Recommended laptop specs for scene creation only

RobertDy

Doing DAZ on the go feels very exciting to me, so I'm thinking of getting a laptop that I'll use to create my scenes, and then remote connect them to my desktop at home to Iray render them. So, a basic laptop will do, no need to add in fancy RTX cards and what not. I usually run 3 DAZ windows at once (1 original and 2 instances), and of course I try to optimize the viewport to make it as fast as possible, so can I ask what are the recommended hardware specs for these:

- Processor - is i7-Intel good enough or overkill?
- System RAM. Is 16GB sufficient or is at least 32GB needed, considering that I have background processes like Chrome, YouTube, music, etc?
- any other hardware considerations that will affect the viewport speed?

Thanks!

thistledownsname

Interested in something similar, so watching thread.

murgatroyd314

I'd definitely go for 32GB of RAM if  you're going to be doing scenes with any real complexity. The other key feature is storage, since Daz libraries can get very large, and external drives are inconvenient when you're on the go.

thistledownsname

I don't think you'd need that much storage for it - the assets aren't on THIS machine.  This machine is just a terminal calling into the mainframe that has the actual program and assets.

TimberWolf

I'm not sure this is really viable.

From a technical point of view it's perfectly possible and so far we've got two interpretations of how to do this, but is it really worthwhile?

1 - @RobertDy - Create the scenes using Daz resources stored on a laptop without using Iray. He'll upload the finished scenes to his home PC and render them there, using some remote desktop software. That laptop will need a lot of drive space for the models and a fair chunk of RAM to run three instances of Studio. I don't know why he uses 3 instances of Studio that but that's his workflow. 32GB minimum. Enough storage for the assets he wants to use.

Without using Iray to preview the scenes you will not get an accurate depiction of the final results. Pokethrough, lighting, nada. I fail to see the point of this as you will essentially be using your main PC, sight unseen, to render an image and you have no idea how it will turn out. You can always correct minor errors with spot rendering but how on earth will you know how the lighting will pan out? 

The only way this is viable is with either a very, very fast CPU  for CPU preview rendering or a gaming GPU to preview Iray which is something he doesn't want. Both are not cheap. Impasse.

2 - @thistledownsname - all you want is a remote desktop. You'll need Windows 10/11 Pro (or alternative remote desktop software) for the host and the fastest wifi/LAN connection you can buy. This is the option that is more usable in my opinion as a relatively low spec laptop could be used. However, the latency between the client and the host will likely prove infuriating. 

How do I know? We've tried it. A commercial mobiles games company. You can do it, but it's a pain. Try repositioning a figure, tweaking a pose...good luck! Perhaps you have better internet infrastructure than we do, faster speed etc., but if you have romantic ideas of creating a scene whilst sitting in first class on a train... think again!

My opinion is dialling it in from a low-spec machine is not an option. The only solution that works for us is a powerhouse of a laptop that can preview scenes you've made *on that laptop* and you then transfer them to your rendering PC. 

thistledownsname

Hmm.  I can probably set up a test of the remote connection with the rigs I have now.  I knew it would have too much lag to play a game through it or something like that, but thought it would be quick enough for daz posing.  We'll see!  Both sites are on fiber-optic, so probably as good as it's going to get.

thistledownsname

Version of windows on my current rig doesn't allow for it.  So much for testing beforehand.

RobertDy

TimberWolf said:

I'm not sure this is really viable.

From a technical point of view it's perfectly possible and so far we've got two interpretations of how to do this, but is it really worthwhile?

1 - @RobertDy - Create the scenes using Daz resources stored on a laptop without using Iray. He'll upload the finished scenes to his home PC and render them there, using some remote desktop software. That laptop will need a lot of drive space for the models and a fair chunk of RAM to run three instances of Studio. I don't know why he uses 3 instances of Studio that but that's his workflow. 32GB minimum. Enough storage for the assets he wants to use.

Without using Iray to preview the scenes you will not get an accurate depiction of the final results. Pokethrough, lighting, nada. I fail to see the point of this as you will essentially be using your main PC, sight unseen, to render an image and you have no idea how it will turn out. You can always correct minor errors with spot rendering but how on earth will you know how the lighting will pan out? 

The only way this is viable is with either a very, very fast CPU  for CPU preview rendering or a gaming GPU to preview Iray which is something he doesn't want. Both are not cheap. Impasse.

2 - @thistledownsname - all you want is a remote desktop. You'll need Windows 10/11 Pro (or alternative remote desktop software) for the host and the fastest wifi/LAN connection you can buy. This is the option that is more usable in my opinion as a relatively low spec laptop could be used. However, the latency between the client and the host will likely prove infuriating. 

How do I know? We've tried it. A commercial mobiles games company. You can do it, but it's a pain. Try repositioning a figure, tweaking a pose...good luck! Perhaps you have better internet infrastructure than we do, faster speed etc., but if you have romantic ideas of creating a scene whilst sitting in first class on a train... think again!

My opinion is dialling it in from a low-spec machine is not an option. The only solution that works for us is a powerhouse of a laptop that can preview scenes you've made *on that laptop* and you then transfer them to your rendering PC. 

The scenes will be created on the laptop, saved on a cloud storage like OneDrive, then render previewed and rendered on the remote desktop. The only delay is saving the scene to the cloud storage and having to reopen it on DAZ on the remote desktop's end. I don't know why you think this is a bad idea. You'll be able to see exactly how the render looks when previewing it remotely, and any fixes can be done via the remote desktop's DAZ. Even the entire setting up of the scene can be done remotely, therefore removing that delay of having to save a scene done on a laptop and reopening it in remote DAZ, BUT remote scene controls can be laggy and the viewport navigation can be a little problematic, plus it's always good to have a backup option if I'm taking long trips (my eventual aim). The scenario I described is optimal - if you can, do all DAZ work directly from a laptop to prevent any bugs and hiccups when using remote DAZ for scene creation, then leave the only necessary remote work like rendering to the remote desktop. And oh, why do I have three instances? Simple, to do three stories all at once. While render one, do scene creation on another, if that one needs props or clothing conversion, the third instance helps. You probably are unaware of this, so it's something you'd want to consider.

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RobertDy said:

How do I know? We've tried it. A commercial mobiles games company. You can do it, but it's a pain. Try repositioning a figure, tweaking a pose...good luck! Perhaps you have better internet infrastructure than we do, faster speed etc., but if you have romantic ideas of creating a scene whilst sitting in first class on a train... think again!

My opinion is dialling it in from a low-spec machine is not an option. The only solution that works for us is a powerhouse of a laptop that can preview scenes you've made *on that laptop* and you then transfer them to your rendering PC. 

The scenes will be created on the laptop, saved on a cloud storage like OneDrive, then render previewed and rendered on the remote desktop. The only delay is saving the scene to the cloud storage and having to reopen it on DAZ on the remote desktop's end. I don't know why you think this is a bad idea. You'll be able to see exactly how the render looks when previewing it remotely, and any fixes can be done via the remote desktop's DAZ. Even the entire setting up of the scene can be done remotely, therefore removing that delay of having to save a scene done on a laptop and reopening it in remote DAZ, BUT remote scene controls can be laggy and the viewport navigation can be a little problematic, plus it's always good to have a backup option if I'm taking long trips (my eventual aim). The scenario I described is optimal - if you can, do all DAZ work directly from a laptop to prevent any bugs and hiccups when using remote DAZ for scene creation, then leave the only necessary remote work like rendering to the remote desktop. And oh, why do I have three instances? Simple, to do three stories all at once. While render one, do scene creation on another, if that one needs props or clothing conversion, the third instance helps. You probably are unaware of this, so it's something you'd want to consider.

The mere act of rendering and doing "something else" while it renders would suggest you need a pretty powerful GPU. RAM also, quite a bit and fast.  You should not imagine worse hardware than your PC will run this kind of 3 instance setup without issue. I have a powerhouse laptop and I know exactly what its limits are compared to my powerhouse PC ( 3080ti laptop, 4090 desktop, DDR5 ram, PCIE 5.0 SSDs, etc, best CPUs in the range for both). My laptop can render incredibly fast, but it will never reach the multitasking abilities of my PC in a million years. The PC will not freeze under ANY circumstances, for example, which isn't something you can say of a laptop, regardless of build and components. Heating being less efficient also slows down the laptop over hours of rendering, or at least throttles its performance to some degree. There are a lot of things to be said here, but any laptop under 3000-4000$ won't even scratch the surface of your needs imo.