Disributed rendering using the cloud?

[Lupaz]

I may be really late to the party, but:

is it possible to have distributed rendering using your own computer plus some service online? Or we aren't there yet?

[davexl]

I think it is doable right now, but internet speed is the limiting factor - with only 2mbit upload speed and 1GB maxfiles, it is not practical for me as yet.

[tashko.zashev]

Davexl is right, the network speed could be the only drawback.
For relatively small projects without huge amount of external assets it shouldn't be a problem. There is an old thread where different approaches for file sharing were discussed.
http://forums.chaosgroup.com/showthr...ibuted+network

[Lupaz]

There is an old thread where different approaches for file sharing were discussed.

Hmm. Yes I remember that thread.
I believe they're discussing using DR when the assets are in a local drive at the remote computer (previously sent for example).

What I was thinking is what if the remote computer provides processing power only.
Is that possible in theory? Like by sending packets of binary that include the asset info for example (or something way beyond my brain).

Actually, is this possible with a local render farm currently?

So in other words, I'm working on my computer, there are 100 computers next to me with no textures or software other than the OS. I click render and all 100 computers process parts of the scene and return the info.

[tashko.zashev]

All machines participating in the rendering should have access to the external assets otherwise the final image will be different from the one rendered on the local machine. So it is best to use some shared location where all machines have access.

However, you can install V-Ray Standalone on your additional render nodes/machines and render Vrscene files exported from Max. You don't have to have 3DS Max installed on the farm to render Vrscene files in this case. There are different render combinations. Here is an example:
Export a Vrscene file from V-Ray/Max (it contains all scene data and asset paths but not textures, proxy files..)
Use V-Ray Standalone command line tool to render distributed over the entire render farm using the production adv. renderer or RT renderer. Note that all machines participating in the job should have V-Ray Standalone running in render server mode.