Best plug-in for Studio ever!

Thanks Matthew.

Finally took Chipp's suggestion and downloaded the free tutorial on QuadSpinner. After watching it I immediately purchased the tutorial on Procedural Terrains.

The free tutorial was very helpful and has really gotten me going on Procedural Terrains.

Though I haven't made it through the purchased tutorial I can already see that it is going to be a great help and reference for building terrains.

Money well spent.

Charles

Gary,

A guru I'm not but I have been working out the details of a renderfarm myself.

1. There is a breakeven point on network rendering speed. There is considerable communication between the host and the RenderCows which is overhead beyond the rendering. The example you cite refers to a timeframe starting at around 1 hour. I personally feel that that is about where you will begin to see significant advantage to network rendering. Your math is probably close, assuming the cows are relatively equal in performance.

2. My setup is Intel Core2 Quad 64 bit Vista, 8 gig memory, Q6600 (2.4 Gb) host, and 2-Intel Core2 Quad 64 bit Vista, 4 gig memory, Q8200 (2.4 G) RenderCows. Twelve cores total.  I also have 2-32 bit Duo Core Intels on my LAN which can be included in the renders (bringing the total cores to 16).

The RenderCows seem to have adequate memory (4 Gig) for my work. One issue though is that the cores on the render machines are not fully utilized. The performance monitor indicates that only two cores are involved during rendering on the render nodes.

Prior to rendering, the scene data (all of it , I think) and all of the texture maps are transmitted to each node. Not only does this take some time (on a 10/100 Workgroup Switch) but large files with lots of textures could benefit from more memory.

Once rendering starts, the cows only process 1 tile at a time as directed by the host (which is why there doesn't seem to be a large memory demand on the render nodes after the textures, etc. are loaded).

My Vue is Version 7 Pro Studio+ (build 40707) so some of this information may not apply accurately to Infinite or xStream.

I hope the core issue is resolved in the future, since (local) rendering on the host utilizes all available cores at 100%.

I do allow the host to participate in the network renders and it handles the handshaking and rendering tasks easily.

Hope I hit all your points.

Charles

Now that I have had a chance to use GC2 for a while I think it a really great application with huge potential. It greatly enhances Vue terrains.

For $89 it was a total steal.

Charles

I purchased it yesterday and the serial came right away in a separate email at the same time as  the order confirmation.

The logo is VERY prominent plus the resolution is very limited.

In my opinion, Pioneer is only useful for a quick look-see at Vue 7.  There are lingering issues with upgrades.

It is worth a look if you are unfamiliar with the Vue GUI, etc.

The real deal is Esprit for $129 (regular $199) which I have no hesitation to recommend.

It is a limited time offer which expires soon.

Charles

I have been using Vue 7 Artist Series for a short time (months) and like it a lot.  However, I have to admit that my use of the function editor is kind of hit-or-miss.  The user documentation comes up a little short on explaining how to use it.  I'm wondering if someone can comment on how well the Function Editor is covered in the new books recently published?

Charles

Thanks Mazak and spedler,

I was wondering about the obj export. That would be important.

If you don't mind, I was also wondering how the activation was handled when you purchase from C3d?

Charles

I am considering the purchase of GC2. I would really like to hear more about it and how it works with Vue.

This thread has gotten a little off track!

For example, will it run on 64 bit Vista?

Great work!

Can't wait to buy this.

Loads and renders beautifully in Vue 7 Pro Studio.

Hope to become even slightly as accomplished as you are.  Thanks!

The clouds are amazing, but for me its the space scenes, hands down.

Charles

My first poser purchase was Poser 1.0

Much better!

Thanks again.

Thanks!

I'll give it a try.

I really want to get a handle on the Material Room.

Glad to hear it.