[Radiance-general] multiprocessor systems, Radiance, and you
Jack de Valpine
[email protected]
Thu, 23 Jan 2003 12:11:15 -0500
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Hi All:
I know that I am about a week behind on this topic. I have been out of
the office and disconnected for this time taking care of my son while my
wife was attending a trade show in LA (at least it was warm there
compared to the temperatures we currently have in Boston). Anyway as
Carsten pointed out on the topic, everyone will want to way in on the
topic, so here is my two cents worth. Based on Rob's original post it
seems that there are a couple of issues:
* hardware
* process management
For running parallel rpiece type jobs without complications of network
related issues (i.e. NFS and others) smp boxes are a must have depending
on the rendering task complexity. For exterior daylight only scenes it
definitely possible to get very, very fast rendering times (15 minutes
is a good example at 1200 to 1600 pixel final images size with 2 to 3
times oversampling with careful management of rendering parameters) with
the only qualifier being image size. For complex lighting or large image
sizes, well two is better than one cpu. We have rendered images to 6000
to 9000 pixel final image sizes again with 2 to 3 times oversampling,
i.e. 18,000 pixel images (we may have done them larger but I cannot say
for sure offhand). Currently I think that the AMD MP systems give the
best price to performance. However, if you go for an AMD MP system for
production use, then you should only get the MP cpus not the XPs. The
only other major consideration is how complex your scenes are and
therefore how much RAM will be required. Just as a side note we have
been using Radiance on dual processor boxes since 1996, starting out on
dual processor Pentium Pros and now currently running dual processor
Athlon MP based systems. And with the latest Linux distributions (RedHat
is the only one I am currently have hands on experience with)
installation should be very, very easy for a typical system.
Now, since Rob is running lots of rtrace jobs, the problem that he is
facing is more likely management and batch processing of multiple
"rendering" jobs. While it is not clear exactly what the task is, my
guess would be that there are lots of rtrace jobs representing some kind
of timeslice analysis that need to be started and then on completion the
resulting data must be integrated or aggregated for evaluation and
presentation. This really is a scripting task at its heart, where the
repetitive tasks need to be understood and scripted accordingly. It
should not really matter what scripting/programming tool (bash, perl,
python, C), whatever you are most comfortable with. Rob, if you can,
maybe you can give us a better understanding of the "rendering"
production task you are facing, people maybe able to give you feedback
on other scripting ideas than what you have already put together.
-Jack
Rob Guglielmetti wrote:
> Howdy folks-
>
> After spending the last couple of months getting up to speed with
> Radiance (the workshop in Freibourg was really, really, good at
> showing me how much I had to learn, how behind the curve I was [am]),
> and performing hunderds of rtrace jobs, and compiling a cohesive
> analytical report on the data, our client has responded:
>
> They want more.
>
> You all know how it is, once you show someone what is possible with
> Radiance, they start thinking "what would it look like if we did this,
> or this, or this, or this, etc, etc....". So we intend to show them
> some of these options.
>
> While I'm thrilled to be doing more with Radiance, I'm now Desperately
> Seeking Cycles, CPU horsepower that is. After Jack's fifteen minute
> rendering claim at the workshop -- Yes Jack, that's what you said, we
> all heard you ;-) -- for a single dual Athlon box, I'm thinking this
> is what I want to do. I don't need NFS lock headaches right now, I
> have enough problems. So I'm looking to build one very fast box, and
> I'm hoping to make it a dualie, and skip the LAN based render farm for
> now.
>
> (several paragraphs later he gets to the questions...) My questions
> are for those of you on the list with MP linux experience. I guess
> I'm hazy on the way the two processors are utilized. Do you tend to
> run one job on one CPU and a second one on the other, or do you use
> rpiece to work one job across both, as if the the CPUs are two
> different hosts? Or is there some OS and/or Radiance compile tweak
> that you do to simply make both CPUs act as one, obviating the need
> for rpiece? Seems like you still need rpiece so the ambient cache is
> managed properly. As far as CPU, do I *have* to use the Athlon MP, or
> can I run two XPs? du Anyone have hardware recommendations? I like
> Abit motherboards, but they don't seem to offer a dual socket
> variant. What about OS? I had great success with RHL 8.0 on an old
> Dell -- it installed and compiled Radiance without a single hiccup.
> Anyone using it on a dual box? Any compile changes to either the OS
> or Radiance?
>
> Any info, urls or advice would be greatly appreciated.
>
> ----
>
> Rob Guglielmetti
>
> e. [email protected]
> w. www.rumblestrip.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> Radiance-general mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general
>
>
--
# John E. de Valpine
# president
#
# visarc incorporated
# http://www.visarc.com
#
# channeling technology for superior design and construction
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Hi All:<br>
<br>
I know that I am about a week behind on this topic. I have been out of the
office and disconnected for this time taking care of my son while my wife
was attending a trade show in LA (at least it was warm there compared to
the temperatures we currently have in Boston). Anyway as Carsten pointed
out on the topic, everyone will want to way in on the topic, so here is my
two cents worth. Based on Rob's original post it seems that there are a couple
of issues:<br>
<ul>
<li>hardware</li>
<li>process management</li>
</ul>
For running parallel rpiece type jobs without complications of network related
issues (i.e. NFS and others) smp boxes are a must have depending on the rendering
task complexity. For exterior daylight only scenes it definitely possible
to get very, very fast rendering times (15 minutes is a good example at 1200
to 1600 pixel final images size with 2 to 3 times oversampling with careful
management of rendering parameters) with the only qualifier being image size.
For complex lighting or large image sizes, well two is better than one cpu.
We have rendered images to 6000 to 9000 pixel final image sizes again with
2 to 3 times oversampling, i.e. 18,000 pixel images (we may have done them
larger but I cannot say for sure offhand). Currently I think that the AMD
MP systems give the best price to performance. However, if you go for an
AMD MP system for production use, then you should only get the MP cpus not
the XPs. The only other major consideration is how complex your scenes are
and therefore how much RAM will be required. Just as a side note we have
been using Radiance on dual processor boxes since 1996, starting out on dual
processor Pentium Pros and now currently running dual processor Athlon MP
based systems. And with the latest Linux distributions (RedHat is the only
one I am currently have hands on experience with) installation should be
very, very easy for a typical system.<br>
<br>
Now, since Rob is running lots of rtrace jobs, the problem that he is facing
is more likely management and batch processing of multiple "rendering" jobs.
While it is not clear exactly what the task is, my guess would be that there
are lots of rtrace jobs representing some kind of timeslice analysis that
need to be started and then on completion the resulting data must be integrated
or aggregated for evaluation and presentation. This really is a scripting
task at its heart, where the repetitive tasks need to be understood and scripted
accordingly. It should not really matter what scripting/programming tool
(bash, perl, python, C), whatever you are most comfortable with. Rob, if
you can, maybe you can give us a better understanding of the "rendering"
production task you are facing, people maybe able to give you feedback on
other scripting ideas than what you have already put together.<br>
<br>
-Jack<br>
<br>
Rob Guglielmetti wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:[email protected]">Howdy
folks- <br>
<br>
After spending the last couple of months getting up to speed with Radiance
(the workshop in Freibourg was really, really, good at showing me how much
I had to learn, how behind the curve I was [am]), and performing hunderds
of rtrace jobs, and compiling a cohesive analytical report on the data,
our client has responded: <br>
<br>
They want more. <br>
<br>
You all know how it is, once you show someone what is possible with Radiance,
they start thinking "what would it look like if we did this, or this, or
this, or this, etc, etc....". So we intend to show them some of these options.
<br>
<br>
While I'm thrilled to be doing more with Radiance, I'm now Desperately Seeking
Cycles, CPU horsepower that is. After Jack's fifteen minute rendering claim
at the workshop -- Yes Jack, that's what you said, we all heard you ;-)
-- for a single dual Athlon box, I'm thinking this is what I want to do.
I don't need NFS lock headaches right now, I have enough problems. So I'm
looking to build one very fast box, and I'm hoping to make it a dualie,
and skip the LAN based render farm for now. <br>
<br>
(several paragraphs later he gets to the questions...) My questions are
for those of you on the list with MP linux experience. I guess I'm hazy
on the way the two processors are utilized. Do you tend to run one job
on one CPU and a second one on the other, or do you use rpiece to work one
job across both, as if the the CPUs are two different hosts? Or is there
some OS and/or Radiance compile tweak that you do to simply make both CPUs
act as one, obviating the need for rpiece? Seems like you still need rpiece
so the ambient cache is managed properly. As far as CPU, do I *have* to
use the Athlon MP, or can I run two XPs? du Anyone have hardware recommendations?
I like Abit motherboards, but they don't seem to offer a dual socket variant.
What about OS? I had great success with RHL 8.0 on an old Dell -- it installed
and compiled Radiance without a single hiccup. Anyone using it on a dual
box? Any compile changes to either the OS or Radiance? <br>
<br>
Any info, urls or advice would be greatly appreciated. <br>
<br>
---- <br>
<br>
Rob Guglielmetti <br>
<br>
e. <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a> <br>
w. <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.rumblestrip.org">www.rumblestrip.org</a> <br>
<br>
_______________________________________________ <br>
Radiance-general mailing list <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a> <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general">http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general</a> <br>
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="$mailwrapcol">--
# John E. de Valpine
# president
#
# visarc incorporated
# <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.visarc.com">http://www.visarc.com</a>
#
# channeling technology for superior design and construction</pre>
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