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Using playstation 3 to render
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 11:52 am
by fredfy
hello all,
Is it anyone here that have used the ps3 to render a picture or animation thru ethernet?
I have seen some cases where they use the powerful prosessor of the ps 3 to perform complex tasks with Linux innstalled.
the way ive understand it, if it would work, this would be the cheapest way to get a powerful render farm!/?
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 11:58 am
by Borgleader
Yet another one of those...
This subject has been discussed many MANY times...Next time please search the forums before posting.
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 3:36 am
by CTZn
No, fredfy. A PS3 is good at realtime things, period. It's not structurally efficient with renderers, all the contrary.
"But..."
but nothing, it fails.
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 6:19 am
by Bliz
Half a gig of RAM won't cut it methinks.
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 7:02 am
by PureSpider
RAM doesn't matter at all in that case o.O
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 7:05 am
by Kram1032
Yes it does:
With current memory management, PS3 would pretty much fail in rendering any slightly advanced scene...
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 7:06 am
by PureSpider
So it's not the AMOUNT of memory that matters, and that's what he mentioned...
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 7:11 am
by Kram1032
yes it does... If the memory gets full (which is the case very quickly, with half a gig), things a) get slow and b) a bit unreliable....
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 9:09 am
by doublez
What if you wrote indigo for the cell. Would it be faster then?
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 9:44 am
by Borgleader
doublez wrote:What if you wrote indigo for the cell. Would it be faster then?
Youd have to rethink the entire process methinks and anyways with big scenes it would probably just die anyway.
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 9:48 am
by crojack
What would be the point of rendering on a ps3 anyways?
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 9:53 am
by Borgleader
crojack wrote:What would be the point of rendering on a ps3 anyways?
1) Your PC sucks majorly
2) For the "fun" of trying it
3) Just 'cause you can
But really I think it's pointless. Maybe nVidias CUDA technology thing will lead eventually to something interesting (maybe) but that will take time. I mean video cards are getting more and more powerful and well it may be possible at some point but not now.
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 10:01 am
by alex22
At least they are already way more powerful than a cell processor of the PS3.
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 10:37 am
by Borgleader
alex22 wrote:At least they are already way more powerful than a cell processor of the PS3.
Comparing vid cards with a CPU is really like comparing apples and oranges....they're not the same.
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 11:28 am
by Grimm
We have a cell cluster (8 PS3's) here at the university where I work. But it doesn't get used very much, mostly because it is very hard to program for and the above mentioned memory issue. If you really wanted to port Indigo to the cell, you should use the cell blades. Unfortunately they are about $10,000 each but do come with 8 gigs of memory.
