DocsRender engines
Choose your render engine
New in 1.0.8 A render engine is the program that turns your scene into a picture. Angelo puts the choice one click away: EEVEE for fast looks, Cycles with a Preview and a Final setting ready on your graphics card, and any engine you installed, such as V-Ray.
Where to choose#
The engine you choose is what F12 (Render Image), Render Animation and the renders the agent runs for you use. Every place below shows the same list, with the current choice marked.
| Where | How |
|---|---|
| Director's top bar | The engine button, near the Director / Manual button. It reads EEVEE, Cycles · Preview, Cycles · Final or the engine's own name. When the bar is short of room it shows only its icon. |
| Render menu | Render ▸ Render Engine, in Director and in Manual mode. AI Render… sits beside it. |
| Search | Press F3 and type Render Engine. |
| Manual mode | Blender's own Properties ▸ Render ▸ Render Engine works as always. |
Each row says what it is for and, for Cycles, where it will render: your graphics card and its name, or the CPU and why. The dropdown also lists AI Render…, which restyles the camera's view with an image model instead of rendering it; see AI Render.
Switch engines, step by step#
- In Director, click the engine button in the top bar (in Manual mode, open Render ▸ Render Engine).
- Choose EEVEE, Cycles · Preview or Cycles · Final, or another engine further down the list.
- Press F12 to render. The switch is one Undo step, and the choice is saved with your file, so a reopened file shows the engine and preset it was saved with.
EEVEE, Cycles Preview and Cycles Final#
EEVEE renders in real time: fast looks and quick turnarounds. Cycles is path tracing: it follows light as it bounces, which is slower and more realistic. The two Cycles choices set what you would otherwise set by hand:
| Setting | Cycles · Preview | Cycles · Final |
|---|---|---|
| Render samples | 128 | 1024 |
| Noise threshold (adaptive sampling) | 0.05 | 0.01 |
| Viewport samples | 32, denoised | 64, denoised |
Both use adaptive sampling and OpenImageDenoise denoising (on the GPU too), with no time limit. A sample is one pass of light tracing per pixel: more samples, less noise, longer renders. Adaptive sampling stops a pixel once it is clean enough. Choosing EEVEE or a preset never changes your Preferences. If you tuned Cycles by hand, no preset is ticked; choosing one sets its values.
Ready on the GPU on first use
When you switch to Cycles from another engine and Angelo has set up your graphics card, the scene's Device moves to the GPU, even in an older file or one from Blender that was set to CPU. A scene that is already on Cycles keeps its device when you only change the preset, so a CPU you chose there stays. Without a graphics card Cycles supports, the engine still changes, the row says why Cycles will use the CPU, and Angelo warns you. How Angelo picks your card is on Rendering on the GPU.
The list also has Workbench (flat or studio shading for checking layout and timing) and any other engine Blender ships that is turned on. Choosing one of those, or an installed engine, changes only the engine.
Engines you install, such as V-Ray#
Angelo can't include a commercial engine itself, but you can install one for Blender and use it in Angelo. You don't need Blender installed. An engine's installer puts its add-on (a plug-in for Blender) in Blender's add-ons folder for this version; Angelo finds it there without running any of its code.
- Run the engine maker's own installer, as they publish it.
- In Angelo, open the engine list. The engine appears under its own name, with Installed, not on in Angelo yet: choose it to set it up. It appears without a restart.
- Choose it. That click is your consent: Angelo links the add-on into its own add-ons folder (so the maker's updates and uninstaller still apply), turns it on, keeps it on, and makes it the scene's engine. An add-on that turns out to add no render engine is turned off again.
- If the engine needs a licence from its maker, a card in the corner walks you through it: Sign in to the maker opens their own sign-in window, and Use the free edition appears where the maker has one. When it says the engine is ready, F12 and render jobs use it.
Angelo never asks for or sees your account details: the buttons run the maker's own sign-in. If the maker's sign-in service isn't answering, the card says so, with Retry and, where Angelo can, Restart it. Today the sign-in card knows V-Ray; other engines are ready as soon as they are on. A set-up engine stays turned on in Angelo's preferences.
An installed engine has its own settings and materials. V-Ray renders many of Blender's material nodes, but not all of them, so compare with an EEVEE or Cycles render before you trust a result, and use V-Ray's own material conversion for production.
The agent and other engines#
The agent can switch between EEVEE and Cycles like any other scene setting. An installed engine runs its maker's code, so the agent treats it as add-on code:
- Even in Auto, setting the scene to an installed engine asks you first.
- A render with it needs your approval, as every agent render does, and the approval card names the engine as add-on code.
- Angelo never starts an installed engine in its windowless background processes, because some engines quit when they have no window. The agent renders with one from a chat in Angelo's window.
Setting an engine up is always your own click in the engine list; the agent never does it for you.