Corona Renderer for ARCHICAD Alpha 2 released

[Anonymous]

We're pleased to bring you the first publicly available version of Corona Renderer for ARCHICAD! Since this is an Alpha, it is not yet ready for production use, and is not yet feature-complete (and is likely to have bugs still) - we are waiting for your feedback, requests, and testing to help guide our development!

More information on the blog post at https://corona-renderer.com/blog/corona-renderer-for-archicad-alpha-2-released/

[Steve Jepson]

Your post is just in time. I have a demo of Lumion Pro 9 with the ArchiCAD LiveSync I have been testing.

It's awesome, however, the renderings are only very good. I expect the Corona renderings to be noticeably better. I wish I had more use for a program like Lumion it is so fun and easy to use. But I what I need more than a really fun toy that makes pretty landscapes is something for just the best single image renderings I can make. Lumion cost about $3,400, and you better have a big dog computer to run it for any length of time. Even my xeon processor was getting hot after about an hour.

Can't wait to give it a try! I mad this rendering with Lumion in less than 10 seconds.
https://www.screencast.com/t/ypPVe7GED


This one in 36 seconds

https://www.screencast.com/t/fQ3ubVX9

[Anonymous]

An update out today -

Corona Renderer for ARCHICAD Alpha 3, daily build 2018-11-23 released!

The next step in development of Corona Renderer for ARCHICAD is out now, a daily build as we work toward Alpha 3. Improvements include:
- Added option to mark materials as portals for environment lighting
- Added ambient occlusion texture
- Added wireframe texture
- Added near/far camera clipping

Read full details and download at: https://corona-renderer.com/forum/index.php?topic=22536

[Laszlo Nagy]

Tom,

Today I just read Corona Renderer 3 for 3DS MAX was announced:

https://www.aecmag.com/technology-mainmenu-35/1733-corona-renderer-gets-performance-boost-for-intera...

Please note that I am very unfamiliar with the capabilities of Corona so this may be a stupid question:
I was wondering: Is Corona Renderer for ARCHICAD based on Corona 2 or Corona 3?

[Bricklyne Clarence]

LaszloNagy wrote:
Tom,

Today I just read Corona Renderer 3 for 3DS MAX was announced:

https://www.aecmag.com/technology-mainmenu-35/1733-corona-renderer-gets-performance-boost-for-intera...

Please note that I am very unfamiliar with the capabilities of Corona so this may be a stupid question:
I was wondering: Is Corona Renderer for ARCHICAD based on Corona 2 or Corona 3?

It's an Alpha version, so if I had to guess, I would say they are using the engine or core for Corona 2 and not Corona 3.
(it could even be lower than the Corona 2 engine , if we we're being really honest here).

Corona 3 has some special features (like denoising in the Interactive Render window using the GPU with a NVIDIA functions) that don't seem to be in the ArchiCAD plugin or don't seem likely to make it into the final version.

All that being said, an Alpha version is quite a while away from a final release version - and how knows how many versions of the alpha and any subsequent betas they'll have before we get to the final version?
Which in turn also means there's the possibility they could switch engine cores sometime within that process to the most recent (or next to recent) version before or at the final version.

OF course I could be wrong in all this since it's all based on my knowledge in having worked with the 3ds Max version and now working with the ArchiCAD plugin and Tom Grimes could pop in at any time and say I'm wrong.

[Steve Jepson]

I gave it a try. Not impressed. Still lots of bugs. For example when you open the Corona Menu tab, Interactive Palette and Render tabs are reversed. Click Interactive Pallet if you want to Render, Click Render if you want the Interactive Pallet. Renders Plants upside down... that sort of thing will be fixed soon I am sure.

But I was not impressed with speed or quality of renderings I was able to get out of it. Others could do better perhaps if they know more about how to use Corona. ? CineRender 19 is completly adequate for what I would use Corona for. I like the functionality of CineRender better.
I am still able to render better images with Maxwell Render, and Maxwell Studio is indispensible to me in terms of what I can do to tweak geometry, set up lighting, and of course make awsome materials. I don't think the Corona add-on is what you would want if your a CG Artist.
For speed and good rendeings, with lots of trees and plants or other high-poly objects, Luminon 9 Pro is hands down the best. But is does lack that little extra in rendeing quality to make the really fantastic rendeings. For an Architect, Lumion is a fantastic. I does in seconds 70-100 MB images that other renring programs do in minuets or even hours. Lumion 9 Pro runs super fast on my computer. Give it a try! I would not recommend that you let your employees play with it. It is way toooo much fun. They will get all distracted with the unnecessary things it can do.

[Bricklyne Clarence]

The Corona plugin is an Alpha version.
Obviously it's going to have quite a number of bugs.
Do you even know what an Alpha version is?

I had asked you in the other thread what you hoped to accomplish in your attempt to run a benchmark comparing Corona's Alpha version with the final version renderer software versions of Lumion, Maxwell and all the rest, and you didn't respond.

And now you're talking about not being impressed and how it doesn't match up to other renderers like Cinerender, Maxwell and Lumion (all final versions and in the case of Lumion and Maxwell, GPU renderers - which Corona is NOT. Again - what is the purpose of comparing a GPU renderer to a CPU renderer, exactly?)

The Corona for ArchiCAD is not intended to be a tool for ArchiViz but rather a high-function renderer to complement an ARCHITECT's toolset. Architects are not going to want to do what Architectural visualizers will be going for. So obviously the functionality will be limited to what most architects use and what the ArchiCAD kernel allows for.

You want to see what Corona is capable of as a full version and as an actual ArchiViz renderer and tool?
Then go visit their forum Gallery (or join the Corona Facebook group) and see what the 3ds Max Plugin (which is a FULL complete version - 3 versions in) is capable in the hands of Viz artists - many of whom are former Vray users who abandoned it for Corona.

It blows the likes of VRay, Maxwell, and yes, even Lumion way out of the water, in terms of its quality and output.

But don't take my word for it.
Go visit those galleries and see for yourself and then come and talk about "quality".

If the final ArchiCAD plugin is able to produce even a fraction of quality of what those images show in those galleries and with the integration they've been able to put into the ArchiCAD interface, then I'll be more than happy with it on my end and for my workflow..

Especially seeing as I'm not going to have to take out a second mortgage just to be able to afford a rig and GPU full enough just to run it.