Dedicated machine just for Rendering?

[danb4026]

I am currently rendering a max scene with Vray. The output is set at 8.5 x 11 and 600dpi. Vray is saying that it has another 24 hours left before completion.

 

During this process, my computer is inaccessable for any other fuctions. I cannot do anything.

 

I have Vista 64, 8gb ram, Quadro FX 4600 graphics card, quad core processor, Nvidia 680 SLI, vray 1.5 and max 2008. I should be in good shape for anything.

 

1) Does it make sense to get a separate box just to render? and if so...What?

2) or does it make sense to use a render farm instead?

 

I would tend to what control of my own renders, therefore getting a dedicated machine. Any advice??

[manta]

I think you could set 2 cores to render, and then you could use the other 2 cores to do whatever you want, of coarse that will double the render time if you're only using half your cpu's to render....

[AJLynn]

I don't know how to do this in Vista, but in real Windows I would:

 

-Hit CTRL-ALT-DEL

-Choose Task Manager

-Find the 3dsmax process and right-click it

-Choose Set Priority > Low

 

And go about my business.

 

Also I would run faster renders and never do anything at 600DPI. That's absurd. Try 200DPI, nobody will see the difference.

[danb4026]

I don't know how to do this in Vista, but in real Windows I would:

 

-Hit CTRL-ALT-DEL

-Choose Task Manager

-Find the 3dsmax process and right-click it

-Choose Set Priority > Low

 

And go about my business.

 

Also I would run faster renders and never do anything at 600DPI. That's absurd. Try 200DPI, nobody will see the difference.

 

I have a new printer and was testing to see if the quality of the end result would improve at 600dpi rather than 200 or 300dpi...Do you firmly believe that the difference will be imperceptable?

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

the difference will be imperceptable?

 

yes. i am guessing you are confusing dots per inch and pixels per inch. they are not the same.

[3dp]

in tens years of viz i've never exceeded 300dpi - although you do get ad companies asking for silly size images for signboards (where no one gets close enough to see)

as for machine locked up i get the odd out of memory error because i've not converted enough planting to vrmesh but i can have renders running and watch a video or have mp3 running and no lagging

desktop glossies mags are printed at 300 - that'll do for me

[danb4026]

David, I ran a print of 600dpi image last night and actually preferred the 200dpi image. My printer does not print 11" x 17", so I thought that if i ran a rendering at 8.5 x 11 @ 600dpi it would translate well into an image printed elsewhere @ 11x17.

 

I am learning that this is not necessary, thanks to all of the posts.

 

As far as a machine for rendering....I am rendering right now and I am afraid that if I try to "run task manager' and change the Priority, that my computer will freeze and screw up the rendering.

 

If one were to get a machine just for rendering...how would you spec it??

[AJLynn]

It should have a lot of CPU, RAM, adequate hard drive and good power supply and cooling, and the rest - good video cards, a good monitor - is not important.

[danb4026]

in tens years of viz i've never exceeded 300dpi - although you do get ad companies asking for silly size images for signboards (where no one gets close enough to see)

as for machine locked up i get the odd out of memory error because i've not converted enough planting to vrmesh but i can have renders running and watch a video or have mp3 running and no lagging

desktop glossies mags are printed at 300 - that'll do for me

 

 

David, do you have the 3ds max process set to a "low" priority in task manager?

[AJLynn]

Maybe this is another area where Vista is weird, but I always run Max in Low priority in XP when rendering and never have a problem. It's useful to set it to Low before hitting the render button.

 

All that Priority does is make it so that other programs can get in the CPU queue ahead of Max - it shouldn't make Max crash. Since you have 4 CPUs there is plenty to go around, you just have to make Max behave itself.

[danb4026]

I set the priority to low and now I can access other things quite well...THANKS.

 

One thing that won't happen though.....I cannot minimize Max. I can minimize the actual rendering, but not the max interface.

[AJLynn]

Yeah, the way to do that would be the "reveal desktop" button in Windows but that would make you unable to return to Max to see the progress, so I just leave it be and use the taskbar to switch and Windows Explorer to see the desktop.

[Tommy Burns]

Just looking at your very first post and unless this is an animation 24 hours to complete is ridiculous there is obviously something wrong with your scene. The workstation you have is high spec and you should have no problems I have similar and the most a standard image would take me would be an hour. I would love to know what your rendering?

[AJLynn]

He's rendering at 6600x5100 - that's what all the 600dpi talk was about. Probably the scene also needs more optimization.

[Tommy Burns]

Right I see now but thats still a mad rendering time unless the scene is full of diamonds with full caustics turned on

[danb4026]

would you like me to post the scene so you could take a look and see whats making it take so long? Not sure to how to do it.

[andreg]

Yeah, the way to do that would be the "reveal desktop" button in Windows but that would make you unable to return to Max to see the progress, so I just leave it be and use the taskbar to switch and Windows Explorer to see the desktop.

 

I have this problem also of not getting the 3dsmax window back after collapsing to desktop. My solution to bring back max is to in the task manager ,click the applications tab and select max then click "switch to" at the bottom. This way max pops right back up.

 

Just thought i'd share this trick

[AJLynn]

That's useful, thanks.

[Slinger]

David, I ran a print of 600dpi image last night and actually preferred the 200dpi image. My printer does not print 11" x 17", so I thought that if i ran a rendering at 8.5 x 11 @ 600dpi it would translate well into an image printed elsewhere @ 11x17.

 

I am learning that this is not necessary, thanks to all of the posts.

 

As far as a machine for rendering....I am rendering right now and I am afraid that if I try to "run task manager' and change the Priority, that my computer will freeze and screw up the rendering.

 

If one were to get a machine just for rendering...how would you spec it??

I'd use your current set-up for the rendering farm and have a mid-range machine to work on...I mean, have the better gfx card, better cpu, better gpu do the rendering...not a lesser quality. That make sense?

[AJLynn]

I'd use your current set-up for the rendering farm and have a mid-range machine to work on...I mean, have the better gfx card, better cpu, better gpu do the rendering...not a lesser quality. That make sense?

 

No, it doesn't. The GPU has nothing to do with rendering, so the render node should have a cheap video card and the workstation should have a good video card.

[AlekseyR]

Getting back to the original post. It's really quite an easy descision. Could you make any more money if you had another pc to work on while rendering? I recently got myself another workstation on the following logic:

 

I was doing a project (animation) which included a lot of test rendering. and i got another job offer which also had to be finished by the end of the week. I was going to turn it down, but then realised that i could finish it while waiting for renders, and as the price of the job was just enough to buy another pc (not awesome, but has the same processor). so i didn't make any money from the job, but now i have two pc's. so if i'm in the same situation in the future, won't have the problem.

[tecton3d]

I have this problem also of not getting the 3dsmax window back after collapsing to desktop. My solution to bring back max is to in the task manager ,click the applications tab and select max then click "switch to" at the bottom. This way max pops right back up.

 

Just thought i'd share this trick

ALT+TAB also brings up a quick menu with all open aps ... holding ALT while tapping the TAB button allows you to cycle through those aps.

 

... or right click on the name of the program in task manager > select "switch to" from the drop-down menu without having to hit the "switch to" button.

 

Prost!

[SandmanNinja]

I think if you ever have a need to use an other PC while you're doing a long render, then it's justifable to have a dedicated machine for just rendering.

 

Since my new PC will be so much faster than my old one, I'm considering using my new one for modeling and getting the lighting solution exactly the way I want it, and then turning it over to my older machine to do the renders while I'm working on another scene.

 

Obviously, if there is a deadline involved then the new machine (or back burner) will be used, but I figure if I had to put my time spent into a pie chart, I feel the biggest slice would be tweaking the lighting and materials. I mean, if you can cut the test render times by half or more - it just makes sense to me. Even using small resolutions (but too small and you lose the details) and other 'tricks' (hiding layers, etc) - I think a lot of the time is spent in the creation of the scene.

 

I'm going to try the computers in this role for a while and see how it goes.