POV-Ray Alternatives

LuxCoreRender

LuxCoreRender is a physically based and unbiased rendering engine. Based on state of the art algorithms, LuxCoreRender simulates the flow of light according to physical equations, thus producing realistic images of photographic quality. LuxCoreRender is and will always be free software, both for private and commercial use. It is being developed by people with a passion for programming and for computer graphics who like sharing their work.

Mitsuba

Physically based renderer. Mitsuba is an extensible rendering framework written in portable C++. It implements unbiased as well as biased techniques and contains heavy optimizations targeted towards current CPU architectures. The program currently runs on Linux, MacOS X and Microsoft Windows and makes use of SSE2 optimizations on x86 and x86_64 platforms.

Kerkythea

Powerful, feature-rich and fast standalone raytracing renderer. Exporters from Blender and Google SketchUp are also available.

appleseed

appleseed is a modern, open source, physically-based rendering engine designed to produce photorealistic images, animations and visual effects. It provides individuals and small studios with an efficient, reliable suite of tools built on robust foundations and open technologies.

Clara.io

Clara.io is a full-featured cloud-based 3D modeling, animation and rendering software tool that runs in your web browser. With Clara.io you can make complex 3D models, create beautiful photorealistic renderings, and share them without installing any software programs. This is the perfect Three.JS editor for creating and tweaking your Web game content.

Features:

• 3D modelling
• Animation
• Real-time
• WebGL

Adobe Dimension

Adobe Dimension (formerly Project Felix and then Adobe Dimension CC) is the 3D design tool made for graphic designers. With extensive integration with Adobe Stock, you can easily composite 2D and 3D assets to build product shots, scene visualizations, and abstract art. You can preview your design as you go, experiment and edit your ideas without having to render a final image to see your work. You can also enlarge the preview window to see details up close.

Features:

• 3D modelling
• HD-Rendering

RenderMan

PhotoRealistic RenderMan, or PRMan for short, is a proprietary photorealistic RenderMan-compliant renderer. It primarily uses the REYES algorithm but is also fully capable of doing ray tracing and global illumination. PRMan is produced by Pixar Animation Studios and used to render all of their in-house 3D animated movie productions. Pixar's RenderMan has been specifically engineered to meet the demanding challenges of rendering 3D animation and visual effects.

Features:

• 3d renderer
• High-resolution images

Sunflow Rendering System

Sunflow is an open source rendering system for photo-realistic image synthesis. It is written in Java and built around a flexible ray tracing core and an extensible object-oriented design. It was created as a framework for experimenting with global illumination algorithms and new surface shading models.

Indigo Renderer

Indigo Renderer is an unbiased, physically based and photorealistic renderer which simulates the physics of light to achieve near-perfect image realism. With an advanced physical camera model, a super-realistic materials system and the ability to simulate complex lighting situations through Metropolis Light Transport, Indigo Renderer is capable of producing the highest levels of realism demanded by architectural and product visualization.

Octane Render

Octane Render is the world's first GPU based, un-biased, physically based renderer. What does that mean? It uses the video card in your computer to render photorealistic results fast...really fast. This allows the user to create stunning works in a fraction of the time of traditional CPU based renderers. Yet, to date no other software makes use of it in the way that Octane does.