We had 484 Downloads of the "old" SMPOV till today. So after all it was ok.

Now here is a new version of SMPOV.
The program to make you get your animations and pictures faster.

Where are the changes ?

1. Automatic support for Mega-POV. Mean: If the file you drag into it has
the "#unofficial ..." statement,
   SMPOV 3 will now try to render it using Mega-POV. Otherwise it will try
to render it with POV-Ray 3.5.

2. Supports the new Mega-POV "frame_step" for Animations. Set "Tiling" to 1
(means 1 CPU = 1 Picture).
    Put in all the numbers (clock, frame,frame_step). Now SMPOV will
automatically generate all necessary
    Renderjobs and distribute them to the Render-Agents.

3. Minor Bug-fixes. An automatic script that will check/change the Settings
in POV 3.5 automatically.

4. Assume you want to install POV 3.5 now on a lot of PC's. there is also an
automated-Installation
    Script on that page. See next Posting.

Future changes:
5. Under heavy load circumstances (SMPOV generates currenly an own thread
for each waiting Render-Job), SMPOV may use a lot of CPU-Power on the
Main-System. There may be changes.

--Theo

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------
Distributed Network-Rendering or Local SMP-Rendering on all CPU's you have.
With SMPOV und POV-Ray 3.5. *  Download free at:
http://www.it-berater.org/smpov.htm

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Hi Theo :)

I posted a while ago on this forum, asking about SMP solutions, and noticed
that you had written SMPOV.  I tried to use it today, but I haven't been
able to get it to work :(

It keeps returning errors such as "Source file not valid", with the name of
a .bmp file in the "COM" folder.  What am I doing wrong?

Also, with the Render agent, what are the "user input" slots?

I have a dual-processor machine, so I want to use both processors for
POV-Ray, using SMPOV to split the tasks.  Do I need to have two Render
agents open, in different folders?

Regards,

Lance.

thezone.firewave.com.au

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Hi Lance,

Lets take a look on it step-by-step.

> It keeps returning errors such as "Source file not valid", with the name
of
> a .bmp file in the "COM" folder.  What am I doing wrong?

This error is returned by the PicPender. This is the small Program which
takes the "Tiles" (each rendered by one CPU) and puts them togther to the
complete picture. What happens if you said "render this picture in 8
tiles" - and one of the POV-Rays did not produce an Output BMP-File ? Then
you get this error.

Problem: Your POV-Ray does not produce an Output. Sollution: Check:
a) Can the file be rendered without SMPOV ? ( I doubt ...)
b) Is it a mechsim ? (Bad Luck - its not gonna work in no way ...) ;-(
c) If you do network-rendering: Are all needed Files other then the
".pov"-File with a COPY
    accessible in the COM-Folder ? (This must be done manually).

> Also, with the Render agent, what are the "user input" slots?

Each RenderAgent ha 4 Checkboxes (Input-Slots). If you check each of them,
it tells a small man inside the RA to wait for a Job (if tehre is onbe in
the COM-Folder) and then start POV-Ray.
So Each RA contains 4 small "Sub Agents, where each of these can use one
CPU.
Even on SMP-Systems IF (only then !) you have very small  rendering-times,
its a good idea to use more then 2 Slots, so your overall  CPU-Usage will be
higher.

>Do I need to have two Render
> agents open, in different folders?

No. If you have less then 4 CPU's ONE RenderAgent is enough on one machine.
Just give him 2 Slots.
If you have more trouble, always sent me on my private mail a copy of your
posting, cause I do not read the newsgroups every day.

-- Theo
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------
Distributed Network-Rendering or Local SMP-Rendering on all CPU's you have.
With SMPOV und
POV-Ray 3.5. & NEW: Mega-POV 1.0 * Download free at:
http://www.it-berater.org/smpov.htm
"Lance Birch" <-> schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:3e7bce41@news.povray.org...
> Hi Theo :)
>
> I posted a while ago on this forum, asking about SMP solutions, and
noticed
> that you had written SMPOV.  I tried to use it today, but I haven't been
> able to get it to work :(
>
> It keeps returning errors such as "Source file not valid", with the name
of
> a .bmp file in the "COM" folder.  What am I doing wrong?
>
> Also, with the Render agent, what are the "user input" slots?
>
> I have a dual-processor machine, so I want to use both processors for
> POV-Ray, using SMPOV to split the tasks.  >
> Regards,
>
> Lance.
>
> thezone.firewave.com.au
>
>

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