rendering without running windows OS

[csprance]

any links at all

[pixelmonk]

Hey the windows OS takes up so much memory, memory that could be used to render frames much faster. Is there a way to boot up the computer without using windows OS and render from the command prompt? I am pretty sure there is a way because I've heard of it before. Also hwo do I go about starting up only a command prompt using windows xp MCE

Also
Is using MSDOS better than using linux to render or which way would you say is best.

Thanks Alot
Chris Sprance

XP doesn't take up much memory. You can turn off loads of services which aren't needed and probably drop it down to about 94MB (yes.. I've done that before). You can then render via a commandline window, which is faster than loading up Maya and rendering from there (while in Windows). If you still feel you don't have enough memory, you may want to actually invest in your workstation and buy more. I always recommend 2GB+ for anyone doing this kinda work. 1GB is useable, but for larger scenes and larger textures it's better to have more.

Lastly, memory isn't the only consideration factored into having frames render faster and sometimes isn't even a factor depending on how much you have and what your scene construction is like. A faster CPU definitely is key. Also, any other programs running at the same time steals CPU cycles. A fragmented harddrive can lead to piss poor performance during the intial translation/loading of the scene. So keep your HDDs defragged, even through your porn binges. Lastly, your scene construction and render settings play a HUGE role in speed. Dial up the right settings for lights, reflections, samples, etc. and tweak your render settings panel for your desired renderer. Once I shaved off 5 minutes per frame just by going back in and turning down Shadow Rays for a single spotlight.

[Lorecanth]

err the answer isn't to fiddle with windows xp... Really you should start thinking about either

1. Killing every user process you have.
2. Rendering your scene in Passes
3. Getting maya 8 64 bit running on XP64 and increasing your RAM to 4 to 16 GB
4. Switching to Linux, a 64 bit distro, and increasing your RAM 4 to 16 GB

Windows XP isn't bad despite what everyone says. I use it OSX and redhat every day. Best tool for the best job and for small house, student, and freelancers xp works.

Oh and for god sake use memory mapped textures.

[epithius]

You might want to consider running a live Linux CD like dreamlinux or suse or what have you (sorry I'm not really a linux person).

From there, you can just render from the command line. I'm assuming you can place Maya on a flash drive or on a fat32 hdd that linux can read (i'm assuming there still isn't good NTFS support in linux)

I noticed that testing maya 6.5 linux proved to yield interesting results. The exact same hardware was able to render frames in 1min 10secs vs 1min 30secs in windows.

After rendering about 1200 frames, the time savings really added up.

Cheers,
Bill

[csprance]

Thanks alot guys going to check out a couple different versions of linux see which one works best and than I'll post back up on here se ehow much time i save. Anynone have any tuts on rendering from Command line lying around,

Thanks
Chris Sprance

[csprance]

Ehh I made the Jump to xp x64 version and maya 8 64 bit noticing some pretty good improvements in rendering time. It's a real pain in the arse to get all the drivers and it took me all day to figure out my wireless lan. Thanks guys

Csprance

[victor]

There is no DOS in Windows XP (cmd.exe is not DOS), so there is no command prompt only startup.

Just buy more RAM.

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