Back Burner Alternative

[Infrared digital]

Are there any alternatives to BB out there that actually work ?

The main concern I have with BB is that if a number of jobs are cued, I can check it and all but one machine is rendering - all the rest are idle doing nothing.

I want BB to assign and remove servers as and when I need them to be - it doesn't do this and therefore doesn't utilise all the machines.

If there are any tried and tested alternatives, I am very willing to have a look.

Thanks

N

[joconnell]

This is a glitch in one of the releases of bb - update to the latest. You can try deadline too but to be honest I found it less reliable and perhaps slightly slower to render than bb.

[QuakeMarine1]

what BB and deadline can (the only i know) is keeping max open and assigne new frames on the fly
all other start 3ds per rendertask and load the scene over and over again

I trust on Smedge

keep in mind BB is a give away from Autodesk - someone develope it in his spare time and now AD cant get rid of it - they keep it alive but do not update it

[re:FORM]

I've never heard of smedge before! What's it like? How does it compare to Deadline and BB?

[QuakeMarine1]

yes its an render manager as the other
https://www.uberware.net

[Infrared digital]

I'm painfully aware that BB is a give away.

Could you give me more of an idea of Smedge ? Is it robust and flexible when dealing with numerous render jobs and servers ?

[QuakeMarine1]

there is a 30 (60) day trail - the setup is easy
it run here on 200++ nodes fine

[Infrared digital]

Do you have to pay for it for each computer ?

[QuakeMarine1]

ask for discouts http://www.uberware.net/smedge3/pricing.php

[joconnell]

You can also run backburner for free on two machines to get used to it - nab it at www.franticfilms.com - you have to buy a license for any more than that.

[vance3d]

I like deadline. I found the support to be pretty good and it doesn't seem to care as much as back burner whether you have 32bit/64bit machines mixed in your render farm. Plus it will network render just about every software both 3d and 2d thats out there.

V Miller