Multi-cores VS network nodes

[qmwq]

Hello, I need advice in building a new rendering system.

 

I mainly use it for Vray (3ds or sketchup) interior still scene rendering. Some of the renders takes hours to finish. Most of my renders takes an hour to complete.

 

Should I go for a 5960x workstation or, instead, have a couple of 4790k rendering node?

option 1: 5960x, Asus x99 pro, 16GB, samsung ssd. : US$1750

option 2: 4790k, asus z97a, 16GB, samsung ssd : US$660x2 = US$1320

 

Does VRAY scale well with additional network nodes?

 

Any input is welcome!

Thank you for reading!

[Jason Matthews]

I think it depends on four things 1) Your ability to configure a small network render farm 2) Your existing network infrastructure 3) Your vray license nodes 4) Current workflow

 

1) If you are new to networking there may be a learning curve in doing network rendering. There are plenty of guides out there to setup Max and Vray

 

2) If you are running a home render farm all you need is a server (primary PC most likely), a network switch (to assign individual IP addresses), and best case a KVM switch so you can use one monitor setup and one keyboard and mouse. You are probably looking at about $20 for the switch (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156250) and about $40 for the KVM switch (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156250).

 

3) Starting in Vray 3.0, you have to purchase the render nodes. That being said, you can build render nodes a lot cheaper than what you are indicating, and you can probably build two of them for the cost of the one you are indicating and they would be faster. I'll let the tech gurus instruct you on that. The other thing to consider is the lag time for the other systems to process the maps and other content and then actually start rendering. A lot of the lag is tied to your network. The lag can range anywhere from 10 -15 seconds to 1 minute. So if you do a lot of small test renders then you may be competing the isolated test renders faster than it takes the render farm to respond. This of course makes a case for the faster work station.

 

4) This is really a nonstarter, but I felt like I need to include this. If you do not already, you need to locate your textures and proxies in a network location rather than on your "C" drive. In other words, you need to go through the network to locate these items (ex. Network/MainPc/Textures)

 

Vray will scale to as many nodes as you buy. It comes down to cost. Is the small added cost of node licenses and equipment worth the upgrade path? That is for you to figure out. IMO, if you do a lot of render work where you have a workload of pending jobs, then it makes a lot of sense to have a render farm, especially when you can assign the rendering to specific computers and work on your main workstation as the other computers churn away. Also, once you have established a render farm then you can keep adding computers to it, provided you have the right equipment and space.

[qmwq]

Hi Jason,

 

I am ok with network configuration. All my files are in the NAS. And they are having good bandwidth.

The problem is, there isnt a VRAY server node trial software for me to test the difference. Hence, the experiences of you guys help.

If I add 1 more server, am I getting 1 times faster? How does VRAY build up the map in network mode? Does VRAY servers share the workload in the map building process?

thanx!

 

Q

[Jason Matthews]

Speed depends on the hardware, just as it does when rendering from 1 workstation. Your workstation processes the map, proxies, LC, and IM and then sends it to the Vray distributed rendering which sends it to the render nodes. The nodes load the maps and proxies and then begins to render. You will see all the buckets named according to the computer name. So for one rendering you will see each core as a named bucket. Search youtube for examples. You can read more about the process here: http://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/VRAY3MAX/Set+Up+Distributed+Rendering

 

The one thing that has not been addressed is RT. If you have decent video cards in the render nodes then you can utilize those to do RT.

[Francisco Penaloza]

The problem is, there isnt a VRAY server node trial software for me to test the difference.

When you buy V-Ray you have access to at least one render node. So you should be able to test speed difference between your machine and your machine plus a render node.

If you are using V Ray demo, that's the limitation of the demo, if you need more machines, you should buy the software, and the corresponding rendering licences.