I'm interested in hearing how this turns out and what the results are in the end. One thing for sure is I would certainly not think the render quality would be any different than if rendered on a single high-end computer. The whole idea of networked rendering is to speed up the entire process so you can do more renders in less time.

Render farms are not anything new, even the REAL expensive ones like Pixar and Dreamworks all have the same goal which is distributed computing. Now, how good Vue is in doing this I don't fully know. If it works as stated you should not be seeing ANY difference in your render quality. I don't know what that would be happening. If it continues, I would ask e-on tech support for help and see what they say.

So far from what I have seen and read as well is the 8.4 beta is having serious issues, especially for those not running 64bit Windows 7. I have not tested it with Poser Pro 2010 like Mazak has, but it seems OK with Poser Pro 7 though.

Hopefully those with issues will get a patch soon or like was mentioned they may just wait and release 8.5 instead. I think the beta has not gone well at all for many users and hopefully it will get worked out soon.

Quote - I have an existing small render farm I use for Vue consisting of 5 dual core pcs running 32bit Vista. I would like to use the same pcs for my Poser network renders, do i have to upgrade them to 64bit OS? Or does only the renderinitiator need to be on the 64bit OS?

I forgot to mention the Main PC, running Poserpro2010 is 64bit win 7 quad core 8 gig ram

Yes, it should work, but keep in mind that unless you have a 64bit OS your system will be limited to the amount of memory available on those computers. Also, I'm sure you know this but only the Pro and Ultimate versions of the Windows OS will take advantage of more than one CPU.

Quote - I won’t open my small business, and begin to do all what I can with this program. I don’t know at now, how many clients I get.  Anybody don’t know me, and when I open this SB, I will lost some time for advertising myself, before some clients start to come me. And this can take some good month.

At this time, will CS5, with new feathers for correction old photography, and etc… I don’t know if I will have, enough clients for update it. Now I have for what bay it, and don’t won’t to bay something, what at some month, will be at past, and I can bay something better. You understand me, about what I told?

In other side, you rights, at this time I can start to work, and don’t loss this time. But I won’t get the 64bit version, and CS4 don’t work well at 64bit, with OpenGL. So, bay something what don’t work well, and very soon come new version…. Not will stupid?        

It's hard to understand your writing, but I get the main points of it. I have to say that I strongly disagree with you as I have been using Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended 64 bit for some time with Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit and had no issues at all. In fact it has been very stable and I have seen no real issues.

Keep in mind you get BOTH 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Photoshop CS4 so that's not an issue either in case it does not work for you on your system.

I can tell you first hand that I am using Adobe CS4 Extended on Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit and have no issues. Keep in mind that I have a powerful system and use more than one CPU along with 10GB of RAM. If you plan on doing anything intensive I would strongly suggest at least 8GB RAM or more and consider a workstation type of motherboard that supports duel-CPUs. Also, you will need Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate to take advantage of more than one CPU and more than 16GB of RAM. All I can say is it really does make a BIG difference and a lot of crashes or issues (not all) can be solved with better hardware and more memory.

Quote - In answer to your original question, I always use the shader tree when importing and have no isses at the moment in 8.4, the hulk went a while back in an update in 7, I haven't seen it in 8 so far..
I do also use Skinvue 8 and that too is very useful..

I had some issues getting things to work with SkinVue 7 and emailed the author twice even with a couple of screenshots but never got a response after 2 months and gave up. So I am just a little skeptical of trying another version if the author is not professional enough to give a reply.

If you got yours to work OK, maybe I can try the same with my version 7. Can you post what your typical settings are you use that does not replace any of the Poser mats or shaders?

Thanks.

Quote - > Quote - I have been importing my Poser figures into Vue for some time, but have done so NOT using the import Poser Shaders option. Right now I am doing some characters and was wondering if I should be importing the bump maps as well for a more realistic look? To me, I seem to get faster and better realism results in Poser using them all the time. Of course, I do tweak some of the mats in Vue, but I was not sure about this. I don't want to spend a lot of time making bumps and textures in Photoshop if they will not be of benefit in Vue.

Also, does anyone know if you still need to tweak as much for Poser mats inside Vue 8.4 as much as you did before? For example, the "green hulk" effect I have not seen in a while and doesn't seem like you need to adjust for that anymore.

Thanks for any advice or tips.

What version of Poser?  Poser 6 figures break Vue Infinite 8.4 for now.  It worked great in Vue 8.0 using Poser mats instead of Vue's version of the mats.

Sorry, I meant Daz figures like V4 and M4. I am using Poser Pro version 7. Do you know of anything that would break it using 8.4 and the Daz figures?

Quote - What's wrong with using SkinVue ?  That is my utility of choice for setting up skin on Poser characters in Vue.  Also doesn't need a link to Poser to render the damn things either

I have tried SkinVue and used it, I may do so again once I can get the settings hammered out. For some reason when I tried it, it replaced my Poser skin textures I created in Photoshop with its own. I asked for help from the author but did not get a reply or solution.

I would consider SkinVue 8, but wasn't sure what I needed to do to solve the SkinVue 7 issue.

Quote - There's a tutorial at geek at play:

http://www.geekatplay.com/tutorials4.php

It's number 124. I've not used it myself but have always found their tutes are excellent. That said I also like silverblade's tutes.

Hope this helps.

Yes, I would also recommend all the geekatplay.com tutorials as well. Very well done and has helped me a lot.

Quote - I have run it on my Win7 64, no problems so far. I am a little bit disappointed about the few new features.  :sad: What can we expect with the 8.5 Update?

Mazak

Everyone has their own opinion, but for me, I would MUCH rather see fewer or no new features added and focus on bug fixes, improvements and stability of what's already there now.

I am running Vue 8i on my 2008 Mac Pro (see my signature) just fine. But you MUST have a very good computer to use it. Also, I would do as others suggest and download the free trial copy to see how it works on the system you will using it on. That way you will know before you buy, which is why they have that version.

Quote -
No one who has succeeded with ATI card?

?

Sure they have, as I noted in my prior post I know two people using ATI 2890 cards and no major issues. Except of course for the software bugs which they keep working on during the year.

Quote - As Rutra says :)

also, Nvdia cards seem stabler than ATI, PC is much more solid than MAC.
See my tutorial in signature on import optimization as they can take an assload of resources.

Totally disagree that PC is much more solid than a Mac.

I have been using Vue on a 2008 Mac Pro since Vue 7 and although I duel-boot into Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit for heavy scenes, most of my work is done fully inside the Mac OS. I can tell you that I have had very little problems at all with any major crashes with Vue 7 or 8 on the Mac and it has been stable in that regard. Right now, there are some things different between the Mac and PC version, but once the 64 bit Vue 8 is released which they are working on it will be a moot point.

I would advise looking at the threads here as suggested and seeing if anything helps. Also, while nVidia seems to be more common, I know at least two people using ATI 2890 graphic cards with no issues.

There are several differences between Windows 7 "Home", "Professional" and "Ultimate". The biggest factors between Home and the others are two VERY important facts:

1. Pro and Ultimate can support more than one CPU. Home can NOT, it only supports one.

2. Home only supports up to 16GB RAM. Pro and Ultimate up to 192GB.

For me that matters a LOT because I use a lot of very high-end 3D software that takes advantage of multi-CPUs and as much RAM as you have available. If you plan to do very complex scenes or get into a lot of 3D art with programs like Vue, Modo, C4D, etc. I would highly recommend Pro or Ultimate and as much RAM as you can afford.

I have a small "renderfarm" myself and am using a Mac Pro for the main computer while the other two systems are my render nodes. Right now I have it setup with Windows 7 64bit on all computers and I can tell you it is VERY fast and helps with the LARGE scenes or animations.

But the answer is not going to be one you want to hear I am afraid. While one of my systems is an older AMD FX55 running Windows 7 64bit with 2GB, the other is an I7 with 6GB and the main system, the Mac Pro has 10GB. Therefore you are going to need at least one VERY good main system and one very decent 2nd system. The others won't really slow you down that much, or at least should not and are simply added to the chain. Sort of think of it like SETI At Home type of use where a lot of computers peck away at a task.

The bottom line is the other posters are right and I would advise you to just save your money for better hardware because the specs you posted will NOT begin to cut the mustard for anything very useful. Sorry, but that really is the best advice for right now given what you have posted.