#3DSR2 and LAN
9 messages in this thread
I would like to use a LAN to move .3DS and .TGA files from the creation
station to the rendering station.
I'm currently considering Lantastic and Novell.
Please advise as to any issues that impact this decision.
I assume everyone is now at Siggraph, so I will patiently await your
response.
Have Fun at the show!
Steve Pidgeon
Pulse Productions
Tampa, FL
Gary has the most experience with using Studio in a network environment.
But off-hand, I don't see any problems with doing anything like that. You
might take a performance hit if you are directing render files to be
created on a remote hard disk, due to file transfer time, is all.
PhilD,
Thank you for your rapid response. Our first choice would be Lantastic for
price reasons. I notice that some comments have been made about
non-reproducible errors with one user of Lantastic. If we begin with the
AE2 and Lantastic, I believe that that ethernet card can also be used with
Novell.
Our plan is to create a .3DS file on station one, then initiate rendering
of .TGA's from that .3DS with from station two, while beginning work on
another .3DS on station one.
The transfer of large 3DS or TGA files with other methods has been too
slow.
I think we will begin with the Lantastic starter kit using AE-2's.
Thank you.
Steve Pidgeon
Pulse Productions
Tampa, FL
Ethernet boards are the one standard among PC networks: everyone uses them.
Switching to novell later won't be a problem from that aspect, at least.
Good luck getting your Render Farm going.
We have been using Lantastic since 3D V1 came out. I would recommend NOT
using the starte the starter kit but acquiring a pair of NE-2000 16-bit
clone boards (+- 125.00) and buying the adapter independent nodes
(Lantastic-AI) for +- 75.00. The current v current V4.01 of Lantastic runs
fast and is quite compact. We have a central unit that we store
projects,3ds,and output tga's on. This unit also has the CMS Jumbo Tape
backup and the Common CD-ROM attached. The ease of use of Lantastic is much
greater than that of Novell.
Fell free to call me at (303) 329-3100 Mountain Time if I can be of any
help.
Regards
Jim Pope Capital Software Denver
Jim,
Why do you recomend not getting a LANtastic starter kit and getting NE-2000
clone boards instead? Are you refering to the 2mbps starter kit? Did you
know that LANtastic also comes in a 10mbps Ethernet starter kit that
includes NE-2000 compatable boards?
Jay
Stephen-
We have been having mysterious conflicts between 3DS and Lantastic, as I
has someone else on this forum. To be fair, Lantastic tried to reproduce
the error and has been unable to, and we have been too busy to do
controlled tests. We still use Lantastic constantly, but avoid accessing
the disk on the rendering station while it is rendering.
In the past, Gary has spoken highly of the tightness of his Novell Lite
set-up. We looked at Novell Lite but went with Lantastic because (at the
time) it seemed to have a better disk caching scheme, which would make a
difference to you moving big image files over. I like Lantastic from a
set-up and maintenance standpoint: it took very little time to get everyone
used to it and administration is minimal.
–Noah
Noah, what kind of problems are you having with Lantastic, and what version
of DOS are you using?
Hi there, thought I'd jump into this as well since I have the exact same
"problem" here. I need to setup a network too. I have three PC's I need
to connect for 3D Studio and I think I have all the necessary hardware
components (boards and cables) for ethernet connections. All I need to
know if NetWare v3.1 will work for peer-to-peer configuration. I just need
to (like Stephen) copy TGAs and .3DS files from computer to computer
without a dedicated file server. Is it possible with what I have or do I
need to go with Net Lite (?) or Lantastic or what? Also, what is the best
for 3DS purposes (to use MINIMAL memory etc..) Thanks for ANY help.
— Steve