mental ray Alternatives

mental ray is described as '® is a rendering software which generates images of outstanding quality and unsurpassed realism. The software combines the physically correct simulation of the behavior of light with full programmability for the creation of any imaginable visual effect' and is an app. There are more than 25 alternatives to mental ray for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Sketchup and Blender apps. The best mental ray alternative is MoonRay, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like mental ray are Adobe Dimension, LuxCoreRender, Malt and POV-Ray.

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mental ray alternatives are mainly 3D Modelers but may also be 3D Animators or Image Editors.  Filter by these or use the filter bar below if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of mental ray.
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mental ray® is a rendering software which generates images of outstanding quality and unsurpassed realism. The software combines the physically correct simulation of the behavior of light with full programmability for...

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mental ray alternatives page was last updated Mar 27, 2023
  1. MoonRay icon
     2 likes

    MoonRay is DreamWorks Animation’s in-house 3D renderer, used to render all DreamWorks movies since How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.

    46 MoonRay alternatives
    Render Profile Viewer

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux

    MoonRay Features

    1.  Rendering
    2.  3D Renderer
    MoonRay iconmental ray Icon

    MoonRay VS mental ray

    Is MoonRay a good alternative to mental ray?
     
    • MoonRay is the most popular Windows & Linux alternative to mental ray.

    • MoonRay is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to mental ray.

    • MoonRay is Free and Open Sourcemental ray is Paid and Proprietary
  2. Adobe Dimension icon
     13 likes

    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.

    64 Adobe Dimension alternatives
    Adobe Dimension screenshot 1

    License model

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Adobe Creative Cloud

    Adobe Dimension Features

    1.  Grid layout
    2.  HD-Rendering
    Adobe Dimension iconmental ray Icon

    Adobe Dimension VS mental ray

    Is Adobe Dimension a good alternative to mental ray?
     
    • Adobe Dimension is the most popular Mac alternative to mental ray.

    • Adobe Dimension is the most popular commercial alternative to mental ray.

    • Adobe Dimension is Paid and Proprietarymental ray is also Paid and Proprietary
  3. LuxCoreRender icon
     29 likes

    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.

    50 LuxCoreRender alternatives
    LuxCoreRender screenshot 1

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    LuxCoreRender Features

    1.  Rendering
    2.  Ray Tracing
    LuxCoreRender iconmental ray Icon

    LuxCoreRender VS mental ray

    Is LuxCoreRender a good alternative to mental ray?
     
  4. Malt icon
     2 likes

    Malt is a fully customizable real-time rendering framework for animation and illustration. Designed as a community effort to expand the possibility space of 3d rendering, it provides graphics programmers and technical artist an enjoyable “shadertoy-like” workflow inside Blender...

    46 Malt alternatives
    Sample files

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux

    Malt Features

    1.  Rendering
    2.  3D Renderer
    Malt iconmental ray Icon

    Malt VS mental ray

    Is Malt a good alternative to mental ray?
     
  5. POV-Ray icon
     30 likes

    The Persistence of Vision Raytracer is a high-quality, totally free tool for creating stunning three-dimensional graphics. It is available in official versions for Windows, Mac OS/Mac OS X and i86 Linux. The source code is available for those wanting to do their own ports.

    43 POV-Ray alternatives
    Tiffany Cheerio

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux

    Top POV-Ray Features

    1.  Physically-Based Rendering
    2.  Volumetric Media (Absorb/Emit/Scatter)
    3.  Untesselated geometry
    4.  Chromatic dispersion
    5.  Global Illumination (Radiosity)
    6.  Depth of Field
    7.  Dielectric materials
    8.  Pause Render process
    9.  Uv mapping
    10.  Render baking (Mesh Camera)
    11.  Final Gathering
    POV-Ray iconmental ray Icon

    POV-Ray VS mental ray

    Is POV-Ray a good alternative to mental ray?
     
  6. appleseed icon
     10 likes

    appleseed is a modern, open source, physically-based rendering engine designed to produce photorealistic images, animations and visual effects.

    52 appleseed alternatives
    appleseed screenshot 1

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    appleseed Features

    1.  Portable
    2.  Rendering
    3.  Ray Tracing
    appleseed iconmental ray Icon

    appleseed VS mental ray

    Is appleseed a good alternative to mental ray?
     
  7. Kerkythea icon
     14 likes

    Powerful, feature-rich and fast standalone raytracing renderer.

    Exporters from Blender and Google SketchUp are also available. Allows network rendering of images and animation

    Supported Features*

    • Bump Mapping
    • Normal Mapping
    • Clip Mapping
    • Bevel Mapping (an.
    46 Kerkythea alternatives
    Kerkythea screenshot 1

    License model

    • FreeProprietary

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Sketchup
    • Blender

    Kerkythea Features

    1.  Ray Tracing
    2.  Rendering
    Kerkythea iconmental ray Icon

    Kerkythea VS mental ray

    Is Kerkythea a good alternative to mental ray?
     
  8. Sunflow Rendering System icon
     9 likes

    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...

    50 Sunflow Rendering System alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Sunflow Rendering System Features

    1.  Rendering
    2.  Ray Tracing
    Sunflow Rendering System iconmental ray Icon

    Sunflow Rendering System VS mental ray

    Is this a good alternative to mental ray?
     
  9. Keyshot icon
     16 likes

    KeyShot is an interactive raytracing and global illumination program developed by Luxion for both PC and Mac that breaks down the complexity of creating photographic images from 3D models.

    50 Keyshot alternatives
    Depth of Field

    License model

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows

    Keyshot Features

    1.  HDR Support
    2.  Rendering
    Keyshot iconmental ray Icon

    Keyshot VS mental ray

    Is Keyshot a good alternative to mental ray?
     
  10. Pixie Renderer icon
     6 likes

    Pixie is an open source RenderMan renderer for generating photorealistic images. You can compile Pixie on Windows (using Visual Studio 2005), Linux and on OSX (using XCode or unix style configure script).

    49 Pixie Renderer alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Pixie Renderer Features

    1.  Ray Tracing
    2.  Rendering
    Pixie Renderer iconmental ray Icon

    Pixie Renderer VS mental ray

    Is Pixie Renderer a good alternative to mental ray?
     
  11. YafaRay icon
     13 likes

    YafaRay is a free open-source montecarlo raytracing engine released under the LGPL 2.1 license. Raytracing is a rendering technique for generating realistic images by tracing the path of light through a 3D scene.

    53 YafaRay alternatives
    YafaRay screenshot 1

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Blender

    YafaRay Features

    1.  Ray Tracing
    2.  Rendering
    Discontinued

    The GitHub repository was archived in July 2020.

    YafaRay iconmental ray Icon

    YafaRay VS mental ray

    Is YafaRay a good alternative to mental ray?
     
  12. Mitsuba icon
     14 likes

    Mitsuba is a research-oriented rendering system for forward and inverse light transport simulation. It consists of a core library and a set of plugins that implement functionality ranging from materials and light sources to complete rendering algorithms.

    52 Mitsuba alternatives
    Mitsuba screenshot 1

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Mitsuba Features

    1.  Rendering
    Mitsuba iconmental ray Icon

    Mitsuba VS mental ray

    Is Mitsuba a good alternative to mental ray?
     
12 of 48 mental ray alternatives