Hi all,
This is an excerpt from the Fryrender forum (http://fryrender.com/)about the Sketchup plugin that
is about to be launched. It will be included in upcoming beta1.7+ release.
New buyers can profit from the pre-order price reduction (half priced) until that release is out.

These are the plugin features:
(sorry for using an external image uploader. It is difficult to use the internal to mix text with images and I wanted to post the message as in its original state):


Hi there fryers,
So the sketchup plugin is finally ready! now it will be tested thoroughly and it will be included in the next fryrender release.
As always, the plugin provides access to all the fryrender functionality. I'm attaching some screenshots of the most remarkable features:

- Designed in SketchUp 6, but may work in SU 5 as well, not yet confirmed.
- Full integration with SketchUp. Every single fryrender feature is accessible from a toolbar and a custom menu entry. The plugin dumps the scene acting as a fryrender exporter.
- fryrender materials are associated to SketchUp materials seamlessly. Each customized material will be exported as-is to the scene, and native materials will be automatically converted to fryrender materials.
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r3/kwistenbiebel1/fry_su_materials-1.jpg

- It allows to edit camera properties for the free view (normal camera) and each one of the scene pages' camera, whenever they store it.
- interactive target distance and z-clip setting with a single click and visual feedback for each one of the views.
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r3/kwistenbiebel1/fry_su_zclip-1.jpg

- Allows instancing both by manually building the proxies (object settings on an arbitrary mesh) or generating them automatically from a given source object
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r3/kwistenbiebel1/fry_su_instancing-1.jpg

- And last but not least, here's a real-case test kindly provided by Ronen Bekerman (bakbek). Thank you very much! and sorry for doing that to your scene it is a 5-minute setup to render it with fryrender.
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r3/kwistenbiebel1/bakbek_fry_su.jpg

Hope you like it. Thanks for watching!

Apparently, after trawling through some forums and interviews:

This the the direct head-on competitor to Maxwell as a non-biased renderer
Advantages :

- cheaper than Maxwell in terms of individual pricing and scaleability pricing.
- faster than Maxwell
- easier to use than Maxwell
- also by a Spanish guy.
- quality is on par or perhaps better than Maxwell.
- easier to navigate than maxwell / or to setup a scene for that matter.


Is it possible to adjust ISO, shutter speed, light intensity before and after rendering?

Yes. There are several ways. You can configure the camera optics and film properties and also the power of the emitters before you hit render. Then, while fry is rendering (or when it's finished rendering) you can fine-tune all these parameters with our tonemapping controls. These include the most basic ones (exposure control, gamma, etc...) and also a full Layer Blending control with which you can modify the powers, colors and temperatures of all the light sources in the scene selectively.

This effectively, more powerfully replaces the multilight function of Maxwell.

more outstanding images

more...

however there is a conspiracy theory that FryRender is Maxwell in disguise. Like a coding team came out of NextLimit to either start their own or because of such bad publicity and criticism, NL is shutting down their Maxwell division and spawning forth FryRender as their next scam to further continue profiting from frsutrated users.

.......
There's too much Sci-Fi on your telly ;)

Thanks for uploading the reference images.
I hope beta1.7+ is released soon.
I will keep you guys updated.

Regards,
Kwistenbiebel

Hm doesn't seem faster than Maxwell 1.5 imo if you've rendered 2 hours on that image I probably get the same result with the same amount of noise after 2 hours

Hm doesn't seem faster than Maxwell 1.5 imo if you've rendered 2 hours on that image I probably get the same result with the same amount of noise after 2 hours


You are aware that this is the Beta version (b1.7) of Fry that you're comparing to Maxwell Version 1.5? Furthermore, Fry already has integrated in its Beta version, pretty much all the features (Displacement, instancing, WORKING network rendering and, oh yeah, stability) that Maxwell has been promising since before their Alpha version was released and is still yet to implement in their "complete" version 1.5 - 2+ years down the road - and Fry did it all in a matter of months.

Personally I'd be embrassed to make a statement like the above about a supposedly complete version of a software I bought and own, in comparison to one that is not only still in its Beta stage of development but also more robust. But that's just me....

Competition is a good thing.

It's difficult to say which one performs better since the SU plugin for Fry still has to arrive.
But I think everybody can see that this one (= Fry) looks very promising and indeed has a very rich feature list.
The developers (Chema and his team) seem to be on top of things , granting wishes of users even before they express them.
Just seeing the rapid development on the software makes me confident that Fry will be more then a valid competitor in the 'unbiased' scene.

I must say guys Fry has been at it much longer than a month. I seem to remember it being touted around about a year ago and we haven't seen alot of testing or sample images from regular joe uses for which to judge it off just yet!

I must say guys Fry has been at it much longer than a month. I seem to remember it being touted around about a year ago and we haven't seen alot of testing or sample images from regular joe uses for which to judge it off just yet!

.......and Maxwell has been around for how much longer and with how many of those Fry features that were supposed to have been implemented by now?

Have you visited the user galleries at the Fryrender Forum User galleries? There's plenty of images showcasing a good range of skill-sets from the regular 'Joes' as you call them, to seasoned professionals like Fran and Ubig who used to do similar high quality images for the Maxwell galleries when their renderer was still in Beta and before most of the more talented artists became disillusioned and jumped ship.

Of course, a lot of Maxwell fanboys will spread the usual FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) and claim that Fry images are still not of as high quality as Maxwell's ( to which I can only assume they are referring to the Maxwell images created using the Alpha and Beta engines -as opposed to the present version 1.5 engine which is not the same - and by the same artists most of whom are now regulars at the Fry forum such as the aforementioned Fran and the like), but that's merely a crudely subjective comparison, that's sadly based on images create by an engine that has long been abandoned by NextLimit (albeit one that sold them a lot of the licenses then.) in favour of a clearly inferior one.

And not to mention the fact that at the end of the day they're still comparing a supposedly complete software with one that's still at the Beta stage of development although with way more features and greater stability.


On a completely unrelated matter I've heard that NextLimit KoolAide can be toxic to one's brain cells......

...personally I think it's quite amusing how people defend their render applications. Doesn't it come down to personal taste and work methods? I've seen some brilliant stuff made with pretty much all the renderengines mentioned on this forum. (Kerkythea, Indigo, Maxwell and Podium)
I think it's hard to judge render engines from their galleries, since they all contain those glamour shots that seem impossible to make for us "regular joes". I like Indigo, but that's beacause it's free and relatively easy to learn.

Richard stirs up some very nice images form Maxwell and Kwistenbiebel does the same with pretty much every render engine out there.

But Fryrenders SUplugin is still to be released, so I guess we'll se who'll fancy it after that :)

fryrender has sure potential. I am interested how it will make istelf a position between the current great ones...

kwistenbiebel I'm shocked... :eek: You should know better...If you wouldn't mind please attach those images. Yeah, Kevin is away but we still need to maintain our level of posting. No linked images Please!!! :no no no:

NextLimit - Maxwell Render
Founded by Ignacio Vargas & Victor Gonzalez in 1998
Angel Cavero, 2
28043 Madrid
Spain


Feversoft - Fry Render
Founded by Jose María Guerra and Pedro Osma in 2001
Plaza Castilla, 3
28046 Madrid
Spain

Looks like there might be some truth to this conspiracy theory. Does anyone else have any info on this?

however there is a conspiracy theory that FryRender is Maxwell in disguise. Like a coding team came out of NextLimit to either start their own or because of such bad publicity and criticism, NL is shutting down their Maxwell division and spawning forth FryRender as their next scam to further continue profiting from frsutrated users.

kwistenbiebel I'm shocked... :eek: You should know better...If you wouldn't mind please attach those images. Yeah, Kevin is away but we still need to maintain our level of posting. No linked images Please!!! :no no no:

Hi Wizum,
Don't be too shocked. ;)
I explained why I didn't upload images internally in the first post.
I wanted to 'copy' the thread in it's original state from Fryrenders forum.
Some images would not be clear and understandable if they have to be resized to the 699 pixel limit.(e.g the GUI shot).

If this still would cause trouble I'll kindly remove them and just post the link to the original Fryrender thread if wou want.

[EDIT]: I shrinked the size of the images on page 1 within the forum limits. I would like to attach them internally but I need to be able to slide some new posts in. (between current 1 and 2).

Hi Wizum,
Don't be too shocked. ;)
I explained why I didn't upload images internally in the first post.
I wanted to 'copy' the thread in it's original state from Fryrenders forum.
Some images would not be clear and understandable if they have to be resized to the 699 pixel limit.(e.g the GUI shot).

If this still would cause trouble I'll kindly remove them and just post the link to the original Fryrender thread if wou want.

Well I guess I'm busted on not actually reading the thread then :) I just noticed the large images and that they were linked... I'm am just trying to stay consistent with our standards... I'll leave this one up to Kevin...

...personally I think it's quite amusing how people defend their render applications. Doesn't it come down to personal taste and work methods? I've seen some brilliant stuff made with pretty much all the renderengines mentioned on this forum. (Kerkythea, Indigo, Maxwell and Podium)
I think it's hard to judge render engines from their galleries, since they all contain those glamour shots that seem impossible to make for us "regular joes". I like Indigo, but that's beacause it's free and relatively easy to learn.

Richard stirs up some very nice images form Maxwell and Kwistenbiebel does the same with pretty much every render engine out there.

But Fryrenders SUplugin is still to be released, so I guess we'll se who'll fancy it after that :)

I don't think anyone is in defence of their favourite application. Stating facts is a different thing!

As Jake once said it is more the user than the application that produces good results.

Kwisten is always fairly unbiased in his opinions and therefore me for one am very interested in his feedback.

I must say if it is a few strays from NextLimit developing Fry I certainly hope they don't just copy the Maxwell method of positioning HDRI channels. However nails this one will certainly win my admirations! I must have tried 1000 times or more to correctly position HDRIs in Maxwell and never got anywhere near to getting the result I want and any time I've asked for tips on this on the maxwell forums no one has any. I've absolutely given up!!!!!

And for me in this regard to get great results this is the trick - without that option any application SUCKS!

So dude trust me I still think maxwell can produce great results but still as I suggest it SUCKS!

@richard
That's just how I read the tendency in this thread, mate. a bit too much "who was here first, and this app. is better 'cause I think so"

I think you said what I was getting at better than me. Or maybe Jake did. Any of these render applications is a powerfull tool in the right hands. Eventhough you think it sucks, Maxwell still looks pretty good from where I'm sitting, when you show your work.
And Podium and Kerkythea looks damn fine in the hands of kwistenbiebel.

I guess I need to grow bigger hands, so I can carry at least one of these :)

"And for me in this regard to get great results this is the trick - without that option any application SUCKS!

So dude trust me I still think maxwell can produce great results but still as I suggest it SUCKS!"

Richard

Does maxwell not support cube hdr's ?

Because if it does, it is very simple tho orientate

"And for me in this regard to get great results this is the trick - without that option any application SUCKS!

So dude trust me I still think maxwell can produce great results but still as I suggest it SUCKS!"

Richard

Does maxwell not support cube hdr's ?

Because if it does, it is very simple tho orientate

Unfortunately not mate!