Luxion KeyShot they have been improving their software by miles. Been following this company for sometime they where a small developer with like 8 employees. Now they are growing like crazy and their software is improving by leaps and bounds. A large industrial design firm just switched their own internal software to KeyShot as their primary rendering engine. Siemens’ Solid Edge Software running KeyShot for rendering.
That is nuts. That is pretty much the pinnacle of graphics. Now all we need is the same level of realism for physics.
If your a student I believe Octane that is also pretty good for free? Its around 600 dollars standalone the Luxion KeyShot is more powerful but is around a grand. The Octane is taking off and is faster then LuxRender "Opensource freeware application". Three very good options at different price points each having their own limitations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ianMNs12ITc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVt5dKgYhCo