Arion 1.6.0 review

Recently RandomControl released the new version of their renderer Arion which is the first renderer with hybrid unbiased technology for rendering. Comparing to their „flagship“ fryrender, RandomControl decided to build Arion on an entirely new technology designed to produce comparable output, but using every single computing device at your disposal. Basically Arion can use all the power of your computer to produce great and fast renders using multi-CPU / multi-GPU / multi-IP interactive rendering technology.

We got the opportunity to try and review Arion comparing his speed and quality with MentalRay and KeyShot 3.

Arion 1.6.x specification

Arion 1.6.x overview

Arion is a stand-alone render engine which basically means that you don’t render your image inside your 3D application but using Arion instead. To include Arion into the workflow of an artist RandomControl developed several plugins into the most used 3D applications including; Autodesk 3DsMax, Cinema4D, Autodesk Maya and more, to be able to export their desired scene into Arion. This export capability of Arion is one of his strong sides, it’s not only a simple model export but you can set-up your model, materials IDs, UV maps, atmosphere, lightning and cameras inside your favourite 3D application and then export this to Arion. The imported model or scene will preserve all these settings which you defined before allowing you to easily tune-up your final images inside Arion and set-up the materials. Arion is fully compatible with the file formats used by fryrender (.fry and .rcs). Thus, Arion and fryrender share and use the exact same plugins. Additionally, Arion can open/save scenes in the widely supported .OBJ format. So you can use Arion from virtually every modelling app in the market. The package of Arion which you can download as a trail or buy includes only the stand-alone renderer and you have to download the plugin for your 3D application separately. The downloaded package includes Arion himself, material library and sample scenes, like this it is "very" small and it don’t install unnecessary plugins and tools which the user wouldn’t use.

What’s new in Arion 1.6.x

Arion uses all the GPUs -and- all the CPUs in your system simultaneously, not wasting a single flop available. Additionally, Arion can use all the GPUs and all the CPUs in all the other computers in your network forming a cluster for massive computation. This means that Arion will try literally to squeeze the computing potential of your computer to achieve a fast render. The GUI of Arion is well built and gives the user control about every single aspect of your scene including the atmosphere, materials, and lights.

After importing your exported scene into Arion, Arion starts to prepare the engine for Real-time rendering and immediately starts the render\preview process of your model\scene. Like inside KeyShot 3, the workspace which includes thereal-time rendered image is immediately redrawing according to your changes. Here it doesn’t matter if you change the material or just rotate your camera, Arion recalculate all the light properties to achieve a physically correct image and lightning.

Even that the GUI of Arion looks a bit too advanced for a user which never worked with it; it’s very intuitive and easy to use. After you import your scene you can notice that all the objects and materials are present in the left menu allowing you to re-arrange and create new materials for your render. The applying of the materials is made by a drag & drop system which is used in almost all application and users are familiar with this technique. The installer of Arion also includes a material library with different kind of materials from metal to fabric. The material editor allows you to create physically based materials using the options included in the editor and of course the uses of textures for diffuse, specular level and bump effects. For a better understanding of the materials, set-ups, lights and other settings of Arion, RandomControl prepared for a free download sample scenes which will help you to learn and understand the basics and features which can Arion give you.

The lightning system is based on light emitters and according to the emitter, they size and they position, the properties of shadows are calculated. You can set-up the light outside Arion, but also absolutely change inside Arion giving you the freedom to work only with Arion after exporting your scene without the need to go back and export it again. Similar approach has also the camera system. The position is not fixed and you can change it a long with a bunch of parameters including Depth of Field and other effects. After setting-up all these parameters you need just to wait until the engine render the image. The speed of the render is highly depending of your system spec, that means more CPUs and more GPUs will give you a faster render.

Conclusion

Arion's unique approach by using all the GPUs -and- all the CPUs in your system is really revolutionary. The renderer is fast and brings you superior render quality by less time than most of render engines which are built inside your 3D application. A huge advantage of Arion are the "export" plugins which can preserve all the Material IDs, UV coordinates, lights from your 3D application. And of course, the speed and the render quality, it’s really amazing how Arion can use your computer for the render process. However, it has also from my view few cons. The main is the leak of some education materials which could explain the functions inside Arion more deep and allow the user to understand the whole workflow much faster. Even that RandomControl gives you the opportunity to look and download some sample, scene more education materials would be great. I have to say i take Arion very positive and i was surprised about his render quality and the entire features which he has. Even that Arion is not suitable for amateurs but people who have some experience with CG,it’s a great piece of software made by people which share the passion for CG with the artists for which Arion is made for.

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Arion 1.6.x vs KeyShot 3.0 vs MentalRay

RandomControl declares that if you need a fast and great render, use Arion. We decided to do a little benchmark test to check the capabilities of Arion comparing it to MentalRay (3DsMAx 2012) and KeyShot 3. The tests were pointed on three main factors; render speed, render quality and the real time render quality after 1,5 and 3 minutes. Like a test object was used a dagger from one our tutorials consisting from four different materials; bronze (texture based), metal matte, metal polished and ruby material.

The testing PC had following specifications:

• CPU – i7 2600K 3,5 GHz
• RAM - 16 GB
• GPU – GTX560 TI 2GB DDR5

The overall scene was built from the dagger and a plane on which was in all three applications applied a neutral material consisting just from a diffuse colourwhich wasn’t taking or generating reflections. In all application was used the same HDR map for environment. The render set-ups and comparing conditions are listed in the tables bellow.

MentalRay (3DsMax 2012)

Conclusion

Arion is a solid piece of software which does exactly what RandomControl says; great renders in less time. The features and plugin support for most of the 3D application on the market make Arion able to use anywhere and possible for anything. By comparing Arion with MentalRay and KeyShot we were focusing on quality of the render and the speed. The real-time render ability by Arion and KeyShot gives you the ability to tweak your image before you hit the render button or wait for the final render. By this comparing was KeyShot faster than Arion, but by the way how Arion use the real-time render it’s hard to compare this and say the final conclusion. In both software’s is the real-time render set-up different and this can misrepresent the results. However, by comparing the final result we can judge objectively. The final result from MentalRay is in my opinion on the last place, both in quality and performance. The comparing of Arion and KeyShot was a bit harder. Arion quality of the final render amazed me, the reflections and the materials are great. But comparing to KeyShot, Arion was slower in both the final render and real-time render. Of course all this comparing highly depends on the user and how he can master the software which he uses. I will let you decide which renderers have the best quality. My opinion about Arion is very positive, I like the software and it was pleasure to work with it. I would like to say thank you again to RandomControl for giving us the opportunity to review Arion.