Hi,
In backburner I really like, and it was the only thing!, the way you could record the performance index of the render farm, from 0 to 1, based on the machines render performance.
I would like to do a similar thing in Deadline, now backburner is uninstalled, and then set up each machines normalized render time multiplier.
I could’nt find a tab to add in the slaves list, am I missing something or could this be a useful feature to add?
Thanks,
Mark
right-click a slave and click “Modify Slave Settings…”. You want “render time multiplier” setting.
Thanks Mike,
Sorry I wasnt being clear, a rushed thread!
I know where and how to set up each slave to allow for their differing performance with the multiplier, its the recording of their performance index that I am interested in. If there were a tab that showed somehow each machines performance, like it did in backburner.
I am trying now just a simple test, couple hundred frames of a static scene, and recording each of the render times for each machine and working out what their multiplier should be from that. I used to do this with backburner having reset the performance index, then after they finished I would have a nice list of 0-1.
Would you suggest this is the only way to get an idea of the right multiplier to use?
Thanks,
Mark
Oh how’s the farm looking stats wise now the extra RAM is in? Might make me faint Monday morning!
Yep, I find the best way is to run your own benchmarks, as each studio know’s its heaviest files best.
Put the files to one side, because sooner or later, you will need to run them again, when you get a new higher spec machine, which will be your new ‘high’ point.
You could always setup a dedicated pool or group which contains 1 example spec of each machine in your studio. Then its easy to re-submit the files in the future.
This whole activity is also really useful if you regularly have to answer the question “how long will this job take to render?” As you can build a basic “render calculator” in Excel based on your render benchmark tests for your studio.
Mike
It doesn’t matter how much RAM you put in a machine. Artists will always find a way to use all of it!
Yeah I have an excel render farm calc template from backburner days, using the performance index. I can rejig it to work with the multipliers from deadline easy.
I wonder if an indexing could be added tho in the future to help take the guess work out of it.
interesting idea.
I’ll poke Ryan and see what he says 
Sounds like a good idea. We’ve added it to the wish list.
Cheers,
Perfect, happy days.
Any progress on this Ryan, would be a nice feature?
Hi Mark,
Normalised Render Time & Task Time Multipliers are both visible as data columns in the slave list for each slave, which can be edited in the slave’s properties.
Do you mean an auto-calculated performance index for each slave? (I can see situations where studios/users might want to manually configure this)
Mike
HI Mike,
Yes just some sort of auto performance thing like in Backburner. It would only be for info, would still allow the user to manually edit the actual values. But woul dbe a good guide.
Mark
Hopefully we can have something like this available in a future build.