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This
cost estimator is designed to help you estimate the cost of a project, nothing more.
The real cost of a project is
determined by its total render time: it can be greater or lower than the estimation.
The total processing time of a Lightwave project includes:
- The setup time (FREE) correspond to the time it takes to send the whole project (scenes + textures) to all the
nodes across the network.
- The preprocessing time (FREE). This optimization phase only exists when rendering high resolution still images. It lasts a few minutes at most.
- The render time itself: this is what you pay for.
- The recombining time (FREE) only exists when rendering high resolution still images, just before the compression. During this phase
the RANCH creates the final image from the numerous tiles sent by the nodes. It typically takes less than one minute for a 8K x 6K
image.
- The compression time (FREE - to save you download time) which takes a few seconds to a few minutes for stills, and typically a
few minutes also for small animations. For a 500 frames sequence at 1280 x 720 (TGA frames, 1.3 GB of data) it takes
around 2.5 minutes.
When you use the cost estimator below, the computed time and cost correspond to the render time itself. The time taken by the
other processes vary with the file format chosen, the X / Y resolution and the number of frames to process (or the number of tiles
to recombine for a still image render).
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First, enter the LWMark result of your hardware in the LWMark
field. To calculate your LWMark,
use the 'Sponza' reduced benchmark (render frame 0 in 960x540) described in the
RANCH
Renderfarm User Guide, section #7, page 11. The scene is downloadable
on the Benchmarks page. |
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In the second field,
enter an estimation of the average render time
per frame - on your hardware - for the project you want to send. For instance, enter
'00:15' if a representative frame takes 15 minutes to render on your system.
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In the third field, enter
the number of frames of your animation.
If your project is a still image, the
number of frames is equal to 1, and
you can enter a plausible estimation
based on a low resolution render. |
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Finally, click on
the ‘Estimate Cost’ button.
An approximation of the
time and cost to run your project on the farm will be displayed,
based on the information you entered
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| Copyright © Ranch Computing 2007 - 2010 |
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