Is it true that render in Houdini takes longer than other packages like Maya?

not at all. if you try getting the results mantra pbr gives you in mental ray, youll be in for a rough ride. mantra is a robust, industry proven renderer.

gohalves
Is it true that render in Houdini takes longer than other packages like Maya?

You can download the free apprentice on a machine with a capable graphics card and give Houdini and Mantra a whirl for yourself. We make our software readily available for both learning and testing so that you don't have to ask these kinds of generic questions but do actual hands-on testing.

It's pretty easy these days to import a scene using obj/fbx/alembic/iges and go straight to the ipr view and hit render. Houdini will place a render output node for you and use a headlight as default. Then you can go add additional lights holding down the Ctrl-key and clicking say an area light from the shelf to inherit the view.


When you are trolling the internet for advice in lieu of doing hands-on testing, always have a look at the date of the various posts when doing research on render engines. A lot can change in a few months in the render world. Looking at a post that is even a year out may be misleading. That goes for all render engines.

Very glad you asked the question btw.

Mantra is excellent! Grab the apprentice download, have a play and there are good rendering tips when you need:

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini12.5/render/tips [sidefx.com]