Ranch Computing Vue 11

From the latest ranch computing newsletter:

The RANCH is now supporting e-on software Vue 11/11.5 xStream projects, in standalone mode or as a plugin for 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4D and Lightwave scenes! That includes 3ds Max 2013-14, Maya 2013-14 and Cinema 4D R14 projects which require a special version of Vue (VC100). Don't forget to read appendix C of our RANCH for Vue PDF User Guide, dedicated to Vue 11.x still image rendering with our new MultiBand technology (faster than HyperVue and with a real time preview!)

Ranch Computing News

Ranch Computings latest newsletter is out and some things that may be of interest for Vue users include:

• Vue 10 is fully operational, for Standalone projects but also for projects which integrate Vue environments in 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4D or Lightwave scenes. Vue 9.5 is still supported.
• Ranch now twice as fast
• Ranch has switched from Dollars to Euros

RANCH Renderfarm VIP Club

RANCH COMPUTING is launching the RANCH VIP Club - see their site for more information.

Render on the RANCH Runner

From today Ranch Computing is rendering using their RANCH Runner - a self-cooled, compact and scalable supercomputer dedicated to 3D rendering. All our customers' projects are automatically processed on the new system. There is no sharing - each project benefits from the full power of the RANCH Runner - so everyone gets the highest level of performance, everytime. The RANCH Runner supports Vue 9 xStream for standalone and integrated projects (with 3ds Max, Cinema 4D or Lightwave 64-bit). Support will be added in the near future for: VRay for C4D, Autodesk Maya, and the new versions of V-Ray 2.0 for 3ds Max (1.5 SP5 currently supported), and Lightwave 10 (9.6 currently supported).

Ranch Render Farm 25% Speed Increase

A few announcements from Fred at Ranch Computing about their Vue render farm:

• + 25% speed increase: 128 nodes / 512 cores / 1536 GHz guaranteed per project!
• new pricing formulas for pay per project (from $0.12 per GHz-Hour at full capacity!) new PDF User Guide in two parts

RenderTITAN SIGGRAPH Special

RenderTITAN is offering a 50% off sale in celebration of SIGGRAPH 2008. The sale will end August 17, 2008.

Free Rendering at the Ranch Renderfarm

The RANCH Renderfarm is offering a free gift of 15 minutes render time (worth $58.14). 15 minutes on the RANCH is equivalent to 24 hours of render time on a Quad Core @ 3 GHz.

Two Quick Updates from the Ranch Renderfarm

Frederic Louguet aka RenderFred has posted two little announcements about the Ranch Renderfarm:

• You can now download your files directly from the RANCH web site with your web browser.
• The free trial for new users, now allows you to send a 100 frames animation sequence instead of 51 previously allowed.

Rebusfarm

Rebusfarm, a European renderfarm, now support Vue xStream and Vue Infinite rendering including standalone Vue 6 Infinite and the integrated rendering with Vue 6 xStream for 3D Studio MAX, Cinema 4D, XSI, Maya and Lightwave. All content available at Cornucopia3D is accesible as part of their solution.

RenderTitan Support for Vue 6 Infinite and xStream

RenderTITAN are now offering render farm support for Vue 6 Infinite and Vue 6 xStream. RenderTITAN provides remote render farm service for individual artists to full production studios. It currently supports 3ds Max (Vray, Mental Ray, Scanline and Vue xStream 6.5), Cinema 4D ( VRAY for Cinema4D, Advance Render, Standard Render and Vue xStream 6.5) , Maya ( Mental Ray, Maya Software, and Vue xStream 6.5) , Lightwave3D (Limited Support for Standard Render and Vue xStream 6.5) as well as Vue Infinite and Vue xStream. XSI is listed as coming soon with Mental Ray and Vue xStream 6.5 support

Ranch Render Farm Updates

The power of the RANCH has been increased from 1.1 to 1.22 THz an 11% improvement. You also now pay only for the render time: the setup, distribution, saving frames and compression phases are free. The project time limit has been reduced from 24 hours to 12 hours.

Ranch Computing Newsletter #9

Ranch Computing Newsletter #9 is out now.

1.1 THz Ranch Render Farm

News from Frédéric Louguet aka RenderFred at the Ranch Render Farm:

• The total processing power guaranteed per project is now 1.1 THz (1100 GHz)
• The base price per GHz-Hour is 34% lower! ($0.19 / 0.13 €) (this is without the discount for pre-paid subscriptions which can be up to 30%)
• It is now possible to render 16000 x 12000 still images on the RANCH

The RANCH goes to phase III: more powerful, and more affordable!

From Frédéric Louguet:

Hi everyone!

I am pleased to announce that, from today onward, the RANCH offers a 600 GHz processing power for each Vue project, and that each of our render node now has 8 GB RAM. Perfect to render very complex projects!

Also, we have dropped the regular price per GHz per Hour from $0.40 to $0.29. This is possible thanks to the continued development of our in-house automation software. The RANCH is now the most affordable professional renderfarm on the planet!

Fred

The RANCH renderfarm V2 is online

The RANCH renderfarm is now offering a guaranteed 340 GHz power for your Vue projects. The RANCH web site and renderfarm user guides (english and french) have all been updated to reflect the new capacity.

RANCH renderfarm Update

From Frédéric Louguet:

Hi everyone,

some big news at the RANCH Render Farm:

• all our nodes are now equipped with 4 GB RAM
• I know some of you also use Maxwell Render, well the RANCH now supports Maxwell Render too, in a completely automated way, just like Vue!

The RUG has been updated and the web site has expanded, and we have a new logo too. We'll send a newsletter probably today.

Come take a look!

Fred

Ranch Renderfarm Blitz

From Frédéric Louguet:

Perfect for short projects and animation previz, the BLITZ! formula is a very affordable way to use the RANCH.

You pay $10 once and for all, and you have one hour max to render your project. Try it out!

All the details here: http://www.ranchcomputing.com/news_uk.php

Ranch Renderfarm Special Offer : Renderfarm on a budget

Until May 31st 2007, we have decided to do something no other renderfarm has done before. We have lowered the base price to an unprecedented level, at $9 per hour, that is between 5 and 6 cents per GHz per hour!

By putting our rendering service within the reach of every Vue user, we hope that hobbyists and freelance artists on a budget will be able to benefit from the performance of the RANCH without going bankrupt! We have also created a priority system which lets you raise your Price Per Hour, if you are in a hurry and want to put your project at the top of the waiting list.

So don't miss this offer! Prepare your scenes, and most of all READ the Renderfarm User Guide before sending anything :) We are looking forward to render your creations!

More details at http://www.ranchcomputing.com/news_uk.php

The RANCH team

Tip: Render Times

This tip comes from Frédéric Louguet (aka Render Fred) and draws on his experience running the RANCH renderfarm.

Here is something I have added to the RANCH Renderfarm User Guide (as we had seen this problem with several customers), but I think it might be helpful to everyone. The purpose of this tip is to detect scenes which require incredibly long render times... before it is too late.

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Before sending us a still image to render, ALWAYS do the following test: render your scene on your system with all the final parameters, but in 16 pixels wide (for landscape images) or 16 pixels high (for portrait images). For example if your image has a 4:3 ratio, render it in 16 x 12 pixels, Render to Screen mode.

It seems like a joke, but really it is not. For a "normal" scene, even in ultra mode, the render time should be very fast (a few seconds to a minute for complex scenes). Note: count only the render time, not the preparation time which will be the same, even in high resolution.

BUT IF THE RENDER TIME IS > 1 MINUTE, YOU ARE IN TROUBLE!
(on a Core 2 Duo @ 2 GHz for instance)

It means it could take a VERY long time on the farm in high resolution and that it would cost you a lot of money. Typical symptom for these “nightmare scenes” : Vue quickly displays 100%, but the "finished!" message appears only after several minutes.

RANCH renderfarm News

The second newsletter from RANCH renderfarm has just been sent out and includes news of updates to the farm, a new user guide, the extension of the introductory offer beyond the original time limit and the option to pay by subscription.

More details at www.ranchcomputing.com