Shelton

Some finally thoughts on netrender. It is an awesome piece of software. I can not imagine how long it would have taken on one machine to render this project. Some things that really bothered me were the rendering times of machines. My workstation that I use to model and animate is an I7 3.2 4 core machine. When it finally got to rendering files it was slower than Core2 Duo Extreme processor QX9650 running at 3. In fact it was only the third fastest machine in the render pool. The core 2 duo E 8400 beat the I7 machine in times by 3-5 secs per render. Also all of the Core2 Duo machines outperformed all of the AMD processors by almost 2 to 1. I put a Pentium D Dual core 3.0 with 6 gigs of ram running Vista 64 and it out ran all of the AMD machines except for one. The only AMD processor that kept up with the Core 2 Duo machines was the AMD 1090T 6 core processor. It was in 4 place by only 8 seconds per frame. In some frames it was the fastest computer in the pool. But overall time it was fourth. What have I learned? Patience Timing of inserting the machine into the pool is critical. If a machine is placed in the pool while a great deal of traffic from netrender is going on then that machine may take a great deal of time to load the project or crash all together. When the pool has more than 25 cores net render server seems to have issues when new machines are introduced. Fastest switch you can buy is needed. Keeps the collisions of the netrender traffic. Patience Some machines no matter what I did in preparing and setting up the network would not load in netrender. I still had 5 machines that I did not use in the rendering process. Take a little extra time to review settings before starting. Even though you can modify the project in the pool, its better to make sure you got it right before you enter machines. Review the out come of frames while the rendering is going on. Patience I caught myself just watching the machines render, staring at the screen of netrender. With all of that some what negative comments I want to say, I love the program. I believe it is essential for AM's future. Steve

Hi Paul, Will have the renderings shortly. We ran into a little snag. So bear with me a couple of days. This project has generated renewed interest and passion for future projects. I started pulling out old stuff and thinking if I tweak a little hear and there.... Anyway thanks for letting us participate in this project. Looking forward to seeing what everyone has put together. Steve

I have found on microsoft's tech site that the AMD bulldozer technology broke somethings in Win7. There are several patches available off the amd website or microsofts site. It helps with the multiple cores and timing out issues. I hope this was what was causing issues with render slaves as it seemed the machine would just simply quit working. Steve

First half completed. Only one machine gave me difficulties during the render, 8 core. Anyway will begin moving data off the render network and start tomorrow on the second half

I have a Dell 24 port managed switch and have found that it is not as critical in a rendering situation where each frame takes a great deal of time to have a gig switch. Render server is not as taxed in this scenerio. But for those projects and rendering where the frames are around 2 minutes or less to render, it is very critical to have the fastest switch you can get! When you have more than 20 cores render server can really get bogged down sending the file information to the slaves when they are rendering each frame quickly. Escpecially if you have render slaves running on the machine that is hosting render server, which I do. That machine is a 6 core amd 1090t with 32 gig of ram and it has trouble in that situation. What would be nice under the license if render server could be place on a machine designed to host render server alone. Anyway my thoughts on that. What I have found in this render is that the AMD machines are being killed by the Intel machines. In fact, one machine I decided to throw into the pool is an older Core 2Duo E 8400 3.0 ghz with 8 gig of ram and it out performs any of my other machines i7, fx 8150 bulldozer (8 cores). It is rendering 1.75 frames per every 1 frame of a 3.6 8150 amdfx machine. The i7 is closer. I may be way off but a machine with more than four cores is struggles to keep up with a dual core machine. I wonder if render slave is not optimized for multiple cores such as the amd 1090t (6 cores) or amd 8150 (8 cores). Also some of the four core machines that have 16 gig of ram will have two cores running well and 2 cores that are struggling. Just somethings I noticed. Will keep you updated.

Robert I will get all the machines into the netrender que and then get a screen shot Steve

I have a total of 84 cores available. All the machines are decent machines to full blown gaming machines to dell precision workstations. I have learned a lot and will pass on some issues with netrender that I have to work around while the renderings are going on, But it has been fun. I have made a good friend in this process in Chris with our collaboration of the Rear Window. I think we have both learned a great deal in the process and it has been well worth the effort. We are ready to begin our next project together Steve

Well netrender is killing me. I sat there and watch it endlessly. It is addictive! Here are a couple of shots of the progress. Robert and Paul I may be a couple of days late. It states I have another 36 hours to render with 32 cores. I still have to add 4 more machines to netrender Steve

Great use of splines, quoting Gene, Awesome. Steve

This topic is great. I emailed Mark a couple of weeks ago and wass saying my next thing to learn was treez. Keep it up this is helping Steve

Thanks Guys Once the forum project ends She will have a part in thenext animation. Steve

Good looking hair

Dont give up on the rig. It goes faster each time. Steve

Mark is correct when it comes how close the geometery is to each other. After testing and testing I have found places such as noses, lips, ears, fingers, etc can be troublesome for sss. But Mark great job the look is wonderful. Steve

It is hard to believe I finished the basic shape over a year ago. Decided to start rigging her two weeks ago and the 2008 rig was in pretty fast. Mark helped with the skirt. Now I have to work on the hair and shoulder rigging. That is the hardest area. Ok back to rear window Steve

Happy Birthday and welcome aboard! Steve

Very nice Jody Love to the setup on how you created the hole and routered area Steve

Robert Metal roofs are making their way back into our areas. Living in Tulsa and being a claims adjuster I see more and more metal. The critical component of metal roofing, in my opinion, is the backing. Wether it is foam or other products make sure there is a good underlayment that way the metal lays flat. As far as damagability of metal it will withstand against the smaller hail. The size of hail that hit your house, well there is not much products on the market would have made it through. Steve

Ouch!! Glad you are on the way to recovery. Lovely concepts Rodney, give us more! Steve

I agree with you Nancy! I have been in a funk for a while. I have been working with Chris Dailey on the rear window project and it has helped get things going again, but it wasn't until I was in the mountains of New Mexico on a road trip out to California did things seem to go "aha". All of sudden I got excited about all the projects we are working on! Something cleared and I can not tell you what. But I found that the second half of the trip I was wanting to get back and start up again. Mark, sorry to hear about your brother as well. Steve

Very nice! Excellent example! Steve

Happy Birthday John!

Mark I like this one! This is my favorite look, pose. Very nice

Happy Birthday Paul!! Steve

Happy Birthday! Steve