Indigo Renderer Forum

Great News!

Hi everyone,

I am happy to announce that, in addition to using the RANCH renderfarm for your external rendering needs, you can now also buy your workstations, mobile renderfarms and even a self-cooled multinode supercomputer - the RANCH Runner - from us.
So whether you want to outsource your renderings or rather increase your internal computing power, we have a solution for you!



Click here for more details.

Very important: the RANCH hardware solutions are only available in Europe.

Fred

What a nice ... erm, offer. But price-wise I'd stay with a beowulf cluster tho.
At least if I do not own a company that makes tons of cash with renderings.




take care
psor

Hi RenderFred

Have you considered another solution like Coolmaster 20 Core 53GHz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9rhOcVhD3o

Basically multible computers powerd with 1 PSU on 12V rails using DC 2 DC ATX converter in 1 chase with small ITX mobos and integrated video.

But on ITX mobo there are only 2 memory slots, soo i'm i'm thinking:
*mATX mobos with int video.
*CPU's Q9550 or cheaper model / i7 920
* 4x2Gb cheap memory per mobo
*Enermax Galaxy EVO 1250W
*kvm switch
*1x 19" monitor
*Large chase (Maybe Lian Li can make 1 larger )
*Nice panel for chase with multible power and reset buttons (f-panel connections for multible mobos)
*DC 2 DC converters
*Small quiet HDD's
*1x USB DVD drive
*Watercooling
*Wireless keyboard / mouse

Speed / price

As you have guessed, our hardware solutions are clearly for professionals and companies, not hobbyists, so reliability is as important as performance. 24/24 operations, etc, no cheap things, no prototypes, no overclocking, etc. It's one thing to build fancy/fun computers when you only have one or two machines to deal with, but when you need to rely on a lot of computers which must render 24/7, you can't do that I understand that the typical Indigo user is a hobbyist, so maybe not a lot of people in this forum will be interested in this, but still I thought the info was useful

No worries RenderFred. I appreciate your thread and your posts. I do remember how
Stack-Studios started with lots and I mean a lot of old Xeon Mobo's tossed in huge
wooden stacks, no case no nothing - naked mobo's and wood. And one head node
as the controller. So of course you can do that, but yes at some point when the
cash flow is right and you need some more power and safety then it's good to
use an offer as yours. And yes Stack-Studios have upgraded there farm ...

So I'm wondering about support for your systems. What happens if a rack fails,
the PSU goes crazy and so on. How fast will the stuff be replaced and do I have
to do this on my own, or will be a technician around.




take care
psor

At the moment not everything is finalized, but high-level/on-site support will probably be limited to our country (France), with special contracts/formulas. Of course if there is a high demand from other european countries things could change...

just a suggestion, perhaps you should update indigo's logo?

http://www.ranchcomputing.com/index.php

Good suggestion, it's done

Looking good now.

Hi RenderFred,

My question is a bit trivial, but: do you have some video tutorial illustrating the process of submiting Indigo jobs to the RANCH ? Or even a "condensated" pdf ?

Of course, such documents would not be binding for the RANCH, users would still have to read and abide by the official guides.

My point is to expose roughly the process (and the PGH system) because some people might be keen to use your service, but could fear complexity by anticipation.

Perhaps is that something you already considered, and discarded for some good reason(s) ?

Well, a pdf quick guide in my opinion is not a good idea, because it may lead some people to overlook too many things and simply not read the main manual (it's amazing how many people can't read ).

But a quick video showing a simple project submission on the Ranch would indeed be useful, and we are thinking about it. The only problem is time, as we have many many other things to do. Still, it's in the to-do list somewhere, so we'll get to it eventually, even if I don't know when exactly.

RenderFred wrote:it's amazing how many people can't read

That was my point, you got me

Yes, such a simplified document could be misleading, hence the importance of a disclaimer in first page I think (big letters, red on black ya knwo).

Thanks for the fast answer, and for your time by the way.

Hi everyone,

I am pleased to announce that the RANCH is now running with the latest stable version of Indigo (2.2.12 x64).

Fred

I'd like to introduce a new function I have implemented for Indigo projects on the RANCH: the near real-time preview.

In a few words, the preview lets you see your project while it is being rendered! It does not show all the subtleties of the final image (some reflections may be lost, contrast might be different), but its quality gives a reasonably good approximation of the final scene. Here is an example with the caterpillar scene:



Here is the link to the full res preview

The preview is refreshed every 3 minutes and is always 1400 pixels wide/high (or less if the project has a lower res). Considering that 128 nodes are working on each project on the RANCH it was not easy to do, but I am quite happy with the result.

I hope you like it!

Fred