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[theclone56]

Hey there, folks. Anim8or runs just fine on this computer, but the render times are killer if I want extensive shadows, ambient occlusion, etc. I've only got a gig of RAM (running XP), would upgrading the RAM speed up the render process in any significant way?

[ENSONIQ5]

Only if you are running out and starting to use virtual memory.  Run a render with Task manager running and check out the available memory, if it is running low you could be in trouble.  I would consider 1GB RAM to be the minimum, if you attempt to render a large, complex file (which will itself take up significant memory, leaving less available to run the render) it may not be enough.  With 1.5GB you would be very unlikely to run out if you run Anim8or on its own.  

Note that increasing the available memory will have no real effect if you are not currently running out and forcing your machine to use virtual memory (hard disk), the primary speed restricting factor is actually the CPU, since Anim8or uses this exclusively for rendering.  Unfortunately there isn't much you can do to speed up the renders, though you might find that running multiple renders for each element (shadows, fully textured, AO, etc) and combining them post-render might be quicker in the long run.  Slow renders are pretty much an Anim8or signature, regretfully... hopefully this will be addressed in future updates.

[Raxx]

Anim8or is a major ram hogger when rendering. Simpler scenes that render fast will fall under a gig of ram usage, but major ones will take up even up to a gig+ (one test ran it to nearly 2 gigs before I stopped it). It will never hurt to upgrade ram, and you can open the task manager and watch how much of your memory usage it takes while it's rendering.

So long as it's not slowed down by lack of memory, everything is with the CPU as ENSONIQ5 mentioned. There's no real multi-core/threading support in Anim8or, so until there is you won't see much improvement even if you upgrade your CPU, unless it's upgrading from one a few generations old. Borrow a few computers and render separate frames on each, if anything. Anim8or is a small package, easy enough to distribute that and your project files in a folder and render away in a few clicks.

[Maximilianibus]

i am just rendering a 1080p fire animation, and my CPU is to 100% percent used!
i got an Intel Core 2 Duo with 2 times 3ghz.....

[DragonSlayer]

Im stuck rendering on a computer with 456mb RAM and a 2.04 ghz SINGLE CORE processor. You want slow renders? That's the computer to be on. To make matters worse, I run out of memory when I make complex scenes and models, and when i do anything, it can take like 10 seconds before it starts to update. I know Anim8or only runs on one processor anyway, but the system is using that processor too. When I get my school computer from DSU, I'm hoping it'll run anim8or, they have 4Gigs of RAM, but it might have an Intel Graphics Chip, which of course may not have the OpenGL Driver that is required to run the program. Regardless, If you like subdividing (and I mean making scenes out of them, like me) I would guess you need loads of RAM to handle all the points, edges, and faces, plus all the rays, variables, textures, colors, updates, and a whole load of other things. Currently I use 2Gigs of Virtual memory, which is the max on the computer, and I've gotten close to using it up, I'm fairly sure. Im wondering though, other than the driver, does the graphics card matter much?

[ENSONIQ5]

The graphics card only contributes to the workspace views, ie whether you can see transparency, textures etc on the screen, it has no bearing on the render.  My primary machine is a 1.3GHz Sempron processor (just the single core) so I can sympathize, but I have 1.5GB ram.  I have a second machine used primarily for straight-to-avi renders which is a Pentium 4 with 2GB ram and a pair of processors, about the same speed with Anim8or but considerably quicker for Carrara renders as it can make use of multi-threading.

With approx 0.5GB RAM you will definitely run into problems, but it isn't poly counts and subdivision that is the real memory-muncher (particularly subdivision which applies mathematical formulae to the underlying basic wireframe, unless you convert the subdivision object into a wireframe of course), the bigger issue is textures.  A basic texture applied to the ambient or diffuse fields, or even bump- and trans-maps, can easily be a couple of MB to get some reasonable level of detail, and only a very complex un-textured wireframe would approach that sort of size.  Whatever machine you end up using, make sure it has enough RAM to NEVER need to use virtual memory, VM is much, much slower than RAM.  Memory chips are pretty cheap now, best advice (if school computer doesn't work out) is to shove more into your 2.04GHz machine.

[floyd86]

Borrow a few computers and render separate frames on each, if anything. Anim8or is a small package, easy enough to distribute that and your project files in a folder and render away in a few clicks.

When using a quadcore (or maybe even on a dualcore) you don't have to borrow computers. You can open you project multiple times (3-4 times max) and make then render each some frames. ie the first frames 0-99, the second 100-199, the third 200-299 etc.
This will make your computer very slow and you wont be able to use it for a while. But rendering will be faster

[Gyperboloid]

Borrow a few computers and render separate frames on each, if anything. Anim8or is a small package, easy enough to distribute that and your project files in a folder and render away in a few clicks.

When using a quadcore (or maybe even on a dualcore) you don't have to borrow computers. You can open you project multiple times (3-4 times max) and make then render each some frames. ie the first frames 0-99, the second 100-199, the third 200-299 etc.
This will make your computer very slow and you wont be able to use it for a while. But rendering will be faster

Ups! Anim8or doesn't use both of cores of prossesors? That mean that every time Anim8or's rendering only one is in use by it? And if Anim8or whould use both of a dualcore the render time whould be pretty much faster enough? I have AMD Turion X2 2Ghz and did a render test with Task manager running. Seems to be using both

[floyd86]

Ups! Anim8or doesn't use both of cores of prossesors?

On my quadcore it does. I can render up 3 to 4 scene at the same time, since they use each a different core.

[Gyperboloid]

If so, it's good help for rendering big projects and if Steve could speed ART up it whould be perfect combination. And as long as Anim8or is executable small program after Steve speed ART up somebody who have 2 ( or even more ) dual or quadcore both    computers available will be very very happy man 


Some tests again