[choo-chee]

I'd like to know, based on user-experience, what is the typical cost for an interior render, no multilight, SL about 22-25, 5000X2000 pixels?
I'm considering using render farms but the render-cost estimators are not precise so I'd like to learn from your experience....

[Eduardo G]

Hi, it really depends much more on your file settings & specific characteristics (objects complexity, textures, lights, etc) than on the SL or resolution. That's why it's not possible to make a precise render cost estimator...

[choo-chee]

yeah I know- however I am hoping to see users sharing images with details about'em (resolution, SL) and cost ...

[Dmitriy Berdnichenko]

I just tried to use Render farm (Ranch computing) it is easy to use and pretty fast for render. i did single image 2500x1600 px SL21 it took around 5-7 min to render and cost 21 euro.
I do a lot of renderings but it is not an option for me price is high. i used to use my own workstation 64 cores. It is good solution for animation in time but still costly for individual.

[choo-chee]

thanks, would like ton have more examples.

[CDRDA]

I use Rebus Farm on a regular basis, but have tried others. I would say that costs are very similar between farms in general. Rebus makes importing the mxs file quite streamlined with their software, although there are often issues with conflicting file names and mismatched file sizes, which can add to the time it takes to send out the render... On the other hand, most issues are picked up before spending any money rendering, or trying to render out.

I have to say that with all the farms I have used, their tech support has been fantastic and quick to respond to any issues, in some cases offering full refunds for jobs gone wrong. I've been very impressed in that regard.

As I use UE4 for any animation/real-time work, I only render out still images, usually 4500x3000 pixel interiors. I find that SL16-18 gets me what I need, although not always. At this resolution, it costs me anything between 50-75 euros. An exterior image at the same res usually comes in at 20-25 euros rendered to SL14. I spend a lot of time optimising my scenes and materials to minimise noise, without sacrificing quality, although I have been using more and more 8K textures of late.

The main area where the cost estimators are out is in determining the time the Maxwell job takes to send to the network, voxelisation and prep of materials and mxs refs etc. I usually add on an extra 5-10 euros for this, although for heavy scenes with lots of large textures, this could be more like 15-20 euros extra to get to the desired SL.

Maybe a more certain way to ascertain this would be to do a test render with a typical scene set at a low resolution and send it to the farm to render at SL1, whilst taking note of how long it is before starting to render locally? That way you would get a fairly good idea of how much extra you should allow for.

[choo-chee]

well a typical interior of 5000X2000 takes about 5 minutets to msg "start rendering" with c 4ghz PC....for my scenes at least. big exteriors can take 10 minuets, small about a minute or so...however exteriors are much easier to render locally as they clear faster esp. with denoiser.

[CDRDA]

I agree with exteriors and usually only send them off to a farm when time is critical, or I need my computer for another project.

I have a newer computer, not really setup for rendering and because of the faster M/B, RAM and single core CPU speed, it volxelises and begins rendering much faster than my older multi-core Xeon workstation. However, when rendering it is at least 3-4 times slower! I would suggest that whilst the network speeds of these render farms is likely to be very good, the storage will most likely be HDDs, the RAM EEC and the single core speeds of cpus to be a lot lower than 4Ghz, therefore resulting in a slower time to begin the actual render. One, or all of the above are going to be factors, so I would imagine that is why it is so difficult to calculate more accurately.

[Dmitriy Berdnichenko]

well a typical interior of 5000X2000 takes about 5 minutets to msg "start rendering" with c 4ghz PC....for my scenes at least. big exteriors can take 10 minuets, small about a minute or so...however exteriors are much easier to render locally as they clear faster esp. with denoiser.

Can you share some interior and exterior render you did?
I just render out exterior scene and it took 4 hour with denoiser resolution is only 2200x1600px.

[choo-chee]

very nice!

[Eduardo G]

I use Rebus Farm on a regular basis, but have tried others. I would say that costs are very similar between farms in general. Rebus makes importing the mxs file quite streamlined with their software, although there are often issues with conflicting file names and mismatched file sizes, which can add to the time it takes to send out the render... On the other hand, most issues are picked up before spending any money rendering, or trying to render out.

I have to say that with all the farms I have used, their tech support has been fantastic and quick to respond to any issues, in some cases offering full refunds for jobs gone wrong. I've been very impressed in that regard.

As I use UE4 for any animation/real-time work, I only render out still images, usually 4500x3000 pixel interiors. I find that SL16-18 gets me what I need, although not always. At this resolution, it costs me anything between 50-75 euros. An exterior image at the same res usually comes in at 20-25 euros rendered to SL14. I spend a lot of time optimising my scenes and materials to minimise noise, without sacrificing quality, although I have been using more and more 8K textures of late.

The main area where the cost estimators are out is in determining the time the Maxwell job takes to send to the network, voxelisation and prep of materials and mxs refs etc. I usually add on an extra 5-10 euros for this, although for heavy scenes with lots of large textures, this could be more like 15-20 euros extra to get to the desired SL.

Maybe a more certain way to ascertain this would be to do a test render with a typical scene set at a low resolution and send it to the farm to render at SL1, whilst taking note of how long it is before starting to render locally? That way you would get a fairly good idea of how much extra you should allow for.

At Fast Render Farm all files are manually validated so everything is checked before being rendered.

It may look slower than an automated system but in reality it's not as there are no nasty surprises for the user. With our system it's not possible to be charged for a work not correctly validated.

[CDRDA]

Good to know Eduardo!

[choo-chee]

so another question then, is it possible to have a different trial for maxwell render in a render farm? I registered at a couple of farms but the trial they offer is not enough to really know the cost for a final image. the amount of credit I got was not sufficient for a typical final render so I could see that minimal cost is more credits than I got for my free trial - but not know how many I'll need for a single final frame...

[Eduardo G]

Hi choo-chee, create an account with us, send us your file & we'll give you the value to get to your intended SL.

[choo-chee]

ok I'll take care of it tomorrow hopefully....