#ScreamerNet/Raptor Ships
60 messages in this thread
We ordered the Raptor from Devware. It cost us around $15,995 with the LW
software. We signed up for the leasing program…so we'll end up paying around
$500.00 a month for the next few years.
GM
Glen,
Devware is claiming to see speed increases of 25X with one Raptor. I have had
one for a little over a week now (bought from local dealer) and I am
consistantly getting a speed increase of about 11X – which is what Deskstation
has been claiming.
I would like your feedback on the increases you observe as I would be
interested to know what kind of scenes the Screamernet software really shines
on. If you talk with the Devware people, find out exactly what kind of images
they are rendering that provide such substantial rendering acceleration.
By the way, the operation of the unit is seamless and totally tranparent to the
user. The hardware looks and performs first rate and Don Peterson and NewTek
have done a great job bringing this product to the market.
The only problem is that you get used to the speed and begin contemplating how
really cool four Raptors would be!
Adib
Adib,
Thanks for your kind words. We always try to quote conservative numbers for
our systems and am glad to hear you confirm our claims. Dev Ware is probably
quoting best-case numbers as I know Brent Melnack has done some things that
deliver 25X to 30X an A4000. I don't know what things Brent did and frankly I
don't care. All users will see different performance improvements, and I think
10X is pretty damn good, all things considered.
Have fun rendering . . . and BTW, I like lie awake nights thinking about
everyone having 4 Raptors too. But probably for a slightly different reason.
Don,
I agree, speed increases by a factor 10-11 is awsome. I think most LW users
have to take into consideration the fact that the only other alternative is to
buy 10-11 A4000 Toaster systems.
At around $6,000 a pop that comes to around a $60,000 investment and a lot of
square footage in order to fit all of the Amigas. The Raptor solution is
really the only option that makes sense. Even if Newtek puts out a version of
the software which can access IBM PC/Intel based systems, one has to remember
that they can access only a maximum of 8 processors. If someone is going to
spend $2,000 on the ScreamerNet software, I think that it will be foolish to
limit yourself to 8 PC boards and still be behind a MIPS machine.
I can only speak for myself, and I am extremely pleased with the Raptor, and
even though the ScreamerNet software is still a Beta version, it works
perfectly. Although I have not tried Image Sequencing yet, I have pretty much
thrown everything I could think of at it and it just HAULS BUTT! with NO
PROBLEMS. With my PAR setup it is really something that has to be seen to be
appreciated.
Like a junkie I am starting to get used to the speed and am already craving for
more (hint). Great job, thanks for your continued cooperation and keeping me
informed throughout the waiting period, and let me know when in '96 the IPO is
issued.
Adib
PMFJI, but when you mention an '11x' speed increase, what are you
comparing it to? (4000/040/25, GVP G-Force, RCS, ????)
(I'm curious, since I got a 2.5x increase on my 4000, just by adding a
40MHz accelerator.)
'The only problem is that you get used to the speed…'
My sentiments exactly. :^)
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
I am comparing it to the following setup:
1 Amiga 4000 '040 with 18MB of RAM
Cool! That means the Raptor is about 4 times faster than a
4000/040/40MHz?
1 Raptor ~= 10-11 4000/25MHz, 1 4000/40MHz ~= 2.5 4000/25MHz, thus:
1 Raptor ~= 4 4000/40MHz……..
Thanks.
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
<<<1 Raptor ~= 10-11 4000/25MHz, 1 4000/40MHz ~= 2.5 4000/25MHz, thus:>>>
How can a CPU with a clock rate of 40Mhz be 2.5 times faster than the same CPU
with a 25Mhz clock rate? Unless the 68040-40 is somehow a different CPU with a
least double the integer units of the 68040-25 the best it can possibly
achieve, based on the laws of physics (which I know has no bearing on marketing
claims) is a 40 percent improvement. If Adib gets this scene file uploaded
I'd like to hear the results you get.
Don
RAM access on the Warp is dramatically faster than on the motherboard.
Otherwise, there wouldn't even be a linear increase from 25 to 40.
Speaking of which, does anyone know just how much faster (in real-world
tests) the slowest (cheaper) Warp board is?
—
Dale L. Larson, Intangible Assets Manufacturing
As Dale Larson pointed out, the acc. cards for the 4000 overcome a RAM
bottleneck. I've got the GVP, but it's true for all acc with onboard RAM.
Believe me, I was as surprised (pleasantly in my case) as you were to find
out that a machine clocked 60% faster actually renders 2-3 times faster.
It just means that the 4000 will be an even better companion to my
Raptor/WinNT Workstation (when/if one ever ships).
If Adib wants to upload a test scene, I'd love to render it. (Please,
don't send one that takes more than 1 hour/frame on the Raptor! :^)
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
I am working on a scene for our upcomming print advertisment. I will upload
the actual rendered scene and give you the "0-60" times and all the other good
stuff.
I just have to get my modeler to get more cooperative with Boolean functions
and stop freaking out everytime I try a subtract routine.
By the way, to date, I have not tried the Independent rendering mode which is
suppose to be THE fastest mode. I was not sure if the images were going to be
saved in sequence and Newtek has advised me that they will be saved in
sequence. So I anticipate an increase in performance for multiframe
animations. I will keep you guys posted on any increases in speed observed
from this feature.
The problem with sending the actual scene is that you may not have some of the
objects within the scene, and as they are not Public Domain objects, I can't
upload them for you.
Adib
If you do upload a scene for use in performance testing, make sure and
upload one that we can all duplicate.
Thanks. I look forward to comparing the actual speeds.
BTW, the 4000/040 stock from C= runs at 25MHz.
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Erik,
I will upload a scene you can all use with objects included in Lightwave, and
indicate the surface attributes used. That way we can see how well the Raptor
does in comparison to you accelerated machine. Look for it hopefully by this
Sunday at the latest. I will include a note on my rendering time.
Thanks for the info on the 040, all this time I though it was humming along at
40Mhz. Gee I guess now I know why the Warp engine is out there!
Adib
Erik,
Well, I loaded a scene of a glass table with a rose in a glass on top of it. I
loaded it up in the Amiga Arts forum. I hope everything loaded okay as this
was the first time I have ever uploaded anything on CI$.
The objects used in the scene were also uploaded: Decotable, glass and rose;
along with a 24bit iff image of the rendering (I forgot to mention it is an iff
file in the upload comments section – oh well).
I rendered it on the Raptor with the following setting:
Medium resolution Shadows ON
Reflection ON Refraction ON
Adaptive Sampling ON with Sampling Threshold of 8
Low anti-ailiasing
it took 7m 2seconds
Also, I rendered the Texture Examples scene that comes with the toaster – you
know the one with 12 cubes each with a different texture – its in the scene
directory. They were renderred with the exact same setting as above on the
Raptor and it took 121 Seconds.
let me know how fast it is on your 40Mhz setup.
Also with Wavemakers Universe scene (frame 190+) were your logo (with
reflection map) is completely on the screen with the earth rotating in the
background – it took 335 seconds to render that was with Reflection ON,
Shadowing ON, no refraction, Adaptive Sampling on with threshold of 8, field
rendering ON, low ailiasing.
Also, if you have motionman from crestline software, give him a glass surface –
same as the glass table I uploaded tonite, with actual stars in the background
and a light with lens flare to simulate the sun. On my A4000 it took 1hour
14minutes 24seconds, on the Raptor it took 7minutes 11 seconds.
More testing will be done during the week. I am looking for the 25x increase
reported by Devware – I want to be able to simulate a scene that will exhibit
this level of acceleration – I think the secret is lots of Refraction.
Adib
Thanks for the scene! (I assume it's all in one archive, right?)
I saved your message as text,and I'll get back to you with some times.
Then I'll go ahead and render the 'Bowling pin' scene (seen in the recent
issue of LWPro.) I believe the object files should still be up here. I'll
upload a new scene file for LW3.x
Talk to ya' later,
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Remember that Independant Mode uses 1 CPU per frame while Manual (or
Automatic) uses all available CPU's for 1 frame at a time. You may not see
an individual increase in rendering time for Independat, but as an
average, it is faster in the long run as CPU's are always working. In
Manual mode, the top half of a frame may be more complicated than the
bottom half, and the top CPU could take much longer to finish while the
bottom CPU is just sitting there waiting for the top. This is why
Independant ends up being faster.
Whenever you are rendering a single image, always use Manual. Whenever
rendering a sequence, Always use Independant.
BTW, with Independant, it is possible that frames could be saved out of
sequence, but there would have to be MAJOR changes between two succesive
frames for that to happen.
JG
John,
I am not as eloquent as you when placing down my thoughts, so I did the
unthinkable and assumed that Erik knew the Independent rendering mode was for
multiple frames. But then again, thats why you are the big man on campus at
LWPro headquarters.
What ever happened to the meeting you guys were suppose to have (pre earth
quake LA) on this forum so that the rest of us can really bombard you with
questions?
What's this ad I see in VTU about Lightwave classes at SIG '94?
<it is possible that frames could be saved out of
sequence, but there would have to be MAJOR changes between two succesive
frames for that to happen.> How major is major? have you guys run into this
problem?
Adib
The forum gathering can still take place, I just haven't heard anything
from anybody lately, and I usually have enough on my plate to forget about
all the side dishes..
There will be some of the writers from LWPRO and VTU conducting some
seminars at SIGGRAPH. Don't know if I can make it yet but am trying to.
Re: frames out of seq. It isn't a problem for us as we save everything to
drives and then convert it to what we need. I would assume you could have
a problem if saving directly to the PAR device as it would be looking for
sequenced frames (if they got saved out of order…)
JG
If you have problems getting the PAR to get the images in the right order
when using the `Independent rendering mode' then you might want to get
someone to right a ARexx script and render to the HD and the script can
monitor the directory and send the files to the PAR in the order you need,
then delete the files on the HD.
<<< Tony D. Tracer >>>
(Any render time >0 needs acceleration.)
Doesn't the A4000 040 already run at 40Mhz?
Adib,
Glad to hear you're enjoying your Raptor. Wish I could afford one. (or 2,
or 3…)
Any chance you could upload a couple of scenes with Raptor render times? I
was thinking of scenes with raytraced shadows, reflections, ect. The sort
of stuff that really bogs down LW on animation.
It's one thing to look at benchmarks for the Raptor but quite another to
render a scene that took a few minutes on one and have it tie up a normal
Toaster system for an hour or two.
Also, do you notice a huge speed increase on scenes that render quickly,
(say 5 minutes/frame on a 4000/40) or does the overhead of moving the data
to the Raptor then back to the Toaster eat up the speed increase?
Jeff H…
One of the scenes I rendered just to see what would happen (I tried to do most
of the testing on the first day – just to get an idea and start doing some real
work) consisted of the following:
Motion Man model surfaced as glass
Actual stars background
a "sun" off to the side
Reflection ON, Refraction ON, Shadwos ON
A4000 040 18MB RAM time: 1 hour 14 minutes 24 seconds
RAPTOR with 128MB RAM time: 7 minutes 11 seconds
The speed increases were pretty consistent even with quick render scenes. They
only delay I have noticed is from the saving of frames to Hard Drives. But
this is a "problem" with a none RAPTOR system anyway.
One option that the Screamernet offers is to have each processor work on a
separate scene – much like a Wavelink setup the computer is actually rendering
two scenes at a time. But NewTek technical support was not able to tell me if
the files are saved in sequence or randomely (ie. one processor finishes before
the other and screws up the sequence for the PAR).
This "Independent" rendering option is suppose to offer the fastes rendering
times, but as I do not know how the scenes are saved (in or out of sequence) I
have not used it yet. My numbers are based on the Automatic rendering option
which lets both processors work on a single scene.
You will notice a significant speed increase on any scene regardless of how
quickly it renders. An example is the Fighter scene that comes with the
Toaster. If I recall (it was a week ago), an A4000 040 was rendering the first
few scenes were the ships are very small at around 50 seconds or so, with the
RAPTOR it was rendering them at around 14 seconds. As the scene got more
complex and as the ships became larger the speed jumped 10.35 X faster.
I use an IBM compatible to access Compuserve, so access to the Amiga images is
not very convinient, but I will upload a real "glassy" scene with a lot of
refraction and reflection so that you guys can get an idea of how tremedous the
speed increases are. I just hope I can fit the scene on a floppy to take over
to the PC and upload.
Why Not ZIP it or LHarc it First then copy to Floppy? Or JPEG the image.
Peter,
That is what I was thinking of doing – in fact compressing the file is the only
way.
Saw your contribution to the Gang II tape, and it was nice being able to
associate a face with a CI$ account.
I don't care what you say, I think the accent is real. Cool helmet for the
muscle dude. Too bad he kept getting beaten up. Did you key those run
sequences yourself?
What 3D program do you use? It did not look like Lightwave.
I use Imagine 3D and the Run Sequences Were NOT done by me. Commercial Set
of Models from Spectronics called Cycle Muscles. Am unsure wether they are
available for LW.
Was it me or did my footage look REALLY washed out?
actually the color retention was not bad. I have found out the hard way that
this is just a fact of life when going from SVHS to VHS (which is what I am
assuming you gave to Jerry).
The dub from SVHS to VHS just kills information.
Jerry did a great job of putting the tape together. Nice intro screens and
sound recording.
Very Interesting. Yes I DID go from SVHS to Jerry. Who took the SVHS to
3/4" or maybe to his new Betacam unit then to VHS.
I loved yer Talking head introduing yer EDSA commercial.
Thanks, the talking head was actually created as a far more elaborate scene but
I kept on getting the error (not enough memory – unable to allocate RGB
buffers).
The scene, believe it or not, was made of 72 consecutive morphs and had to be
done in three sections (even with the simplistic layout I still got memory
errors – and that was with 18MB of RAM!!). I used the PARs append feature to
stick them together. It took 12 days to render.
'72 consecutive morphs' Yikes! I guess this was before bones?
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
OUCH!!! Sounds like a Wicked Piece.
Peter,
I'm pretty sure that the reason your colors looked washed out to you is because
I brought all the segments up to standard settings using the color bars that
were recorded on the front of each segment. Your black levels were VERY low,
down around 2 IRE. Bringing the black level up to 7.5 could indeed look washed
out to you, if you're accustomed to looking at your picture at the lower
settings. I'll bet your hues were much closer to right this time, though…
<g>
Jerry
Could be Jerry. Mostly it was in the greens of the background where it is
noticeable. I guess next time I record Bars I WON'T output them via DCTV.
Seems to have been a mistake. Hopefully by the time the next Gang Tape if
indeed there is one, I'll have a PAR with luck.
Adib,
Thanks for the info on the Raptor's render times. Sounds like a mighty
tempting beast.
If you've got this much money tied up in hardware it's a safe bet you're
doing animations professionally. Would I have heard of your company?
Jeff H…
Well, I do have a lot of money tied up in hardware/software. But I have only
begun doing animation work for the past 7 months or so.
Initially I only did single frames for print advertising, and then I got a PAR
and started playing around with animations – but until now the slow rendering
speed was a big detractor from really getting down and learning Lightwave.
Unless you are an Electrical or Power Systems engineer, I doubt if you have
heard of my company – EDSA. I hope to be doing animations professionally in
the near future.
Adib
Hey, I can't wait! We will get ours in around the 21st of JUNE.
I Have heard stories about a sequence bug…something about wrapping video onto
geometry…that you can't unless you go through this big work around. Have you
had this problem, or do you know anything about this bug?
I want to do a time chart for LWPRO when I get the system up and running. I
want to test this guy to death and see why it ticks the way it does!
Well, send me any points and tips you might have found to help me over any
bumps I might hit!
Thanks!
Glen
Glen,
A local guy here who works at General Motors did an image sequence with a
pre-pre-pre-release version of the ScreamerNet Software. The images were
captured with the TBC IV and PAR setup and then cylindrically wrapped in a
lightwave scene.
He did have problems but it appeared every 60 frames or so, therefore, they did
the renderings at 50-60 frame intervals and it solved the problem.
The software I have is also the Beta version, but I have not done image
sequencing with it as I do not have a means of capturing live video on a frame
by frame basis.
I have been observing a 10-11X increase in rendering time, however, others on
this forum have seen as much as a 80X increase and Devware has seen 25X
increases – check the messages posted during the last four days. Apprently the
type of surfaces (glass, metal..etc.) make a big difference in observed
acceleration.
The software has hung up on me a few times (either it locks up or I get kicked
out of lightwave completely), but only when I am doing manual renderings on a
single frame. I have not had any problems with the automatic rendering mode
which loads and renders all scene frames automatically.
The local dealer loaded everything and tested the hardware to make sure
everything is hunky dory, so I didn't have any problems with setting the
machine up. I just hooked up the networking cable and was up and running in
less than 10 minutes.
I am sure you will love the machine. And the software interface is seamless –
although they have changed a few things look wise in the camera menu in LW.
The time savings are just tremendous – 14 day scenes now take less than 1.5
days! I now have the gutts to experiment with lightwave and get to know it
better as the time penalties are no longer as severe. The only thing is that
the Raptor is like a Drug! you just want more. Its really sick but once you
go Raptor you can never go back.
I subscribe to LWPRO and have read your article in the last issue, and look
forward to reading more – that vertasketch hardware sounded expensive – I guess
you do some serious animation work?
I will let you know of any relevations I come across between now and June 21st.
Adib
Adib,
Hey, sounds like you are up and running! I hope to have as easy of a time with
the unit as you have had! I guess one could set up an AREXX script to call up
different scenes…each a 50 frame segment of a larger piece…and get by that
way, I guess? It seem odd that NewTek let this one get by!
Thanks for the good words on the LWPro piece! It was really a thrill to start
writing for such a publication! I hope to do more! The first article is kind
of like the Raptor's drug effect…you only want to do more…work just keeps
getting in the way!
As for the hardware…well, it was more important than a new car…a new car
wouldn't help get more experence and increase the chance of getting on at one
of the many growing Hollywood EFX houses! Sometimes those splines are a pain,
but the unit and Vertisketch software a major powerhouse! I love it!
GGM (ooppps, one too many G's)
?EXIT
Glen,
One of our guys is on his way to Topeka right now to pick up the newest release
of Screamer Net. Apparently, all of the known bugs have been fixed including
image sequencing. Your unit will ship with this package and everyone else who
has ScreamerNet should be contacting their dealers for their new and improved
version.
Don
We've tested image sequencing with over 200 frames in a sequence and it
worked great!
JG
I for one, LOVE THE SOUND OF THAT 200 FRAME MESSAGE! GO SCREAMER NET!
GM
Don,
Yeaaaaaaa HAAAAaaaaaaa! (Just saw City Slickers) Now I don't have to learn
Arexx! I was going to write a Arexx script to load 50 frame chunks! But now!
Hey, I'll report in when we get our running….which will be MONDAY!
Yeaaaaaaaaa!
Just in case we don't have the new version, how do we get it…rather, what is
the new release number?
GM
Don:
Forgive me if this question has already been asked:
If one wanted to get the power of the original Screamer design (i.e. 4
processors), is it necessary to go with 2 Raptor boxes, or is it possible to
configure 4 processors in one Raptor case?
Thanks!
Amassing our fortune…
Trent/ReAnimators
Trent,
It would require 2 Raptors to get the same number of processors as was
announced for the Screamer. As the capabilities of the MIPS processors has
improved over time, it may require fewer processors to get the performance that
the Screamer would have realisitcally delivered. As for the original announced
performance of the Screamer, I'm not sure technology is there even yet to
produce such a thing…..but we're getting very close.
Don
Thanks for the info, Don. From what I'm hearing, the Raptor is a great piece
of gear! Congrats!
Trent/ReAnimators
Glen,
I look forward to more of your articles. LWPro is a kick butt newsletter, and
it looks like they are doing better every day. The latest issue even has a
color cover!
The Vertasketch sounded really interesting. Although I am not in the market
for something like that just right now, I would like to read more about it.
Hopefully you can write about an application (from start to finish) and how
Vertasketch worked for you and some of the obstacles you had to overcome.
Also, it sounded king of dangerous – at least one of the methods you described
for a digitizer that can model metal objects stated that you can blow up things
if a spark or flame is anywhere near the digiting area!
I am sure you will really like your Raptor, and the fact that your version will
have the bugs out of it is just an added plus. The only major bug that has
been "bugging" me is the fact that in layout, if you move an object it
automatically Keys that location in so you do not have to keyframe the
location. And it does it for all objects in layout – so you really have lost
some necessary control. To me the create Keyframe feature also served as a
valuable Undo feature, if I screwed up, I would just go to the original key
frame and start again. Not so right now.
So what EFX houses are you targeting (Santa Barbara…etc)? are you in
California or where?
Adib
Adib,
Go to the Options panel and turn of Auto Key Adjust. Then you won't
automatically create key frames when you adjust a key…
Also, If this is enabled, you only will auto create new position keys for
existing key frames not non keys (you probably knew this)
It is pretty useful for still image work…
JG
John,
Thanks for letting me know. They have changed a few things around and with no
manual I had no idea what was going on.
Brad Peebler called me Friday and cleared it up for me also. Yes, for single
frame work this new feature is very nice, and I am glad that it is an option
that can be disabled – my software defaulted to the active mode of this option
and was driving me nuts!
Not to change topics, but what exactly does one get with a LWPro disk
subscription? is it just the Macro routines talked about in the articles or
are Images, Objects and other things provided also. I have been contemplating
whether to sign up for it, but I would like to know what I am going to get.
Also, will future issues include four color covers?
Adib
Re: LWPRO disks.
The disk subscription gets you the next 6 disks – whatever they may be.
For instance, an issue coming up on real world effects includes scenes,
objects and image maps on its disk. They will vary depending on the
issue.
Yes, all covers from now on will be color.
JG
Cool!
I'll give VTU a call this week.
Adib
John, So this means we get a whole new release of Lightwave? I don't quite
remember the auto keyframe adj button!
GM
It's in the ScreamerNet version…
JG
John,
It has all changed! Whoooo! I can see where the keyframer comes in, but it is
one of those things that would force me to change the way I work…and with the
project I have due, I don't have the time! :}
I like that new Flare Distance fade!
And where is the "Show Lights" button?
GM
Show Lights are done on an individual basis in the Scene Overview panel.
JG
Aloha Glenn, offtopic but….I posted the Address and Phone # for the
Pyromania CDROM in the Amigaarts animation area
Adib,
Hey, thanks again for the 'thanks' on the article. I too love LWPro! I am
planning a multi part article that will take someone through an entire
project…planning and storyboarding, to modeling, to animaation, to the
sixteen time you have to redo an anim for a client, etc. It will sort-of
discuss an answer to the question: "What is a professional animator, what is
the day like, and how do we keep from loosing our minds. :}
As for the vertisketch, the sonic type emits two "pops" from spark gaps. It
isn't that the device is dangerous, but if it were used in the wrong area…
such as a black powder factory….KAAAABOOOMMMMMMMM!
That keyframe thing sounds nuts. Is that a new feature, or a goofy bug?
As for my future, I hope to work at Amblin, or maybe Foundation. I have also
talked with some folks at Rhythm and Hues and Disney. We'll see what
happens… right now I am my own hold back, because I don'r feel my demo reel
is up to par quite yet….I must have some really amazing stuff before anyone
sees it!
GM
Look forward to reading the article. Rythm and Hues is an excellent
organization and do a lot of high end work for commercials that are viewed
globally. Hope you can get a foot in the door.
I hear you on the demo reel!
I have been advised and have confirmed that the keyframe thing is an option and
not a bug. It's just that LW 3.2 automatically defaults to the autokeyframe
setting, and since their was no manual and nowhere was this explained, I was
going nuts thinking it was a bug. But actually, under the Options menu in
Layout , one of the features is whether you want this function deactivated or
not.
Adib
Hey, I have the new version now! I have got to vist the CONFIG file and cut
that feature off! Also, it seems that they have cut the "Show Lights " button.
I used that a lot….and I can't find it! UGGGG!
So far, I am seeing 2 to 3 times on non Traced images. However, the tracing
gives me about 10 times the speed. I want another one, or a revamping of the
code to make all the rendering speed up!
GM
I believe there may be a bug with The AutoKeyAdjust setting in the config
file…turning it off there may not be recognized by LW when you start a
new scene…
It may have gotten fixed tho, I'm not sure…
John,
I'll check it out and see if the autokey bug is still there. I believe I have
found a big one, though! When rendering a frame in manual mode (thru Screamer
Net) with display set to Toaster, when the system tries to send the image back,
the Amiga crashes.
And another weird thing… the other day, (in ind CPU mode) in the middle of a
normal rendering, one of the CPUs hung up on frame 91. The other kept on
going. I saw this, and looked at the front of the Raptor. The CPUs blinking
red light had stopped. I shut down the CPUs (only one "took"), powered down,
and re-booted. Everything has been fine since! Don't know what that one was,
but here's hopin' it doesn't happen again!
GM