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| On 12/04/2014, at 5:06 AM, David Torno <torno@sydefxink.com> wrote: > I am more curious about real world experience with these setups. Looking for recommendations, pitfalls, etc... Hi, I have worked at several places with Deadline render farms. Version 5 had some quirks, but version 6 has been great. I know others on this list have been happy with Smedge but if I was to set up a render farm I would have no hesitation using Deadline. Also the monitor screen looks very techie, so having the Deadline monitor window open gives the impression you are doing a lot of serious work even if you're just browsing Facebook. And I don't know much about Smedge, but Deadline also works with Cinema 4D, Maya, 3DSMax etc etc. There are the obvious pitfalls regarding plugins and fonts, but the real issue is actually network infrastructure. Software is cheap and easy to upgrade in comparison. You will need a serious plan for long-term storage and a very serious network router/switch. Once you start working at resolutions higher than HD, and with 16bit files it can only take a few computers to bring a router to its knees. The unfortunate problem facing render farms (an inconvenient truth I suppose) is that you need to plan the network hardware right at the start, meaning a large initial outlay even if you only start with a few render machines. You might find yourself looking at hardcore routers that cost $50K+ just to ensure they can cope with the loads you might have. If your router is struggling then you can get missing frames, or AE will render colour bars for one frame only and so-on and you won't get an error message. I love render farms and they change the way I work, but the seriously hard part isn't setting up the network render software, it's setting up the network drives and network hardware. -Chris |
