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.
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