Rhino Render in version version 5A723

When I opened Rhino a few days ago, the notification that version 5A723 is now available. I am using version 5A713.

Since I am a relative newbie in using Rhino have have some concerns and question.

In the version I have been using the ability to edit the materials was much more limited for Rhino Render than for Toucan Render, although as a beginner the Toucan render has been very confusing to me.

In several of my files I have assigned material characteristics to several models using Toucan Render.

What will happen to those settings like specularity, reflectivity, transparency, etc, now that the toucan renderer is going away. My understanding is, that it will still be part of the WIP version, for now.

Will I be able to do the same things with Rhino Render in version 5A723 as I have been able to do so far with Toucan Render?

Since I am on the subject, my render skill are way inferior to my modeling skills. Is there a place online where I can get some pointers for using toucan Render and/or Rhino Render?

Toucan might be better renamed to “Dodo” as it’s future is limited. Please see this post if you haven’t already.

If you have invested time and energy in Toucan, it will be in the WIP for awhile (although it might be hidden, we’ll make sure you can enable it). That said, it’s very much obsolete, so I would recommend shifting to another rendering engine that meets your needs. RhinoRender may or may not meet your needs. Which brings us to…

Will I be able to do the same things with Rhino Render in version 5A723 as I have been able to do so far with Toucan Render?

The Rhino Render in version 5A723 WIP is buggy (no surprise there). We’re working on fixing those bugs. That said, we don’t know if RhinoRender will be able to do all the things you have been able to do in Toucan Render so far…that depends on what you’ve been able to do. But perhaps that’s unfair to the spirit of you question… RhinoRender is not meant to be nearly as “Render Nerdy” as Toucan…as you likely experienced when you said:

as a beginner the Toucan render has been very confusing to me.

This is precisely what we want to avoid with Rhino Render. We want to provide an easy, intuitive, compatible, and quick renderer in Rhino for Mac. Keep in mind: we are also working hard on an SDK that will give the rendering pros the tools they need to develop amazing 3rd-party renderers for Rhino for Mac.

Since I am on the subject, my render skill are way inferior to my modeling skills. Is there a place online where I can get some pointers for using toucan Render and/or Rhino Render?

RhinoRender is way too new to even be documented properly yet. That’s still a Work-In-Progress. If I were you, I would not invest anymore time in Toucan. We apologize if we haven’t communicated well about this issue. Your time is not wasted as you’ve likely learned quite a bit about rendering that will be transferable to other engines.

Great, we are still in Render limbo land, with 2 Rhino OSX designers and the 2 Rhino Win designer using Flamingo, we are at a crossroads as to how to proceed in our render issues. Looking forward to trying RhinoRender as it evolves and any future 3rd party ones.

Does McNeel have any plans to make an upscale render program for Mac along the lines of Flamingo or, better still, Brazil?

I just downloaded and installed the latest version 5A75, and am at a total loss with Rhino Render. Even though Toucan was confusing to me, this is now worse. I am again at square one with rendering now, which is very frustrating.

I had created several materials in Toucan with certain properties that I use on a regular basis. Those are no longer available to me. Several models I had previously created with certain properties like color, transparency, etc, now also no longer render the way they are supposed to.

Since you said “If you have invested time and energy in Toucan, it will be in the WIP for awhile (although it might be hidden, we’ll make sure you can enable it).” will you please show me how to enable it in the latest version.

I do realize that it will disappear permanently, however for now I’d like to stick with it, especially when I am working on a project and not just spending time learning and improving my general skill.

Build 5A751 was released a short while ago.