sandoppe; Technically, it should be called 'distributed network rendering'. Basically, you have the main application installed on your primary computer, then on extra computers you have what is essentially a stripped down version of the application (usually just the render engine, a very simple GUI to access the network port assignment, and some form of TCP/IP interface). The main application detects the renderers installed on your local network, and farms the work out to the renderers, collects the results, and assembles it for you. In Bryce's case, Bryce Lightning can render individual frames of an animation across several computers, or take a very large render, cut it into precise sections, and render -that- across multiple machines (changing what in B4 would have been a 20 hour render on one system into a 5 hour render across 4 systems). Vue d'Esprit does this as well as Truespace (and all of the major apps as well). With the $300 'lunchbox' type computers if you want new, or the cheap systems you can buy secondhand at computer shows, small renderfarms are easily within the hobbyist's reach (I have a 4 node renderfarm myself for use with VuePro...but it can also be used for any other app that can network render).