Babysteps in Corona + Comparision with Vray

[diagonalhatch]

Hey Guys,

I was working on some quick stuff last days, struggling with Vray as always to get some decent results. As I wasn't satisfied at all, I've decided to try out the corona.
This is my first work with Corona so any advices are welcome.
I have used PT+HD, render time was 1:30h for 2000x14000 image on Intel 4770 3,40Ghz

Here is render directly from corona and one after small post (just some contrast and little colour tweaking)
Below are also my crappy renders from Vray and one after post. By crappy I mean my skills, not Vray quality, I know there are some really good renders done in Vray.
Im showing those two as a comparision of light and colour distribution while using the same approach to the light setup. Only sun + sky and interior ceiling lamps with TV.

Overall, although Vray render took only 11minutes, the scene setup, material tweaking and preview renders took longer than working with corona, and that was just first render done with it.

[Paul Jones]

Corona has much sharper shadows on the ceiling from the light fittings, and much more detailed reflections close in. Would be interesting if you could up these settings in vray.

[diagonalhatch]

To be honest I did some more work on the interior before rendering it in Corona, and it looks better overall. But I did not change some materials at all, just used the conversion script. The floor material is the same as in vray, only bump reduced a bit, and it looks alot better compared to vray one.

[Stan_But]

To be honest you need set max depth to 25 in v-ray and then do same comparing

[diagonalhatch]

I know it's a lousy comparision because I would need to spent more work on vray image to try to make it look more realistic.
Setting max depth to 25 won't do any magic. It won't make alot of diffrence in this shot. I would need to add more fill lights behind camera or do some other fancy tricks, because there is only small window in the back. Also Im not as experienced enough in vray so I don't know everything.

But that's what I meant by this post. I am tired of vray workflow and constant tweaking and testing and so on until It's: 'fine enough I'll photoshop it later'
Small changes>preview>wait for it>looks bad, repeat. Keep calm and render until its "quite ok"
That constant wasting time to learn workarounds for every single new problem, searching forums for tips and magic solutions that may or may not work actually the way I wanted.

Don't get me wrong. Vray is great software in terms of speed and quality. It is very flexible also. But at some point there are scenes that are a struggle for me to get good results.
Specially interiors, that is a pain. Lately I was testing other renderers, maxwell, indigo, octane, mitsuba. I thought Corona will be "yet another unbiased renderer that takes ages to clean up and it is complicated, nerd friendly piece of software".
I am happy I was wrong. Its fast and accurate, and very simple and reasonable at Its core.