Rendering Hardware discussion thread

[Wiregeek]

So I have a question for Mark Skarr - what are you using for render hardware? Does your software support render farms or offloading?
I'm hesitant to link to it, but there's a thread over on HardOCP about a gentleman's render farm, and between that and your CG work for DW V, I has a curious.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Mark Skarr]

I've got a Gateway FX6840-03e (so does MonkeyFist); it's an i7 with 8 gigs of DDR3).  It does support render farms and offloading, but I don't have one set up.  I've tried, once, to off-load some render threads to his computer, but, it wen't pear-shaped (Here is the finished render, just off of mine.)  Bruno, from the Steve Jackson Boards thinks that the problem was the read/write privileges.  I haven’t tried recently (he’s been busy on his computer).
The rendering engine I use is Lux Renderer.  The difference between the built-in rendering engine and Lux is night and day.

[Wiregeek]

You can't really beat onboard rendering in that setup, not without getting exotic, alas.

http://helmer.sfe.se/

Helmer is exotic.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1522253

Dashcat is absurd.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Mark Skarr]

Wow. 
Lux isn't as RAM-intensive as it is processor intensive.  I'm not a big Linux fan (nightmares of when it first came out and we couldn't make it do anything), but I understand that it can work magic. 
I've considered, if/when I ever have more disposable income, that I might build a render-farm with some low-price quad-cores, but since I'm just doing this as a hobby, I don't know if I can justify it.

[Wiregeek]

Yeah, the problem is that you'd have to have (back of the envelope calculations) at least 16 cores of core-2-duo or equivalent to even compare to your current rendering rig.

and I can't get a pair of cores online for less than $200... gets spendy quick
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Mark Skarr]

Exactly.  Hence, why I haven't done it.  Now, if this were a job, that would be different.  But, then I'd have to buy everything all over again, so I'd be looking at a $50k outlay at least just to get started.  And I don't actually do modeling (I lack the skill for it).
I just reinstalled LuxConsole on MF's computer and have begun exporting samples to it as well (fundamentally doubling my rendering power).  But, it's still a slow process.

[Star Ranger4]

Huh. I am totally lost now... all I can say is that I've always used blenders Internal render engine. Wouldnt really have much of a clue how to even convince a render farm to handle it, but I know it CAN be done, witness: Elephant's Dream, Big Buck Bunny, and Sintel; so its a lack of personal knowledge/experience rather than a lack of native ability within blender.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[Mark Skarr]

Well, they do make a Lux version for Blender.  And Lux takes all the guesswork out of setting up a network rendering system.
For Windows:
Install Lux on external computer.
Set read/write privilages for that directory to full.
Launch Luxconsole with -s.
Note your IP Address.
Go back to main computer.
Switch to Network tab.
Enter IP Address.
Go to work.

[paladindythe]

Do you have a modern (discrete) graphics card you can offload some of the work onto?

[Star Ranger4]

Discrete card Yes. Modern? not really, it wasnt near top of the line when I got it and that was a good 2-3 years ago. Also my system is so old it only has PCI bus with 3 slots to handle Graphics sound and networking. Gets intersting when playing CoX and a lot of stuff goes off at once.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[Mark Skarr]

Lux actually has a way to do that for Open-CL cards.  Which both MF and I have (ATI Radeon HD 5770s).  His isn't running that version (because it's doing it via network).

[paladindythe]

It's a few months away still, but AMDs new processor--codenamed Bulldozer--should rock things like this. It's not going to be out for a few months (heck the forward compatible motherboards still aren't quite out). It'll be interesting to see the 'playing field' for this holiday season. And after a bit of research, Intel's Sandybridge processors don't support Open-CL on the on-chip GPU. Sad panda.  
edit: Here's the news leak. It seems that the performance of the new processor will be VERY application specific.
  

[Black Aeronaut]

Eh. Intel's always been good at throwing money at problems. AMD is good at figuring shit out.

[Mark Skarr]

I'm not a fan of AMD.  I've had a lot of bad experiences with them in the past.  However, I'm actually looking at putting a server together for running a Minecraft multiplayer server.  That means the best way to do it is with AMD chips running Linux.  I'm likely to burst into flames if we get this working.

[Black Aeronaut]

*Shruggs* Dunno why some people have so much trouble with AMD stuff. Thing is, though... Did you know that Intel used to buy their way into having hardware vendors make their products to be compatible only with Intel products? Truth - check out the Wikipedia article on the court case. This is probably why you had trouble with AMD in the past. Up until a few years ago, a lot of motherboards and memory were designed only with Intel chips in mind. I wouldn't be surprised if, to add insult to injury, stuff that was billed as AMD compatible wasn't.

[Black Aeronaut]

Disregard this - Yuku is screwing with me.

[Mark Skarr]

It's just me.  I built an AMD computer for MonkeyFist, years ago, that worked great.  Unless I was using it.  I'm not AMD-compatible.

[robkelk]

It's a few months away still,

The chips that are "a few months away" will always be better than the chips that are available now. The problem is, you can't use the chips that are "a few months away" to do work now...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[paladindythe]

It's a few months away still,

The chips that are "a few months away" will always be better than the chips that are available now. The problem is, you can't use the chips that are "a few months away" to do work now...

Well, AMD's last product (the Phenom II) couldn't compete with Intel's Core i5 and i7 processors, even though it came out later, so that hasn't been true for AMD. :/
The important point is that the AM3+ motherboards are coming out in a couple of weeks. These can use both the current (Athalon II & Phenom II) processors as well as the new ones coming in the fall. Had these motherboards been out in February they would have sold well with Intel's Sandybridge chipset SATA issue, but AMD (apparently) couldn't push ahead the schedule. If you were buying right now, I'd go for the Sandybridge i7s for raw power.
  

[Wiregeek]

It's just me. I built an AMD computer for MonkeyFist, years ago, that worked great. Unless I was using it. I'm not AMD-compatible.

I had a friend who was not ownership-compatible..

I lent him a computer. two years later, it's still running great, I told him that I didn't want it back, it was stone dead inside of two weeks.

same thing happened with his car. He paid it off, got the title in his name, it ran great.. two weeks later, it's as dead as disco.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies