With more and more processor sharing programs out there (like SETI@home for instance) i''m waiting until then enable a 3D modelling program to do just that. have people be able to share free processor time with other users over the internet. There are a number of great modellers out there that are limited not by their skills, but by what they have to work with. having a system setup to share processor time worldwide would enable anyone to render gorgeous scenes with lots of special effects. With broadband internet becomming more and more standard, moving scene information from one computer to another over the internet would be no problem. I think as an incentive, you could optionally see what the finished frames your computer rendered looked like. I think it would really take 3D modelling and animation to another level for everyone.

this has been done already. there exist networked versions of renders that allow you to set up a group of pcs to render each a section of the image. one such program is the now defunct blender. it allowed you to set up a group of pcs on a network to render scenes. things like this cant be odne over the net reliably due to the LARGE amount of data. if done like the set@home project, you will have to wait much longer then it probably would have taken you to render it yourself. because imaging you get 10 1ghz pcs helping you with the render. many ppl will try to keep the usage down, so it will get about 300mhz (ie 10%-30% cpu usage) cpu rendering things. and since rendering takes up massive memory, ppl will tend to kill the app if they are doing ANYTHING on the pc (including just doing word processing). if a user decides to kill kill his client during one of your renderings, you have to wait for him to restart and finish the render or delegate the render to one of the other 9 pcs that are left. at anytime one of the other pcs could stop and you will have to wait again now for that client. pretty soon your pc will be done with its portion and be waiting on the other clients that may not be doing any useful work.

seti@home (and most internet distributed projects) rely on the fact that the serach space is so large that delegated work does not have to be completed in a timly fashion. instead a user can kill the client and finish at a later time without halting anybody else since it would take years of computing time to matter, unlike your scenerio whoch is mere hours or days. furthermore, the data set being searched is not memory intensive like 3d rendering, and being slowed done is also not a concern, because again the length of time it would take to matter.

instead most network renders are designed with a lan in mind where the clients are dedicated to use 100% resources for the task of rendering. so you get a few friends willing to spend a few hours without using the pc for anything (including web browsing) and your set.

there are no great modellers that are limited by what they have to work with, but the lack of creativity and the so called skill you think they have. someone great at a craft is never limited by the tools, but by their creativity and imagination. ppl used to model and render great things on 33mhz pcs where it took hours to render simple scenes. on todays even low end pcs (a 400mhz) you can create rather complex scenes to be rendered in mins. majorly ocmplex scenes rendered in hours. and if the person really wants to go all out, let it render for a few days. thats what ppl did back in the day when it took the top of the line pc a day to render and low end pcs a week. even movies that use cg take days to weeks to render short clips of video. this is for quality that is far too expensive for a single artist to do by themselves or do afford to do since the custom software alone would be too much. plus many modellers are trying to create models for games not in game video clips which means that their pc is more then enough horsepower to do high quality special effct renders. its amazing what can be done in realtime, let alone less then realtime on todays pcs.

are you one of this great modellers limited by your hardware? if so create your best work and post it on the net for others with the patenice to render it for you. afterall its that ppl ocmpaining about not having good enough hardware just need more patience (though if the actually wireframe/flatshade display is very slow then i can see it being a problem, but then again networked modelling apps wont help there).

KAZAA have some spyware to made seti@home work in many computers (without advice!).

Ok, i talk to render process?.. so, if you need to speed the render, you can divided the problems, for example pc1 (america) made the process from 0..35seconds, pc2 (europe) made the proccess from 35..100 seconds.. In total, you are 200% more fastest that working in a stand-alone pc.




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"Cuando se es peon, la unica salida es la revolución"

Well, yes, MAX has had net rendering since the dos days of 3D studio, but''s not what i''m talking about, i''m talking about an automatic internet processor sharing protocol built into the software... the person at the other end sharing his processor with other renderers doesn''t have to setup anything, he just loads the program and lets it run.

When a artist wants to render an animation, he just checks the box marked ''find more hosts for rendering assistance'', his software automatically goes out and finds someone who has that software installed and has free CPU time (computer is idle or whatever), shoots it over the scene information, his computer renders the scene, and shoots the original computer back the completed frame.

It has to be easy for the person at the other end to do it, or nobody will.. the reason Seti@home is used so much is it''s transparent, you don''t have to do anything but fire it up, it does its thing automatically when your screen saver kicks in.

and lastly, you better believe that you''re limited to what you can do by your horsepower, standard modelling is fine, but when doing serious animation rendering with reflections, ray-tracing, particle effects, wind calculations, and clothes morphing, it takes a very very long time to render one frame, especially on the equipment i have (pIII 1Ghz).

Though i definately don''t consider myself an expert modeller, i would just like to add that sort of global horsepower to my toolbelt. And i''m sure there are other artists that share my feelings on this one.

quote: Original post by eng3d
KAZAA have some spyware to made seti@home work in many computers (without advice!).

nope. KAZAA have their own distributed computing app. it''s not seti@home. KAZZA teamed up with someone else and they will sell your CPU cycles to other business for dollars. you will be asked to opt in by the spyware.

anyway, it''s not seti@home. it''ll be some bank or consulting company or physics researchers doing work on your computer.

frankly it''s not such a big deal.

whatever

-me

Bryce 5 also has network rendering capabilities. Basically, if two computers are networked, they share the processor power to create the scenes really freaking quickly. This can only be done if the comps are networked, and it doesn''t work over the internet, so it''s not exactly what ya''ll were gettin'' at but it''s pretty close.

Dude, quite your whining... Just imagine what 3D artists had to put up with back in the days when you would set up a sequence and come back a couple DAYS later... Do you have ANY idea how much render time went into Toy Story or A Bug''s Life?

The fact of the matter is this is not a real feasible idea. Imagine the bandwidth that this would require. And like was already stated, if it was a large render and the client comp decided to shut down or something - your screwed. SOL. In distributed rendering models, you are working with a network of machined who''s sole purpose in life is to render. That is the ONLY reason network rendering is realistic.

My thoughts,
Landsknecht

quote: Original post by Palidine

nope. KAZAA have their own distributed computing app. it''s not seti@home. KAZZA teamed up with someone else and they will sell your CPU cycles to other business for dollars. you will be asked to opt in by the spyware.

anyway, it''s not seti@home. it''ll be some bank or consulting company or physics researchers doing work on your computer.

frankly it''s not such a big deal.

whatever

-me

I give the sample of seti because is some similar (of course is not seti or medical process). In really Kazaa put a "spyware" programs called b3d .. but i think this programs is used for a big internet-render process

http://www.brilliantdigital.com/content.asp?skin=BDE1&ID=579



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"Cuando se es peon, la unica salida es la revolución"

quote: Original post by Landsknecht
Dude, quite your whining... Just imagine what 3D artists had to put up with back in the days when you would set up a sequence and come back a couple DAYS later... Do you have ANY idea how much render time went into Toy Story or A Bug''s Life?

Pixar estimated that they had about 2 years worth of render time on Toy Story.

That render time is my point. This guy is complaining cause he has to wait an extra few minutes - imagine listening to him on a commercial project... My imagination hurts thinking about it.

Landsknecht