Hi everyone,

I have sent our first newsletter to every RANCH registered user. There is some great news in it :)

Just registered 5 minutes ago. Was I too late for the newsletter? (Sure would like to read it.)

Never mind... got the newsletter. Good news, indeed! Hope to have a couple monsters to try out next week. ;-)

Used it for a still just a day or so ago...worked well.  My 3600 px render finished in under 10 minutes...amazing.  Moving my file from V5I to V6I went well...things looked exact except for my ecosystem of grass.

However, all else worked well.  Chalk the issue above up to the V5I/V6I difference I guess.

5/5

Gotta get V6I soon for this purpose only...as I'm not impressed by the spectral atmospheres...sounds like a LOT more rendering time for nearly the same image quality as GI.

Quote - Used it for a still just a day or so ago...worked well.  My 3600 px render finished in under 10 minutes...amazing.  Moving my file from V5I to V6I went well...things looked exact except for my ecosystem of grass.

However, all else worked well.  Chalk the issue above up to the V5I/V6I difference I guess.

5/5

Gotta get V6I soon for this purpose only...as I'm not impressed by the spectral atmospheres...sounds like a LOT more rendering time for nearly the same image quality as GI.

um you do realize that the spectral atmosphere is where you get to use the new metacloud and cloud layers.its not just lighting....

This is the last week of our special introductory price, and for these last days we have decided to do something special : to let you test the renderfarm for free !!
 
Of course, such an incredible offer is not without limitations. The purpose of this offer is not to let you render production projects :) but to let everyone try the farm and get familiar with the process. It is also a good occasion to evaluate the ease of use and the performance of the farm without spending money. And if you have big projects to render in the future, this first experience with the RANCH will certainly be helpful.
 
To benefit from this special offer, you must :
 

1. have registered on the RANCH website
2. submit a project with EXACTLY the following characteristics :
    

• Render mode : FINAL
• NO RADIOSITY (other lighting modes including GA / AO / GI are accepted)
• Lighting Quality Boost <= 0.0
   
• for a still image, the resolution must be EXACTLY 2500 x 1875 pixels.
• for an animation, you must submit a 51 frames sequence (frame 0 to frame 50), in 640 x 480 resolution, with a standard increment of 1 frame.
   
  You will use the entire process and pay the submission fee as you would normally pay. The difference is, if the project you submit uses these exact parameters, 1) you will not be charged for the render time and 2) you will get a refund for the submission fee (a message from PAYPAL will inform you quickly of the refund).
   
  Any project which does not use these exact parameters will be charged normally (at the rate $0.15 per GHz per hour, the normal introductory price).
   

• This offer will expire on saturday, March 31st at 23:59:59 (GMT+1).
• Each registered user can get exactly ONE free test project.
   
  So, now is your chance to see if the RANCH can be useful for your future Vue projects : don't miss it !

Just took advantage of Fred's kind offer, and it was a seamless and perfect experience. I uploaded a rather complicated scene, using the settings he recommends for the free render, and 10 minutes later I downloaded my completed image. Great stuff!!!

Thanks Fred!

-Chipp

Wish I had read this message last night - my final test render is only 54% done after 6 hours on a single computer.  I will try this out before the 31st. 

I tried it this morning and was impressed by the speed, a render that my computer said would take around 52 hours and that had NO water in the scene took 11 minutes.

Very impressed, was easy to use too.

Jon

24 minutes 44 seconds!  Wow - I couldn't even render a small area in that time!  This is the freebie 2500x1875 with final render settings.  Will I use this in the future - you bet!