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03/30/2006 12:33:46 PM · #1
I have been playing around with bryce, maya and other 3D grafics programs. I have pretty much a top of the line PC. It is still not powerfull enough to render the huge scenes with any speed. Is there a was to network multiple PC's processing abilities together to power the software? I assume that Pixar and other movie companies would have to do somthing of the sorts to animate their graphics. Any one have any idias on this one.
03/30/2006 12:36:47 PM · #2
Its called a Beowulf Cluster and the OS used is Linux. I dont think there is such an animal for windows as you would need access to the OS source code.
03/30/2006 12:39:47 PM · #3
short answer is yes

long answer is no - not unless you pay for the licenses for each cpu & have the grid/load sharing software to run it on and you have to have the version of software that works in the load share envronment ..

further - windows (IME) does not work well in a load sharing environment
(at my work we are running a solaris/linux mixed grid )

03/30/2006 04:57:32 PM · #4
You said you had a top of the line PC. Do you have an excellent graphics card and a ton of memory? A fast disk (SCSI RAID, fast rotational speed and big buffer....)? Tried to configure your swap file and the graphics program temporary memory on different disks than your source? Set up the Windows parameters correctly? .....
03/30/2006 05:54:07 PM · #5
its built into Maya an I think the latest versions of 3DsMax to, you set up one computer as maya server (full version of Maya) and all other computers on the network with the render part (read instructions) then when you render you simply choose to render on the network, start the rendering on the computer that is set up as the server, and it automatically connects to other computers that have Maya running and uses all available processing power on those computers and gathers the info to make a complete project.

this is also possible with 3DsMax and probably Bryce..

this is the easiest solution, you don't have to set the computers up just for this, only install the part of maya needed and make sure the computer accepts incoming connections (no firewalls)

and you can always get Renderman and set up a cluster ;)


03/30/2006 06:22:45 PM · #6
Originally posted by thegrandwazoo:

Its called a Beowulf Cluster and the OS used is Linux. I dont think there is such an animal for windows as you would need access to the OS source code.


Actually, that's incorrect. That's still only a single multi-processor machine and not a network renderer.

But to answer the question, yes...you can. But you usually need several licenses. If I recall correctly, the latest version of Bryce supports network rendering. But I could be wrong, that may of been a feature Corel didn't finish before selling it off.

Message edited by author 2006-03-30 18:23:36.
03/30/2006 06:25:55 PM · #7
Bryce Lightning 2.0

This new version of the network render application, Bryce Lightning, utilizes advanced image compression for improved rendering over either a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN).
03/30/2006 06:46:12 PM · #8
Originally posted by theSaj:

Originally posted by thegrandwazoo:

Its called a Beowulf Cluster and the OS used is Linux. I dont think there is such an animal for windows as you would need access to the OS source code.


Actually, that's incorrect. That's still only a single multi-processor machine and not a network renderer.

But to answer the question, yes...you can. But you usually need several licenses. If I recall correctly, the latest version of Bryce supports network rendering. But I could be wrong, that may of been a feature Corel didn't finish before selling it off.


Sorry you are wrong Saj!

What is a Beowulf Cluster?
Essentially, any group of Linux machines dedicated to a single purpose can be called a cluster. To be called a Beowulf cluster, all you need is a central node that does some coordination (Ie, technically an IP Masq'ed network fits loosely into the Beowulf definition given by the beowulf mailing list.)

Extreme Linux
Booting Up
Written by Martin Streicher
Sunday, 15 June 2003
In the past several months, a good number of corporate, government, academic, and research institutions -- Pixar, the Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Shell E&P, and others -- have announced the installation of substantial, high performance Linux computing clusters. In the case of LLNL, for example, the largest of its three new clusters (built by Linux Networx) is composed of 252 Pentium 4 processors, capable of a theoretical peak of 857 gigaflops, making it one of the fastest clusters ever built.

In the case of PIXAR, a 1,024-processor blade cluster (using 2.8 GHz Xeons) from RackSaver is replacing the company's existing Sparc-based render farm.



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