray and, say, Ecotect. Secondly, the CIE sky model is good, but the Perez model is better (and recognized as being better), so an implementation of that would be good.
We would very much like to use VRay for this, but I would say a few things need to happen to convince clients and directors. First, a paper or study focused on solar analysis and accuracy, by stepping through the workflow, and comparing/verifying the results with Mental Ray and, say, Ecotect. Secondly, the CIE sky model is good, but the Perez model is better (and recognized as being better), so an implementation of that would be good.
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