Oh boy! Is D5 eating Chaos’ lunch?
I have a professional licence for D5 Render to test it compared to V-Ray/Vantage.
It’s far from perfect (like all tools), but their various AI modules, scatter, ocean and cloud functions are incredibly powerful.
One thing I noticed was that it was dangerous! I mean, like any AI, you are pigeonholed into what AI does, and you can’t reproduce it. It is good for one-off stills, and you hope and pray that the client doesn’t have any changes. Every time I have used AI for anything other than subtle vegetation detail, I get in trouble. I had one client go back several iterations and pick and choose different parts of each AI iteration, all after the scene evolved. Now, like in photography, I get as close as I can in-camera, so color grading is easier.