turn a ps3 into a render machine! (new)

If you run the linux OS it is possible to turn your Ps3 into the fastest home rendering machine on earth.

At the minute i don't think there are linux versions of maya or 3dstudiomax, but maya does a batch rendering tool designed for linux based servers, its free to download if you know where etc. So basically you can create you animations on your PC and export the maya file to your linux runnning PS3. Click batch render and then it asks you 'use all available processors'and assign a destination and voila!!!

Ive just finised rendering 100 frame animation running at 24fps, so 4 seconds ofa missle and particle trail all rendered in mental ray with final gather and full 3d motion blur. On my laptop this single frame took about 8mins to render, on my Ps3 however it took just 1minute. Couldnt believe it! pixar best watch out lol, ive gotta home supercomputer that only cost me £425!

x

i didnt know that i could either, but this lad on my course told me that the fact that maya asked you 'use all available processors?' i think you get to use 6 simultaneously.

1 little thing thou, maya doesnt make the animation into a decent AVI, it can make one but the file size is super huge, i suggest rendering each frame as a targa and then using a composition program like myself on your PC or something.

It doesn't. Nor does it recognize the GPU. All that rendering is done by a handicapped CELL. So what you're seeing isn't close to full performance. :)NamanOWNSyou

that's what I was about to say. Imagine if we were given access to the GPU.

wierdly, i dont think many renders use the GPU, i think most of it is from the processor.aaronaton

No, but many renders from both together. Much Better !

i believe that maya uses the GPU only for real-time playback of the timeline, and the mental ray renderer only takes advanage of the CPU.

I would very much like to see some sort of walkthrough or general instructions on what you did to set up both the linux installation on your PS3 (and the subsequent mental ray satellite install) and also your setup for the network render in maya. i would really like to use this to be able to pump out my animation mentor renders faster.

If you run the linux OS it is possible to turn your Ps3 into the fastest home rendering machine on earth.

At the minute i don't think there are linux versions of maya or 3dstudiomax, but maya does a batch rendering tool designed for linux based servers, its free to download if you know where etc. So basically you can create you animations on your PC and export the maya file to your linux runnning PS3. Click batch render and then it asks you 'use all available processors'and assign a destination and voila!!!

Ive just finised rendering 100 frame animation running at 24fps, so 4 seconds ofa missle and particle trail all rendered in mental ray with final gather and full 3d motion blur. On my laptop this single frame took about 8mins to render, on my Ps3 however it took just 1minute. Couldnt believe it! pixar best watch out lol, ive gotta home supercomputer that only cost me £425!

x

aaronaton

Sorry to geek it up but:

Maya's original OS is Unix, Back before Autodesk and Alias there was Wavefront and Maya was used strictly on SGI computers. So it should be easy to render on the PS3 with Linux. If you use a mac you will get a similar same result.(Linux based OS) Plus MEL script is C based and can run with Linux no prob.! but ya ...I have been using my PS3/Maya/Mac for character animations and dynamic responses for a while now. Good to know someone else is using it.

Sweet. That's pretty cool. I assume you modeled on your PC and then rendered on the PS3. That's nifty. I wonder how it'd handle some displacement in your render or more objects for that matter. Man...I'm tempted to give it a try but I'm no fan of Linux.

Hmm...we're looking into making Linux products at work, so if that happens, then I'll be sure to give this a try (since I'll have too anyway).

aaronaton,

I have been looking for this mythed standalone mentalray render program for linux for a while now and have been completely unsuccessful. Where do I go? Can you throw me a link? Also, how do i install it? PLEASE HELP!!!!!

Mental Ray does say they are working on a version for the cell but it hasn't been released yet.Tauron

Do you have a link or any info on this? It is not that I don't believe you, I just don't want to fall for any more BS than I already have.