Have any of you been able to install the Pro Rendercow successfully? $ boxes, different service pack levels, no joy on any of them. E-on is aware of it, so if anyone has been able to, you might want to let them know. And tell me while you're at it! :/

Well, I was gonna.... Now maybe I should wait for a patch? VuePro itself works fine in Win2K so far. Thanks, Norm

Oh yeah, VuePro works wonderfully, and the ProCow doesn't seem to break anything; it just doesn't run. Hopefully, like the plugins folder, it will be something that is easy to fix...

Please someone explain this render cow to me? Sharen

Okay! RenderCow originally shipped with Mover 4. What it is, essentially, is the Vue4 rendering engine with no gui or control front end, and a networking interface instead. It was developed to speed up animation rendering for those who had access to a network of any sort. When you start to render an animation with Mover4 installed, at the lower left corner is a checkbox called 'Enable HyperVue'. What this does is turn the actual Vue4 program into a network manager; it does no rendering itself at this time. When you start the render, a new box pops up that should list the available RenderCows (you install them on every computer on your network, even the one that has Vue on it. You also need to turn off most or all AV and firewall software). You have a button to scan the network for RenderCows, but you can also add them by either the computer's name or network address. If that computer is successfully found, then it will be listed in the list box, with a checkbox to select it and an 'idle' message to the right of the name. When you actually start the render, the scene and textures are sent to each RenderCow, and they will begin to render one frame each, then pass it back to the Vue program and get the next available image to render. This is true hybrid networking, as it doesn't matter what computers are hung onto the network. My current setup has a 3 node rendergarden (not big enough for a farm, IMHO), with different motherboards, memory congfigurations (182megs PC-100 to 1 gig PC-2100), processors (from the orginial Athlon 700 to the XP2500+), and they get along just fine, albiet they complete a scene at different speeds (as an expample, One torture test scene I did just for kicks was going to take 70+ hours. With the 4 node Cow setup, it rendered in less than 14). Vue Pro changes the way they work just a bit. In Esprit Vue, only Mover benefits from the RenderCows. In Pro, you have the option of rendering only part of your scene, so an image can be broken up into sections, and a section assigned to a Pro Cow.

so you have to connected to the internet to use this right? Sharen

Also, great explanation. Sharen

What if you don't have your computer networked, you have one computer all by itself and you want to render an animation by Mover 4? Sharen

While you are at it, let me add a question as well ... Do I install only the RenderCow on the workstations? or I also have to install Vue &/or Mover in every workstations?

Okay, in order; (1)Nope, no internet connection needed, just the physical networking between the computers. The 3 renderboxes I have just connect to a networking hub (or switch), and are connected to my main system by way of the gateway router I have (I'm on cable, and you need a router so more than on computer can use the internet access. Most routers come with a 4 way switch installed in them, to allow up to 4 computers to be installed, so it was easier to use that to allow my main system to talk to the rendergarden, instead of dedicating a switch and tapping off of that to allow internet access for my main system. It sounds complex, but it really isn't.... :P ) I haven't tried it, but I would assume that, if you have a computer with a modem, you could use the USB networking hardware they have out to get around not having a network interface card in you main system. And any old computer that can load and run the RenderCow can be used. It can be a mix of Intel and AMD, Pentium whatever, Macs.... The Cows only use basic, standardized networking protocols, so you can mix to your heart's content. (2)If you have only 1 computer, then the RenderCow won't do you any good; you just run the render without the HyperVue option enabled, and Vue will render it solo. (3) All you need to install in your renderboxes are the RenderCows. Whatever system actually uses VueMover sends all the textures, objects, imported materials, animation commands, what have you, from the scene it has saved and caches them until the rendering job is complete. The RenderCows are designed to run in the background on whatever system they are installed on, so unless they are actually rendering, they are using next to no system resources. Installing VueMover on each workstation could create some real problems, as Vue does check a network to see if other instances are running with the same liscence. And it doesn't react well; I think is just shuts down. The Esprit RenderCows are unlimited; the Pro Cows have a 5 liscence limit out of the box, but there is a 'low cost' addition to increase the number of Cows you can run on the same network.

This thread needs to bookmarked by all...I know I have it booked marked!!

I did too. Sharen

Thanks Dale!

You're welcome, and glad I can help.

Thanks for the info. especially the licence limit in Pro. Rendergarden? Love it. Very apt. Is that DaleB trademark term or can we all use it when referring to our networks. :-)

Trademark...? (percentages...per use fees...residuals....lawsuits galore...yesssssssss, Precioussssss. Yesssssss....) Fortunately, I'm not the Disney Corp. :P And yeah, considering that most home networks are a mish-mash of hardware from several generations, manufacturers, donations, and experiments, 'farm' just sounds too neat. One of those little kitchen gardens, where you will find Ghu knows what growing next to something experts will swear it can't grow next to... That's more in keeping with a home network. And Sharen, if you're going to start playing seriously with VueMover animations, one good source of very cheap (like usually free) boxes is friends who like to upgrade every year. Even one renderbox will give your system -2- rendering engines to share frame rendering tasks with. And the best thing to do is nuke whatever install is on such a unit, do a minimal OS install, and install the RenderCow, and leave it at that. Of course, one other benefit of multiple renderboxes is that you can place things like a browser or modeller on the extra box, so that you can still do things online while the render is going on (something I need to mention; when you are using the HyperVue option, the system that has VueMover on it is =very= touchy about any other application being used. You technically can do so, but the odds are very good you will mess up the rendering process. But the machines with the Cows on them aren't as touchy).

How does the Rendercow will react or work, if I introduce it in a Intel HT processor PC? I mean since these processors can do two task at any given time; does that mean my render will speed up twice as well? Also, if I may ... what about if I introduce Rendercow to the PC I have laying down doing nothing? I ask cuz it's a P2/266MHz box and don't remember the memory at this time. Seems like, finally my DLink Wireless Router will serve some perpous after all! :-)

Oboy. Hate to ruin Intel's marketing, but HyperThreading is =not= what they claim it to be. Before you see -any- benefit from it, you have to have a multi-processor aware OS (like Win2k or XP), and the application has to be coded to take advantage of HT (it is very much like MMX and 3DNow were when they were introduced; if the instructions weren't in the code, you got no benefit from them). As for the P2...it would be below the 'required' specs listed for the RenderCow, but it never hurts to try! As long as you have 128 megs of ram and a few gigs for a swap file, it may work fine (Hmmm....hadn't thought to try the wireless networking; just got one myself for guests to use...let us know how it works!)

Well, at this moment all my PCs run P4; but I was planning of making a new box with Intel HT. I guess I better off waiting few more days, and see what they come up next. :-) And so far the wireless router did a great job doing file share, file transfer & printer share. So, if you just got something like that, you will like it. No more wires running around the house. :-) Thanks again Dale for your advices. :-)

According to the pdf datasheet available on e-on's site, VuePro is optimized for HyperThreading and G5 processors.

Nish: I use a PII in my Vue "render-farm" all the time. It IS a 400mhz, so it is slightly newer technology then yours, but like Dale said, give it a shot.

Sounds great! Thanks. :-)

FYI, my render cows are DOA on Windows XP too. I posted a message to that effect on the E-on site . .