what is Iray?
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what is Iray?
Toobis
Posts: 976
I see a lot of new products coming out with "Iray" on them. What is it? is it some sort of new series of content for a latest graphics card or something so are only really useable for people with state of the art machines? Please someone explain and try to be basic.
Post edited by Toobis on
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Comments
iRay is an unbiased rendering engine that can produce photoreal images. It is based on nvidia's cuda technology so you have to have an nvidia card to use the fast gpu rendering mode but it also has a cpu mode as well (cpu is slower though).
It's an nivida only rendering engine similar to Octane, Luxus, etc. It's a physically based renderer that can create very realistic renders. A couple of the highlights are improved mesh lighting, HDRI images, and the idea that more lights (rather than less) increases render speed.
It's also more complex and significantly longer in rendering dark scenes (from my experience).
If you want to take advantage of the GPU rendering speeds you need not just an nvidia gpu, you need one that is relatively new. Iray GPU renders wont work with older Nvidia cards without cuda cores and it is no guarantee it works with older Nvidia GPUs that have CUDA. It will not allow GPU rendering with internal GPU cards nor will it work with any AMD/ATI video card. It also does not take advantage of cards in SLI but will use multiple cards in conjunction with one another provided the scene you render does not exceed the RAM requirements of one or more of those cards. In the event it does that card will no longer contribute to assisting the render and it will continue on with any card or cards that do have enough RAM to work the scene. It is recommended you use at least an Nvidia card with 4GB RAM, which presents a problem if you are planing to buy any new Macintosh computer as the only 4GB GPU options is AMD at this time, otherwise you can buy an external Thunderbolt GPU case for about $200 - $300 and then buy additional nvidia GPU's to render.
It's only restricted to nvidia if you want to use GPU rendering. You can use CPU rendering with any graphic card.
It comes with DAZ Studio 4.8 as default render engine, and does as Sorel and Paradigm67 say. :-)
If you are looking for more detailed information, please check here. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/56788/iray-start-here#latest
It's a rendering system created by Nvidia that can use the GPUs in their graphics cards for best performance. You can use it without an Nvidia card using your computer's CPU to do the calculations but this is not as fast.
It is what is called an "unbiased" or "physics based" rendering system which means it uses a more accurate model of how light behaves than the 3Delight renderer. It works out how light reflected from each surface illuminates other objects around it so you don't need special ambient lights and there is less need for extra fill-in lights. Mostly if you set up lights like you would in the real world you get the same sort of results. On the minus side it doesn't let you do things like tell certain lights or objects to not cast shadows.
For me its a faster slicker luxrender renders alot cleaner IMO
What is an "unbiased rendering engine"? What are the biased rendering engines biased against?
oh you name it! domesticated weasels, flame broiled vs. fried, the rightful king of Gondor...
heres a guy who's voice could put you to sleep if he was reading Fifty Shades of Gray explaining it.
also, PBR, not just a crappy beer for hipsters any longer.