appleseed vs NVIDIA Iray
appleseed
appleseedhq.netNVIDIA Iray
developer.nvidia.comSide by side
| Figure | appleseed | NVIDIA Iray |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · 3D Rendering Software | 8.2 (#6) | 6.9 (#33) |
| Founded | 2010 | 1993 |
| Integrations | The maker lists native integrations for Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, Blender, and Gaffer. | NVIDIA lists Iray integrations for Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, and McNeel Rhinoceros. |
| Intended users | Its core mission is to provide individuals and small studios with a complete, reliable, fully open rendering package. | NVIDIA describes Iray as supporting physically based 3D and VR workflows for designers and digital artists. |
| Rendering | It supports unidirectional path tracing, stochastic progressive photon mapping, light tracing, progressive rendering, interactive rendering, and spectral rendering. | Iray generates photorealistic imagery for interactive and batch rendering workflows. |
Plans
In their own words
appleseed
appleseed is a free, open source rendering engine for animation and visual effects, built around physically based global illumination. It is designed for individuals and small studios and runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS. Rendering methods include unidirectional path tracing, stochastic progressive photon mapping, light tracing, progressive and interactive rendering, and spectral rendering. For shading, it supports Open Shading Language and on-the-fly shader compilation. Production tools include motion blur, AOVs, Cryptomatte, adaptive sampling, denoising, and resumable render checkpoints. Native integrations are listed for Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, Blender, and Gaffer. It works with OBJ geometry and image formats including OpenEXR, TIFF, HDR, PNG, JPEG, and PSD. Developers can use C++ and Python APIs or extend the engine with external C++ plugins. The listed plan costs nothing and is under the MIT license. The download page lists version 2.1.0-beta, released September 21, 2019.
NVIDIA Iray
NVIDIA Iray has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.