There is now way in hell this could happen at the moment.
This is why:
a) Most render farm computers need 4Gb of memory, 2Gb minimum. Most computers just wouldn't be up to it.
b) Each frame will often require a couple of Gb of scene data. It's just not practical to get this to someone's machine.
c) Software licenses. The rendering software you run on a render farm machine often costs as much as the machine itself. It'd be very difficult to organise the floating licenses with random machines over the internet. Also, you may be able to get a million machines to do rendering for you, but you'll not be able to afford a million RenderMan licenses.
d) Leaks. Most companies like to keep projects under wraps until they get released. Under this plan you're sending out your source artwork, and renderframes to all and sundry. I suppose it might be possible for people like Dreamworks where they own the IP to everything they render, but for most VFX companies (ILM, Framestore-CFC etc...) they're working on other people's IP, and they will have signed NDAs to say they won't release details of the film.
Although many people are (quite rightly) pointing out that kids shouldn't be playing GTA3 and other mature-rated games, that doesn't mean that there isn't a problem.
It seems quite evident to me that many parents are still not aware of the age ratings in games, and that there is still a general perception that Games Are For Kids.
So taking that into account, I do think it's worth the industry as a whole doing a little more to ensure parents are better educated. Sure, it's not Rockstar/Take 2's fault that thousands of nine-year olds all over the world got GTA3 for their birthday, but they should be concerned, and they ought look at ways in which they can help, otherwise they'll end up with legislation forced onto them.
Please note that I am not suggesting that developers change their games, although that said I did wish that Rockstar had done a 12-certificate version of GTA - the basics of the game (nicking cars and driving about recklessly) were a lot of fun and generally suitable for children tens years and older. I don't think it would have lost a great deal if they'd toned down the violence just a little bit and taken out some of the more adult themes.
If they had made such a version, my kids wouldn't be barred from playing it...
They will be completely integrating the browser with the operating system. If I understand it correctly, their 'Avalon' project will join the split between web and native applications. This means that applications written for this new version of Windows will look and feel exactly the same regardless of whether they are running on your local machine, or being run from a 'web server', or some mixture of the two.
That's where they're concentrating their energy, and the system is likely to be so intertwined with Windows APIs that it'll be very difficult to get anything running on another platform.
After playing splinter cell for some time recently, I found myself witha huge urge to turn on night vision whenever I went into a dark room or shadowed area. I also found myself keeping an eye out for security cameras and wanting to shoot out streetlamps...
You're saying that you won't be able to get your hands on ice and boiling water but you will be able to get your hands on 'cold salt water' at -17C?
Surely whatever scale you use, your most reliable points to calibrate will be body temperature and the boiling point of water. With ice all you know is that the temperature is -17C.
The poster implies that Pike is faster than perl and python, but by how much? A little extra speed does not in general outweigh the benefit you get from the large libraries that perl and python have.
Why would someone want to use pike rather than a better-known langauge?
It's not a supercomputer, it's a render farm - there's a big difference. I'm sure there there are several VFX companies that have that number of processors in their renderfarm. The one I work for has somewhere between 2000 and 2500 processors in it, and I'm sure companies like PDI, ILM and Escape have more.
The way the render farms tend to work is this: you have a bunch of jobs, which get sent to the farm. You'll have a bit of software which allocates each job to a computer, or set of computers. Your job might be something like:
for frames 1 - 100
generate.rib file from scene for frame #
munge.rib
send.rib to PRMan
This would generate 300 jobs that will get allocated on the farm - obviously some of them are dependent on others being completed. However, each section of the job is a standard program on a fairly standard (normally) Linux install.
If all the computers were being combined into a supercomputer, they wouldn't all be running their own programs, they'd be combined into a huge 'virtual' computer, presumably with each processor running a virtual thread on that computer.
I can't escape the suspicion that the anonymous poster is actually in some way connected to Guardsoft, but let's leave that for now...
I think it's a good idea, but I do wonder how many situations you'll be in where you already have an exisiting program that does everything you want to test against.
Having said, that, I can see how this would help with regression testing - making sure that you've not introduced any new bugs when fixing old ones. But I wonder how much it gives you above a general testing framework anyway...
> Of course, there's some of this in any story on open-source software, usually from MS astroturfers and the like.
Are you serious? Or perhaps it could be that those comments are from people who have believed the Linux/OSS hype and then feel like they've been suckered when they actually have a go?
Sure, there's been a lot of negativity here from people about the GIMP, and sure, some of the comments don't have much content. However, most of these comments have a list of reasons why the GIMP pisses them off. These are all valid concerns, although I agree, it would be nice to hear about the things that the GIMP people got right.
To be honest it'd be nice to see some open source competition for the GIMP. I think it would spur both programs on to better things.
1) Take an OS that's worse at running games than the one that most people have on their computer 2) Put it on a bootable CD along with the game, takes forever to boot, has slim chance of finding right drivers, savegames are a problem 3) ? 4) Profit my arse!
But it's not just the greedo scene - it's all the other scenes he adds with loads of CGI in - like all that crap with the jawa falling off that big ugly creature - it just doesn't fit in with the rest of the movie effects.
The only stuff I thought was reasonable was the set extension stuff in Cloud City, where windows were added so you could see outside. That, and the re-compositing of some sections so you could no longer do things like see through the cockpit structs of the Snowspeeder.
To be honest this may be to do with the feature set that oracle and postgres have as compared to mysql. Sure, it may be possible to get it to work with mysql currently, but it may be either very clunky or may not work well with future planned features.
In other words, there may be very good technical reasons for not supporting mysql.
Also, if they accept mysql patches now, how are users who want to use mysql in the future feel if mysql support is dropped later? If someone wants a mysql version they should set up a tracking fork themselves.
Should the maintainers of a OS project be behooved to accept all submitted patches, regardless of whether they fit their vision for the project? Of course not.
That's odd. I *love* python for quick-and-dirty. Yes, it's an OO language, but it's not like you *have* to write a bunch of classes to get something done.
In fact, it's so quick-and-dirty that I sometimes just write something straight from the interactive prompt - especially for those annoying do-a-weird-renaming-operation-on-a-bunch-of-files style problems.
MS don't need this kind of thing. Everybody knows that a four-year old can use a computer if you lay the icons out nice and easy on their desktop. I'm sure many thousands of four-year-olds all over the world are capable of clicking on an icon and using a program. All my kids have their own profile on XP on our computers. They love it - customising their desktops, trying to guess each other's passwords...
Slashdot Mirror
As far as I am aware, Tazers are not legal in the UK.
There is now way in hell this could happen at the moment.
This is why:
a) Most render farm computers need 4Gb of memory, 2Gb minimum. Most computers just wouldn't be up to it.
b) Each frame will often require a couple of Gb of scene data. It's just not practical to get this to someone's machine.
c) Software licenses. The rendering software you run on a render farm machine often costs as much as the machine itself. It'd be very difficult to organise the floating licenses with random machines over the internet. Also, you may be able to get a million machines to do rendering for you, but you'll not be able to afford a million RenderMan licenses.
d) Leaks. Most companies like to keep projects under wraps until they get released. Under this plan you're sending out your source artwork, and renderframes to all and sundry. I suppose it might be possible for people like Dreamworks where they own the IP to everything they render, but for most VFX companies (ILM, Framestore-CFC etc...) they're working on other people's IP, and they will have signed NDAs to say they won't release details of the film.
Although many people are (quite rightly) pointing out that kids shouldn't be playing GTA3 and other mature-rated games, that doesn't mean that there isn't a problem.
It seems quite evident to me that many parents are still not aware of the age ratings in games, and that there is still a general perception that Games Are For Kids.
So taking that into account, I do think it's worth the industry as a whole doing a little more to ensure parents are better educated. Sure, it's not Rockstar/Take 2's fault that thousands of nine-year olds all over the world got GTA3 for their birthday, but they should be concerned, and they ought look at ways in which they can help, otherwise they'll end up with legislation forced onto them.
Please note that I am not suggesting that developers change their games, although that said I did wish that Rockstar had done a 12-certificate version of GTA - the basics of the game (nicking cars and driving about recklessly) were a lot of fun and generally suitable for children tens years and older. I don't think it would have lost a great deal if they'd toned down the violence just a little bit and taken out some of the more adult themes.
If they had made such a version, my kids wouldn't be barred from playing it...
They will be completely integrating the browser with the operating system. If I understand it correctly, their 'Avalon' project will join the split between web and native applications. This means that applications written for this new version of Windows will look and feel exactly the same regardless of whether they are running on your local machine, or being run from a 'web server', or some mixture of the two.
That's where they're concentrating their energy, and the system is likely to be so intertwined with Windows APIs that it'll be very difficult to get anything running on another platform.
After playing splinter cell for some time recently, I found myself witha huge urge to turn on night vision whenever I went into a dark room or shadowed area. I also found myself keeping an eye out for security cameras and wanting to shoot out streetlamps...
Darn - somehow I managed to delete a whole section of my post.
What I meant to say was that you're best not using ices because all you know is that it's = 17C.
Wait wait WAIT!
You're saying that you won't be able to get your hands on ice and boiling water but you will be able to get your hands on 'cold salt water' at -17C?
Surely whatever scale you use, your most reliable points to calibrate will be body temperature and the boiling point of water. With ice all you know is that the temperature is -17C.
Funny, isn't it.
We've had murder, torture, maiming and genocide in games for ages, but throw in a naked person and suddenly it's a big thing...
Everybody recommends shooting grenades, but the save I had there didn't have any left.
Anyway, it's immaterial now. I sold the game to a friend for 15 quid.
The last level of XIII was bastard hard. After failing at it 15 times or so, I gave up for the evening. I haven't loaded the game since.
The poster implies that Pike is faster than perl and python, but by how much? A little extra speed does not in general outweigh the benefit you get from the large libraries that perl and python have.
Why would someone want to use pike rather than a better-known langauge?
It's not a supercomputer, it's a render farm - there's a big difference. I'm sure there there are several VFX companies that have that number of processors in their renderfarm. The one I work for has somewhere between 2000 and 2500 processors in it, and I'm sure companies like PDI, ILM and Escape have more.
.rib file from scene for frame # .rib .rib to PRMan
The way the render farms tend to work is this: you have a bunch of jobs, which get sent to the farm. You'll have a bit of software which allocates each job to a computer, or set of computers. Your job might be something like:
for frames 1 - 100
generate
munge
send
This would generate 300 jobs that will get allocated on the farm - obviously some of them are dependent on others being completed. However, each section of the job is a standard program on a fairly standard (normally) Linux install.
If all the computers were being combined into a supercomputer, they wouldn't all be running their own programs, they'd be combined into a huge 'virtual' computer, presumably with each processor running a virtual thread on that computer.
I can't escape the suspicion that the anonymous poster is actually in some way connected to Guardsoft, but let's leave that for now...
I think it's a good idea, but I do wonder how many situations you'll be in where you already have an exisiting program that does everything you want to test against.
Having said, that, I can see how this would help with regression testing - making sure that you've not introduced any new bugs when fixing old ones. But I wonder how much it gives you above a general testing framework anyway...
> Of course, there's some of this in any story on open-source software, usually from MS astroturfers and the like.
Are you serious? Or perhaps it could be that those comments are from people who have believed the Linux/OSS hype and then feel like they've been suckered when they actually have a go?
Sure, there's been a lot of negativity here from people about the GIMP, and sure, some of the comments don't have much content. However, most of these comments have a list of reasons why the GIMP pisses them off. These are all valid concerns, although I agree, it would be nice to hear about the things that the GIMP people got right.
To be honest it'd be nice to see some open source competition for the GIMP. I think it would spur both programs on to better things.
And Slashdot doesn't have editors.
Now *there's* a rubbish idea.
1) Take an OS that's worse at running games than the one that most people have on their computer
2) Put it on a bootable CD along with the game, takes forever to boot, has slim chance of finding right drivers, savegames are a problem
3) ?
4) Profit my arse!
But it's not just the greedo scene - it's all the other scenes he adds with loads of CGI in - like all that crap with the jawa falling off that big ugly creature - it just doesn't fit in with the rest of the movie effects.
The only stuff I thought was reasonable was the set extension stuff in Cloud City, where windows were added so you could see outside. That, and the re-compositing of some sections so you could no longer do things like see through the cockpit structs of the Snowspeeder.
Insightful my ass.
Maya, Houdini and XSI are all available for Linux, and they work well.
Meant to post that anonymously...
You fucking geek.
$57.50?
Damn. That's cheap. That's... what? 30 GBP?
To be honest this may be to do with the feature set that oracle and postgres have as compared to mysql. Sure, it may be possible to get it to work with mysql currently, but it may be either very clunky or may not work well with future planned features.
In other words, there may be very good technical reasons for not supporting mysql.
Also, if they accept mysql patches now, how are users who want to use mysql in the future feel if mysql support is dropped later? If someone wants a mysql version they should set up a tracking fork themselves.
Should the maintainers of a OS project be behooved to accept all submitted patches, regardless of whether they fit their vision for the project? Of course not.
That's odd. I *love* python for quick-and-dirty. Yes, it's an OO language, but it's not like you *have* to write a bunch of classes to get something done.
In fact, it's so quick-and-dirty that I sometimes just write something straight from the interactive prompt - especially for those annoying do-a-weird-renaming-operation-on-a-bunch-of-files style problems.
MS don't need this kind of thing. Everybody knows that a four-year old can use a computer if you lay the icons out nice and easy on their desktop. I'm sure many thousands of four-year-olds all over the world are capable of clicking on an icon and using a program. All my kids have their own profile on XP on our computers. They love it - customising their desktops, trying to guess each other's passwords...
> why not just code your own?
Maybe they'd rather be playing D&D?
No point in reinventing the wheel.