Hi there,
I have a few questions regarding houdini product purchase. I am resetting a vfx department. The current one is pretty rusty. I want to have two 3d platforms, which are Maya and Houdini. On the Houdini side, I will start with one or two licenses first 'cos of insufficient houdini artists here. The question is if I buy one or two Houdini Master licenses….would 10 houdini batches be enough?

cheers

Speaking from a production perspective, you want a batch license for each node (MAC address) in your renderfarm.

If you have 10 quad core boxes (40 cores), you'll want 10 licenses.
If you have 10 eight core boxes (80 cores), you'll want 10 licenses.

The other issue to keep in mind that 40 cores, simultaneously hitting your storage server may very well set the server on fire – so it's a very delicate balance.

G

thanks Keyframe

Speaking from a production perspective, you want a batch license for each node (MAC address) in your renderfarm.

Why would you need a batch license for every machine? Isn't it suppose to come with unlimited render tokens?

As far as I know hbatch is only needed if you want to deploy ifd creation over your local network and run other heavy processes such as fluid simulation over the network (HQueue). When it comes to mantra rendering one license is enough as far as I know. Not sure how the network traffic looks like in more complex setups.

Yeah it depends on your needs. If you are talking just mantra rendering, then as mentioned you likely won't need to stick an hbatch on every last node, *unless* you don't have any method to spit out IFD's(mantra's version of RIB) and farm these out to different machines. This will take a little work, or a quick and dirty option is to use the new HQueue to farm out renders if you're running Linux(windows to come). This can optionally spit out IFD and render just using a mantra token on your nodes. However, if you don't have a farming system in place and you're not running Linux, then yes an hbatch per node is worth considering.

However, times they are a-changing. Fluids, gas, Dynamics sims in general are becoming the norm in VFX - these would require an hbatch to run either slices for distribution, or wedge tests(a somewhat more proven approach). If you anticipate a lot of this, then you might consider Keyframe's suggestion.

Cheers,

J.C.

I see… thanks for the precision.
So it's might actually be worth it even to generate IFD files, which I never did since I'm on apprentice…

yeah, ifdgen is a non-trivial step.

I've seen occasions where the ifdgen stage takes longer then the mantra render itself. It doesn't happen often… but it DOES happen.

G

I will be taking on lots of Fluid and Dynamics works, so my best bet is to have hbatches then. I will probably fire more questions when it comes to setting up a farm system

I have a few more questions regarding a render farm.

Do I need a host application to run Mantra on a farm? And what render manager will be nice for Houdini and Maya?

Thanks

I use Grid Engine.

http://gridengine.sunsource.net [gridengine.sunsource.net]

It's very flexible, but requires a linux backend. IIRC, JColdrick even released a version of his submission scripts to the exchange at some point.
Something that would normally require a good deal of work to put together.

Assuming you have a linux backend, you might also investigate HQueue, which is shipping with H10. I haven't tried it myself, but it might be worth looking at.

G

Thanks Keyframe.
what if I wanna run it on Windows or both Windows and Linux?

In the words of the Jedi, “May the force be with you…”

Highly unrecommended. You are opening yourself up to a world of hurt.

G

Well, the thing is that I've already had Maya running on Windows work stations. Any more suggestions if I can't avoid using Windows? I personally don't like Windows as well. I would like to totally swap to Linux but it takes time and money, you know….

cheers

Well, Maya does run on Linux…but of course there's lots of reasons for wanting to run a given OS. Keyframe is right - mixing the two has a cost in time/money. It's not insurmountable by any means, but ask yourself if it's worth it. There are for-money farm options too that run with Houdini, too. Like most things, everything costs, either in direct money or in your time(which depending on the scenario, might be more precious).

Personally I would avoid mixing the two OS's unless there was a good reason for it(I'm talking workstations + farm here - lots of places might be mostly windows with some linux servers). You might find it worth the grief if the plan is to work linux into the mix, but don't underestimate the cost of the cross platform hassles.

…and I say this as an all-Linux, all-the-time sorta guy.

Cheers,

J.C.

I personally want to go for Linux ‘cos I’m used to Linux, but most of CG artists here are not used to it. I will try my best to convince them to do Linux, but in the mean time, I guess I have to stick with Windows. So any more tips for that? Any good host application, render manager for Windows?

thanks very much

sorry I didn't mean ‘good host application’. I meant to say 'any good render manager if I run two 3d applications mainly. I used to use Rendis for Maya before.

Why not just try Houdini 10's new HQUEUE ROP first?

Oops- this may not be out for Windows yet… But it might be a viable solution in a couple months!

yep, I think I'll try that. I'm swaping to Linux.

cheers