Cinema 4D - Irradiance Map

With Jaime's suggestion of testing the GI in Cinema 4d, its another possibility that might be a possible workflow Sketch up user, or an alternative Mac's render engine. The export of 3ds work well in C4D, it keeps the camera view ( field of view is a slightly difference from SU, but the angel is correct) and the material map and UV coordinate. which means its easy to export it from SU. And it supports sun light system as well which gives a fast and accurate light setting for building renders. The good impression for me like a non C4D user is that the setting is simple, the render method is not as complex as Vray, there's two main options, one is Irradiance map and one is Irradiance Map + QMC, it is the same biased method like Vray. All u have to do is to determine the quality of the sampling which saves a lot of time tweaking the parameters. Another good effect that C4D has is the ambient occlusion, it gives certain detail of soft shadow that will enhance the edges. The easy settings of material is another advantages, works similar as 3dMax, the material property index, u can simply tick the box and give the amount of the effect, such as transparency and reflection. And it also has the layer property like Maxwell material. So a glossy wooden floor will be diffuse + multiplied layer refection. The speed/quality of rendering for a new user is very convincing, u don't feel frustrated like using Vray (if u miss some settings the quality is entire different) the following images take 5hrs with 2 GI passes (IR method) The only disadvantages is that it doesn;t support IES lighting, there's plugin that can do the job but not with default shader.  On material view, the glossiness of the reflection doesn't work properly as I expected, its a bit flat if u see the wooden table. But the bump and sharpness work really well. To sum up, I believe c4D is a good balance between easy settings and render speed.