How to build a personal rendering platfrom and predict the rendering time?

[davischeng]

Hello everyone:

 

I am a interior and arch-viz freelancer from Taiwan. Here is my personal website:

http://www.studio-taku.tw

 

In my projects I was always suffering from long and uncontrollable rendering time. The images are almost rendered on separated stand-alone i7 PCs. I would like to know how to combine these PCs to build a more efficient procedure, not only for the final rendering but also for the draft rendering when work in progress. Does anyone can share similar experiences or instructions, for example, V-Ray Distributed Rendering or Backburner or so on? I would very appreciated about the big help.

 

Besides, how long does it take in average rendering a 2000*1500px image of a 30 meter square space should be reasonable? And how to predict the total hours it will take for controlling the deliver time?

 

Thanks and regards,

 

Davis

[Tommy L]

The size of the space does not impact rendertime. I also think that once you resolve yhour resource issues you'll find that 2000/1500 is a small image...

You need to set up a reliable DR workflow. Get all of your PC's on a network and use the nodes for distributed rendering, both for test rendering and for finals. Run tests locally and when you render final submit to the farm and have a single machine do the rendering with DR enabled, so it uses all your available machines.

You will need a gigabyte switch. I'd also recommend a KVM switch for monitoring your machines. Give every mnachine on your network a static IP address. Once your farm is set up, disable the Windows login page screen and automate the launch of DR and BB server. this way, you can literally turn your farm off and on at the power switch and never really have to do anything else.

[Umesh Raut]

Once your farm is set up, disable the Windows login page screen and automate the launch of DR and BB server. this way, you can literally turn your farm off and on at the power switch and never really have to do anything else.

 

Hey Tom,

Does this apply to a KVM enabled setup or general? Never occurred to me so far. Great tip.

Umesh

[Tommy L]

Hey Tom,

Does this apply to a KVM enabled setup or general? Never occurred to me so far. Great tip.

Umesh

 

KVM shouldnt really have any impact on this, I just prefer a hardware solution over software. If you have virtual desktop viewing then automating the launch of this would be helpful also.

One step I havent done yet which I really should dso is making a disk image of a node for re-installation/adding nodes. I still manually install windows and the apps. Silly really, just havent got raound to it and only think about it when I actually need it which is usually too late.

One problem with a farm (especially for a solo artist) is that bad setup/management can mean half your time is spent troubleshooting DR and frame issues.

[angiliaduan1]

Set up your own render farm is not the best solution,it needs lots of time to make it work,and more servers are needed.Why not choose a render service?It's more convenient,you can check whether you can afford,here is a cheap one for you:http://www.foxrenderfarm.com/

[Umesh Raut]

@Tom,

Making an image doesn't take much time, as you say. The only caveat being the disk size, I suppose, as all the copied disks will have same cluster and sector markings, much like in raid config. But its a good one time investment of your time and resources. Thanks for a good tip once again.

Umesh Raut