"jdgonko" <jdg### [at] comcastnet> wrote in
news:web.423fc890a184b2cbb86d3b2b0@news.povray.org: 
> 
> "Slime" <fak### [at] emailaddress> wrote:
>> > This is a dual Xeon (3.2ghz) system and I want to see what it can
>> > do!! 
>>
>> POV-Ray doesn't make use of multiple processors. Sorry!
>>
>> Since you said 25%, I'm going to assume that those processors have
>> hyperthreading. That means Windows essentially thinks you have four
>> processors, and POV-Ray can only use one, so it says it's using 25%.
>>
>> You can't get higher than that though because POV-Ray runs in a
>> single thread. I think there are patched versions, though, which make
>> use of multiple threads, and you can get better performance...
>>
>>  - Slime
>>  [ http://www.slimeland.com/ ]
> 

Another technique that usually works is to copy the scene file multiple 
times (e.g. 2, 4) with slightly different names (e.g. scene.pov becomes 
scene1.pov and scene2.pov).

Then, open two instances of POV-Ray (you'll need to disable the keep 
single instance option in the GUI).  Set one to render one file, and set 
the other to render the other, but use commandline or INI options to get 
them to render only part, e.g. 50% of the file (e.g. top half, bottom 
half).  Set the instances to use different processors (I believe you only 
have fine tuning on this in XP Pro; XP Home won't let you choose) and then 
wait for the renders to finish.  Finally, use a 2D Graphics Editor (e.g. 
MS Paint, the GIMP, Photoshop, etc) to put the two rendered halves 
together to get one whole image.  I believe that there were scripts to do 
this kind of thing on multiple computers over e.g. a network.  *shrugs*

I've always wondered, isn't there supposed to be a way to make two or four 
processors look like one really fast one to the computer?  I think that 
generally that kind of thing is usually hardware-based, but it might be 
useful in your situation, especially if you're trying to do an animation 
or render repeatedly.

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