Blender Fantasy Ring Render Comparison | Cycles vs Luxcore vs Octane vs Renderman vs ProRender

This video is a render engine comparisons test for Jewelry in Blender, specifically this fantasy ring design, in Cycles, ProRender, Luxcore, Renderman and Octane render. Getting these to match to this degree was difficult enough so please be kind on the comments- I know they are not identical in every way.
To create this ring, please follow my series here: • Blender Fantasy Ring D...
The engine settings were not optimized for speed, rather quality in comparison to the others to try and get them close in quality. Renderman was new to me and as you can see the shaders on some of the engines work very differently in regards to the clearcoat layer.
My preference is Renderman. I think the final looks great and the shaders, once you get used to them, can make your materials looks amazing. The only issue is that since it is a free version, GPU rendering is not an option. Cycles held up pretty well and so did ProRender- I was shocked. Keep in mind that ProRender doesn't use normals with roughness maps right now.
Hopefully this test will help you decide which engine to use for your future projects. All 5 engines are free for Blender so click the links below to download and install. The ring project files will be available to anyone who join the Patreon.
This is using the most recent builds of Blender for the Cycles engine and the most recent stable build (3.0.1) of Blender for the addons. All addons are using the most recent version as of 4/4/2022.
Cycles Project File Download FROM THE TUTORIAL SERIES here: djtutorials.gu...
discord / discord
patreon www.patreon.co...
twitter / tutorialsdj
instagram / djtutorials.cgi
Luxcore luxcorerender....
Octane Render home.otoy.com/...
Prorender www.amd.com/en...
Renderman rmanwiki.pixar...
HDRI and textures from polyhaven.com
Ring modeled by me, based on general design.
Music: bensound.com
#prorender #luxcore #octane #3dblender #blenderart #blendereevee #blendercommunity #blender28 #blenderanimation #blendercentral #cgi #blender3d #b3d #jewelry #dispersion

[@djtutorialscgi]

FYI- Do not just look at render times on this. Although render time is important, remember that each engine can be optimized and shave off a lot of the render time by reducing path tracing, denoisers, exporting mesh data, caching light paths etc. The methods used here was to try and match the overall look in the materials as well as match the render light passes, settings and observing the differences in how each engine interprets light, grain, materials and overall user experience (which can't be shown in a visual comparison obviously). For real, proper application, download and install the engine and look at it for yourself! Each of them are available for free in the links from the video description.

[@jakeperl5857]

Renderman NCR now includes XPU (CPU + GPU)...and their new denoiser in 25 looks amazing, even at 4 samples! Yay, and thank you for taking the time to do this...must have been a lot of work!

[@djtutorialscgi]

Oh wow thanks for the update! Yes- it did take a while and although not perfect I hope it helps!

[@Dr_Wub]

I've only been testing for a couple of weeks, but I am repeatedly blown away and fascinated by luxcore

[@djtutorialscgi]

It’s great!

[@madshader]

The luxcore render looked pretty bad imo. Octane was the worst though. Renderman was the clear winner here in terms of final quality, but the render time was a bit nuts.

[@djtutorialscgi]

@@madshader LuxCore looked fine here I think but the challenge was trying to get the same brilliance in the gemstone as the other engines. Regarding the render times, don’t let any of them freak you out. All of them can be optimized for their own settings and used with denoisers to reduce the times.

[@Miles-co5xm]

@@madshader yes renderman looked best, but luxcore also looked very nice to mee!

[@Capeau]

If i remember correctly its a sprectral and unbiased renderer, which explains the rendertimes. But it has its advantages.

[@AutumnRed]

I like Renderman and Radeon Pro Render the best, but the big time saving Blnder Cycles offers makes those differences not worth it for most situations in my opinion, anyways thanks for sharing these comparison videos :)

[@djtutorialscgi]

Thanks! Don’t put too much thought into the render times though since each can be optimized differently to significantly reduce. I would say try them all out and see which ones you like as far as the look of it then optimize it to see how far you can go.

[@milansvancara]

@@djtutorialscgi Well, to some extend it's true, but from sheer theory, Cycles X should be definitely the fastest one out of these:)

[@1CoolName]

That ring is a great benchmark. Thanks for sharing!

[@djtutorialscgi]

Thanks!

[@Uriel4D]

In my opinion, Octane has the most boring result. Luxcore, as always, holds the position of the best

[@TheMrJackzilla]

Lol, i actually liked Octane the most xD

[@dannyg8032]

I think you are either blind or joking. Luxcore loses a lot of detail in comparison with Octane.

[@cazalpine]

Great demonstration once again. Insightful for those who are still hesitating... amazing skills DJ. Thank You !! About GPUs, I'm working on a iMac Pro with an AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (16Go Ram) & I was waiting a loooong time for Apple to decide to invest in Blender... Since Blender upgraded recently with v3.1 and v3.1.2, integrating "Metal"...wow... we can finally use Cycles with Mac's GPUs ! (despite you always had the choice to install ProRender Addon). In comparison, with my Mac hardware, on GPU, Cycles engine runs faster than Radeon ProRender and it is also much much more silent than RPR when rendering (obviously with the same settings). Apple users are finally really happy that the Apple Brand decided to invest in Blender Foundation. It was required at loud by the community since almost 3 years now... Plus, since everything is evolving faster and faster, there is a point where "users" (us, artists, digital designers, f.e.) are also claiming for more stability... Meaning we deserve better products yes but more stable and long lasting. Do monthly updates are relevant or too much...? Personally, I'm in favour of 1-2 significant reliable updates/year with the integrated auto-update setting in Blender itself. ;o))

[@djtutorialscgi]

Thanks so much for the info! Although I am clearly a staunch PC guy, it’s awesome that Mac users are getting some love. Regarding the updates question, most studios wait a long time to update their software due to compatibility issues in their pipeline. They often wait until stable releases are available and do a lot of testing to make sure it does not break their pipeline. For individual production related tasks, it really depends on what you need. If a new Beta or Alpha build of a render engine or Blender itself will reduce your render times and speed up your processes (like when Eevee was first in Beta) then it might be a good idea to keep an older build on your computer and have the new one as well. Currently I have 3 different builds of Blender I use depending on which engine I’m using.

[@bigogle]

What I mainly got from this was how differently the reflections are captured. Renderman's overall image is really filmic. Cycles seems to have the most broadly-good overall look. Luxcore's surface reflections are super vibrant.

[@djtutorialscgi]

Yes- it is very difficult to get a 1:1 match on any of these engines since all of the standard default shaders handle rendering differently. The way they handle images and lighting also varies quite a bit so I try to get them as close as I can without it taking forever.

[@AlexiEffects]

You know, you're starting to make me second guess using Cinema 4d w/Octane now. 🤣 I love what you're doing, and the fact that you went above and beyond to reproduce this in not 3, not 4, but 5 different renderers shows your dedication to the craft. Great quality tutorials and quality content from a man who knows his stuff! Somethin' tells me we haven't seen anything yet! 😎

[@djtutorialscgi]

I know right!? Thank you so much for your kind words Troy. Trying to match them is a beast but I know that a lot of the artists want/need exposure like this so they can look at some new options. Blender has had a huge influx in cash lately from Apple, AMD and Epic Games and it looks like a lot of studios are making the switch. Octane, for me, has the best quality and stability of any of these engines. Renderman looks great but was very finicky and I felt like it was constantly going to crash (and it did crash). I have a 64GB ram, rtx3090 and 3960x threadripper so it isn’t my rig hahah!

[@AlexiEffects]

@@djtutorialscgi Dang man, you went all out. I almost got a threadripper, but eventually went with the 5950x 16core + w/64 Ram. This GPU shortage has really screwed things up, I'm still working with a 1060 on my desktop (ouch!) with a 2070super on my laptop. I'm hesitant to buy a new one because these increased prices in addition to inflation is getting outa control! As soon as prices drop somewhat, I'm jumping on the chance to get a 3090. Might be a few years at this point 🤣

[@djtutorialscgi]

@@AlexiEffects I was lucky and sold my two Radeon VIIs and bought the 3090 before everything went to shit. The rig was to do a bunch of projects for a client in 2020 that got cancelled (trade shows) but I had already bought the rig. O well. DX

[@xanzuls]

Really? To me it looked like all the highlights were blown out for octane and the glass part is super noisy. I mean the render time was like 5 times more than cycles lol. And in terms of stability octane is very bad when it comes to dealing with large scale scenes and if you dare to add any fog your PC will take off🤣.

[@punmije]

Something looks off with octane tho, the floor reflections are not so great also there is a color clamping in gem reflections. I am sure its a great rendering engine but for me it always looked a lot plasticky :D Renderman is definitely is no. 1 then comes luxcore. Cycles is really awesome in terms of speed. I’ve heard that both luxcore and renderman are only available in old versions of blender. As for renderman GPU or XPU rendering is not available in Blender which makes me sad.

[@djtutorialscgi]

LuxCore has dev build that work in newer versions of Blender

[@sanaksanandan]

Renderman XPU version will cut the render time to 8 minutes easily. Still, Cycles is awesome that it is fast and free, giving close competition.

[@djtutorialscgi]

I figured. There’s most likely some other things I can do to make it faster.

[@InsaneAdventurers]

I am new in this industry but i can tell that cycles and AMD have one of the best renderings, specially cycles gave this good rendering within 2 minutes. it's just needed a little smoothness to become the best one for sure.

[@ajtatosmano2]

For me 1.Renderman 2.Octane 3.Cycles/Prorender 4.Luxcore in this particular comparision. But all of them look great.

[@djtutorialscgi]

Thanks for your feedback!

[@molo256]

I don't know guys but i really liked the octane one best it had a perfect contrast and details and i don't think it need post processing specialy in color grading.

[@djtutorialscgi]

Thanks for the feedback! Just fyi- all of them did go through a color grading to adjust to make them look as close as possible to the other and to bump some contrast. All have the same grading except one I altered the blue on the gemstone to match the others since the RGB hex value differed.

[@OccultDemonCassette]

Is the Radeon ProRender the only rendering engine that supports AMD GPUs?

[@djtutorialscgi]

No

[@BubbleVolcano]

hard work, good job!

[@djtutorialscgi]

Thanks!!

[@zander8713]

hmm it's almost a three way tie between luxcore octane and renderman for me. I think I'd have to go luxcore on this one though

[@djtutorialscgi]

LuxCore looks really good here. I do think Renderman looks the best though.

[@madshader]

Yikes.

[@djtutorialscgi]

@@madshader ??

[@Mart-E12]

I wonder why there are such differences. Shouldn't they all be working in almost the same way? By realisticaly simulating light using path tracing/ray tracing?

[@djtutorialscgi]

No- the way each handles images, lighting, materials etc changes from engine to engine. I haven’t found one that looks the same.

[@brianbuckman6908]

Hey, this might be a really dumb question, but what does Noise threshold do if you have Denoising off?

[@djtutorialscgi]

Not a dumb question- it’s used for the adaptive sampling. The noise threshold tells the computer when an area is “done” rendering once it reaches that value.

[@brianbuckman6908]

@@djtutorialscgi Oh, okay that makes a lot of sense. Thanks very much man, and I'm really enjoying learning blender from you

[@djtutorialscgi]

@@brianbuckman6908 awesome. Make sure to join the Discord for conversation and Blender hep!

[@mrlightwriter]

Is it wrong to like them all equally, even if the results are not exactly the same?

[@djtutorialscgi]

Opinions aren’t “wrong” per say

[@cr4723]

Octane is the worst: flat, weak, powerless, dull. Lucore has the best reflections. But as a conclusion I have to say that they are all very similar and with a little post-processing all the pictures will be good.

[@denieltonn]

I don't know if it's a dumb question, but why clamping, noise threshold and other values are so different in each render engine?

[@djtutorialscgi]

You mean in general or in the comparison?

[@denieltonn]

@@djtutorialscgi I mean, why cycles has noise threshold "0.03", clamping "10" and light pass "32" while luxcore has noise treshold "128", clamping "500" and light pass "32"? for a fair comparison shouldn't the values in all render engines be exactly the same? is different render engines using different parameters of calculus to reach a result?

[@djtutorialscgi]

@@denieltonn my attempt is always to try and get the images to look as similar as possible. noise thresholds and light passes etc. depend. Sometimes I reduce on a particular engine if there is no visible difference in passes and I change settings here and there for reasons I can't recall. The comparisons are often for generic review on how the engine handles materials etc. Each can be optimized to be faster or look a little better etc. so I try and find a happy medium. Long story short- sometimes the values matching works and sometimes it doesn't and sometimes I may have ignored changing settings and kept them at default since a lot of users tend to do that. These comparisons should be looked at superficially in regards to settings. My best suggestion is to grab an object and look at it it different engines yourself and compare.

[@denieltonn]

@@djtutorialscgi Thank you so much for clarifying! 🙏

[@djtutorialscgi]

@@denieltonn No worries! Comparisons are always tough and everyone seems to be looking for something different.

[@azynkron]

VRay?

[@madshader]

I don't think Vray supports Blender anymore, not since 2.83 or something.

[@djtutorialscgi]

5 isn’t enough??? :)

[@TommyRosca]

CPU only for Renderman ?

[@djtutorialscgi]

Not sure if it changed but at the time yes

[@SrObser]

rip headphone users

[@djtutorialscgi]

Hah! Well everyone was saying the audio was too low before and this is the same audio level as all my other comparison videos. Sorry, dude!

[@sarcasmenul]

honestly its laughable to even put renderman on the same level as the rest, sure the image quality is rougly the same as others, but renderman's handling of displacements and normals is simply phenomenal. Another thing not shown here is just how customizable Renderman is, a dizzying amount of options when it comes to AOVs and Render passes, LPEs, caustics (Renderman is once again the best render engine for them)...ect. Simply the best render engine in the world by far, and a pleasure to use too!

[@djtutorialscgi]

Definitely has its positives but the goal here was to try and replicate as close as possible between each engine. “Best renderer” is dependent/subjective a lot on budgetary restrictions, familiarity, how easy it is to implement addons, code for etc etc. so I think there is a lot of debate on what is “best”. I found it rather frustrating and it it crashed quite often even though I have a high end desktop computer with an rtx3090. That said, at the time it was one of the first releases for blender I think so that may have been the reason, not sure. Thanks for the comment!

[@sarcasmenul]

@@djtutorialscgi oh you use blender! Yeah I would avoid using renderman on Blender personally, the integrators (especially PxrOcclusion from what Ive seen) are also kind of scuffed, the AOVs are apparently kind of odd to use, but I blame Blender's infamous problems under the hood for this, I run Renderman on Maya and it crashed twice in 3 years of intense use, If you can get your hands on a maya license (legal or not wink wink) I encourage you to try, surely a more stable experience lol

[@djtutorialscgi]

@@sarcasmenul Yeah- I only use legit copies of everything for production work and I really don't like the overhead of Maya/Renderman. I work mainly in education and Blender's options work very well for keeping my overhead down. Thanks for the tips tho- never know when I might go back to film VFX work but probably not until there's stability and unions (meaning probably never XD )

[@sarcasmenul]

@@djtutorialscgi Ah fair enough, I do have licenses but I couldnt afford marvelous designer 'cept they can't prove I used their (ridiculously priced) product :P As for the state of VFX what is there to say that hasn't already been said, feels like we're still stuck in 2013 with VFX leads getting cut off at the Oscars lol, I personally avoid VFX entirely, feature animation is much more stable for now, but I still am a member of VES as I also believe a union is simply necessary. Nice to have a little chat in the comments like this and best of luck for the future

[@maxmaxed2887]

As far as I know LuxCore is dead. Main dev left the team and there are couple of them left with no updates coming. It's sad since it's the most accurate and the most realistic render engine for Blender that blow Cycles X out of the water.

[@djtutorialscgi]

Not sure about dead :)

[@The3Dsmash]

@@djtutorialscgi Speaking of Luxcore, do you know what state it's in these days? I'm still hearing that it's not longer being developed. Do you have a working version for the more recent Blender releases? I always like the Luxcore renders out of Blender better than all the other engines. Thanks for sharing your render experiments. They're still fun to watch and compare!

[@djtutorialscgi]

@The3Dsmash they released a new version recently. Still going. Not sure compatibility with 4.0 is going to be alright but we will see.