Unlike the majority of 3D software, K-3D makes a clean distinction between the editing system and the back-end render system used to create output images. Users are able to pick-and-choose render engines for the job-at-hand, and developers can integrate K-3D with a wide variety of rendering technologies. This affects the user interface in that K-3D does not have one-size-fits-all Material or Light nodes, because the features of different render engines vary widely.