Everyone is blaming the Blender uses for swamping the Pixar servers - but, I tried 10 times on launch night to download, and was unsuccessful.

So, my guess is, its a que system, so, if you get stuck (without an error window) on 'contacting pixar for license', just leave and walk away.

I left it at this stage, and came back 2 hours later and had a install options window.

Finally got it up and running!

Tried to download NCR license. It says, server is down for maintenance, and come back later. Is it the blender hordes ? I am one of them. : )

srinivas_chilukuri
Tried to download NCR license. It says, server is down for maintenance, and come back later. Is it the blender hordes ? I am one of them. : )

Due to the overwhelming demand, Pixar was forced to make some changes to the licensing process.

TwinSnakes007

srinivas_chilukuri
Tried to download NCR license. It says, server is down for maintenance, and come back later. Is it the blender hordes ? I am one of them. : )

Due to the overwhelming demand, Pixar was forced to make some changes to the licensing process.

I'm out of the loop. What's so special about this renderman release?

Soothsayer

TwinSnakes007

srinivas_chilukuri
Tried to download NCR license. It says, server is down for maintenance, and come back later. Is it the blender hordes ? I am one of them. : )

Due to the overwhelming demand, Pixar was forced to make some changes to the licensing process.

I'm out of the loop. What's so special about this renderman release?

Pixar let XPU out of its cage and now (as of RM25) allows NCR license to use XPU - along with several other feature updates in RM25.

I wonder how RMAN XPU will fare against Karma XPU, especially for volumes, still can't get a free license at the moment, server still down!

I should also mention, the other big reveal with this release is, RM25 has a AI trained denoiser that is being described as a “game changer” for rendering technology.

I haven’t tested it myself yet, because, its not supported by XPU. But, from what I’ve read about people that have used it…they are blown away by how low your spp can be and still get a clean production quality image…as low as 4spp! Doesn’t matter what’s in the frame: volumes, camera/object motion blur - whatever - you can get a clean image with only 4spp using the new AI trainer denoiser from RM25.

I’ve also just read the servers are down, because Pixar is preparing a point release to address reported issues. So, lets see what 25.1 includes.

in their video the AI denoiser applied on low sample material looked temporally unstable, but then again was just 4 samples, i guess having 32spp or so will make it behave and save time

I assume XPU is for Nvidia only?

Midphase
I assume XPU is for Nvidia only?

yup, but XPU is so brittle its almost useless - they should’ve kept it hidden and just let the AI Denoiser shine in this release.

If you blink at XPU it will crash Houdini to desktop.

Well, that's fun. I wonder why so many companies have such a hard time getting proper GPU/CPU render functionality and stability? I feel like the only people who truly nailed it is Blender Cycles, that thing is rock solid.

What is spp?

citizen
What is spp?

Samples per pixel.