future of Flame

#1

Okay-- these are RUMORS, but word on the street is that Flame may be coming to Linux. It would probably be optimized for the SGI Prism (or other SGI Itanium-based computer).

One of the hang-ups about porting to Linux has been disk through-put. Another point-- Discreet was hesitant to introduce Flame on Linux because the OpenGL performance on most Nvidia and ATI cards has been limited to 8 bits per color. The new FX4000 and FX4400 can both operate at 12 bits per color, reportedly.

maybe SGI should re-invent IRIX just like Apple did with OS X, and definately port it over to x86. would hate to see SGI become just another PC vendor… reinventing IRIX and being supported by Discreet (and their own Maya) would be a great way to keep them running strong IMHO. Otherwise maybe Discreet should look to Solaris to continue with a rock-solid Unix.

Again-- these are all rumors and opinions, just want to see if anyone here has any additional info or ideas about this.

#2

sgi has no resources anymore to even maintain irix, let alone re-write parts of it. it doesn’t need to be reinvented, it’s a very well rounded OS. but they seem to have decided years ago (around '99) that the wave of the future has to be linux/itanium and so shall it be. the mips roadmap ends in 2006 or so i think. these days they do everything they can to get you to move from irix/mips to their new ia64-based offerings.

sgi seems to be coming out with a new workstation line codenamed dorado. that might be the kind of box, flame and the other highend stuff is heading to.

#3

Ummm they are already offering Flint, Smoke, and Lustre (i believe are all available) on Linux. They are also currently evaluating the Prism for Inferno and Fire. So looking to put Flame on it too is a natural move on their part.

reinventing IRIX and being supported by Discreet (and their own Maya) would be a great way to keep them running strong IMHO.

Alias is no longer owned by SGI it was sold off last year to a private investment firm. So my guess is they could care less about the state of Maya.

-Eric

#4

sheesh— that was pretty quiet, I never heard anything about that. :shrug:

also, yeah “flinux” and smoke SD are on linux now, but they are a completely different breed than their SGI HD counterparts, let alone Flame. Flinux is 8 bit, SD only.

#5

Yeah, it was bought by Accel-KKR (an investment firm) and the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan!

#6

well i’m pretty sure that selling Maya must’ve made them a few pennies, so I would put many of those pennies into re-inventing IRIX and try to get Autodesk to continue to support it. If they just drop Irix, it would be the same paradigm as Apple putting OS X out for x86-- the second they do that, they’re just an overpriced hardware vendor…

I think Sun is doing that right thing now-- making really killer linux stations and the Java Desktop to run Linux or Solaris, and they’ve ported Solaris over to the x86 machines. Right now there aren’t alot of VFX/Compositing apps on Solaris, but it’s a very solid Unix on x86… a great platform besides the lack of support…

#7

You are not up to date anymore :slight_smile:

-k

#8

ah-ha ! thanks for the update ! :bounce:

looks like 9.2 is HD on linux
but it doesn’t say what bitrate on the brochure. maybe it can software render at 12bit ?

#9

I’m sure its only 8 Bit I/O. As for software renders… I don’t know. But an 8Bit limit here would really just be a “virtual limitation” for marketing purposes. Quite annoying though…

-k

#10

yeah, i hope they get Flame up to Float (as software render) and Flint to 12 bit i/o. :drool: That way you could do film work on Flinux. :applause:

#11

Flame on linux isn’t a rumor. They have been showing it off for a couple years now at NAB.

Also if you want float, look at Toxik on linux.

#12

I think the sale was only for 40-60 million. Pretty small compared to the price the originally bought them for(500 million). Also people don’t realize that the entertainment biz, even back in 95-96 when it was huge on Sgi, was only 10% of their business. Now these days it is barely 1%. Why would sgi waste time trying to support us. Even back in the day, they only did it for the press. Government subcontractors, scientists and supercomputers is where all their money is.

Solaris has been on x86 for over 10-12 years. Also Sun has tried a few times in the past to try to woo developers to the platform, but the users just weren’t there. I remember siggraph 97-98 I think, where they got Nendo, EI, Alias Studio and a few other apps ported over. No one wanted to jump on the bandwagon.

Also there is very little support for stuff like video capture cards and 3d accelerators on solaris x86(no nvidia drivers). The only other option is the very over priced and underperforming custom cards that sun makes themselves. Might as well buy an Sgi at that price, atleast it has support for the apps. Linux didn’t even take off with 3d apps untill nvidia started making drivers for it.

#13

definately right-- nvidia supports free BSD unix, which is pretty close… i’d bet someone from Sun could compile an .rpm pretty quickly if allowed by nvidia.

also, have you heard about Janus ? http://www.sun.com/2004-0803/feature/
you can run linux apps in Solaris 10 now. i want to test it with Shake.

#14

Yes I have, but why bother. Thats the same as trying an app on a mac under virtual pc. Also Shake needs opengl to run it’s gui. If you don’t have any 3d accelerated drivers for Solaris, whats the point?

Do you really enjoy spending all your time configuring computers rather than actually using the software? I still use linux, but I also have a mac because I just want something that works without having to futz with anything.

#15

You totally busted me-- have had my head up my a** for the past 2 weeks in configuration mode due to some problems with various linux distros. shouldn’t be posting when I’m geeking-out so much :scream:

#16

Flame on Linux will be fantastic. The supported computers will utilize the PCI Express x16 4-Lane architecture designed by Intel. PCI Express is leaps and bounds ahead of PCI-X. PCI-E supports 8 GIGABYTES of bi-directional bandwidth. There are some vendors preparing to release SD/HD 12-BIT 4:4:4 and CINEON 2K hardware for real-time capture and film -> HD/SD conversion. It will be amazing and nothing to laugh about.

#17

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