#R4 Plug-ins x cpu
8 messages in this thread
Brian,
Could you help me understand whether or not this upgrade will allow for a
more powerful cpu in the near future taking advantage of the plug-in format?I
hope this question isn't too dumb.
I can appreciate the enormous task of porting an entire software pkg and
ipas routines to a different cpu but what's got me is the fact that adesk,yost
and sgi are working on a project that allows for a 3ds rendering engine for
sgi. Why not the inexpensive powerpc 604 or Alpha or hp-risc..etc!
Why something like the sgi platform that requires lotto winnings to
purchase ?
I can see that the small office wasn't on their minds and I understand that
it's a big marketplace out there w/ plenty of networks some w/ sgi's.
As you pointed out before, You can simulate the same radiosity effects
that
the turtle-slow raytrace pkg's can give and keep the very fast rendering speeds
that we get w/ 3ds3. What has me worried though is the fact that pkg's like
Stratavision are rapidly moving to the new powermac cpu. I'm not a
scum-sucking-
platform-jumper but hey since I'm an architect everyone's figured out what I am
it's just a matter of dickering the price!
Selective raytracer sounded fantastic but after seeing the render-time
penalty that gets tagged on for just shadow ray trace I don't see this
possibility for 486 or pentium technology! Thanks,Gary
Gary,
>> Why not the inexpensive powerpc 604 or Alpha or hp-risc..etc! <<
Adesk will only go with the major operating system/hardware combos, and that
makes it DOS and Intel PC's right now. If other hardware/software combos become
hugely popular then I'm sure they'd look closely at them.
>> Why something like the sgi platform that requires lotto winnings to purchase
? <<
the Indy with a R4400 chip is not really that much, especially if you added it
to a network as just a rendering slave. I work with a couple of Indy's which
cost about $20k (with upgraded processor, 1gb disk, 24-bit graphics, 64mb RAM,
17" monitor, DAT, cd-rom etc). For a render slave you might shave off nearly
half of the cost by eliminating some of those extras.
Also, I believe SGI is the catalyst behind this whole move to port the renderer
to their platform. They probably decided it was worth the effort and money, not
Adesk.
It's really too bad that there's not better news about an NT version of 3DS –
especially since DECs Alpha PCs are quite fast and fairly reasonable – and I
believe they've just released a chip running at 275Mhz.
E.
Eli,
it seems like the pressure to have these features (spline-modeling, IK,
realtime-preview, etc) was great enough to warrant an interim/major release.
When you think about what you're getting for $295, it's not hard to be very
happy about it.
Don't take this the wrong way, Martin, but what was it in my msg that makes you
think I'm _not_ happy with the features in r4?!
E.
Eli,
>> what was it in my msg that makes you think I'm _not_ happy with the features
in r4?! <<
Nothing really. I think we are all happy. We just didn't get everything we
asked for, I suppose. We got much of what we asked for and a lot sooner than
expected 🙂
>> a lot sooner than expected <<
That's what blew me away more than anything; I've heard Gary quote an 18 mon.
cycle for upgrades many times. I was really caught off guard. GMYAS
Wade,
the whole thing was a pleasant surprise to me, too 🙂