Network Rendering/PAR
3 messages in this thread
Hello Everyone,
We have been hearing references to network rendering to the PAR over the last
couple months and for life of us we cannot figure out how this could be done.
We have 4 workstations and a file server on a Novell 3.12 LAN. Are
we misinterpreting what is being said about network rendering to the
PAR? This is not a pier-to-pier LAN. We don't see how other
workstations could access the PAR during rendering unless the PAR was
installed on the file server as another drive. Would the PAR or the
network would work with this configuration? The configuration being
" Install the PAR board and the Micrpolis in the file server and try
to run the software from a workstation". Are we wasting our time? Our
curiosity is getting the best of us. Can anyone help us with this?
Randy:
I have my PAR installed on a client which is my main workstation. I run Novell
as well. The key to my setup is the program NDUMP which I obtained from Greg
Pyros when I purchased the PAR. This program is an IXP which is called in
Video Post after each frame is rendered. The program polls the directory on
your server to see that all frames prior to the one just completed(on your main
workstation) are also finished. If the frames are done the NDUMP utility will
copy those frames from the server to the PAR drive and can be set to delete
these files after processing. This will keep your server from filling up. It
is recommended that you add a couple of extra frames to your animation to
ensure that the main workstation is able to copy all of the needed completed
frames from the server to the PAR drive. If you follow me so far then it is
worth noting that without NDUMP you are not guaranteed that the frames would be
copied to the PAR in sequential order if you tried to use a simple .bat file
call in Video Post. The speed difference in your networked machines will cause
the frames to be rendered out of sequence.
Bob
The problem with network rendering to the PAR is that frames are rendered in
random order. All you need to do is have the PAR installed in any workstation
and have a process that will collect the images as they are being rendered and
lay them in an orderly fashion to the PAR drive. I've written such tool. It's
called NDUMP and it runs as an IXP in your video post queue. Once frames are
transferred from your Novell server to the PAR drive, they can be optionally
deleted to save the space.
Now the question is how to get NDUMP. Pyros Partnership is the distributor but
they've transferred the sales to another group. Try giving them a call and let
me know how it goes.
Pyros Partnership -> (714) 833-0334.