Hello! and for which situation? as i see it, this question could have two different approaches: animation or still. and there are many different features that can be comparable in each one, caustics, GI, depth of field, cameras, materials, ease of use, speed, etc. these days we have so many options we don�t know where to turn. just looking at the galleries of each render engine its not enough to decide.
which one do you like more, than other? and, most importantly, why??
hi, yeah this might have been discussed once or twice before , but i'd say you should try and push the scanline renderer in max as far as it can go, then if there's features you need that the scanline doesn't handle then look into a 3rd party renderer. Each of these renderers has a demo and mental ray comes standard with maya and max 2009, check out the demos and find the one that fits you best, you'll find some do things better then the other or have more features then the other, but choose which one fits you best. Good luck!
I am a big fan of the RenderMan specification, which is really a way of describing a scene, not a renderer in itself. Photorealistic RenderMan is Pixar's own RenderMan compliant renderer which is a very fast and efficient scanline renderer that has recently added raytracing to its armoury. PRMan is rather expensive though. Alternatives like 3Delight and Aqsis are free and have many excellent features. The reason I like RenderMan so much is its flexibility. You will need to learn how to program shaders if you're to get the most out of it, but I believe that because of this deep scriptability RenderMan renderers will give the greatest scope to your imagination.
, but i'd say you should try and push the scanline renderer in max as far as it can go, then if there's features you need that the scanline doesn't handle then look into a 3rd party renderer. Each of these renderers has a demo and mental ray comes standard with maya and max 2009, check out the demos and find the one that fits you best, you'll find some do things better then the other or have more features then the other, but choose which one fits you best. Good luck!