Brighter3D: SketchUp Extension Review

Brighter3D version 3.1.2 is released! It is one of the best progressive rendering extensions for Trimble SketchUp. Let us see today what it has to say for itself in this article.

Brighter3D offers you a clean, user-friendly interface that hides the rendering powerhouse that it is. You get to see a preview of how the model might get rendered in seconds.

Following, the render gets ready in mere minutes. And oh boy, it does look really really real!

Features of Brighter3D:

Super-realistic lighting: The extension can work with normal daylight and also with HDR lighting.

What?s more, it can combine these to make your model look that much more awesome. Realism is the target for the developers and they didn?t hold back, it seems.

Unbiased rendering: The plugin features a Unbiased Progressive Rendering Mode (UPRM) which gives you a preview of the render in seconds and the full picture in minutes. Even in low-end processors, Brighter3D seems to work well. This blazing fast performance is unparalleled.

Noiseless rendering: It gets very irritating when your fresh render has noise or grains, doesn?t it? No fear, Brighter3D takes care of noise with a special algorithm. The renders with this extension come as crisp as a picture from your phone. Better, actually.

Plethora of materials: Brighter3D comes with over 100 realistic materials. That?s not much, you say? Well, add to the point that you can combine and interpolate materials to create unique effects. These materials were designed with real metrics gathered from scientific analysis of the real stuff in life. Expert users can combine reflectance, refraction, index of refraction, Fresnel parameter, and many more to create millions of more surfaces for yourself.

Performance powerhouse: The Brighter3D plugin drives to fully utilize your CPU by using smart multithreading. That means, you don?t need a fancy high-end graphics card to get lifelike renders of your model. Memory usage is heavily optimized as well, meaning the extension won?t slow down your computer (except when it?s doing the actual work, that is). All of that means the technical requirements are drastically lowered.

Ease of use: Both beginners and advanced users can use Brighter3D. Being available in the extension warehouse it?s no hassle to install this awesome SketchUp plugin

Affordable: The free version of Brighter3D does offer some limitations, but they are not crippling as most of the other paid plugins go. Resolutions and some other capabilities are slightly lowered, that is all. That means you can use Brighter3D for free without many issues. However, you get all features unlocked when purchasing a pro version of the software. And guess what, it?s a one-time fee only - you get lifetime validity, with no recurring payments, monthly or yearly.

Technical Details: The Brighter3D extension for SketchUp comes for the windows version of it only. Developers are working on other versions. The latest version available is 3.1.2. In this version, you get the instant refresh button, bug fixes and PBR texture support. It is compatible with SketchUp versions 2017 to 2019, and is available in English only.

This sketchup extension is available in extension warehouse extensions.sketchup.com

To get online demonstration, watch the following video tutorial.

Video Source: Lukasz Piwowar

Brighter3D: SketchUp Extension Review