Using playstation 3 to render

fredfy · Post by **fredfy** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 11:52 am

hello all,

Is it anyone here that have used the ps3 to render a picture or animation thru ethernet?
I have seen some cases where they use the powerful prosessor of the ps 3 to perform complex tasks with Linux innstalled.

the way ive understand it, if it would work, this would be the cheapest way to get a powerful render farm!/?

Borgleader · Post by **Borgleader** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 11:58 am

Yet another one of those...

This subject has been discussed many MANY times...Next time please search the forums before posting.

CTZn · Post by **CTZn** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 3:36 am

No, fredfy. A PS3 is good at realtime things, period. It's not structurally efficient with renderers, all the contrary.

"But..."

but nothing, it fails.

Bliz · Post by **Bliz** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 6:19 am

Half a gig of RAM won't cut it methinks.

PureSpider · Post by **PureSpider** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 7:02 am

RAM doesn't matter at all in that case o.O

Kram1032 · Post by **Kram1032** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 7:05 am

Yes it does:
With current memory management, PS3 would pretty much fail in rendering any slightly advanced scene...

PureSpider · Post by **PureSpider** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 7:06 am

So it's not the AMOUNT of memory that matters, and that's what he mentioned...

Kram1032 · Post by **Kram1032** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 7:11 am

yes it does... If the memory gets full (which is the case very quickly, with half a gig), things a) get slow and b) a bit unreliable....

doublez · Post by **doublez** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 9:09 am

What if you wrote indigo for the cell. Would it be faster then?

Borgleader · Post by **Borgleader** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 9:44 am

doublez wrote:What if you wrote indigo for the cell. Would it be faster then?

Youd have to rethink the entire process methinks and anyways with big scenes it would probably just die anyway.

crojack · Post by **crojack** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 9:48 am

What would be the point of rendering on a ps3 anyways?

Borgleader · Post by **Borgleader** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 9:53 am

crojack wrote:What would be the point of rendering on a ps3 anyways?

1) Your PC sucks majorly
2) For the "fun" of trying it
3) Just 'cause you can

But really I think it's pointless. Maybe nVidias CUDA technology thing will lead eventually to something interesting (maybe) but that will take time. I mean video cards are getting more and more powerful and well it may be possible at some point but not now.

alex22 · Post by **alex22** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 10:01 am

At least they are already way more powerful than a cell processor of the PS3.

Borgleader · Post by **Borgleader** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 10:37 am

alex22 wrote:At least they are already way more powerful than a cell processor of the PS3.

Comparing vid cards with a CPU is really like comparing apples and oranges....they're not the same.

Grimm · Post by **Grimm** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 11:28 am

We have a cell cluster (8 PS3's) here at the university where I work. But it doesn't get used very much, mostly because it is very hard to program for and the above mentioned memory issue. If you really wanted to port Indigo to the cell, you should use the cell blades. Unfortunately they are about $10,000 each but do come with 8 gigs of memory.

Using playstation 3 to render

Using playstation 3 to render

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