POV-Ray Alternatives

POV-Ray is described as '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' and is an app in the photos & graphics category. There are more than 25 alternatives to POV-Ray for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac, Blender and Sketchup apps. The best POV-Ray alternative is MoonRay, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like POV-Ray are Adobe Dimension, LuxCoreRender, Malt and Fragmentarium.

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POV-Ray alternatives are mainly 3D Modelers but may also be 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 POV-Ray.
POV-Ray iconPOV-Ray
  30
  • FreeOpen Source
  • ...

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...

More about POV-Ray
POV-Ray alternatives page was last updated Sep 28, 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 iconPOV-Ray Icon

    MoonRay VS POV-Ray

    Is MoonRay a good alternative to POV-Ray?
     
    • MoonRay is the most popular Windows & Linux alternative to POV-Ray.

    • MoonRay is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to POV-Ray.

    • MoonRay is Free and Open SourcePOV-Ray is also Free and Open Source
  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 iconPOV-Ray Icon

    Adobe Dimension VS POV-Ray

    Is Adobe Dimension a good alternative to POV-Ray?
     
    Comments about Adobe Dimension as an Alternative to POV-Ray
     
    Guest

    Dimension is too realistic, I need 90s / early 2000s level output

    Negative commentSep 28, 2023
    0
    POV-Ray Icon
    Adobe Dimension icon
    • Adobe Dimension is the most popular Mac alternative to POV-Ray.

    • Adobe Dimension is the most popular commercial alternative to POV-Ray.

    • Adobe Dimension is Paid and ProprietaryPOV-Ray is Free and Open Source
  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 iconPOV-Ray Icon

    LuxCoreRender VS POV-Ray

    Is LuxCoreRender a good alternative to POV-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 iconPOV-Ray Icon

    Malt VS POV-Ray

    Is Malt a good alternative to POV-Ray?
     
  5. Fragmentarium icon
     6 likes

    Fragmentarium is an open source, cross-platform IDE for exploring pixel based graphics on the GPU.

    70 Fragmentarium alternatives
    01

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Fragmentarium Features

    1.  Procedural Modeling
    2.  GLSL
    3.  Procedurally generated
    Fragmentarium iconPOV-Ray Icon

    Fragmentarium VS POV-Ray

    Is Fragmentarium a good alternative to POV-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 iconPOV-Ray Icon

    appleseed VS POV-Ray

    Is appleseed a good alternative to POV-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 iconPOV-Ray Icon

    Kerkythea VS POV-Ray

    Is Kerkythea a good alternative to POV-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 iconPOV-Ray Icon

    Sunflow Rendering System VS POV-Ray

    Is this a good alternative to POV-Ray?
     
  9. SheepIT icon
     11 likes

    A free distributed render farm for Blender.

    27 SheepIT alternatives
    SheepIT screenshot 1

    License model

    • FreeProprietary

    Platforms

    • Online

    SheepIT Features

    1.  3D Renderer
    2.  Rendering
    SheepIT iconPOV-Ray Icon

    SheepIT VS POV-Ray

    Is SheepIT a good alternative to POV-Ray?
     
    Comments about SheepIT as an Alternative to POV-Ray
     
    Guest

    SheepIT is a render-farm, not a 3D rendering software, since they use Blender for that.

    Negative commentSep 28, 2023
    0
    POV-Ray Icon
    SheepIT icon
    • SheepIT is the most popular Web-based alternative to POV-Ray.

    • SheepIT is Free and ProprietaryPOV-Ray is Free and Open Source
  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 iconPOV-Ray Icon

    Pixie Renderer VS POV-Ray

    Is Pixie Renderer a good alternative to POV-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 iconPOV-Ray Icon

    YafaRay VS POV-Ray

    Is YafaRay a good alternative to POV-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 iconPOV-Ray Icon

    Mitsuba VS POV-Ray

    Is Mitsuba a good alternative to POV-Ray?
     
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