A distributed computing client for architectural renderings - is it possible?

[SickBeast]

I've worked architecturally and traditionally the computing power needed for renderings has been a major problem. This has been alleviated more recently by modern processors, however, for animations and such it is still a huge problem.

Right now you can do tile based rendering over a LAN, and the images can be "stitched" together.

What I'm thinking is that a distributed computing client for this would be fantastic. Perhaps even charge the architects and animators for every frame that your machine renders and send it straight to your paypal account. It would save companies like Pixar money, it would be good for the environment, and it would simply be "cool" for us tech enthusiasts.

Thoughts?

 

[Rudy Toody]

Great idea!

About 15 years ago, a friend did this for marine architecture by coupling dozens of pcs together and waiting a few weeks for the renderings to get done.

His most spectacular rendering was that of a tugboat. You could rotate and zoom and even click on a spot to get clearances between structures, engines, shafts, etc.

However, there are a number of render farms already available.

There was one DC project called renderfarm@home that didn't work out.

 

[SickBeast]

You know, one reason a project like this might fail is confidentiality. If the plans were to be compromised and fall into the wrong hands, it could cost the client $millions.