Carrara graphic render support
Chris Fox Art
Posts: 380
I know Carrara only supports multi core rendering but not graphic card rendering, so as i am getting a new Notebook that i just want to use for all my Multimedia stuff i am wondering if there will be a Carrara Version in the future that supports graphic card rendering.
I think it could be very good with strong graphic cards like from the nvidia Quadro Series.
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I doubt it. But there are plug-ins that allow for you to pass your Carrara scenes to other renderers that use GPUs for rendering, like Octane or even Luxus for LuxRender (soon to have much better GPU capabilities).
Besides, I'm doubtful a notebook will have a graphics card with the stones to do GPU rendering.
my problem is that Carrara only use the multi core rendering, so on my i7 920 cpu it max out all cores and use 100% of them, normally it automaticly boost the clock speed up to 3.2GHz i think but not when it runs on 100% than it will keep the speed at 2.6GHz, so i thought that it would get much better if it would support it like other software do,
@evilproducer: my graphics card is a nvidia quadro K4000M with 4GB (http://www.nvidia.de/content/PDF/features-benifits/quadro-mobile-features-benefits-final.pdf and http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Quadro-K4000M.76897.0.html)
with intel core i7 3630QM so i guess it will be pretty fine for what i want to do :)
Don't tell my laptop that, I'm having too much fun using Octane on it ( Geforce 670m witg 3bg of vram). I even did a StoneMason scene on it.
chiisuchianu - There is a plugin being developed to Octane for Carrara, but it's not available yet (not in beta yet either). The thread about it in this forum can be found at: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/31201/ Currently, to use Octane you need to export your scene from Carrara, and set-up the materials/shaders in Octane. Not a overly difficult process, but a lot more work than what the plugin will be. The direct link to the plugin announcement is: http://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=36332
Another option that is free, would be to export your Carrara scene to Blender, and render it in Cycles (GPU renderer in Blender). woodscreation did an excellent tutorial for this process. You could also use this process to render in any of the many render engines supported by Blender (woodscreation uses it to render in Thea - a commercial unbiased renderer that now includes GPU rendering) That thread can be found here: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/33435/
And, as nDelphi noted, Luxus, which is available here (http://www.daz3d.com/luxus-for-carrara) is a Carrara plugin for LuxRender, an open source unbiased renderer that has several render options available - CPU only, a hybrid CPU and GPU renderer, and GPU only (called SLG). The GPU only rendering is still a bit of a black box the last time I checked, and still takes a lot of tweaking and more knowledge to get it to work reliably, but it is on the priority list for improvement. The Hybrid renderer isn't nearly as fast as GPU only, but I get a 2x-3x speed increase using the Hybrid rendered compared to CPU only.
Cooling is very important when rendering with laptops. My current laptop has a turbo cooling mode (high speed fan) that keeps it very cool when rendering. While rendering with Octane, the GPU runs from 58-61 degrees C, even after running solid for several hours. I have an MSI GT70, it's been an awesome machine, and upgradeable to 32Gb of RAM (I have 24 right now). If your still looking, and don't have a specific need for a quadro card, you might take a look at what MSI has to offer.
Hope this helps!
I just took the plunge earlier today and ordered a new laptop that will have a geforce 740m (as well as an i7 4700hq which is 4 cores hyperthreaded to 8 so the cpu rendering should be fast too). Unfortunately that means only 2gb of gpu memory for rendering, but I'm thinking most of my scenes can fit within that (or at least hoping). I would love to have a nvidia card that would do 3gb but the pricetags are just off the chart for me (literally at least 400 dollars more) and I'm debt free finally and only pay cash, and I just couldn't justify spending more than 1k for what is essentially a hobby. Actually I'm freaking out I spent that much money on my hobby, wondering if I have some sort of sick addiction going on here that I need help with...
I would love it if Carrara got gpu rendering of course, but I don't expect it to happen any time soon, certainly not in Carrara 9 (though I'm wondering what Carrara 9 will have since they announced it would likely be released 1st quarter 2014, we haven't heard a peep about what might be coming yet, which seems strange).
However, as has been mentioned there are several unbiased renderers that can be used with Carrara that do have Gpu rendering, and I do think gpu (or more precisely, a combination of gpu and cpu together the way Arion and Thea are doing it) will be the future of rendering programs, so I don't think it's a bad idea to plan for the future by going with a computer that will be gpu capable.
Congratulations Jon! Sounds like it should be a great machine. I'm "lucky" that I use my laptop for some consulting work as well as my hobby, and to a large degree the high end specs are also needed for this work, as is a laptop. Traveling, doing demos and presentations is a bit difficult with a desktop.
2gb of ram for your gpu should be plenty with the hybid renderer in Thea, and enough for many gpu only renders. You can also cut down on the ram needed by using shaders only instead of image based shaders when possible. Let us know how you like it after you get it.
Don't tell my laptop that, I'm having too much fun using Octane on it ( Geforce 670m witg 3bg of vram). I even did a StoneMason scene on it.
That's impressive! I was under the (perhaps mistaken) impression that to use GPU rendering, to get good results, the graphics card had to have a whole bunch of RAM in addition to cores, and that would mean a larger size and greater heat.
That's impressive! I was under the (perhaps mistaken) impression that to use GPU rendering, to get good results, the graphics card had to have a whole bunch of RAM in addition to cores, and that would mean a larger size and greater heat.
Just like with CPU rendering, more RAM will allow you to have more complex scenes. With the Octane plugins for both DS and Poser, the scene is analysed, and textures are consolidated before they are sent to the GPU for rendering so you don't have multiple copies of the same texture taking up extra RAM (something that most cpu renderers don't do), so the amount of RAM needed for a scene in in Carrara or DS will be more than what is needed to render it in Octane. for example, this image (http://www.daz3d.com/galleryimage/image/15440/jade-forest-princess_full.jpg) took over 3Gb in Carrara, and only took a little less than 1Gb in Octane (71 objects - almost 1 million polys, and 58 color texture maps).
Your typical $500-$800 dollar laptop probably wont work well for GPU rendering, as they aren't designed for CPU/GPU intesive applications. For 3D you want a laptop that is designed to do more than the average user would do with it (i.e. browse the web, use word, excel, etc.). Gaming laptops are great for GPU rendering, because they are designed to run the GPU maxed out at high resolutions and frame rates non stop for hours, just like with GPU rendering (they also work very well for CPU rendering). Sure, for the same investment you can get a killer desktop, but I prefer using a laptop at home, where I can sit in the recliner in the living room and spend time with the family. Plus, a desktop simply doesn't travel well (I typically do 5-10 large conference type presentations a year ).
With "turbo" cooling activated on my laptop, the GPU runs cooler than the geforce 460 under full load on my desktop!
PS: I forgot to add - Keep in mind that just like when talking about computers/processors for rendering where people tend to want talk about big/bad killer desktops, not what works well within a given budget. The same is true for GPU rendering - an Nvidia Titan being the "must have" GPU - but you can still do killer work on a $150-$250 card.