Expert: Andre Hickman - 2/6/2008

Question
Hello André,

In a previous post you informed about the misconception about a videocard is going to do something to speed up rendering or give a better render. To speed up rendering, you need to max out your RAM and processor speed.
Besides that you informed that the video card is really only for viewing in software.

That's the end of my summary. Thanks for the information. I have some additional questions for options of server based computing (and rendering) with (kitchen) design software.

I have a windows lan with about 50 thinclients and estimate of 20 concurrent users. My goal is to let them connect via terminal server session to a central application server with only the design application on it. The design application manufacturer has limited experience with a server based computing concept but advises 250mb RAM for each user so in total i should need > 8GB RAM on the server.

Can you advise - besides processorpower - what is important for the option of server based computing and rendering with a design application?

Thanks and best regards, Jeroen

Answer
I am not completely sure of that answer, because I am not that familiar with use on a server.  I will say this though, if those 50 thin clients are actually individual server machines that are networked together by cat5 or a similar networking, then you may be in business.

I can't remember what software that you are trying to render on, but what you can do, if the software is able is to set up what is called a "Render Farm." Let's use 3DS max for instance, included with the program is a set of additional executables that they now call backburner. In essence it is comprised of a server manager, a client, and a monitoring program...What you do is install a copy of 3DS max on ALL machines that you intend to use in the render farm, including additional plugins and addons.  Then you run the manager program on one machine, and the server client program on all other machines (and the manager machine as well).  Then on your work machine, when you render, you can opt for a network render.

What will happen is the manager will assign a frame to each machine in the render farm, and when the machine is finished, the manager will assign the next needed frame.  All frames will be saved in one location on the network, as all computers will be working together on the same render (of course with this method you have to render to a sequence of frames, and cannot render as a quicktime movie or .avi file directly. Once all frames are rendered, then you can compile them into a movie file.) You may also be able to assign a certain subset of the client machines to be rendering one sequence, while another subset is rendering a different sequence.

In essence, the more machines that you have, that is the power of speed you can render an animation.  For example, if you have a 100 frame sequence, and each frame takes 5 minutes to render, that sequence is going to take about 500 minutes to render (about 8.33 hours)...However if you have a render farm of 50 machines with the same processing speed, then that 500 is divided by the 50 machines working at the same time, so to render the sequence it would only take about 10 minutes...

I hope this helps, if you have any other questions, just ask.  If it is a specific software, you may try to do a google or yahoo search on "how to network render using ______" or "how to set up a render farm using _______"

Cheers,
Andre'