X5 Vs Thea...

[dgavin]

Well, with Thea you have to learn a new program. I had played with it some in the past, getting some lessons from Pat. It was a lot better than POV RAY.
At this point though I am pretty happy with X5 ray traces. You still need to learn how to get your materials and lighting straight but at least it is within the same program.
Attached is a ray trace without photons, 10 passes. I think it took about 30 minutes.

[sutcac]

I know the photon mapping takes a lot longer, but is the only way X5 starts to approach the kind of realism you can get in Thea. I have just started poking around in it, but so far I am impressed and will continue to explore with it. I have a restaurant project I intend to do some high quality ray traces of in the coming weeks and will really put it through its paces.