Warren, It's not anything I had ever looked into, or needed, but thanks for the view into the heavy duty rendering field. mark Warren Young wrote: > Scott Ehrlich wrote: >> I received at least one email suggesting a Windows-based rendering >> farm - likely to consist of a few rack systems all running 64-bit >> Windows. I read an article on Tomshardware which gave some decent >> insight. What can list participants offer on this concept? > > Well, since you've asked in a Linux forum, let's discuss Linux-based > render farms instead, okay? > > (If not okay, kindly take your question somewhere else. Thank you. :) ) > > It comes down to whether the rendering app has a Linux version. > > This is more common than you (or those emailing you) might think. Many > companies with Windows or Mac-only GUI tools offer command-line Linux > versions specifically for use in render farms. Such versions are not > always advertised; it may only be available to select customers, on request. > > If your client is a VFX studio with many seats of the GUI version of the > VFX tool in question, it'll be a lot easier to get access to such tools > than if you're a lone gun. > >> I don't care _how_ the resource is implemented - virtual machine, >> cluster, etc. > > Generally you let the tool itself tell you how the implement the farm. > Often such programs are built with a proprietary networking protocol > that distributes the work for you, and has certain assumptions about the > system architecture built into it. > > Sometimes it's possible to buy third-party farm management software that > works better than the first-party offering. > > Either way, you don't decide on the architecture before studying the > existing tools. > >> Just provide links/resources to >> help me get better educated. > > Ask the vendors of the tools in question. They will have documentation. > >> If it makes most sense to migrate the money from a single desktop to a >> transparently available farm that does the same job the desktop could >> have done, and considering the farm is expandable, then I'm all for >> it, as would be the money people! > > In my limited VFX experience, render farms are never transparent. At > bare minimum, expect the "render on farm" command in the program to be > different from the "render locally" command, and for it to work > differently in key ways. You're not likely to get the same visual > progress indications when rendering to the farm as when you render locally. > > It's not uncommon for the entire render setup process to be up to the > individual artist, at least with the in-box render farm support. This > is one big reason why the third-party farm management software market > exists. > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS@xxxxxxxxxx > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos > -- PNAC (Project for a New American Century) - the most dangerous ideology since National Socialism _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@xxxxxxxxxx http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos