Amiga Render Farm

[amigadave]

I am finally getting very close to having the time and all the needed equipment (which I have been collecting for many years) to build my Amiga render farm.  NewTek included software with LightWave to accomplish the queing of assigning which machines will render which frames, but all rendered frames are sent to a central directory to create the desired animation.

Ethernet cards for Amigas are expensive, as you can see when you try to find them online at auctions or online stores.

I can't give you much more info until I set up my video editing room and network several of my 20 Amigas together to create my own render farm.

I have a huge investment in my equipment and software and have no plans to sell or junk my investment and purchase LightWave for the PC yet.  If I can actually make some money with my existing "Hobby" equipment, then I may take that money to buy some newer software and hardware to hopefully make even more money.

I will post my progress here to let you know what I find out about setting up the render farm.

[amigadave]

Piru wrote:
Well, in my opinion single PC + lightwave would be
a) faster
b) cheaper
c) more energy efficient
d) more uptodate (better software, tools etc)
than render-farm of 20 Amigas.

If you have the skills to actually make money from your renders then the PC would be much more sensible investment.

@motorollin

Frankly, amiga is not very suitable for render farms, and in particular these days when a single PC can easily beat 20 amiga render farm. Just trying to give some sound advice here.

I agree that all of the above is true, and I do have one Intel Core 2 Duo 2.33gHz w/2gb RAM that could run LightWave for Windows, but I don't have the skills to make money from my rendered animations and until I learn to use my existing Amiga LightWave 5.0 better and see that I can possibly make some money with it (as it is just a hobby now) I don't think it is worthwhile for me to spend another $795 to purchase LightWave 9.2.

An Amiga render farm makes sense for me, as I have everything already, the 8 to 10 68040 or faster big box Amigas with ethernet cards, etc.

Another big reason to use an Amiga render farm is to partly justify the insanity of spending so much money over the last 15+ years collecting all this Amiga hardware and software.  :lol:   Amiga has always been about being able to do more with less resources.  I want to see what I can create with my Amigas.  

Also I want to teach, or allow teens and young adults interested in 3D design and video editing to use my many Amigas to learn how to get started in this field.  Then they can move up to more powerful and modern systems if they want to continue their learning.  That is one thing that can't be done by many users on one workstation.

I have a friend that still makes 90% of his income on one Amiga A2000 w/Toaster 4000 & Flyer system.  He talks about moving to a newer different PC system, but the results he can produce on his Toaster/Flyer are still better than most other "so called" small time video editor/producers that he competes against.

But that is off topic, as he does not use LightWave much in his business, so fast render times are not critical.

[amigadave]

@pault1,

Amiga LightWave actually ended up with 5.0 (or was it 5.5), not 4.3, but I agree that is a long way from version 9.2 on a multi-core CPU, or several multi-core CPU's in the same machine.

As you said though, for most video editing with an occasional logo or custom effect that is only a few seconds long, an Amiga Toaster/Flyer system is still quite capable.  And by having 8 to 10 68040 or faster Amigas networked together, it will ease the pain of waiting for rendered animations by a factor of 8 to 10!

That is my goal, not to duplicate what Pixar can do.  Just a video editing suite that can put my local cable company to shame.  You would not believe the crap that they broadcast up here in this little mountain community.  To look at it, you would think it was produced by a bunch of mentally challenged people from 20 years ago.  In fact I think my High School (which just happened to be the first in the country to have it's own complete video studio in 1968 by using donated old equipment from Hollywood) could have and did do a better job way back then.

[amigadave]

guru-666 wrote:
I hate to say this but this is getting silly!  Anybody that knows, amiga, Python and or blender would not try this!  Why because it silly, thats why.  

No accelerator? rendering? go get one, what are you waiting for!

I'll agree with you there!  If anyone else is thinking of rendering on any Amiga, they will be in for a very disappointing time (and a long wait) if they try to render more than one frame.  It would be silly to buy Amiga equipment at this point in time to set up a render farm.  If you don't already have all the Amigas and ethernet cards, as well as the Video Toaster and Screamer Net to distribute the rendering, DON'T BOTHER!

There are many other better solutions.  Use what Amigas you DO HAVE to do something better suited to them, like play games if they are not accelerated.

[amigadave]

EDIT: this was written before your last reply

@guru-666,

Read my previous posts in this thread again.  I am not spending another dime on any rendering software or hardware until I learn how to use what I already have.  I may not be any good at it or I may not like the process of creating rendered images enough to pursue it any further.

Like you said, "for fun and education, yes, for work NO".  If I had to do this for WORK, I would absolutely buy modern tools, both hardware and software.

Lucky for me, this Amiga stuff is just for fun and education (mostly self education) still.

P.S. what program(s) do you work with all day as a 3D artist?

[amigadave]

guru-666 wrote:
I did, by inlarge I think we agree!  think I know how it feels.

BTW is thomas serious about the user group?  He has been talking about it for quite some time...... but I never heard of an actual date!

I hope so, I was really looking forward to the User Group meetings.  I have not heard of a rescheduled date yet, but will contact Thomas again to see what I can do to help make it happen.

[amigadave]

trekiej wrote:
My post is to find out what is available for the Amiga.
I agree that it will not be profitable.
It falls back to hardware.
X86 and PPC and what the amiga developers do to make it happen.(Amiga,Genesi,etc)
MacOSX and Linux make the entry harder.

Take everyone else's advice and do not travel down the Amiga path for 3D rendering.  And absolutely do not think that Amiga Inc., Genesi, etc. are going to provide any useful improvements for Amiga 3D rendering any time this century!

You are greatly mistaken if you are depending on any of them to make a COST EFFECTIVE alternative for 3D rendering.  I don't understand what you mean that MacOSX and Linux make the entry harder?  That they are harder for you to learn to use???

Anyway, you have been advised and warned.  Use the FORCE and choose a different path toward 3D enlightenment.  :-D

[amigadave]

guru-666 wrote:
@vic20owner
send me the files, not sure what version you did it in but Ihave v5 for the amiga and this sounds just useless enough to have my attention.

 :horse:   :lol:

What Amiga will you run it on?  68030/25mHz, 68040/40mHz, 68060/50mHz?

I can just imagine your response to the people working on the Open Toaster/Flyer website for wasting their time too.

Call me crazy, but I for one would like the Amiga version of LightWave to recognize and use my 233mHz 604e PPC.  (Probably no one working on that anyway right now) :-D

[amigadave]

For whomever asked somewhere near the beginning of this thread, here is a list of my Amiga computers:

1 - A4000T w/CyberStormPPC @233mHz & 060 @50mHz
2 - A4000D in 3rd party Towers, 1 w/CyberStormPPC @233mHz & 060 @50mHz
1 - A4000D in disrepair
2 - A1200 1 w/68060@50mHz both original desktop cases
1 - A3000T
3 - A3000D
2 - A2000 1 w/68060@50mHz & 150mb RAM
2 - A600
2 - A500 1 w/A530 Turbo GVP
2 - A1000
2 - CD32 1 New in Box never used
1 - CDTV

I have 5 full Video Toaster/Flyer setups, including several hard drive towers full of 4GB to 36GB drives, 2 VLAB Motion setups and 2 GVP IV24's plus about 6 or 7 DCTV's for my Amiga video and animation addiction.

Man am I one sick puppy!