Cineversity

Hello!

I don’t think this is possible but it would be extremely effective at speeding up sequence completion.

The ability for Team Render to allocate the number of frames sent to each machine would be great. Ideally, have 2 frames sent to each machine so that a complete sequence render is not held up by the slow machines in the farm.

I have a 200+ frame render.
19 machines on the farm.
  -  3 x 12 core
  -  6 x 24 core
  -  10 x 8 core

The 8 core machines slow down completion of the sequence because they hold onto their allotted frames even when the faster machines complete their tasks. Lowering the amount of frames delegated would reduce this bottleneck.

Is there currently a way to do this in R15/16 or would this be a feature request?

Thanks!
Pete

HI Pete,

I guess (as render-farms are not my area of expertise!), that the suggestion would be the most vital idea currently. Of course I know that some people in the Support team are great experts in that, perhaps a training weekend could be the solution, thinking of their coding abilities, that could lead to something… but I’m not in charge of that, of course.
Perhaps a Webinar!?
http://www.maxon.net/support/suggestions.html
If you like to go ahead, perhaps categorize your experience and see if there is a generality given. I have in mind, that sometimes the network is the bottle neck and the CPU isn’t a big factor, sometimes the CPU is and the network power is minor in that regard. Having said that, I think the rating of each machine is one part of the equation only, the job characteristic is another. To find always the right balance might need “user-input” instead of automatic solution.
Besides that, as long as some machines are idle, they could start a parallel rendering of the frame with the lowest progress and start so a race. The one reaching a certain progress will take over then. Again, I’m not a pro in that area, as I do not have a render-farm, nor even a mixed CPU/Platform farm. So, my experience are more than limited.

My best wishes.

Sassi