Topic: cloud rendering support for lumion

[mohtashimiqbal]

 dear all ,

i have completed a project on lumion , and now i m on the rendering part ,
it was taking 250 hours for the scene to render on my pc , so i went ahead looking for a cloud rendering solution for lumion scene files .


but to my utter surprise , the biggest paid render farm service providers do not support lumion files ,
i google hard , but cannot find a  single cloud render service that shall support lumion files ...


here is the link of the biggest render farms , along with the software they support , but lumion is not even there ..

http://rentrender.com/cloud-render-farms-list/

so my question is , does lumion offer its own cloud rendering solution ?
if not , does some one know of a cloud rendering service where i can upload my file to render .  ( i will pay for it )

or

does any one know of a cloud computing service , where we coould setup a cloud computer of our choice , get storage , install Lumion over there , and then leave it for rendering ....



if any one of you has a work around to this killer problem please share .

[peterm]

Lumion scenes require to be rendered directly using the local GPU of the PC.  There are currently no rendering farms. 

But there might be a Lumion licensed user who might offer to contract to do the rendering for you (perhaps).

Why in it is taking so long:
1. What version are you using?
2. Do you have a very big scene?
3. What render settings are you using?

The money you save by not paying a rendering farm could go to a faster GPU  .

[mohtashimiqbal]

 1 . i m using lumion version 4
 2. the scene is 6 minutes long
 3. i m trying to render it on 720p

the thing is , i built the scene on a xeon machine ,
with a mediocre Nvidia gt 220 installed on it ...

but i have this other machines as well , running  2 gtx 550 ti on SLI .

but , when i export the scene file , and open it on the other machine ,
the scene opens , but all the buttons on the screen are gone , 

i can move around the model , zoom in zoom out , but i cannot edit or build or add anything in it .
and this is something out of the question ,   

where exactly is the source file of my scene ? so that i can take it to a faster machine to do the rendering task .



_________________________________________________________________________

i dont need a one time solution to take help from some one , but rather a permanent rendering solution ,
no matter how much high of a GPU i get ,  even if i run 4 gtx 690 in quad sli , even then the rendering timings would not be sufficient for professional usage . we are a professional studio ,  and have may projects to render ,
this is our first try with lumion , but we are utterly dissappointed that lumion is totally dependant upon the local hardware for the rendering job ,


we regularly use , cloud solutions for our rendering tasks , on a daily basis ,
we do it on 100s of cores , on a cluster of GPUS . and even then it takes 5-6 hours for our files to be rendered .

if we do those files on our local hardware , we would have to shut down our business , because half of the month our systems would be busy rendering and we would not be able to produce anything .

this is some serious DRAWBACK , and you people should must do something about it ,
because no matter lumion is a good software , but it would become useless for bigger files and projects , since it is totally dependant upon local hardware for the rendering .

either you people should offer your own rendering farm ,
or atleast add a functionality to do CPU oriented rendering , and allow the users to take their source files to render farms to render ....


but wait .... when i export the scene file ,
i cannot even edit anything in it , it just LOCKS itself .

if i went wrong somewhere please correct me , as it is our first experience with lumion . 

[peterm]

Hi mohtashimiqbal

This is just a routine check as you do not seem to have any Lumion licenses attached to your forum account.

If for some reason you are unable to update your Account, and you have a license or are working for a company with a valid license, I'd be grateful if you could forward the license or the company name/email address and purchase details to me (peterm [at] act-3d.com) so I can follow-up as needed.   In your comms, please reference this topic.

Thanks in advance.

TIP: If you are working for a company, you can use 1 license key for multiple staff members, as a way to get full access to the forum. We provide faster support in the Commercial User section of the forum.

All that you need to do is to ask the person who manages the license keys at your company to go to your Account settings and enter one of the license keys. You will then have full access to the forum.

[mohtashimiqbal]

deter peter ,


sure i will tell the owner to do what you have asked , when he returns ,
but do you think i would be able to save my job by the time he returns ?  and the scene is not rendered ?

the issues i have raised are REGARDLESS of the the point you have raised , regarding the licensing .

if some one has a license he faces the same issue ,
and if some one doesn't , they still face the same issue ,


i have raised some very important questions regarding the functionality of your software ,
that would benefit everyone , and better explain the functionality of your software .


so i would appreciate that you shall focus on , with a response to those questions ,
because forums are NOT meant for legal walk through battles , but they are meant for trouble shooting and help .

so please , offer me a response of my questions ,
and if you have a policy that you will not respond to some one with their license info not updated on your forum ,
then my brother , you are in the wrong heaven ...


because if a potential buyer of your software pays a visit to this topic ,
you lose a sale ...


because what he sees , is that you people are more interested in the licensing information of the users ,
rather than trouble shooting the functionality of your software .


please respond to my query , thank you .

[Morten]

Hi mohtashimiqbal, thanks for your feedback.

i dont need a one time solution to take help from some one , but rather a permanent rendering solution ,
no matter how much high of a GPU i get ,  even if i run 4 gtx 690 in quad sli , even then the rendering timings would not be sufficient for professional usage .

Although Lumion is a GPU renderer it does not benefit from SLI configurations in terms of render speed.

Also, cloud rendering is not supported.

The fastest graphics card for use with Lumion is currently a Titan Black.

It's almost twice as powerful as the GTX 690 you mentioned.

And it's 4.5 times as powerful as the GeForce GTX 550 Ti you're using. Please note that the GTX 550 Ti score is only slightly above the minimum required benchmark score for rendering simple scenes in Lumion.

The GT 260, however, does not meet the minimum requirements for running Lumion.

There's more information here and here.

we regularly use , cloud solutions for our rendering tasks , on a daily basis ,
we do it on 100s of cores , on a cluster of GPUS . and even then it takes 5-6 hours for our files to be rendered .

if we do those files on our local hardware , we would have to shut down our business , because half of the month our systems would be busy rendering and we would not be able to produce anything .

If you want to be able to work on your PC while Lumion is rendering, the best solution is a PC configuration with 2 monitors and 2 graphics cards. That way, Lumion will be able to render on 1 monitor/graphics card while you can get work done on the 2nd monitor/graphics card.

Alternatively, you'll have to buy another Lumion license and install it on a separate PC which is only used for rendering movies.

P.S. Please make sure you sort out your license information. Once you've entered your license number, you will get access to the Commercial Users' forum where we aim to provide faster technical support.

[Gga_Mars]

Hi,

because what he sees , is that you people are more interested in the licensing information of the users ,
rather than trouble shooting the functionality of your software .

I can reassure you,
Once you get access to the commercial users part of the forum you will benefit the best support I have ever seen for a software, problems (except for technical limitations) never stays long unsolved...

Cheers

[mohtashimiqbal]

Thanks for the response

Morten  & Gga_Mars


so , far after thoroughly reading your posts , what i have understood is that .

1. Lumion files cannot be rendered via a cloud rendering solution .
2. even if i had my own professional farm render farm setup , that would still be of no use , because Lumion is a GPU renderer .

3. even if i go ahead and build a dedicated machine , with a 16 core dual xeons , and QUAD SLI TITAN BLACKS
it would still be of no use , because those 16 core wont be used ,   and the QUAD-SLI TITAN BLACK setup bites dust , because again the Lumion lord  wants to use only one GPU to do the rendering.


with these technical limitations in mind ,
please let me ask you a few honest questions ... 



You people do realize right ?
that a person who is going to pay 4000 dollars to purchase your software , is not paying you this HEFTY amount ,for childs play right ? he plans to do some SERIOUS work with it , and that is why he thought of purchasing it ...


do you really think that in today's date , where every single studio either has their own render farm  , OR they use some sort of cloud rendering solution .  while you people have had the GUTS to go ahead and develop a GPU only renderer ,  and not even that , a SINGLE GPU only renderer .

 leave alone , a TITAN black , even if i had an Nvidia K6000  installed on my system ,
it would still be USELESS for professional usage ...


this was a 6 minute scene file ,
that gave me ,  250 hours , on the gt 220

i took the files to the SLI 550 ti machine
and it gave me 110 hours time....

now today , i m borrowing a K6000 quadro  from a friend , lets see how that goes ,


____________________________________________________________________________

my point is , that today , every pro media professional setup uses their own render farms , or cloud rendering solutions to do their jobs , and lumion has terribaly failed to do professional work on this software .


our next project is a 50 minute file   its a walkthrough of a 3d model of a ship that is going to go under production by a shipping company . i was previously thinking on lumion , for the environment part and effects  ,   but do you think i  as a professional would even DARE to build something on lumion when i now know the real deal about it ?

this 50 minute file , if i would build it on lumion , would give me thousands of hours of rendering time , on a normal midrange GPU .  like like gtx 550 ,

and for the top of the line , it might come down to a few hundred .
even the K6000 would take at-least a  few hundred hours to do the job ...




_______________________________________________________________________



so dear lumion , i today , drop lumion , and i never plan to use it again , because there is no point of a software so graphically capable ,  when it FAILS to take edge in the market with the available rendering solutions .



with these limitations , it better stays in the hands of kids , building things for fun , 
but for some serious work . i today put a cross on it .



Thanks for all your time .  Good bye .

[Morten]

this was a 6 minute scene file ,
that gave me ,  250 hours , on the gt 220

As I said earlier, the GT 220 does not meet the minimum requirements of Lumion.

I don't understand why you are trying to use a GPU renderer like Lumion with a graphics card that was released in 2009?

Please have a look at the minimum requirements in this FAQ post.

this 50 minute file , if i would build it on lumion , would give me thousands of hours of rendering time , on a normal midrange GPU .  like like gtx 550 ,

The GTX 550 Ti is not a 'normal midrange' card in 2014.

It was released by nVidia over 3 years ago and was midrange card in terms of performance and memory back in 2011.

That you can't render a 50 minute video quickly enough with your outdated graphics cards is no surprise.

If you follow the links in my previous post, you will notice that the GTX 550 Ti only just meets the minimum requirements for simple scenes in Lumion.

A Titan Black, however, will make a huge difference, both in terms of the complexity of the scenes you will be able to render in Lumion as well as the render speed.

Many of our customers can testify to this.

there is no point of a software so graphically capable ,  when it FAILS to take edge in the market with the available rendering solutions .

I take your point about the lack of a distributed rendering functionality but that does not mean it is unusable for architectural visualisations.

Our clients currently include over a quarter of the Top 100 AEC companies in the world, and we get more praise than complaints from them, so we must be doing something right.

In any case, thank you for your feedback and good luck on your 50 minute ship visualisation - it sounds like a rather tough and time-consuming task, regardless of the software you choose for this project.

Good bye.

[mohtashimiqbal]

As I said earlier, the GT 220 does not meet the minimum requirements of Lumion.

I don't understand why you are trying to use a GPU renderer like Lumion with a graphics card that was released in 2009?

The GTX 550 Ti is not a 'normal midrange' card in 2014.

It was released by nVidia over 3 years ago and was midrange card in terms of performance and memory back in 2011.

That you can't render a 50 minute video quickly enough with your outdated graphics cards is no surprise.

im NOT trying to run lumion on these graphic cards , we have AMD r9 machines too included in our unit ,
all i m implying on is the point , that THERE IS NO GRAPHIC CARD ON EARTH TODAY . that can handle pro level graphical rendering in decent times  .

hollywood level studios , animations ,are all done on FARMS   .  either their own or on clouds .
Thats it .  there is no graphic card on earth at this date , that can render an hour long scene in a decent time .

even the k6000   has just given me 10 hours to do the task @4 seconds a frame.
now that's a 6 minute file .

if i would have been doing this file on a distributed rendering solution , this file would have been ready in less than half an hour .

now imagine what times i would get on an hour long file on a K6000  , and that is the most expensive graphic card on earth at this date .


i m not even considering the graphic cards i have used as a test ,
i m showing you the numbers , that what the BEST graphic card on the planet can do .

6 min file @ 30 fps 720p   K6000 is giving 10 hours .
for an hour long visualization . i get 60 hours of render time .


cloud solution , i get an hour long file in 6 hours MAX .
This is the difference .


no one is even considering the graphic cards i mentioned , we are focusing on what the BEST are capable to do .

If you follow the links in my previous post, you will notice that this card only just meets the minimum requirements for simple scenes in Lumion.

A Titan Black, however, will make a huge difference, both in terms of the complexity of the scenes you will be able to render in Lumion as well as the render speed.

Many of our customers can testify to this.

i understand your point , but i have a K6000 in my system right now , which i borrowed for this very task .
and that gave me 10 hours .  for a 6 minute scene .

manageable , but what would i do with the longer files without a distributed rendering solution .

I take your point about the lack of a distributed rendering functionality but that does not mean it is unusable for architectural visualisations.

Our clients currently include over a quarter of the Top 100 AEC companies in the world, and we get more praise than complaints from them, so we must be doing something right.

In any case, thank you for your feedback and good luck on your 50 minute ship visualisation - it sounds like a tough and time-consuming task with any software.

Good bye.

your are the  developers , while we are the end users ,
and from where i see , if i get to make a walkthrough of some large project ,
with all the graphical capabilities lumion has , its still the last option i would choose as a designer .

for short file , yes , it can be managed with the TOP of the line cards .
( which i doubt everyone owns )


but for longer files , distributed rendering solution is a must and you people must make a note of it .
Thank you . i have presented my point , and i hereby rest my case .

criticism is only for the betterment .  i love the features lumion has ,
but those features become useless if i cannot render them in a decent time ,  as compared to the rendering solutions that the competitor's software support .


best of luck .


count me in as a  the very day when you people offer distributed rendering solution .  Thank you

[Morten]

criticism is only for the betterment .  i love the features lumion has ,
but those features become useless if i cannot render them in a decent time ,  as compared to the rendering solutions that the competitor's software support .

Fair enough, I understand what you mean.

Thank you for taking the time to compare the render times - the K6000 is very rare among Lumion users, so if you've got time it would be great if you could post a screenshot of your Lumion benchmark scores in the General Discussion section of the forum.

[RAD]

Someone mentioned somewhere a locked version of Lumion that is ONLY capable of rendering out scenes thus allowing one to work in Lumion at the same time with a full version.
A render node version for way less cost.
That is a nice idea.

[CSMcKillip]

Some times I agree with the above, but the trade off is extremely valuable to us. I am rendering a 4 min animation at 3 stars, shadows max, gi, and 120 lights. Lumion will do this in 16 [email protected] 1080 and is running overnight. I always make sure to know what I am getting into time wise before I hit the render to video button.

Yes a farm would be a nice option, but the end goal is that that money is staying in my pocket and I get some sleep during the process. \\

My PC Spec
920 I7 with 12gig ram
bottlenecked Titan 6G because I have PCIe 2.0 not 3.0 running at 12450 bench
REGISTERED 4.5

[mohtashimiqbal]

surely i will do that the next time i will get my hands on that card ,
i just got on to check the comments , and m afraid your request was a little late , and the card was borrowed , so i have returned it by now  just a couple of hours back .

however , i do plan to borrow it again , shortly , for another short lumion scene , so this time , i will definitely take a screenshot , that scene is 10 minute long ,  currently under modelling process , will come to me for textures and lighting , and final render . it then when i will take a screen shot and fulfill your request , for sure .

[Morten]

Thank you.