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Thread: Hardware and software advice needed

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    Default Hardware and software advice needed

    I’m part of a recently created architectural team in what is predominantly an engineering firm. Visualisation and concepts are currently generated using a combination of Sketchup Pro and Photoshop on one of our standard Core2Duo 2GB workstations.

    We’re now looking to create more sophisicated visuals and perhaps animations too, but I’m not quite clued up on current hardware and software trends so could do with some guidance.

    The software side seems clearer, with me leaning towards a combination of Max Design and Vray for modelling and rendering, and Premiere for video editing. Any thoughts on this?

    The hardware side feels a lot more muddled. Our contract is with Dell, so I at least know it’ll be one of their workstations, but would people suggest 64-bit or 32-bit, single quad core, duel quad core, 4GB ram or 8GB ram etc. I gather it’s simply a case of more expensive the better, but are there any generally agreed recommendations?

    Any input would be greatly appreciated.

    Cheers,

    Paul

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    I could stop if I wanted to dellis's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hardware and software advice needed

    Paul,

    I would agree with the software side of things...though you may want to throw in After Effects or Combustion too....in case you need to do anything more high end then Premiere can handle. Also on the software side you may want to look into the libraries of 3d models and textures that you will, inevitably, need to produce higher end visuals. Depending on the work load you guys will have, it may merit buying VRay RT as well.

    As for the hardware...ABSOLUTELY 64BIT!!!! Its unfortunate that you have a contract with Dell....don;t get me wrong they make great computers...its just that you could build what you need for way, way less. Not really sure what your setup is, as far as how many people are going to be doing the visualization work...but you need a workstation with as much RAM as you can afford/fit and the fastest processor you can afford and really, really good video card or two.....not sure if Dell machines are SLI capable. As for rendering.....you can do without the video cards and big hard drives and all that. Get as many render nodes as you can afford...though its hard to gauge without knowing how much viz work you'll be doing. There are online rendering farms as well.

    Here are some things to consider:

    -How big are the scenes that you'll be working on? (whole subdivisions/building/residential etc.)
    -How many people are going to be producing the renderings? (# of workstations required)
    -Do you want to do all the rendering in-house? (full time render nodes available for DR/net rendering)

    Post back if you want with more info if you can.....

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    Default Re: Hardware and software advice needed

    Thanks for the thorough response Dwayne.

    I had forgotten about Autodesk’s Combustion, so will certainly take a good look at its capabilities now you mentioned it!

    Getting back to hardware, I’m not quite up to scratch on video cards. Is ATI still considered weak on the visualisation software front? This was a preliminary system I came up with:

    XP Pro 64-bit
    Dual Quad Core Xeon 2.66Ghz
    8GB RAM
    1GB ATI FireGL V7350
    320GB 7200RPM RAID 0

    A final hardware budget has yet to be agreed from upper management, so specs may possibly increase. A render farm is available in another regional office, but this is currently local only and possible sharing needs to be discussed.

    Assuming that Vray will be the rendering engine, are there any material libraries out there that you would recommend, particularly sets with bump maps. And with regards to trees and soft landscaping, is the preference between 2D textures (either within Max or photoshopped) or 3D models usually down to hardware capabilities or personal preference?

    Thanks for your thoughts.

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    I could stop if I wanted to dellis's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hardware and software advice needed

    I'm kind of biased but i totally stand behind Nvidia cards. And if you get an SLI capable machine...which i don't think DELL provides....then you can get multiple video cards running in parallel. I have three in my home computer. The 2d or 3d issue for libraries is another sort of difficult issue. 3d always looks better in my opinion...if the models are good. You get more light bouncing around and all that...and in a lot of cases, geometry is handled more easily then opacity maps. So i would say check out XFrog and there are a tonne of really good texture maps out there for general use....both free and for purchase.

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    Default Re: Hardware and software advice needed

    I'll echo Dwayne's comments. 64X is a must, especially in Infrastructure type projects. We've used Combustion in the past for compositing but have moved over to After Effects since it supports EXRs.

    We also use nVidia cards. Relatively few issues with them.

    Our company has a corporate agreement with Dell. So far they haven't been too bad. We were just recently able to get coprporate IT to allow us to get the new HP Z's. Oh, BABY! We tested one a while back on the render farm against our fastest node. With a single processor and half the RAM it was able to almost keep up with the quad core. Pretty impressive.

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    Default Re: Hardware and software advice needed

    Hello,

    I'm also looking for some advice about hardware. Concernig Max 2010 (and Revit Architecture 2010 ) I would like to know if quad core processor is a 100% must-have-one?

    I know that all depends on type of work I'm about to do with it.
    I'll work for software distributor so I know for sure that I won't be dealing with large scenes (or projects).

    The question is: when thinking about trying out all the new features that Max 2010 brings to the table (not on a large scale, as a I mentioned, but still), is a dual core processor an option that can be taken into consideration?

    St.

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    Default Re: Hardware and software advice needed

    I think you've got the right idea. Really, more processors=more buckets in rendering with MR or V-Ray. Sure, it helps with large scenes too. It really boils down to price and it you really nee the speed. If price isn;t an issue, go with more processors!

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    Default Re: Hardware and software advice needed

    Thanks for the reply.

    Well, price is always an issue. Especially that this is going to be a laptop.
    I'm aware that when it comes to workstations for CG it's always: the faster, bigger, the better.
    Company standard at this moment is Core 2 Duo so all comes down to whether I can convince myself and then, the right people at the office that quad is really a must-have-feature of this machine. (not a nice-to-have-gonna-love-you-boss one )
    Right now I'm downloading the Max 2010 trial, and I want to test it on my quad at home. Want to check all the new features, and hopefully I'll be able to confront it with some core 2 duo results. If the differences in calculating time will be really drastic I might know how hard I should push for the quad.

    Is it possibile to have a laptop that alows replacing dual with quad somewhere in the future? Guess it'll be case of an appropriate motherboard.

    St.
    Last edited by stan.ciesielski; 2009-07-30 at 03:07 PM. Reason: director's cut

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    Default Re: Hardware and software advice needed

    Yeah, it's always a tough sell. We've finally gotten to the point were Corporate IT doesn't question our need for "non-compliant" hardware. It used to be a head ache to even get upgraded graphics cards. The excuse that always seems to work for us is being able to meet client demands. Whether that's render time or ability to model faster, it goes either way, and makes the clients happy too.

    Just this week the head of IT can out and toured the HP facility here with our tech guru (Mark Kauffman). They did a dandy job courting our team. We are trying to get the new HP Z's as the Visualization standard workstation. I wasn't much into HP's until we tested one here. Pretty nice. Can't wait until I get mine!

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    Default Re: Hardware and software advice needed

    I have read more from Mark Kauffman for HW.
    I believe it is necessary to find a good solution in Nvidia.
    There are great opportunities today more than yesterday. Mark knows very well what I speak here now.
    Mark is a very prepared and knows the solution to the problem.

    Ciao

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