Hi, I just started with sketchup and have sketchup pro 2023. I want to use a render program. But enscape is to expensive for me. Does anyone know cheaper render programs?
Tnx!!
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D5, twinmotion, Su Podium.
The OP asked for cheaper, not more expensive, render applications.
Kerkythea is a free standalone rendering application with a SketchUp export plugin.
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hey @cindy1 could you fill in your profile correctly please? it kinda matters here.
your os, is it mac os, windows ? what version ? some of the solutions offered like Anssi’s Kerkythea might not be compatible (or usable) on a mac.
(really, I tried it last year, the interface is breaking down, it doesn’t sit well with recent macos versions)
our help can only be at the level of the info we get 
same for the graphics card, some render engine could be better if you have specifics GPU
Check here if you don’t know where to find the info and where to put it.
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Brighter 3D is a good one it offers a perpetual license with free lifetime updates for $175 or a yearly license for $75.
Theres also a new engine developed by a guy member of the forum it’s called Rayscraper, I think it’s still on beta for windows and alpha for Mac.
Brighter 3D is available only for windows.
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I think that Twinmotion is free now. You only have to pay if your incomes are more than 1.000.000,00€
It’s free, but limited to a $0 income, and low resolution output. Commercial license is $750.
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It (twinmotion) goes (back to) officially free for any companies/entities with net rev income less than $1 mill at end of April -ish time-frame. Currently, it is free only for non commercial work on the current version. Unreal engine itself is going to this free for anyone with less than $1m. This was announced when epic released unreal 5.4.
Having said that, I prefer D5 to twinmotion but I like unreal itself as best but unreal has an exceptionally hard learning curve.
Great news, I had a Twinmotion license but I haven’t used the program in a while, I’ve replaced it by enscape and V-Ray. The Path tracer used to deliver great renders but it uses a lot of vram and rasterization used to be very bad in twinmotion, I should try it again, epic has added some features, Lumen was the latest big feature added, according to some Facebook and Instagram pages, it has improved a lot the rasterization mode.
Twinmotions Path tracer quality is better than lumen albeit only slightly and at the cost of major (or non real) time to render. I prefer enscape to twinmotion if I’m being honest because enscape is far easier to use with exception of animations such as people and vehicles which enscape doesn’t really do or volumetric lighting which I’ve needed for specific use cases. Most of the time, these are non issues. Having said that, I still like enscape but I think D5 is the current GPU rendering quality champ unless you have the time to go full unreal engine (but whos got time for that)! I don’t like that twinmotion does not have live sync. D5 has it but it’s not perfect just yet. Enscapes is perfect.
When twinmotion goes free, enscape will be the most expensive of these renderers and that is going to be a problem for them.
For the point of this thread, I would be factoring D5 or Twinmotion most seriously.
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Hi sorry, windows 11 and card is Geforce GTX 1060
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Hey, time for some shameless self-promotion
I’m the creator of Rayscaper, and I think Rayscaper is an affordable alternative: https://rayscaper.com/
Currently Windows only Mac is coming soon.
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Twinmotion, I had to do a double take on this 
:-
"We are introducing a new pricing and licensing model for Twinmotion customers who generate over $1 million USD annually. Twinmotion will be free for everyone else."
&
“These changes will only apply to companies generating over $1 million in annual gross revenue. With these updates, Twinmotion will be free for everyone—even for commercial use—if your company earns under $1 million in yearly revenue.”
Just learned the above from this SU forum topic, is this really BIG news…what’s the catch 
?
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Epic has been bleeding money for the past 5 years, and it’s the 3rd time they’ve changed the way they monetize since 2019 (free in 2019, then education + paid, then community + paid, free again)
So you know, subject to change 
also, it’s not integrated with SU. it’s a separate tool with different ways of working, so it’s not as comfy as a vray or enscape (ot rayscaper) that works straight with the SU viewport.
well kerkythea is free and works well. it’s pretty basic, but it’ll allow you to learn how a rendering software works. and unlike some heavy hitters (D5, twinmotion, vray) it has a pretty low requirement.
you’ll probably end up moving to something with a small price and more options (enscape, rayscaper, thearender) later.
Yes, Kerkythea is a good starter…
But for a free tool, D5 is pretty impressive !
ow, I think I’m mistaking D5 and something else then, fancy and expensive
there are so many choices out there, hard to keep track, especially between the pc/mac ones and the pc only 
True ! there are so many…
D5 was new to me, I just gave it a quick test drive & it looks impressive !
We’ve tried plenty over the years & for the time being mostly use Enscape as it’s pretty intuitive & does renderings that suit our work, but I’m sure there’s better out there…
That gpu won’t get you far with gpu based engines, twinmotion requires ray tracing hardware to be able to use path tracer.
You should check cpu rendering engines if you want better results, Rayscaper and Brighter 3D use cpu for rendering, I don’t know the price of Rayscaper and I already mentioned the prices of brighter 3D, $175 for a perpetual license with lifetime free upgrades and $75 for yearly subscription, if you go with Brighter 3D, the perpetual license is a no brainer.
Well given its spring time, I thought you’d like to see some realtime instancing inside SketchUp.
And a video capture too!
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To all,
Is the D5 COMMUNITY version free for all as per TWINMOTION for commercial use ?
I note some limitations with D5 COMMUNITY version on their price list, in that regard, does it still compare with TWINMOTION ?