What do you like best?
Before real-time rendering came, I used C4D (with vray) to create interior renderings and animations. My colleagues and I decided to venture into the real-time rendering world a few years ago because the time that it took to render in C4D was just not worth the time. We have tested Lumen RT, Lumion, Twinmotion, and Enscape. I have been testing and playing with D5 for 6 months now, and out of all of the software, I really enjoy D5 the best. They come out with updates almost every month, and within those updates are new features or fixes to any bugs. They have many forums to reach them if there is a problem, and they respond very quickly. The learning curve for d5 is effortless, and you can produce an excellent rendering within a few days (depending on your knowledge of 3D softwares. The thing i like the most about D5 is the realism that you can create in a short amount of time. Also, they are super responsive if you have a question or problem with any part of the software. This is a huge, huge plus for me. They listen to their customers and take our ideas into consideration.
What do you dislike?
D5 is relatively new. Many of its competitors are years ahead in development. There are a few things that need improvement, but they are already working on those. The 1.9 update for D5 will address all of my wish lists for improvements, so I don't have any dislikes at this time. Like I said before, they have an update about once a month, so the bugs don't last for long, if there are any.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
I would highly recommend D5 to anyone that is considering switching. They are wonderful people to work with and I haven't had any problems getting ideas across. Give D5 a chance and you will not be disappointed!
What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
With D5, our company can focus on bringing architect and developers' designs to life and help them really see what they are designing in a realistic way. I really enjoy D5's ability to batch render as well. You can focus on the architecture, lighting, and textures to create a natural atmosphere and then add your animation clips, panoramas, and still images to the render que and render as you sleep. There is also very little load time when loading the projects (which is a huge help). No more waiting for Sketchup to load and using low poly models with Enscape because D5 can handle it!
