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
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"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
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http://www.ametro.net/~ericfree

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