Shaderlight : free & pro rendering for SketchUp

At http://www.artvps.com/index.php/downloads/try_shaderlight you can download a free or a pro version of Shaderlight, an integrated rendering plugin for Google SketchUp, now available for Windows and OSX.

The Pro version starts as a free trial and than falls back on the free version, unless you buy a license. At first sight, the most glaring omission from the free version is Global Illumination... which is, alas, incredibly useful for anything but the most basic renderings in architecture.

Below is a small example. A SketchUp scene with the settings from the free version of Shaderlight (Exterior, 640x480, halfway between speed and quality). I had to activate the Shadows in SketchUp to have them in the rendering. The Shaderlight rendering appears inside a separate window (actually a separate application) and amount of control inside SketchUp is rather limited. But it is easy to use and has reasonable results.

Screenshot of SketchUp with Shaderlight

This is not a realtime solution, although it can be set as a continuously updating rendering window (unless you activate the higher quality settings).