Hi Guys - we’re in a position where we need to use a commercial renderfarm to complete a particular job, and I was wondering what the general opinion is as far as GI flicker. When we submit the jobs, they’ll be handled by different systems and there’s no opportunity to use a pre-calc’d IR map.
Ideas?
That’s not true. Just precalc your IR and LC and submit them with your job.
yeah I don’t see why you cant get the farm to do those calculations also… using job dependencies with back burner its mostly automatic anyway.
if u provide the GI map then the map will be used for the calculation - otherwise will the farm admin do the precalculation
but thats is taking the same time as if u do it inhouse
so if sending the renderjob send the GI as well
see my signature
There are many ways to calculate irradiance maps, including full use of a render farm. Generating an IR Map in a render farm can be much, much faster than on a single node.
Actually you wouldn’t calculate IR on multiple nodes, except with DR. Unless you want your animation to flicker…
no way!?
:lol:
That’s almost true, yes.
There are two new calc methods that do very well in network render.
Do very well, is fine. I prefer perfection. IR is an approximate method and will always be calculated differently between machines. With high settings the differences might be imperceptible, but why take the chance? If you going to do that just use QMC.
So let’s settle on “perfect approximation” if you prefer. 
yes the IR map can be distributed across your render farm now, BUT only if your using the new blended animation irmap modes.
Sorry, oversaw your reply although my subsequent replies to C.S. obviously apply.
Oh yeah. I saw that feature at Vlado’s presentation at Siggraph. Haven’t upgraded yet. I’m old school…
Yes, that’s what I was alluding to, i.e. “Animation (prepass)”
ya i was just confirming it in case someone wasn’t on board. Actually if you have a pretty large render farm, you can render this irmap quicker every frame then you could rendering every nth frame on one machine. So technically there’s a really good reason to render everyframe of the irmap for arch walkthroughs. Again as long as you have a good size render farm.
i m not disagreeing …i just thought ur observation to be…let s say obvious. 
I was responding to the previous post which - in my view - incorrectly stated the opposite.
Whatever dude…
Not yours but QuakeMarine’s.
hm
that much reply - I didnt notice
yes - doing the animation prepass in blend mode is easy for a renderfarm
in that case i do it with plesure
and yes I could do the GImaps for flythrouh in DR
but
client 1 render max8 so I need to start spawner M8
client 2 need max9 in 32 bit
next guy have 64 bit
client4 have max8 but vray 1.48
it is very complicate to do farming in that case
so I start the GI on my strongest node and no DR to save me stess and user errors
but that is as fast as the client can do
unfortunaly render farming is not just pressing buttons
requesting missing textures - up and downgrading plugins - verify rendersettings - DEBUGGING SCENENS - testrender - file compressing - phone - mail - msn - ICQ - forum - hardware maintenance - learning application / renderer X
and beside all that baking GI in DR?
if i have spare time cos buissenes is lame then I do stills in DR or GI maps
but that is rarly