Does anybody know if it is possible to use several macs in a network environment... as multiprocessor workstation, is it possible to speed up renderings etc..?
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multi processer use
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As far as I'm aware you can do, but only on software that supports network rendering......... I think one of the guys I used to teach used to network render in Lightwave..... but I could be wrong......
Not much help I know..... but someone around here will have the answer......
Not much help I know..... but someone around here will have the answer......
as in a cluster?
like using pooch?
http://www.daugerresearch.com/pooch/whatis.html
go have a look - should at least provide some ideas, if not answers
like using pooch?
http://www.daugerresearch.com/pooch/whatis.html
go have a look - should at least provide some ideas, if not answers
Lightwave has an option - and I use it myself, called ScreamerNet, its another application LSWN in the programs folder - but the nice thing about it is that if you have the most current version you can do a cross platform render - PC and Macs. The only requirements are that all the files and plugins required for the animation are on, can be seen on a network for each machine, you don't need to have the software installed.
D
D
i must say that network rendering is one of the coolest technologies, especially network related.
my school just got maya set up with several possible network rendering groups... ie, sets of the various machines that are available.... the idea of having 15 computers render my animation automatically with a drop down menu is amazing to me....
my school just got maya set up with several possible network rendering groups... ie, sets of the various machines that are available.... the idea of having 15 computers render my animation automatically with a drop down menu is amazing to me....
lightwave isn't that clean and simple, but I hope the next version improves it a bit - i wouldn't mind the autosensing of the networked machines and just selecting it as an option would be great.
as it is, a little extra work is still worth it.
D
well i'm not sure exactly how it works here.. but the techie folks have basically set up a few subsets... e.g. "computers in room x", "computers in room y", "all"... etc
so if there's a class in one of the rooms it's avoided, and whatnot.
should improve render times dramatically.
so if there's a class in one of the rooms it's avoided, and whatnot.
should improve render times dramatically.
that's an understatement - I rendered a 900 frame animation for work over the weekend - at one point because of the complexity of the models in the scene (terrain data) and the effects I had to use it was taking over 40 minutes for one frame. Over all it took just under 100 hours on both machines to finish - having it take 200 hours using just one machine would have killed me. 9 days of rendering, ugh! Its one of the reasons why I'm waiting for the next gen of Macs - the top of the line machine now will only give me a 5x increase in power, which would have given me something around 35 hrs on two machines for this animation. If there is a significant jump in speed/processing/thru-put data rate then I'll be able to get 10x, 20x who knows. Then my animations run over night.
But I've said it before, I won't be satisfied with a computer until I can get real time radiosity at hi res. That's not any time soon.
D
Cinema 4D also uses network render on multiplatform basis but its usefull only for animations cause each machine renders one entire frame , isnt possible yet to render a single frame using multiple cpus ( it will be usefull for complex radiosity and global illumination scenes)
hey duke have u seen this article on real time radiosity? it worth a look:
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/programming/features/rtradiosity/
hey duke have u seen this article on real time radiosity? it worth a look:
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/programming/features/rtradiosity/
lightwave uses a version of radiosity mapping - rending a light value for all the surfaces and then throwing it back into the animation - basically doing the calculation once for all the frames in the animation. And this works great, really reducing the rendering time.
There is only one really big problem with that - it doesn't work if your light sources move.
You move a light source and your radiosity map no longer reflects light correctly.
So you can use it for some things, but not everything.
And then you still need to render the images - so it might take days for an animation to render even with this optimization.
Good article though, thanks for the link.
D
There is only one really big problem with that - it doesn't work if your light sources move.
You move a light source and your radiosity map no longer reflects light correctly.
So you can use it for some things, but not everything.
And then you still need to render the images - so it might take days for an animation to render even with this optimization.
Good article though, thanks for the link.
D
Only 5x. That's funny that's like saying only 5 million dollars. My oppionion is upgrade whenever you can. You can wait for the next greatest thing forever. If they release the G5 next July there will probably be a revision the following January that would make better use of the G5 and make it faster then in another 6months to a year you could get the rev.2 G5 and then.....
I hope you see my point it's just useless to wait for the next computer because the current one is only 5x faster. I just made the jump and let me tell you that 5x seems more like 500x.
bryce 5
Bryce 5 has network rendering built-in, but it's buggy. You need the client installed and launched on each computer that you want to help the render process. I set it up at work on 10 machines (233Mhz iMac->QS G4/733) to help render a 10 second, 24fps, 600X200, 240 frame movie. Took a while to get all of the machines booted, software installed and running before I could get going, but the first run on the render was amazing, running at about 6-7 times faster than on just 1 Mac. Unfortunately, then it all went boom, none of the clients would be recognized. I had shut down and reboot every mac in order to run another rendering. Geez, Maya sounds like a breeze.......and hey, it's just Bryce anyway.
Bryce 5 has network rendering built-in, but it's buggy. You need the client installed and launched on each computer that you want to help the render process. I set it up at work on 10 machines (233Mhz iMac->QS G4/733) to help render a 10 second, 24fps, 600X200, 240 frame movie. Took a while to get all of the machines booted, software installed and running before I could get going, but the first run on the render was amazing, running at about 6-7 times faster than on just 1 Mac. Unfortunately, then it all went boom, none of the clients would be recognized. I had shut down and reboot every mac in order to run another rendering. Geez, Maya sounds like a breeze.......and hey, it's just Bryce anyway.
well it's not maya that has the drop down things... i mean, it goes through another application called "muster".... and it all has to be set up by some nerds before a graphics dude like me can use it easily
but yeah, give bryce another revision and the problems should be lessened....
but yeah, give bryce another revision and the problems should be lessened....