PDA

View Full Version : Using Massive with a RMan compatible renderer

mixermanic
08-16-2005, 12:20 AM
Think my PC crashed when I submitted the last post, so apologies if this shows up twice, but couldn't find it last time I looked...!

We are upgrading our rendering pipeline this Summer, and will also be buying Massive (or more likely, Massive Jet :) ).

Our main production software is Maya on Windows (which will also be upgraded to 7 shortly).

So, we are looking for a rendering solution that will preferably encompass both. At the moment the options we have been looking at are PRman and 3delight.

If we go for PRman, is it possible for Massive to export natively .rib files which we can then bring to Windows to render using PRman Pro Server? I know the cross-platform fee isn't much, but we've spent so much lately that any saving we can make we will... Add to that out renderfarm is Win based.

Rather than get a Win and Linux version of a renderer, we would rather use just the one... Massive is the only Linux based software we will be using, and will have it's own dedicated workstation.

Thanks,

Martin
playmesumch00ns
08-16-2005, 09:11 AM
afaik Massive just exports RIB files for you to render in the renderer of your choice. There's no platform dependency here (although I'm not sure how prman on windows handles unix-style paths), so there should be no problems moving the rendering to windows.

The only issue will be making sure your directory structure is mirrored between your linux and windows filesystems. So if Massive exports a rib with a texture path of /data/textures/soldiers/helmet_01_diffuse.tex, there will be a matching path to the same texture on your windows filesystem. In essence this will probably mean storing all your data on your windows network and mounting it on linux using samba or something.
mixermanic
08-16-2005, 02:31 PM
afaik Massive just exports RIB files for you to render in the renderer of your choice.

OK that's great. Thanks.

The only issue will be making sure your directory structure is mirrored between your linux and windows filesystems.

All assets are stored on a central server, so hopefully it won't be too much of a problem...

Thanks,

M
rendermaniac
08-18-2005, 11:53 PM
afaik Massive just exports RIB files for you to render in the renderer of your choice. There's no platform dependency here (although I'm not sure how prman on windows handles unix-style paths), so there should be no problems moving the rendering to windows.

The only issue will be making sure your directory structure is mirrored between your linux and windows filesystems. So if Massive exports a rib with a texture path of /data/textures/soldiers/helmet_01_diffuse.tex, there will be a matching path to the same texture on your windows filesystem. In essence this will probably mean storing all your data on your windows network and mounting it on linux using samba or something.

We get around this by having a mount on Linux called /data/ and on Windows there is a virtual machine called data. So using UNC on Windows this ends up being //data/ - Most applications on Linux ignore the extra slash (the major exception being Shake...) - and Windows can handle forward slashes so they are effectivly the same.

Simon
CGTalk Moderation
08-18-2005, 11:53 PM
This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.