[Bf-funboard] Re: Daemon Integration

[Roland Hess]

>I spent a little time tonight throwing some ideas around on how the
>interface could work for integrated network rendering... Here is the url for
>the mockups as well as an updated example of how one might go through the
>process of setting the whole thing up and using it.
>http://www.pablosbrain.com/blenderideas/networkrender/

Nice mockup. My initial thought is that it would be better in most 
instances (i.e., you're only using this if you have a lot of 
rendering to do) to have the source files for your artwork (.blends 
and image maps) reside on a server. It could even be the main machine 
that you're working from. But the point is, I think the client 
machines should pull the .blend files and textures off of the server 
machine, as opposed to the render manager pushing the data. Perhaps 
another setting in the Client Settings section would be the network 
path to the source data. Also, completed frames would be directed in 
a similar fashion, instead of being returned to the render manager.

Having the render manager perform these functions does not scale 
well. If there are only two or three client machines, it's fine. 
Let's say I get 20 PII's for $79 a piece and stick them in a closet 
in my basement. I don't want each one having to wait for the render 
manager to pump a 20 MB .blend file and 320 MB of textures (because 
there's avi's used as textures) to each machine in sequence, and then 
sit there and try to field the requests from all twenty machines as 
they send back frames. Much more efficient to set a network path, 
send the commands, then simply monitor the results.
-- 
Roland Hess
harkyman