Rendering on a remote computer/farming

[Anonymous]

I haven't looked too far into this yet, but could someone point me in the right direction for information about archicad's abilities to allocate rendering to a remote system or network. native, via lightworks, 3rd party renderer, you know, whatever's clever.

Thanks.

[Dwight]

Distributed Lightworks : fuggedaboudit!

You need Cinema 4D or another professional tool to do this and ONLY for multiple frames. Single frame rendering remains limited to one machine at a time.

"Render King" is a site you should investigate since they support distributed processing for many rendering systems.

But the phrase "render farm" is silly, considering that it conjures bucolic scenes of happy animals lowing calmly and chewing cud and not row upon row of humming, faceless automatons like in a larger architect's office.

[Anonymous]

>>You need Cinema 4D or another professional tool to do this and ONLY for >>multiple frames. Single frame rendering remains limited to one machine >>at a time.

I think you can do single frame rendering using multiple machines. VRay will do that and so will Maxwell.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it.

[Palawat]

Apart from Maxwell, which plugin's already be made for Archicad, you can also try Indigo.

[muzedesigns]

Hello Dwight,

You mentioned Cinema 4D for multiple frame rendering..

How difficult is the process to merge/import the archiCAD file into Cinema 4D - does it take all the textures or do you have to reapply to each surface or element..? Also, does that mean ArchiCAD is 'freed up' when rendering in Cinema 4D? So you are able to work on a different project in ArchiCAD whilst CD4 Spits out the Animation?

What about importing camera paths and settings and lighting - or are they all applied in CD4?

Chrissy

[Dwight]

You'd use Cinema 4D for better results. But your questions indicate that you have much research ahead in the rendering game before you jump into something like Cinema:

- The material names transfer when you export the file - you will have made your Cinema materials ahead of time in Cinema since they are more sophisticated than in Archicad.

- Archicad is freed up but your computer is not. You want to let all of your computing power address the rendering. You can also send your file to a place like "Render King" http://www.renderking.com/

- Never apply cameras or lights in Archicad when you plan to export the file since they are clunky compared to what you can do elsewhere. Lights are located but values are wrong. This isn't so bad if you use my cinematic lighting techniques.

[Dwight]

But Cinema can send the file to all of the other machines in your office and it works in the background on all of them. Each does a frameatatime.

[muzedesigns]

I would definitely work on a different machine when rendering.. I am scared to sneeze near a computer when it is in progress! I should have said that my 'Wibu Box' Dongle would be free to roam to another computer..

I have Cinema 4D - but just haven't had to time to look into it yet.. it just sits there.. I love Light Works.. but want to take my work to the next level, and really want to look into exporting to another program for the animations for a combination of reasons..

In your opinion; Does a animation program like CD4 handle the process of rendering an animation 'better' when used in conjunction with archiCAD?
Is it less fragile with the multitude of objects and lighting etc? - I guess what I am trying to ask is if more powerful? If you had it you would would not hesitate to use it over archiCAD for the rendering process of an animation?

[Dwight]

I have always liked Cinema 4D since it is easy to understand and they give it to me for free. Archicad users looking to the next level should seriously consider Artlantis because it makes much better light and i fundamentally easier to use than LightWorks is.

Artlantis currently cannot distribute processing among several computers.

Considering Cinema 4D, or any professional-level rendering/modeling application leads you to a new profession. Mastering cinematic modeling/surfacing/lighting takes all day. All week, perhaps. Maybe an entire month. Or longer. A year, even. Professional rendering applications offer:

- faster rendering
- distributed processing of single frames and animations
- materials with sophisticated light reflection behavior [Cinema 4D has several hundred adjustments you might make to any surface]
- sophisticated camera controls, animation timeline
- fast previewing of effects

You simply don't export your Archicad file to something like Cinema and get a usable product - the environment behaves differently - more like a
studio, but once you have created an environment with compatible materials and lighting, it is routine to bring in an Archicad model.

It goes without saying that modeling is quicker in Archicad.....