Recent Posts

81

Open Discussion / Re: New build advice saught

« Last post by penboack on June 14, 2019, 09:31:54 PM »

I built an AMD 2950X Workstation last month.
I am very pleased with this build, the 5 times increase in CPU Rendering performance compared to my 6 year old Window 10 computer is great.
The computer runs very cool and quiet thanks to the sound proofing in the case and dual 140mm front and single 140mm rear fans.

Here is the PCPartPicker link for that build.
https://pcpartpicker.com/user/penboa/saved/#view=Vt2yXL

I took the CINEBENCH and Corona 1.3 Render Benchmark scores and used these to make a price performance calculation.

If you put in 8 16GB RAM sticks you will likely have to run the memory at a lower speed, so unless you really need 128GB it would be better to go for 64GB.

AMD seem to be on a roll and Intel are getting desperate having had it all their own way for a number of years.
My last AMD CPU was an AMD Athlon 200MHz CPU!

I also purchased a 32" Samsung LU32H850UQUXEN Monitor which I'm really pleased with.

82

Terragen Discussion / Re: new flight sim

« Last post by KirillK on June 14, 2019, 08:11:12 PM »

Imo we need a proper texture/UV baking camera in Terragen.  At least something like Clarisse does or better preferably.   Gamedev is a half of all CG and all the content creation soft typically ignore it.   Or doing something irrelevant like Autodesk

  Something  we could bake clouds into some pre- baked slices maybe, special normal maps for clouds lighting,   procedural terrain into UDIM tiles. etc

 WASasquatch , please share a link where you found they use 3d max  for clouds

83

Terragen Discussion / Re: shadow artifacts

« Last post by digitalguru on June 14, 2019, 06:57:30 PM »

Look at the multiple Threadripper results for example

Good point - hadn't thought of that 

I have a Threadripper 1950X - I see the difference between 4.4 and 4.3 at the same clock speed is just over a minute, that's great if it's accurate.

84

Open Discussion / Re: New build advice saught

« Last post by cyphyr on June 14, 2019, 05:54:59 PM »

Yes, future proofing the motherboard is an important concern. Especially as the top end chips will hopefully drop in price.

However, if I did manage to convince myself that 32 cores were worthwhile I would have thought though that if I had "enough" memory (ie 128Gb) then even if 32 cores was prooving inefficient I should be able to launch two instances of Terragen limited to 16 cores each.
Would that work?
Or would windows still try to bork it all up?

The 32 Core chips do come in on the pricey side. SO I will need some convincing to quite that far at this stage ...

85

Open Discussion / Re: New build advice saught

« Last post by Oshyan on June 14, 2019, 05:34:00 PM »

I just read that the newer Threadrippers (and Ryzens as well) use AMDs new "infinity fabric" which should fix some of the memory controller/routing issues that slowed down the higher-end Threadrippers unnecessarily on Windows. There are still possibly scheduler issues, but I know Microsoft is working to fix those too. So taking full advantage of Threadripper and 32+ cores will probably be easier moving forward.

I just noticed how expensive 128GB of RAM is, yow! ($1000+USD). I thought memory was at a low price point at the moment, relatively speaking, but it'd be worth looking at news articles and trends there to see whether it's on the way down or up. I know the market oversupplied at some point recently, but not sure when the impact of that will or has hit (yet). So timing your memory purchase can save you a decent amount. If memory is high when you buy the rest of the machine, get 64GB, but in big enough modules that you can upgrade later (i.e. 16GB modules if you have an 8 slot board).

- Oshyan

86

Terragen Discussion / Re: shadow artifacts

« Last post by Oshyan on June 14, 2019, 05:29:45 PM »

I'm not certain the effect on vegetation but the sampling improvements basically give you better quality, which allows you to adjust and better balance the noise threshold. There are other rendering optimizations in 4.4 as well, for example with some cloud rendering scenarios. Check out the newer Terragen 4 benchmark and there are a few like-CPUs that show the difference there on 4.3 vs. 4.4. Look at the multiple Threadripper results for example, particularly the 1950x:
https://planetside.co.uk/terragen-4-benchmark-results/
So if you *can* use 4.4.18.f it'd be ideal to do so, I believe. We haven't seen any notable stability issues, it's been in Frontier for a while.

- Oshyan

87

Image Sharing / Re: Fakahatchee Strand

« Last post by archonforest on June 14, 2019, 05:08:17 PM »

Very nice!

88

Open Discussion / This looks interesting

« Last post by bobbystahr on June 14, 2019, 04:33:19 PM »

Comments please
https://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/fv3/?fbclid=IwAR05W1xEA5j7p0J6d0RiYSvpv1Dk1NeMB1-zgz0LsZstJBgmVp6OZ9k4whg

89

Open Discussion / Re: New build advice saught

« Last post by digitalguru on June 14, 2019, 03:24:41 PM »

I upgraded from my old Intel Core i7 960 to a Threadripper 1950X and saw about an x4.5 increase in performance - admittedly my old PC was about 8 years old but definitely worth the investment, though Blinn's Law is beginning to kick in ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Blinn ) and my render times are creeping up again 

If you're going AMD I'd definitely go for a 1950X - I second Oshyans opinion on the 32 Core AMD's, there may be a limit on how current software can efficiently use that many cores.

One thing I wouldn't skimp on is cooling, I initially got a single fan AIO cooler and had to upgrade, they do run quite hot. I think I've found a good balance between temps and overclock now (had to reduce it a bit).

Also, same as you, I started with 64GB in the machine - I'd recommend going a bit higher. I added an extra 32GB and baked out a MASH simulation in Maya which gobbled up 64GB, so it paid for itself in the first couple of days!

90

Image Sharing / Re: Desultory Doodle

« Last post by bobbystahr on June 14, 2019, 03:22:26 PM »

This has a mysterious feel to it that I really like. The washed out colour is also interesting and different. Not sure about the very low cloud though.

Thanks Mick, wasn't sure about the clouds but without them 'sitting' on the ground like that I lost the atmospheric mood.