from a client: "I installed Sketchup 8 Pro and noticed that they pre-installed [a rendering package]. In your opinion what makes your product better than the other package?"
[EDIT: It turned out that a student had probably installed the other renderer on the computer, and confused this client]
In response to your query - We think we are better than the other rendering packages because we work harder to keep our package working and to make it work better for you.
This video highlights the features of SketchUp which we have worked hard to support, and many other rendering packages cannot handle. Things like alpha transparent images, textures placed with photo match, 2D Perspective views, and faces with materials on both sides. Our attitude is that if it works in SketchUp it should work in the renderer. (There are sometimes some things which we cannot handle - simply because SketchUp does not make them available to us.)
Storing Rendering Settings in SketchUp
When you define lights, reflections, etc. We store the settings in the SketchUp model so that the next time you render it you do not have to change things again. We store all rendering settings - size of screen, quality settings, etc. in the SketchUp model.
Easy to use
Another thing that is important to us is that you can render your models without doing anything at all and get a good rendering. For Exteriors, or interior objects, our High Dynamic lighting default produces very good renderings without your having to add any lighting, reflection or anything. (Literly a push of the render button). We do this by providing default lighting, filtered through a forest of trees, to produce subtle shading and lighting.
The folks at McNeel who developed the AccuRender rendering engine for AutoCAD and Rhino have developed (and are still improving) a new engine AccuRender nXt. This new engine is producing great results.
Features
We have a list of features which is frankly too long for anyone to properl evaluate, but take a look.
We are adding new ones all the time - such as our Lighting Channels, which turns out to be a wonderful addition to the product.