Hello,

I am using Blender and Adobe CC so far for a long time. Now I hit some limits with blender (bad performance with heavy scenes, slow rendering preparation time, cycles too slow for volumetrics, some parts not really finished …). I used 3D MAX a long time ago. After playing with Houdini for several days I really like the tool - better then I do Maya oder MAX right now. And with Indie it gets in my pricing range.

So right now I am thinking about hardware. May work PC is 5 years old (Windows based i7 920) and needs an update.

So how do I render fast enough as a single user/company with houdini indie? Under fast enough I would consider 5-10 Minutes for 1 frame in FHD.

My scenes so far fit in 2GB or 3GB graphicscrad ram in bledner cycles so far. Some million polygons, some big images. No hollywood scale scenes.

solutions I see:

-mantra
Question: Do I need 3 Indie licences if I want to render on 3 PCs? I am thinking about buying 3 x i7 6700K PCs. Roughly 1000€ each. So 3000€ total.

-octane
Question: How does octane compare to mantra in speed, quality and features? Does octane support volumetrics for example? For octane I would have to buy only 1 PC and 3x GTX 1080 for example. I suppose as a freelancer 8GB will be enough for a while…

-redshift
I dont't know, but I do not really like a lot of the examples images rendered in redshift. The quality seems to be inferior to octane (could be subjective). Working machine would also be 1 PC with 3x GTX 1080

Which path would you recommend? Of course for trying I will buy one i7 PC first or one GTX 1080 PC first. And when I like the experience I will by more PCs or graphiccards.

What path would you recommend and why? I like the octane option, because I only need one PC (no network to be set up) and the power consumtion could be lower too compared to 3 seperate PCs. And I only need one Houdini Indie license.


One more question: The output of houdini Indie is limited to fHD. But there is camerashifting… I mean I could render 4 FullHD sequences and composite together it in After Effects. Would this be allowed? Only to have the 4K option just in case? Of course a workaround with extra work.

Hi Saberraider,

-mantra
Question: Do I need 3 Indie licences if I want to render on 3 PCs?
YES


-octane
-redshift
The right renderer depends so much on your content and willingness to learn a complex renderer.
You could also consider renderman.
All in i would recomend to learn MANTRA first. Its fully integrated and if you learn VEX (you should) its so cool to be able to code your own shaders.


Which path would you recommend? Of course for trying I will buy one i7 PC first or one GTX 1080 PC first. And when I like the experience I will by more PCs or graphiccards.
good idea but get a fast new i7 with 64gb ram better 128gb ram!
i7-6850K can use 128gb
You will need all the ram with houdini when you want to do smoke, fire, water etc.
a GTX1070 is only a tiny bit slower…
http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1080-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1070/3603vs3609 [gpu.userbenchmark.com]
but much cheaper.


What path would you recommend and why? I like the octane option, because I only need one PC (no network to be set up) and the power consumtion could be lower too compared to 3 seperate PCs. And I only need one Houdini Indie license.
TRY for yourself this so much depends on your skills and jobs
Dont buy a cheap slower PC you will need all the power and ram for houdini doing simulations etc.



One more question: The output of houdini Indie is limited to fHD. But there is camerashifting… I mean I could render 4 FullHD sequences and composite together it in After Effects. Would this be allowed? Only to have the 4K option just in case? Of course a workaround with extra work.
I dont think you want to do this. You might get seems etc. If your rendertime per frame at 4k is 1h or more click a button every hour
If you realy need 4k get the full houdini. If your customer needs 4k they have to pay for it!



greetings Olaf

Thank you very much for your input!!!

Mentioning the GTX 1070 is really great. So I will watch out for benchmarks… 3xGTX 1070 will give good performance for octane or redshift. Ok one single PC with 32-64 GB ram. I won't do particles like crazy… VEX looks stunning.

After googeling redshift on vimeo together with houdini I am really stunned by the volumetrics and the times… Is there already a working demo for redshift? Or will I get the alpha version for houdini if I buy redshift right now?

Normally I do visualisations of technicals machines and how they work. Sometimes I need smoke or water. But I do a lot of personal work as an artist - houdini is a great playground for this personal work, and 4k could only be needed for my personal work.

One more question: I really like populate about 3D MAX - is it possible to to achieve something simular in houdini without scripting like hell Only to have humans as size reference walking by…

re crowds:

Watch this:
https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/masterclass-crowds-in-houdini-155/ [sidefx.com]