Rendering by taste

Since the advent of ArchiCAD 4.0, photo rendering has come a long way! Now there is a full range of rendering engines available in ArchiCAD 9. But why do we have so many? Do we really need all of them? And what are the characteristics that make them different? Andras Fabian, an architect and Interactive Designer within Graphisoft Product Design, introduces you to the menu of possibilities that will help you decide which way to go.

Internal rendering engine - the classic way

When introduced, ArchiCAD's internal rendering engine was leading edge technology. Over time this advantage has diminished and now we have to admit that the quality of pictures rendered with this engine is rather poor compared to the ones created with more current rendering engines. The reason we still have this engine is that the new rendering engines can create renderings based on the material settings of this engine. The Z-Buffer engine was a technological experiment to accelerate the internal rendering, thus the result is practically the same image as with the internal engine. So use these engines only to check your basic rendering settings before actually rendering with more advanced rendering engines of ArchiCAD® .

3D Open GL in ArchiCAD - the quick way

OpenGL began its life in ArchiCAD 5.1 as a rendering engine, but since ArchiCAD 8 it has been fully integrated into our 3D workspace and provides a more realistic, yet interactive image than our internal 3D engine. Its primary purpose was to substantially accelerate the navigation in the 3D window. With high-end OpenGL graphics cards you can get amazingly smooth 3D navigation in OpenGL mode. At the same time, 3D pictures created with this engine are good enough to be used as draft 3D images.

Sketch rendering engine - the artistic way

As its name suggests, the sketch engine is used for producing non-photorealistic, sketchy or artistic images which might be an expressive way in the early phases of design. When introduced in ArchiCAD 6.0 a set of pre-defined sketch styles was available. Since ArchiCAD 8, you can set up the styles used much more freely. Here is a tip that you may find interesting: You can render your sketches on scans of real "rough paper", by copying their bumps and scratches into an alpha channel. You can find samples in the Background ImagesAlpha Paper Textures in your ArchiCAD folder .

Orchard Project, Basingstoke, U.K., Arch: The Haddow Partnership Architects, Rend: András Fábián

LightWorks rendering engine - the professional way

One of ArchiCAD 9's key features is the LightWorks® rendering engine. This supports long-awaited features like true reflection, ambient lights and procedural shaders. No wonder our beta testers responded enthusiastically, typically selecting it as one of the "best three new features". This rendering engine provides a very high degree of flexibility, which means you can utilize its features depending on your level of experience and background knowledge on rendering.

Level 1: Automatic quality

If you are not familiar with rendering terms and parameters, you can use ArchiCAD's default materials that are pre-configured for a high-quality appearance when rendered with the LightWorks engine. If you still want to do modifications, you can screen LightWorks-specific parameters and operate with the settings of the internal rendering engine of ArchiCAD. Even on this basic level you can expect significant improvements compared to the results of the internal rendering engine of ArchiCAD.

Luxury Apartment House, Budapest, Hungary, Arch: Orsolya Belenta, Rend: Attila Major

Level 2: More quality with little extra work

More demanding users can use LightWorks sample material configurations. The archive contains a number of shader sets with pre-set parameters for numerous materials. These sets show the capabilities of the engine and provide a great start-up before setting up materials to better fit any personal taste or purpose. The appearance of individual materials in LightWorks can be synchronized with the internal engine. This is useful when a custom material set-up created with the internal engine is already present. This method further boosts the rendering quality, without requiring a detailed knowledge of rendering.

Helena House, Budapest, Hungary, Arch: Bence Vadász. Rend: Attila Major

Level 3: The ultimate quality for experts

Rendering experts have practically unlimited possibilities with LightWorks. In addition to traditional effects, LightWorks offers ambient lights, reflection, soft shadows and even more. Images can be rendered on both ArchiCAD's internal background utility, or by using its own parametric environment shaders. Indirect lights can be simulated with the use of our parametric sky and window light objects placed in the library. This way you can create your renderings within ArchiCAD with award-winning quality.

Building C, Saitama, Japan, Mod: Hayashida Hideyuki, fieldJam, Rend: Attila Major

Dwight Atkinson, author of the soon-to-be-published LightWorks in ArchiCAD, says:
"LightWorks is all you really need to do a great rendering in ArchiCAD. The LightWorks rendering engine reveals subtlety in light and color that ArchiCAD users have craved for years."

Artlantis - the easy way

We have to note here an external rendering engine as well. Artlantis has been a very popular solution for architects to render building models for many years - with good reason. It is innovative, easy to use, has a friendly interface, with such great features as drag-and-drop application of materials, live preview and an extendable shader library. Animation controls are superb, far exceeding that of ArchiCAD. ArchiCAD has direct connection to Artlantis with its export add-on creating files in Artlantis' native file format. This connection is also prepared to handle multiple model updates in ArchiCAD by preserving changes made in Artlantis. Though the workflow is smoother if you work all along within the same application, using an external renderer also has benefits: you can use ArchiCAD while your other machine is humming with Artlantis. And who knows what else Abvent's innovative engineers have up their sleeves...? All in all, we believe that Artlantis continues to be a viable alternative solution.

Gundel Wine Cellar, Budapest, Hungary, Arch: Miklós Hetessy, CGT Studio,
Rend: Robert Gulyas

As you can see there are plenty of options when it comes to rendering your ArchiCAD model. And what we have written about so far is not all: just think of third-party rendering add-ons like ArchiLumos from Japan, or other external rendering applications like Cinema 4D, now with direct export plug-in from ArchiCAD.

The menu is set; the waiter is waiting for your order... Bon appetit!