CompuServe Thread

Hi Mike, << Are you with Autodesk? >> yes.. << If so, could you refer a good company that could deal with such a large project; >> I can't recommend specific services but there are forum regulars that offer this kind of service and they may still jump into this thread. I searched the library with a keyword "RENDER FARM" and "RENDER SERVICE" and found a few files outlining just this kind of service. << would autodesk be willing to use this project for promotion if they would help out on the rendering. >> This I don't know. The proper person to start a dialog with at Autodesk would be Bob Bennett 415-507-5300. <<..w/ 64 MB ram we are getting a 40MB Swap or so on the Pentium….. It is my assuption that with 128MB we'd be flying. >> yup. Best of luck. I'd love to see any stills that you may wish to share or you may consider contributing the piece for the upcoming SIGGRAPH reel. jonas[adesk]

Note that reducing the color depth of the bitmaps isn't going to save any RAM, as they're all going to be expanded back out to 24-bit once inside of the renderer. – G

Mike, >> As of right now the Maps are in 24 bit format (and there are a lot of them) I am presently reducing them to 8bit format to see if I can reduce the ram requirements. DON'T DO IT! You'll just be wasting your time. 3D Studio allocates 3-bytes per pixel for every map loaded at render time, whether the map is 1-bit, 8-bit, or 24-bit. You would be better off analyzing your materials and looking for places where you could use the same map multiple times rather than using multiple maps that are similar. Once a map is loaded you can use it in as many materials as you want without incurring any extra memory penalty. Steven

As GaryY and SteveE have mentioned, Mike, reducing your maps to 8-bit isn't going to do you any good re RAM usage. However, might I suggest looking closely at your scene and determining if lower resolution maps (than the ones you are currently using) would be appropriate? If you have objects that do not take up much of the screen during a render, I've found that you can get away with a significantly smaller map and still have the material look quite good while using less RAM. A good rule of thumb is to go with maps that are no smaller pixel-wise than the maximum amount of the screen that the material appears on. If you have already done this, please excuse me. -Alan PS -I use a P5/60 with 128 MB RAM, but right now I'm rather busy. If some render-time frees up within the next couple of weeks, I let you know and if you still need some help maybe I can be of some assistance. It sounds as though you really need >100MB machines to make the big difference in rendering time per frame. PSS -I noticed you were wondering about the scope of information available re 3DS here at the ASOFT forum. I can only say that it is probably the most comprehensive technical/artistic 3DS-oriented information system that exists! I hope you hang around a bit and benefit from the info that literally dozens of 3DSer's freely discuss here, not to mention that the developers themselves are here for assistance of all kinds. It is a pretty nice feeling to witness folks who genuinely are interested in helping others. Kinda like that warm feeling you got way back in church/nursery school <g>!