Stefan Viljoen <spamnot@<removethis>polard.com> wrote:

>
> Hi Kenneth
>
> For a detailed explanation, take a look at the image I submitted to Paul
> Bourke at Swinburne univ, which was rendered on a "farm" of Alpha CPU based
> systems, and the article he wrote about it:
>
> http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/raytracing/parallel/
>
> Basically, you use PovRay INI file statemens to restrict a certain instance
> of PovRay to only rendering a part of the scene. With any multi-core or
> multi-processor system you can make this as complicated as you want, I just
> usually use horisontal segments, for simplicity. The idea is like any
> co-operative effort - one core / CPU does one part of the image, another
> does the next, etc. If one finishes before the other, the work assigned to
> the remaining CPUs is redivided, and the "free" CPU again gets part of the
> remaining work.
>

Thanks, Stefan, that's a very lucid, understandable description of the
process.

All three of my current POV-loaded computers use single-core processors, so
this whole idea of dual-core processing (and multi-processor rendering) is
new to me.  I DO see it's advantages!! I'll have to do a bit of research to
fully understand the process.

From all that I've read here, so I understand that POV v3.7 will
simultaneously allow multi-core rendering of an image, in chunks, AND
combine those separate segments into the final image without having to use
some third-party software to do so?

Ken

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