Planetside partners with Pixel Plow as Official Render Farm

Started by Oshyan, August 22, 2014, 05:46:04 PM

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Simius Strabus

I'll be using a straight forward file name for the output next time.
My test animation is done now. I'm a happy person :D Looks fantastic, and only at around $30....
Setting up a new render job right now.... might become addicted  :o
Why stop dreaming when you wake up?

iMac i7 2.8GHz 8Gb

digitalis99

Quote from: Simius Strabus on January 07, 2015, 12:42:30 PM
I'll be using a straight forward file name for the output next time.
My test animation is done now. I'm a happy person :D Looks fantastic, and only at around $30....
Setting up a new render job right now.... might become addicted  :o

We're all very glad you're happy.  Feel free to become addicted.  We might even form a support group for you.   8)
Pixel Plow :: Render Endlessly :: http://www.pixelplow.net

Oshyan

I had the same feelings when I was first doing those render time/cost tests for our partnership promo materials some months back. I would submit a job, start getting frames back quite quickly, and expected to have accumulated a sizable bill by the end. But I was always pleasantly surprised by how affordable it ended up being and how smooth the process was. It really is something that needs to just be tried, it's tremendously satisfying. :D

- Oshyan

digitalis99

New agent released just now (1.70).  There's lots of little cool stuff, but this describes the big change:
http://www.pixelplow.net/sliders-are-yummy/

The summary version is we have expanded our price range for all users, all the time.  We've also given them much more fine-grained control over power/cost settings on a per-job basis through the implementation of a Power slider.

Thanks for the continued support from this community.  You guys and gals are great.
Pixel Plow :: Render Endlessly :: http://www.pixelplow.net

digitalis99

More Power!

http://www.pixelplow.net/more-power-to-ya/

Lots of software improvements for other apps, but of key importance to TG users is the additional compute capacity.  Rubber, meet road.
Pixel Plow :: Render Endlessly :: http://www.pixelplow.net

digitalis99

Yes, yes...we FINALLY have a render cost estimator on our site.   :-[

Give it a spin: http://www.pixelplow.net/pricing/

It should give you a rough idea of total job cost based on our new-ish power settings.  It's only labeled for frame ranges, but you could substitute tiles in as frames if you like.
Pixel Plow :: Render Endlessly :: http://www.pixelplow.net

Oshyan

Handy! I know they're difficult to make accurate and hence not very appealing to implement, but there's something quite frustrating about really not having any sense how much a render might cost. So even if it's not spot-on all the time, in combination with the ongoing render cost report in the client, it's a great thing to have.

- Oshyan

zaxxon

Cool! I just used the estimator to calculate a 300 frame animation where each frame on my 6 core (12 virtual) used 8 hours per frame: estimated cost $290. Not bad. I was guessing at least twice that. So the estimator has been a big help in setting some plans in motion. While I know it's just a 'ball park' cost estimate, there's no doubt that 300 times 8 hours is 2400 hours (10 days at least)! This is a nice addition and was a pleasant surprise, thanks!

digitalis99

A new agent released yesterday (v1.85) with Project Cache support.  Use of this new feature should enable you to upload a common set of data once and run multiple jobs that refer to it.  Our user guide has usage details, otherwise hit the highlights on our blog post:

http://www.pixelplow.net/cache-for-cash/
Pixel Plow :: Render Endlessly :: http://www.pixelplow.net

Dune

Ah, very nice. And you know what, Ty, I just noticed the extra line, so it installed without being stopped by my antivirus!

digitalis99

Yeah...annoying AV software guys.  We've submitted (and re-submitted in some cases) our installers and agents to various vendors over the last several months.  They have still flip-flopped a few times, sometimes blocking it, sometimes not.  I'm glad at least yours isn't misbehaving.
Pixel Plow :: Render Endlessly :: http://www.pixelplow.net

digitalis99

We've made some progress on the whole AV software front.  McAfee is the only "reputable" (if there even is such a thing in the anti-malware software world) vendor that is still dragging their feet.   ::)  Come on guys...6 submissions to both of your lab departments and still no response?   >:(

We did recently release a new agent with some astounding data transfer capabilities: http://www.pixelplow.net/a-torrent-of-bits/

In other news, we support more software than any other public render farm on the planet.  I think there's only one TG function left for us to support, and we'll be doing that soon (creation of sparse GI caches farm-side).
Pixel Plow :: Render Endlessly :: http://www.pixelplow.net

Dune


digitalis99

Agent 2.00 is here.  Auto-Power is stealing the show.  Less babysitting, faster output, and within budget.  It's hard to not like that.

http://www.pixelplow.net/let-the-robots-do-the-work-2-0-is-here/
Pixel Plow :: Render Endlessly :: http://www.pixelplow.net

Dune