Hello,
I've got an image that I would like to have printed, and thus would like to render at a massive resolution (4600x7600).  I project that this image would take my personal computer about 150 hours to render, so I'd like to decrease this time a bit by doing a network render.

The trouble is, I can't seem to figure out how to render an "animation" at this resolution.  I cannot set the document resolution this high (it tops out at 4000x6087), and I cannot set the render resolution listed in the same window this high, either (it simply won't provide me with an option higher than 4000x6087). 

I can apparently "render to disk" at this resolution...  But this is hardly an ideal solution as the "render to disk" option can't be paused, and I can't write-off my computer for a week.

Anybody know of an alternate way of setting animation resolutions?

The only thing I can think of is to split the render up into several parts, then reassemble the parts in postwork.

There is a tutorial at DAZ about doing that in the Tutorial Arcana:
http://www.daz3d.com/support/tutorial/tutorial.php?id=1602

Don't know if you need to have a (free) forum membership to read that part or not.

Attached Link: http://www.mir.com/DMG/aspect.html

Most animators render to frames like this anyway. That said why on earth do you want to render an animation this big, outside of a fully digital cinema you won't find anything to play it back! I've added a link which is a great guide to the resolutions needed for common tv/video formats, remember bryce can only render square pixels so you need a video editing package the can convert from square to non-square pixels.

why render an animation at 7600 pixels?? There's no screen that has such a high resolution...

I'm trying to render a single still image for print, at a large resolution.  Printed, the single image will be 23 inches by 35 inches, at 200 DPI (it's going to be a poster).  Since this is a huge image, I want to use network rendering (using tile optimization), which is only available by rendering a single-frame animation.

"Render to disk, use an image format such as bmp and it'll render to a numbered series of images, if you have to interrupt the render when you come back tick the skip frames already rendered switch and it'll start from the next frame. Then paste the whole lot together using a video edit package."

Won't work for me.  I only have one frame, which is too large for me to render at a single pass.

"why render an animation at 7600 pixels?? There's no screen that has such a high resolution..."

Because I want to network render a still-image.  Paper has no problem displaying this resolution/dimensions ;)

So you're not rendering an animation, you're rendering a single image! I guess the confusion is because the network render info is under the animation menu...

AFAIK you have two options, 1) use a camera grid and paste the images together, 2) render to disk and twiddle your thumbs although if you're thinking about network render you must have a couple of machines, so set one going and work on the other?

dvlenk6, I just noticed your response.  This should work, thanks :)

And thank you, too Gog :)

Still, if anyone knows a direct solution, I'd love to hear it.

oh ok im not that informed about network rendering. but do i understand that rendering on network requires  you to use the animation render option?? that is just weird...

It's one of those strange things in the UI to network render a still image you are effectively rendering a one frame animation :)

so... does it still distribute the frame in different buckets then?

What I know about network rendering:

When rendering an animation, each client renders a single frame at a time.
When rendering a single frame (still image), the image is broken into several small chunks, which are then divided between the clients.

I'm not sure HOW this division is determined...  Whether each client has a fixed number to render, each client recieves new chunks/frames as it finishes its current job, or all clients render in synch, is something that I haven't figured out yet.

Wow. Sounds like the first time I think bryce's makers have handled a part of their interface design in a pretty crappy way.

How the chunk division is divided seems really strange.  I had a render that started a client on frame 563 or something like that and my host started on another odd number like that, too.  Bitmap sequences are acutally just regular bitmaps, right?

yea, regular bitmaps. Every frame saved as a seperate image file.

If you want to use two or more computers at the same time you have to use the render animation command. I have done a few network renders, but only between two computers. Click on the bottom Setup button to open another window. There are three buttons at the bottom. "Save client list" can't be used until you "update" and find all the computers on your network. These have to be on and running bryce lightning and not firewalled in order to be found. The next button "use host to render" allows the main computer to also render. This command was removed in 5.5 so if you have the latest bryce you have no choice. The last button "use tile optimization" allows each computer to do a block of the total picture. This is what you want because you are only doing a single frame. If you don't check this one computer will get the entire image and it's like you just rendered to disk anyway.

I've run both big singles and animations this way. Whenever a computer gets through with a block it asks for the next one. These started at the top left and went to the bottom right on the screen. My lightning machine ran about twice as fast as the host. You could see it finish one block and go on to the next one on the screen. The host most of the time jumped over the two blocks that the lightning machine had and started the next. When I hit a patch with glass or reflections it took longer to render than bare sky. It really depended on what type of object and material was in that tile as to how long each machine took.

I checked this again and even if you can network render you are still stuck with the size you can set for the original image. You still can't get above 4000 pixels with this method.

Did you know that when you render to disk you can press the windows key on your keyboard and get the desktop or other programs while the render is running? Press the tab button then enter to select other running programs off the start bar.

Quote - Did you know that when you render to disk you can press the windows key on your keyboard and get the desktop or other programs while the render is running? Press the tab button then enter to select other running programs off the start bar.

Yes, I had noticed this.  You can also use Alt + Tab to select the programs directly, without pressing the Windows key.  Unfortunately, I still needed the ability to pause a render that would take a week or more.  I do quite a few CPU intensive things on my primary station: rendering, games, image manipulation, compiling, etc. so I need to tell Bryce to back off from time to time.

Here's the solution I currently have running:
I'm using the tutorial posted above to split the image up into multiple segments.  In my case, these are the left half of the image, the right half of the image, and a thin strip down the middle.  The third component is necessary because of a one-pixel wide flaw running from the top to the bottom of the right-hand side of every image Bryce renders on my machine.  This flaw isn't noticable in a single image...  But stands out pretty badly when you stitch two images together.

My render "farm" is currently composed of two computers:

1. My primary machine, used for just about everything.  Rendering, games, programming, etc.
2. A secondary machine, used primarily for surfing the Internet.

I'm using the primary machine as the host, with the secondary machine used as a client.  When I need the CPU of the primary machine free, I can pause the render quickly while allowing the secondary machine to continue its operation, then resume the render at the host when I no longer need the CPU.

And as a note on the whole "quirky interface" topic, here's one that through me for a loop for quite a while.  In Bryce 5, clicking anywhere within the host's window causes the host to immediately stop rendering, and load a blank document.  "Anywhere" includes the Bryce window's title bar!

To cause the host to begin rendering again, you must find the settings for the render job, and reselect "render at host."  This will cause the host to reload the scene, and resume rendering.