This has been work in progress for a long time. Well over 2 years, but probably 5 years since the project was first planned.
There are lots of ways that the SketchUp project has pushed Kray development forward. Presets and physical sky are just 2 things but I think there are more. Tonemapping for physical sky, per-material AA settings, and more options for the render status bar I think are 3 more.
Some of these things had been requested before or were part of Grzegorz's plans, and our requests just pushed them up the priority list. I don't know how many, if any were original requests.
Podium doesn't have any of Kray's UI flexibility, and not all the features. It is intended to be high quality rendering (with Kray's power) for beginners. All the render parameters can be configured in the presets.
I think it will be a good thing for you (Lightwave) guys. Anything which raises Kray's profile is good in my opinion. It is a fantastic engine and the more people that know about it the better.
Of course you guys are the real professionals, and your work
should always be higher quality.
Sepo's images are with the very first beta of Podium with an incomplete UI. His renders are true 'one click' renders. We have quite a way to catch up, but eventually hope to keep chasing you in terms of quality, pushing you to get better and hopefully learning from you all the time. We hope to be almost like Kray's somewhat less talented younger brother!
If any of you are prepared to help out with advice, criticism and guidance, whether here or on our own forum we would really appreciate it. I have already learned a lot from everyone's generosity in sharing their settings. You have a great community with some fantastically talented people and I would like to thank everyone very much for their time and assistance.
We are all part of the wider Kray community after all and we want our engine to be known for fantastic quality.
Thanks again to everyone, and I hope you will still help out some more!