Eric Freeman wrote:
> 
> Hey all,
> 
> I will soon have access to a network and would like to use PVM-POV or a
> similar distributed POV to render animations and other "machine-killer" pov
> scenes (currently rendering on a P-133, so just about any scene with media
> is a machine-killer).
> 
> I have no knowledge about networks or what this particular network is made
> up of (software-wise).  We are planning on starting with a sub-set of the
> network consisting of 80 PC's in the 266 to 600 MHz range.  They all run
> Windows 95/98 and use the latest version of NetWare for networking.
> Eventually we plan on expanding to the entire network (One brand new top of
> the line AS-400, a couple dozen servers, 1200 PC's and soon to expand to
> 2000 PC's!!!!!!!!!)  We will be rendering at night and on weekends when
> nobody is using the network, so we will be able to hog all the processing
> power.
> 
> I've looked at the various sites concerning PVM-POV and it seems that it is
> a Unix-only version.  Is there a Windoz version of a distributed POV out
> there???  How about something that would use the AS-400 (I don't know squat
> about it's OS... would PVM-POV run on it???) for the master and use the PC's
> for slaves???
> 
> Anybody with any knowledge or links to knowledge in this area, I would be
> ETERNALLY grateful for your help.  The thought of running a 1000 frame
> animation using media, radiosity, focal blur and lots of area lights is
> keeping me up nights.
> 
> PS: When we get this all set up, anybody with any machine-killer POV scripts
> (especially animations) will be encouraged to submit them.
> 
> Eric
> ---------------
> "A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one
> another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own
> pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of
> labor the bread it has earned.  This is the sum of good government."
>      - Thomas Jefferson
>      - First inaugural address, 1801
> ---------------
> http://www.ametro.net/~ericfree

hi eric,

i have never tried using the pvm-pov implementation
but i am almost sure that it is _not_ a unix-only
version. pov-ray itself is pretty well portable and
so is pvm.

the first thing you have to do is setting pvm up on 
your network. go to
http://www.epm.ornl.gov/pvm/pvm_home.html
download the pvm package and install it on your 
machine(s).

i have no experience with pvm on ms windows95/98/nt 
but there are people who say that it works. maybe - 
and maybe not - you will also need rsh daemon for ms
windows*:
http://www.uni-paderborn.de/cs/getin/getservice.htm
(rsh is the default spawning mechanism in pvm, and by 
default there is no such service like rsh under ms 
windows*. maybe is rsh for windows* bundled in the 
pvm package, i dunno.)

the installation is probably a very boring and time 
consuming work but you must do it once if you want 
to run pvm-pov on your machines. you will gain some
time later.

	y.

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