i want to get the most out of it - sure

need more cores to render at quality settings. not throwing my hard earned at nvidia

I'm using a Core i7 machine with an nVidia graphics card, renders animations pretty fast if I stick with basic lighting, typically 10 sec per frame or less. I think the graphics card only helps the previews, but that's a nice thing to get everything checked before rendering.

the new i7 ten cores??!!

No, 8 cores, but its a couple of years old so I'm thinking about an upgrade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUpwLhZh66A

Steve K. posted at 6:02PM Sat, 13 May 2017 - #4305140

No, 8 cores, but its a couple of years old so I'm thinking about an upgrade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUpwLhZh66A

The new AMD with 8 cores and hyperthreading seems hard to beat for the price. But its new architecture, so I feel a bit cautious. I have an 6yr old, 6 core i7 and 3.2Ghz and have been looking at some new 4 core i7s for comparison since the 6 core seems to have been dropped? I thought an 8 core was just out of my price range until this AMD model came along.

I'm not a hardware person, I rely on a local one-man shop whom I've dealt with for many years. I just want to drive the car, not build it. I tell him I need a fast CPU for renders, and I buy whatever he recommends - he doesn't go too extreme like water-cooled, over clocked gaming monsters. In June of 2014, it was i7 4770k 3.5 (8 cores), plus an nVidia 660GTX (for Carrara previews, I think). I've been happy with it rendering short animations in Carrara. Now he tells me we can go faster ... and three years is long enough that my wife doesn't complain too much.

Yeah, I understand, I don't care for building a system myself, partly since you can't get a warranty that covers the whole package. I think that can be worth the extra cost.

Its important to understand the hardware to some extent. The processor you mentioned is a quad core, but with hyperthreading essentially allows two cpu's per core. Its kind of a hack by Intel to double the processing power. Having 8 cpus with hyperthreading is not the same processing power as eight actual cores, which is why AMD's new processor is a bigger bang for the buck.

Okay, eight real cores, got it. Have you seen any speed comparisons?

No, have not gone looking for any yet. The processor is the Ryzen if you are interested in looking it up.

"Comparing Intel’s $1,000 6900K and the 1700X shows that AMD delivers comparable performance for half the price!" Certainly sounds interesting.

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-7700K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-1700X/3647vs3915

I was not sure if Ryzen supported hyperthreading when I mentioned it ... I followed your link and it does, so that's 16 cpus for rendering. Hyperthreading most likely gives it a moderate boost rather than doubling.

Cores! momma need more cores :computer_old:

ntel Boxed Core i7-6950X Processor Extreme Edition (25M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz) 3.0 10 BX80671I76950X and ASUS LGA2011 5Way Optimization SafeSlot X99 EATX Motherboard (Rampage V Edition 10)

Any word on Memorial weekend sales?

memorial day sale was a bust. rained all day, didn't get to play with the buppies and their new squeaky kong toys

listening to Pink Floyd Meddle.

Carrara is an awesome tool. It just needs someone to further develop it. I've been working with Cinema 4D for about a month now, and though the results are a bit better than Carrara's native render, well, they aren't all THAT much better. And Carrara is actually more fun to use.

Artformz2 posted at 8:30AM Tue, 13 June 2017 - #4307373

Carrara is an awesome tool. It just needs someone to further develop it. I've been working with Cinema 4D for about a month now, and though the results are a bit better than Carrara's native render, well, they aren't all THAT much better. And Carrara is actually more fun to use.

Octane, LuxRender or other 3rd party renderers are available if better rendering is needed, so it wasn't only the rendering that prompted you to switch ... what other features do you need?

I'm still planing on working with Carrara. The main reason is: Carrara will probably not be upgraded, which eventually makes it unusable on a modern OS (in my case, Mac). Cinema 4D is a bit more complex, but both programs are great. In so many ways, it isn't the software, but the artist!

Yeah, eventually newer OS won't run it anymore.

I have to confess that I'm a little worried about that eventuality as well - that at some point it simply won't run anymore. That's why I've been learning Blender (I seem to be one of the few people who really liked the interface once I understood the basic logic of it) even though there are still tons of things that are just more fun to do in Carrara. :)

On the positive side, even though official Carrara development appears to be at a standstill, there does seem to be a mini-renaissance in community plugin development lately with free plugins for triplanar shader projection, genuine distance-squared falloff for spot and point lights, and conversion of Carrara dynamic hair to exportable polygon-based hair all being released in the last couple months.

yeah as much as it frustrates me I have been delving into Blender a bit too as I know it's not going to vanish and will even run on Linux if I ever need to walk that path.

Carrara does everything and I keep finding more exciting ways to do things in it but the days are numbered.

I submitted yet another ticket over at DAZ asking if they were ever again going to make the SDK available again and the response was that no active development of Carrara was going on or being supported and that were not going to allocated the resources to make the SDK available. It was the most blunt response I've gotten - I think they are sick of me asking.

Still, I'll continue to actively use Carrara as long as it's possible to do so. It's just got too many cool and convenient features.

well, is not unexpected.

it really is time for them to sell it to real developers

well that's just a slap in the face

I fully understand people like Fenric walking away and hope Philemot and others hang in there, at least while it still is available as a software

makes me very scared for Carrara's future indeed

I submitted a ticket about the availability of the SDK. They sent me the link to the CarraraCafe site. So I guess Daz is not going to make it available themselves. Thumbs down, but they did at least find the link.

MDO2010 posted at 10:20PM Wed, 19 July 2017 - #4310041

I submitted yet another ticket over at DAZ asking if they were ever again going to make the SDK available again and the response was that no active development of Carrara was going on or being supported and that were not going to allocated the resources to make the SDK available. It was the most blunt response I've gotten - I think they are sick of me asking.

Still, I'll continue to actively use Carrara as long as it's possible to do so. It's just got too many cool and convenient features.

Very interesting. My feeling is that they have been passively supressing it so we all move to Studio.

You are certainly right, Andrew (HW), but Studio??? NEVER!!! Carrara can stay alive for so many years, I don't see what can kill it. A few new plugins are born the last months/weeks thank to Philemo. He's not alone, I have seen another member (sorry, I forget he's name) on DAZ forum, and don't forget our Misty with Genesis 3 in Carrara. I'm shure that peoples in the clubs are very capable to open the core of Carrara and launch it in the public, they are thousands in the world, but we don't need that yet. If I should choose another program, I don't know the wich one for now but Studio... not for me!

DUDU.car posted at 3:56PM Thu, 20 July 2017 - #4310277

Carrara can stay alive for so many years, I don't see what can kill it.

I agree.

If I should choose another program, I don't know the which one for now but Studio... not for me!

I would probably have to say Poser, mostly because of my very large collection of Poser format content. But I'd sure miss all the great Carrara features, especially animation.

i didnt buy the last poser upgrade. it needs like periodic reactivation. ise on pp12, prolly end up being my last and final poser u[grade. started with poser 3. raise a glass, cheers!

giving hexagon modeling a try.

was tempted by silo, but not sure i can activate it on my offline rigs

Carrara will always be my number 1.

it's an excellent, excellent program, and built for the artist.

Hexagon as well ... although other modelers have more functionality now, especially when it comes to texturing/UV mapping. Unless I have a model with millions of polys/triangles I'd still prefer to use Hexagon. Like Wendy, I think going to Blender is probably the best option without spending a lot of $$$.

I have been looking at Ultimate Unwrap 3D. I'm not clear yet, if it offers any advantage over Blender's UV mapping ... have to go back to look at Blender's mapping functions.