Arion or Octane?
Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 9:15 pm
Last week I had the opportunity to test Arion and I have to say that I am very unimpressed.
The current version 1 has very few advantages over the last Octane Beta2.2 to justify the significantly higher price of the product:
1. CAD Plugin (Rhino) – The information posted on the Arion website is misleading. At the moment there is NO plugin integrating Arion to Rhino. Instead a Fryrender plugin is provided to export the Rhino scene in Fryrender file to be imported into Arion MANUALLY! The only real advantage over OBJ export is the fact that the current Rhino camera is included.
2. Save/Load materials + database – The next Octane Beta2.3 will have that.
3. Scene object browser – I don't know if that is planned for Octane, but as far I know the next beta will allow multiple OBJ files to be mixed into the Octane scene.
4. CPU/Network resource rendering acceleration – the render speed increase utilizing the CPU (in my case i7 OC to 3.4GHz) was insignificant. With 1-2 GTX480s I don't think I would ever need to bother with a network setup too.
5. Save/Load cameras – I hope this is planned for Beta2.3
6. Emitting materials – Planed for Beta2.3
My biggest disappointment was the fact I couldn't save DSI files (like in Fryrender) to be resumed later or to adjust the intensity/color of the lights. The GPU rendering is fast, but not so fast (for large resolutions) to ignore this most essential feature of the pathtracing technology. I wish the Octane guys would agree with me on that and will add this function in some of the next releases.
The bottom line is: With the next beta, Octane will be in excellent shape to compete with Arion and blow it away because of its low price. So my advice to those ready to spend over $1000 for Arion – just wait few more months for B2.3 and spend your budget balance on hardware.
The current version 1 has very few advantages over the last Octane Beta2.2 to justify the significantly higher price of the product:
1. CAD Plugin (Rhino) – The information posted on the Arion website is misleading. At the moment there is NO plugin integrating Arion to Rhino. Instead a Fryrender plugin is provided to export the Rhino scene in Fryrender file to be imported into Arion MANUALLY! The only real advantage over OBJ export is the fact that the current Rhino camera is included.
2. Save/Load materials + database – The next Octane Beta2.3 will have that.
3. Scene object browser – I don't know if that is planned for Octane, but as far I know the next beta will allow multiple OBJ files to be mixed into the Octane scene.
4. CPU/Network resource rendering acceleration – the render speed increase utilizing the CPU (in my case i7 OC to 3.4GHz) was insignificant. With 1-2 GTX480s I don't think I would ever need to bother with a network setup too.
5. Save/Load cameras – I hope this is planned for Beta2.3
6. Emitting materials – Planed for Beta2.3
My biggest disappointment was the fact I couldn't save DSI files (like in Fryrender) to be resumed later or to adjust the intensity/color of the lights. The GPU rendering is fast, but not so fast (for large resolutions) to ignore this most essential feature of the pathtracing technology. I wish the Octane guys would agree with me on that and will add this function in some of the next releases.
The bottom line is: With the next beta, Octane will be in excellent shape to compete with Arion and blow it away because of its low price. So my advice to those ready to spend over $1000 for Arion – just wait few more months for B2.3 and spend your budget balance on hardware.
Though its full of those with questionable intent towards 3d software they are supprisingly accepting of the price you guys are selling your current software, you've won me over at the very least.