Render Times on Macintosh

[Shotster]

Greetings, Animators!

 

I'm not yet a newbie but will likely be in short order. I just discovered AM last night, and I'm about to part with some cash! It looks like the tool I've been searching for! But I have a few questions first... I'm using a recent Intel Mac and I'm wondering about AM's render speed being how it doesn't (yet?) the dual processors on recent Macs. Any Mac users out there care to share your experience with rendering? Any other Mac-specific info you care to share would also be appreciated!

 

Oh yeah, on more thing... Any Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) issues encountered with AM?

 

Thanks for the help!

 

-Steve

[robcat2075]

The multi-processing hasn't turned out to be much of a factor in PC rendering, so comparitively, the lack of it on Macs isn't much of a factor either.

[Shotster]

The multi-processing hasn't turned out to be much of a factor in PC rendering, so comparitively, the lack of it on Macs isn't much of a factor either.

 

Thanks for the reply. I'm not clear on what you mean by the lack of dual processor support not being "much of a factor". Much of a factor in what? Do you mean render times would not be improved enough with multiprocessor support to justify implementing it?

 

 

-Steve

[robcat2075]

Do you mean render times would not be improved enough with multiprocessor support to justify implementing it?

 

Based on Martin's comments, yes. It didnt' get much for PC users and the programming roadblocks for Mac were substantial.

 

In other graphic apps a 40% gain from a second processor is about tops.

 

I haven't been a mac user for a long while, but I presume they can still do the trick where you run two instances of A:M and divide the frames (evens, odds) between them. That gets more throughput than real multi-processing would.

[Shotster]

Based on Martin's comments, yes. It didnt' get much for PC users and the programming roadblocks for Mac were substantial.

 

Too bad it's so difficult to implement. It's a shame an application developer even has to concern themselves with it. It seems like it should be handled automatically at a lower level.

 

In other graphic apps a 40% gain from a second processor is about tops.

 

That seems a significant performance increase to me, but I can certainly understand concerns about development tradeoffs.

 

I presume they can still do the trick where you run two instances of A:M and divide the frames (evens, odds) between them.

 

Don't know a thing about it, as I've never rendered a frame in my life. I've been doing some self-education and research lately, though, and I just stumbled upon A:M. I should have my copy soon, and I'm really excited about it. Can't wait to get started!

 

That gets more throughput than real multi-processing would.

 

Well, I may be looking into it in the future. Thanks for the tip!

 

 

-Steve