#3ds on other platforms
10 messages in this thread
Is 3ds going to be available on platforms other than the PC? We are looking
for faster ways to render and are trying to make hardware decisions very
soon.
Thanks!
jake
Autodesk has a very strict policy of not discussing future releases.
I _can_ tell you that you'd have to spend $30,000 on an SGI Indigo Elan to
get faster rendering than a 486/50 running 3DSr2. Although the straight
SGI Indigo draws lines and Gouraud-shaded polygons very quickly, the R3000
inside is no speed-demon when it comes to rendering. You'd be better off
with a couple of cheap 486/50's on a network than anything else.
– G
How about our SGI 4D 340GSX? (I have the recurring dream about 3DS running
on our SGI machines…)
Chris
That machine is quite a bit faster than the Indigo. And way more $$$ <g>
I have the same dream… funny that it always ends up being a wet one!
– G
PS: OK, I really don't have sexual fantasies about computers. I promise.
I think that it was about $200K list price when we got it. We got a deal
and paid about $20K for it. (Actually, it was bought as part of a big NASA
numerical modeling project. I'm sure SGI got paid a lot closer to the $200K
than the $20K!
I inherited our old 4D/20 when we got the big machine and I've got it set
up to share an animation controller and recorder with my PC system (running
3DS, of course!) And, of course, **everybody** runs RenderMan! <g>
Chris
If you are going to have fantasies about any computer, the Power Series
machines are good candidates…
Just for the record . . .
The IRIS Indigo is a wicked fast machine. For price/performance for many
CPU-intensive applications, like rendering, it wins over most competitors.
It rates at 30 MIps, 6MFLOPS, and delivers it. Diskless, its $8K. 16 MB &
420 MB disk takes you to something like $12K. Of course, to test it in a
meaningful way, you would need the same program optimized for both the IRIS
Indigo and the *other* platform.
The IRIS Elan is a graphics upgrade to the Indigo. It does not really
affect the rendering speed. It does however affect the ability to work and
interact with 3D models. It makes them really move around. And while CPU
rendering speed is nothing to spend your nights dreaming about, the
incredible realism of real-time rendering to the screen on the Elan is
something to get very very excited about. It has an otherworldly
futuristic appealing striking exciting kinda feel. Very exciting. Not to
mention the DAT quality sound etc etc
In short, we really like our products.
john edelson
sgi
John:
I remember when Apple came out with the fx. One of its code names was
"wicked fast Mac."
Do you really think 6MFLOPS at $12K is a bargain if it's being used as a
render-box? I'm not trying to be difficult, but I believe that it is going
to take more like 20MFLOPS at $12K to pry PC users away from their 486
computers.
Evan
John,
do you know anything about updated ADI 4.1 drivers for the Irisvision
24 bit board? My friend has one and it worked fine with 3ds r1 but would
not do 24 bit with release 2.
Martin,
Remember, the ADI interface for 3DSr2 is completely different than the
release 1 code. Most ADI drivers need to be rewritten for r2.
– G
Get yourself a network of diskless 486/50's, sufficient memory on each one,
and a server with huge hard disk and other mass media. Most cost effective
way to do it and when some bright spark writes a utility to split up the
rendering transparently over the network, it will be even easier.