A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO RENDER ENGINES
Make the most of the available tech and decide which renderer is best for your projects
It’s amazing how quickly technology can evolve. When I held my first mobile phone at age 15, I could never have imagined that it would develop into what I use today. The same has been true for many technological advancements including the computer, the car and air travel, and since the first ever 3D rendered complex object in 1968, the world has witnessed huge leaps in the 3D industry.
The industry is now unrecognisable from several decades ago, largely due to the advancements of both hardware and software. Even though rendering on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) is commonplace today, the initial push for 3D rendering was actually on Central Processing Units (CPUs). They were responsible for carrying out every part of the rendering process from beginning to end. It was only with the development and popularity of Voodoo, NVIDIA and ATI cards that GPU rendering really got off the ground. It’s interesting to note that both CPU and GPU renderers are still going strong, with neither managing to oust the other.