Maxwell Render | Official public forum

hi
I have just update to version 2.0.2
maybe my MXI can not be read or open with version 2.0.x

its recommented to update Maxwell before sending a job !

andre

How do Maxwell animations work on your render farm, as far as final output is concerned? Will I get, for final output, a series of image formats, png for example, or a bunch of mxi's only that I need to open to save out my sequential images from?

Also, can I send all the texture and material files only once to be cached? Then upload the rest of the mxi's only to speed up the upload process?

I emailed you these questions but I was thinking it would be better if maybe I asked about these issues on the Maxwell forum.

Thanks,

Aaron

you get RGB format - mxi files are send for single image renders to adjust light shutter etc...

our Farminizer automatism is made for single image renderings only
for animations you need to send all mxs and textures to ftp for manuell progress

Hi,

The farm it's running with version 2.1???

Thanks!

yes sure

I have just update to version 2.5

we replaced our old hardware
now we are running 210 8coreHT nodes
16gb ram each and in total 4200ghz

andre

Hey Andre

I'm thinking about giving Maxwell another try but I think using your farm is probably my only viable option for most job deadlines. However I was talking to someone who has their own large farm (I think about 80 nodes) and they felt Maxwell might have diminishing returns on much more than 8-10 render slaves, which made me wonder how much time I could really gain.

If a render was going to run about 30 hours on a single i7 920, what should that take on your farm to hit the same sample level?

Thanks!
B

hi simms

if your I7 render 20hour my nodes will do the job in ... i donno ... 20 minutes ?!
but keep in mind if your mxs is 2gb in size I need longer for loading comapring a 50mb job
if you render 1000 px or 6000 px resolution the MXI size is different and merge need longer or shorter

since i not know the 2 points abouve all the process can take doubble or tripple
but for sure is the farm much faster then 20hour (and keeps your PC free for work)

QuakeMarine1 wrote:hi simms

if your I7 render 20hour my nodes will do the job in ... i donno ... 20 minutes ?!
but keep in mind if your mxs is 2gb in size I need longer for loading comapring a 50mb job
if you render 1000 px or 6000 px resolution the MXI size is different and merge need longer or shorter

since i not know the 2 points abouve all the process can take doubble or tripple
but for sure is the farm much faster then 20hour (and keeps your PC free for work)

I understand, thanks. Typically I render at 6k-8K. Almost never below that for finals. I haven't used Maxwell in some time so I'm not really sure anymore about the mxs size, or typically what the .mxi files would be. Is there a way to accurately benchmark each job to get a predictable output time on a case-by-case basis? Would Farminizer be able to predict render times at the time of submission?

b

Farminizer can update % of progress once job is running but an estemate before render starts is difficult
on the other hand - if you start a job you setup the SL (quality level) and also the maximal job costs
the farm eat your job until one of the 2 maximums is reached - the first completed maximum stop the job - SL or costs

since time is money you limit the rendertime with the cost maximum

QuakeMarine1 wrote:Farminizer can update % of progress once job is running but an estemate before render starts is difficult
on the other hand - if you start a job you setup the SL (quality level) and also the maximal job costs
the farm eat your job until one of the 2 maximums is reached - the first completed maximum stop the job - SL or costs

since time is money you limit the rendertime with the cost maximum

Thanks. I'm less concerned with the price at this point, but I do need predictable render times (at least fairly close) to figure out timelines for jobs. Setting a max price or SL would let me control the cost but not help as much with knowing how much time will be needed.

/b

even if you know the farm need 20min to render your job, you not know if the farm is free
in best (and most cases) the farm is free but we all know Murphys law - if your deadline is close another user just send something to render and you need to wait 3 hour until job start

before you ask:
if I could foresee the farm usage I also could turn water to wine

Understood. Thanks.

hardware update at REBUSfarm

we now clock 18.000 ghz !
more 300 pc of 24 threads and 24gb RAM are waiting for Maxwell

more news coming soon


andre