Best rendering software for Archicad Architectural?

[Anonymous]

Hello all, I work for a high profile architectural firm in NZ
we are looking at upgrading to a new visualisation software for presentations of our mid-high end architectural projects

We currently use the latest Archicad and we are using Artlantis studio 4.1
but arent impressed by the latest offerings from artlantis 5 of the upcoming 6 as rendering times appear to be even longer in each subsequant version

We came across Lumion 3D and thought it looked like a good option for us.
http://lumion3d.com/#popup2/1/

Also had a look at Unity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXZ-xAa0UcI

We currently use artlantis 4.1 to produce Photorenders + Animations
as well as the VR object (not many programs allow the use of a VR)
however we could look at dropping that feature for breathtaking realistic movies.

Currently Artlantis is taking 4days(on a single high spec machine) to render a 1280x720 with Low Anti-Aliasing (ideally we like to use high but dont due to time constraints) and Normal Radiosity (also as opposed to high)
To produce a 1min 40sec single path movie animation

And up to 1hr to produce (15mins at best) a 4K Photorendered Perspective
3840x210 (200dpi) High-Antialiasing, Normal Radiosity

attached is the latest renders I have completed on our last project
to give you an idea on scale and complexity of our projects

Ideally we are wanting something that is more realistic in terms of lighting
and also good more realistic tress cars people & objects
but also something that takes a bit less time to render if possible.

Has anyone used Lumion in conjunction wtih Archicad that has any feedback about it like how long rendering takes? or any other preferred software?

[Anonymous]

We use on a daily basis Lumion. After all the materials/lights are set, a render is done between 4 to 20 seconds depending on the resolution.

We also tried LumenRT but the increased price for the licence upgrade stopped us from using it.

You could try Unreal Engine
http://www.evermotion.org/tutorials/show/9154/unreal-engine-4-for-archviz-tutorial

[Anonymous]

that render time sounds fantastic for lumion

however the unreal engine looks, well ... Unreal! (very cool)
we will seriously consider the unreal engine

thanks for the link the info on it seems helpfull, will check it out
are these renders you have produced?

[Daniel Ward]

Lumion is pretty useful for Animation or Renders where Landscaping is the dominant element, but it's usefulness for proper architectural illustration is pretty limited. The best Rendering application I have seen to date for ArchiCAD is the Octane for ArchiCAD plug-in, but the learning curve is pretty steep at the beginning. At NZ$650 per licence it's also a heck of a lot cheaper than Lumion. Lumion also only works off 1 GPU and doesn't support SLI. Octane supports as many GPU's as you can fit on your motherboard and they don't have to match as long as they are Nvidia GPUs.

[Anonymous]

There is a demo version of the OctaneRender for ArchiCAD plugin available from http://home.otoy.com/render/octane-render/demo/.

Paul

[Anonymous]

Dredging up an old thread here, but thought I might be able to offer a suggestion, especially as I'm a fellow kiwi.

We use Artlantis and have the same issues - I can render out a test animation (2 minutes long, 320 x 120, no AA and normal radiosity) on my machine (I7 4790, 32gb ram, GTX970) in around an hour or so, but had the same issues when wanting to do a final quality animation.

I have the artlantis render farm a go and found them both very professional and insanely quick. I don't work for these guys, but can vouch for them. Get back to your emails very quickly and are friendly as.

http://www.artlantisrenderfarm.com/index.php?page=home

Costs around $150 to $200NZD to render out 7 animations made up of 1000 frames, where stills are 1280 x 720 HD and render out in around 3 minutes. Would take them 4 hours versus around 3 days on my machine.

I also do a couple of the animations myself overnight to drop the cost lower still. Another tip is to use stills, and apply a subtle pan or zoom to them in place of an animation - big time and money saver and looks pretty cool.

[Rakela Raul]

I have in youtube a couple of decent ones !!
link below
(I meant to comeback w correct link & failed-pls find urself)
fishing pier = archicad to lumion
marina= revit to lumion
(not perfect @ all but durn quick)

https://youtu.be/Rjf9DTHIeW4
https://youtu.be/Rjf9DTHIeW4

[Anonymous]

Bringing back life to my old thread

Artlantis 6.5 came out in february and has introduced parallel processing on multiple computers (basically your own personal render farm)
id be interested to hear from anyone who is currently using it for visualisations and hear your opinions on it.

Might finally give us a reason to upgrade from our old Artlantis 4.1
also looks good with the twin-motion plugin

[Karl Griffith]

I am using Artlantis 6.5, and have been using Artlantis since version 4.

The multiple node rendering feature is quite nice, and seems to work well. I've only tried it with two computers, but it still significantly speeds up the process (which wasn't terribly slow to begin with).

The more significant difference you will experience with an upgrade is that in Version 6 Artlantis went to a physically correct rendering engine. Lots of good stuff here as well, but you will note some features have been dropped. Two that come to mind are the 3d channel for shaders, and soft shadows. I suspect that the change in engine forced this, and I hope that Abvent is working on bringing back these features, but there has been no official word.

The other change with Artlantis 6 was a slow down in the preview window, and I think some slow down in rendering. The improvements in 6.5 were meant to correct this, and even improve speed.

From my perspective, I am happy with 6.5, though I am hoping to see some lost features return soon.

[Anonymous]

One thing i was curious to know is if artlantis can parallel process with just networked computers... or over the internet as well?