MiniLight Alternatives

MiniLight is described as 'Minimal global illumination renderer. It is primarily an exercise in simplicity. But that makes it a good base and benchmark (in some sense) for development and experimentation. And it just might be the neatest renderer around (on average, about 650 lines)' and is an app in the development category. There are more than 25 alternatives to MiniLight for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Sketchup and Autodesk 3ds Max apps. The best MiniLight alternative is MoonRay, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like MiniLight are Adobe Dimension, LuxCoreRender, Malt and POV-Ray.

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MiniLight alternatives are mainly 3D Modelers but may also be 3D Animators or Graphic Design Tools.  Filter by these or use the filter bar below if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of MiniLight.
MiniLight iconMiniLight
  2
  • Free • Open Source
  • ...

MiniLight is a minimal global illumination renderer. It is primarily an exercise in simplicity. But that makes it a good base and benchmark (in some sense) for development and experimentation. And it just might be the...

More about MiniLight
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MiniLight alternatives page was last updated Mar 27, 2023
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Alternatives
  1. MoonRay icon

    MoonRay

     2 likes
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    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

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    Render Profile Viewer

    MoonRay Features

    1.  Rendering
    2.  3D Renderer

    MoonRay VS MiniLight

     

    • MoonRay is the most popular Windows & Linux alternative to MiniLight.

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

    • MoonRay is Free and Open SourceMiniLight is also Free and Open Source
  2. Adobe Dimension icon

    Adobe Dimension

     13 likes
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    Versatile 3D design tool combining asset compositing and photorealistic rendering with real-time previews. Access Adobe Stock seamlessly and enhance with Photoshop for practical workflows.

    64 Adobe Dimension alternatives

    License model

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Adobe Creative Cloud
    Adobe Dimension screenshot 1

    Adobe Dimension Features

    1.  Grid layout
    2.  HD-Rendering
    3.  3D design

    Adobe Dimension VS MiniLight

     

    • Adobe Dimension is the most popular Mac alternative to MiniLight.

    • Adobe Dimension is the most popular commercial alternative to MiniLight.

    • Adobe Dimension is Paid and ProprietaryMiniLight is Free and Open Source
  4. LuxCoreRender icon

    LuxCoreRender

     29 likes
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    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

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    LuxCoreRender screenshot 1

    LuxCoreRender Features

    1.  Rendering
    2.  Ray Tracing

    LuxCoreRender VS MiniLight

     
  5. Ad
    Screenshot
    Adobe Dimension icon
    Adobe Dimension

    Versatile 3D design tool combining asset compositing and photorealistic rendering with real-time previews. Access Adobe Stock seamlessly and enhance with Photoshop for practical workflows.

    https://www.adobe.com
    Learn More
  6. Malt icon

    Malt

     2 likes
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    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

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    Sample files

    Malt Features

    1.  Rendering
    2.  3D Renderer

    Malt VS MiniLight

     
  7. POV-Ray icon

    POV-Ray

     30 likes
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    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

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    Tiffany Cheerio

    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 VS MiniLight

     
  8. appleseed icon

    appleseed

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

    52 appleseed alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    appleseed screenshot 1

    appleseed Features

    1.  Portable
    2.  Rendering
    3.  Ray Tracing

    appleseed VS MiniLight

     
  10. Kerkythea icon

    Kerkythea

     14 likes
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    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.
    45 Kerkythea alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Sketchup
    • Blender
    Kerkythea screenshot 1

    Kerkythea Features

    1.  Ray Tracing
    2.  Rendering

    Kerkythea VS MiniLight

     
  11. Sunflow Rendering System icon

    Sunflow Rendering System

     9 likes
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    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

    • Free • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Sunflow Rendering System Features

    1.  Rendering
    2.  Ray Tracing

    Sunflow Rendering System VS MiniLight

     
  12. Keyshot icon

    Keyshot

     16 likes
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    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.

    51 Keyshot alternatives

    License model

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    Depth of Field

    Keyshot Features

    1.  HDR Support
    2.  Rendering

    Keyshot VS MiniLight

     
  13. Pixie Renderer icon

    Pixie Renderer

     6 likes
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    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

    • Free • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Pixie Renderer Features

    1.  Ray Tracing
    2.  Rendering

    Pixie Renderer VS MiniLight

     
  14. Mitsuba icon

    Mitsuba

     14 likes
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    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

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    Mitsuba screenshot 1

    Mitsuba Features

    1.  Rendering

    Mitsuba VS MiniLight

     
  15. YafaRay icon

    YafaRay

     13 likes
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    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

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Blender
    YafaRay screenshot 1
    Discontinued

    The GitHub repository was archived in July 2020.

    YafaRay Features

    1.  Ray Tracing
    2.  Rendering

    YafaRay VS MiniLight

     
12 of 46 MiniLight alternatives