[Bf-funboard] Use idle online internet computers as a distributed rendering engine

Ton Roosendaal bf-funboard@blender.org
Sat, 6 Sep 2003 13:47:54 +0200


Hi Robert,

We've been playing with such ideas in the past several times, most  
obviously the problem is in the difficulties of controlling such a  
public service:

- animations will easily run into 100s of megabytes of results.  
Bandwidth limitations (uploading such amounts) will make it difficult  
for most users to participate
- there is no method in Blender to detect or control the amount of  
resources needed... someone can easily make a .blend file that uses 1  
Gig or more memory
- Blender files itself, packed, with all textures, also can grow into  
20 or more megs. Another distribution problem

But most important:
If you do an actual calculation; taking into account the amount of time  
it needs to transfer/distribute all data, render it, and get it back,  
you'll easily and up with unacceptable delays for such a system to work  
efficiently. Blender is really an animator's tool, designed to quickly  
render huge amounts of frames overnight. For example for a high-quality  
renderer - like Yafray - this might be much more efficient.

My suggestion:
Let's first develop an easy & simple system with a nice GUI for  
intranet purposes. With as main features having a good control &  
overview of what's going on with all rendering jobs. In practice,  
Blender renders so fast that one artist can easily get his work  
rendered overnight at 2-3 systems. Most people have a spare machine  
hanging around. Or small studios then can efficiently use the  
workstations to act as renderfarm in spare hours.
With such a system in place, it will be mich easier to review  
possibilites to extend this to an internet service.

-Ton-


On Thursday, Sep 4, 2003, at 06:56 Europe/Amsterdam, Robert Townsend  
wrote:

> Enhancement request
>
> Title:
> Use idle online internet computers as a distributed
> rendering engine.
>
> Brief Overview:
> Given the amount of computing power required to render
> a long and complex animation, modify Blender so it can
> operate as a background renderer that can be used on
> internet connected computers.  Under Windows, this
> would take the form of a custom screen saver that
> includes Blender and a wrapper that knows how to talk
> with a central server and execute render jobs
> requested by the server.  The general public would be
> asked to download this screen saver and to leave their
> computers on overnight and connected to the internet.
> When the screen saver kicks in, it would  request a
> rendering job from the central server, and, when
> finished, post the completed render job back to the
> server or user requesting the job.  There is
> precedence for use of this type of screen saver at the
> following url:
> http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
> SETI is the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
> The SETI at Home project asks the general public to
> download a custom screen saver in the same manner that
> I'm suggesting.  The purpose is to crunch scientific
> data.  Statistics are available on their web site
> concerning the number of users, computing power
> generated, etc.
>
> Some issues:
>
> - Bandwidth isn't free, so users should be able to
> limit their screen saver bandwidth usage.
> - Users and the render job server operator should be
> able to make money by accepting paid rendering jobs,
> and giving preference to paid jobs.  Note: this is a
> way to make money and support an open source project
> like Blender.  Users that install the screen saver
> could get a percentage of the render job cost.
> - Must be able to break up a rendering job into many
> pieces for many different computers.
> - When the screen saver becomes active, it must
> communicate with the render job server.  It must post
> user configured information and request a job.  It
> would then render the job and send the result back to
> the server or user requesting the job.
>
> I like this idea.  But, it's just an idea, and if
> seriously considered should be reviewed by many for
> both technical and business feasibility.
>
> Robert S Townsend
> Riverside, California, USA
>
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------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--
Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton@blender.org  
http://www.blender.org