CGTalk - Network rendering faster?

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ephex

08-29-2003, 04:19 AM

i hear that you hook up or network couple of computers or even 2 togther, your scenes will render much faster, and also i thnk they use this option in big companies, for their big project. i just wanted to know that what im hearing is true, and how can it be done, and how fast would it be.
ex. if you have 2 pcs, using the network render, will the rendering time be twice the speed? how can i do this in xsi.

JDex

08-29-2003, 04:35 AM

Well yes, what you have heard is right... it will render exponentially faster based upon the number of cpu's running the rendering software. You first setup the network of multiple computers, then buy and install a copy of mental ray on each computer then follow the detailed instructions included with XSI to make a distributed render.

It is really not difficult (so I hear) to do, it is just difficult to afford.

Atyss

08-29-2003, 06:59 AM

The main factor in that efficiency is the overall network performance. There are a couple of factors in that:

1- Hardware. Of course, you have to have good and reliable hardware. Also, identical hardware on each machine helps.

2- OS. If you have various OSes, like some W2K, WXP, Linux and so on, you run the risk of having problem handling the network rendering. The best way solution is to have the same OS on every machine, with the same updates and so on.

3- The type of data you are trying to render. Particles, final gathering and .map files do like to be networked, wich are important aspects of XSI. Of course you can manage to network these things, but just be aware that it will require a little extra care from you.

There could be other factors as well.

Cheers
Bernard

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