Advice on sofware and hardware

[Trissel]

Hi all,

 

I'm trying to figure out what would be the best software/hardware setup for a starting company in 3d architecture visualization.

 

Im thinking about setting up something like this.

 

1 Workstation (quadcore 2.4, 4GB ram)

Windows XP64, Max 9 64bit or Viz 2008. Vray 64-bit

 

10 renderslaves (quadcore 2.4, 2GB ram)

don't know what kind off OS, thinking about linux since it's free. But then I cant figure out if thats compatible with the workstation. Since it's all new I don't really know much about distributed rendering. The Vray license is free but what about max/viz?

 

I will be using this setup to render interior and exterior stills and animations (about 2 minutes each)

 

What do you Pro's think about this setup? Any comments/suggestions, are there problems with compatibility?

 

What kind of software do you guys use in combination with what kind a hardware?

 

Maybe its a bit stupid to ask here but there's so much information on the internet, its making my head spin. And its a lot of money I will be spending so I don't want to make any mistakes.

 

Thanks in advance,

[alfienoakes]

Hi all,

 

10 renderslaves (quadcore 2.4, 2GB ram)

don't know what kind off OS, thinking about linux since it's free. But then I cant figure out if thats compatible with the workstation. Since it's all new I don't really know much about distributed rendering. The Vray license is free but what about max/viz?

 

You must have a lot of work lined up to be splashing out on that sort of kit straight away...

 

Your software wont be cheap either.. Unless you are conversant with Viz and can draw everything in that.

 

We use AutoCAD Architecture.. best part of £4 K for one seat.. Then you have the Viz or Max choice.

 

With kit like that I assume you are also setting up in an office, so there are overheads like bills to worry about..

 

Max and vix will allow you to multi seat render as a slave, without any more license requirements than just your 1 copy.

 

You would need some comping software as well, liek the Adobe CS3 suite. You may want to look at something like Combustion at some point as well. Depends what you are doing.

[vansteePieter]

Hi! it looks like you know alot about what you should prochurase so maybe you can answer my question.

 

I'm thinking about working as freelancer to visualise mainly architectural scenes, but because I'm still a student I'll have to prochurase viz, ps, etc...

are there any possibilities to start with this? It's would be impossible to earn enough to be able to pay for commercial licences because I'm already very busy at school.

 

Tanks pieter

[Macer]

I'd ask autodesk about the licensing restrictions.

 

I'm pretty sure that the current release of viz can only address two cpu cores on the machine that its installed on. I think that the network rendering has been restricted too,(how much, i don't know?) to try and get more people onto max.

 

There are also limitations with regards to using mental ray with distributed rendering (if you don't go down the vray route). I think that viz now has 0 nodes with regards to mental ray licenses (they must be purchased additionally). Where as max allows 10 rendeer nodes (for distributed mental ray). Not really sure on the numbers though, but its definately something that you should check!

 

Can't really help with other advice - sorry.

[alfienoakes]

I'd ask autodesk about the licensing restrictions.

 

I'm pretty sure that the current release of viz can only address two cpu cores on the machine that its installed on. I think that the network rendering has been restricted too,(how much, i don't know?) to try and get more people onto max.

 

There are also limitations with regards to using mental ray with distributed rendering (if you don't go down the vray route). I think that viz now has 0 nodes with regards to mental ray licenses (they must be purchased additionally). Where as max allows 10 rendeer nodes (for distributed mental ray). Not really sure on the numbers though, but its definately something that you should check!

 

Can't really help with other advice - sorry.

 

Im running Viz 2007 thru backburner on multiple machines without any problems. Appreciate that this is not the "latest" version, so may have changed in 200, but I havent seen our heard anything like this.

 

I hope I wont be proved wrong, as I wont upgrade to 2008 otherwise.....

[Trissel]

You must have a lot of work lined up to be splashing out on that sort of kit straight away...

 

Your software wont be cheap either.. Unless you are conversant with Viz and can draw everything in that.

 

We use AutoCAD Architecture.. best part of £4 K for one seat.. Then you have the Viz or Max choice.

 

With kit like that I assume you are also setting up in an office, so there are overheads like bills to worry about..

 

Max and vix will allow you to multi seat render as a slave, without any more license requirements than just your 1 copy.

 

You would need some comping software as well, liek the Adobe CS3 suite. You may want to look at something like Combustion at some point as well. Depends what you are doing.

 

Hi guys. Sorry for my late reply, I suddenly had to go away for the weekend.

 

I know it wont be cheap, but we have an investor thats going to pay for everything we need to start up. He also has a lot of connections to potential clients. And the reason we want to start a small render farm is that we want to focus on animations.

 

About max or viz. I took a close look at the Autodesk website and found out this qoute.

 

"Autodesk® VIZ software is supported, but not compiled, on the following 64-bit operating systems

• Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional x64
  
• Microsoft® Windows® Vista x64".

So if I'm reading it right, it says; Autodesk Viz is only available in the 32-bit version. That gives me a problem with memory as it wont go further than 2 GB of ram. I'ts a bit misleading as every 32-bit program wil run on 64-bit machine but without the 64-bit advantages.

 

So I think i have to go for Max. I wont be needing any other 3d software, I can do everything in Max.

 

We are looking for office space right now. But it will take a few months before we will be done on that one. In the meantime I have to manage at home. another problem.

 

Im not used to work with Combustion, I always used After Effects. So we will need Photoshop and Aftereffects. But I think it's cheaper to go for the Suite.

 

And thanks for the good advice. It's nice to put my ideas over here and talk about it with you guys. For the last few month's if been working on my own and its nice to have some other ones input.

[Trissel]

Hi! it looks like you know alot about what you should prochurase so maybe you can answer my question.

 

I'm thinking about working as freelancer to visualize mainly architectural scenes, but because I'm still a student I'll have to prochurase viz, ps, etc...

are there any possibilities to start with this? It's would be impossible to earn enough to be able to pay for commercial licenses because I'm already very busy at school.

 

Tanks pieter

 

Hey Pieter,

 

Since your a student you could look at the autodesk website and request a student license with your Student E-mail. I don't know about the costs and if you could use it commercially but take a look at:

 

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=6080746

 

And what kind of school do you do? I know that on my school there are some student versions available that we can download for free.

[Trissel]

I'd ask autodesk about the licensing restrictions.

 

I'm pretty sure that the current release of viz can only address two cpu cores on the machine that its installed on. I think that the network rendering has been restricted too,(how much, i don't know?) to try and get more people onto max.

 

There are also limitations with regards to using mental ray with distributed rendering (if you don't go down the vray route). I think that viz now has 0 nodes with regards to mental ray licenses (they must be purchased additionally). Where as max allows 10 rendeer nodes (for distributed mental ray). Not really sure on the numbers though, but its definately something that you should check!

 

Can't really help with other advice - sorry.

 

Using 2 cores on a 4 core pc would be waste. But like i mentioned above, i probably have to go with max anyway because of the memory. So this is another reason to go with max. And on max i will be running vray so no problems with that also. Just the pricing of everything

 

Does anyone know about the operating systems you will need on your render slaves? I found out that Autodesk advices to use a 64 bit system as render slaves when your working on a 64 bit workstation. Is this because when your scene uses up more than 2GB of ram on your workstation it will also use up more than 2GB on your render nodes? In that case i will need 4GB of ram in each render node. Or will the memory be split up and divided by the render nodes?