How to speed up the rendering process using render farms

A render farm is a group of devices (usually PCs) dedicated to rendering. Depending on the power of the system, a render farm can contain anywhere from a few dozen to several thousand devices.

When would you need a render farm? For example, if you are a large studio working with video content and 3D graphics.

Interested? We will tell you more.

Render farms: what it is and what it is used for

Render farms by level of access are divided into two groups:

- Service or local - created by individuals or companies for personal use.
- Public or commercial - created to rent computing power to anyone on a commercial basis.

They also differ in the type of execution. For example, there are:

- Computer farms - small systems consisting of a few machines.
- Server farms - professional large centers organized with special equipment, redundant power supplies and many cooling systems.

Since the rendering process can be done using different algorithms and can be performed by both central processing units and graphics adapters, render farms are further divided into two subcategories:

- CPU rendering - CPU power is used to perform the calculations.
- GPU rendering - the calculations are performed by the graphics processor.

In short, as a home render farm is better to choose a variant consisting of several computers connected to perform a single task. Well, or connect to already ready pools on the Internet. As for CPU and GPU, it is better to look at the GPU - it will be cheaper and, as a rule, faster. But it depends a lot on what engine is used for rendering. For example, if it's the EEVEE engine in Blender, it can't work with CPUs at all.

How render farms work

Using a render farm is a process that may seem a bit complicated to beginners, but it's actually quite simple. First, you need to register on the render farm website and upload your files to the server.

After that, you need to choose the right settings for the rendering process. They depend on what exactly you need to render - for architectural projects you should use settings aimed at increasing realism, while for gaming projects you should use settings aimed at performance, etc.

After selecting the settings, you need to start the rendering process. At this point, the render farm will automatically distribute tasks to computers on the network and begin rendering images. Throughout the process, you can monitor the status of the tasks.

When the rendering process is complete, a finished file appears on the server and can be downloaded to your computer. Typically, this file is a sequence of frames that can be combined into a video clip or used as individual images.

That's it, you've just sped up the rendering process with special farms. Congratulations!

What to look for when choosing a render farm

Here are a few final tips on how to choose a render farm.

See if an online calculator is available

Not every farm has an online calculator, but its value cannot be overstated. You can use it to calculate and estimate rendering time and costs.

Check the compatibility

Before you start, you need to determine the compatibility of the software the project was created on with the software available on the farm. Many farms support all the latest versions of software and plugins, but you still need to be careful because if something doesn't fit, you may not get your money back.

Find out how the information is stored

Farms save projects and all data (as mentioned above), but they can be deleted after a certain period of time. The only way to find out what this period is is to contact the farm administrator.

Check the rules of use

Before you start using the services of a particular farm, you should familiarize yourself with the local rules of use. Find out how they offer loans, if you can get your money back if something goes wrong, etc. Each farm should have a 24/7 support service to resolve any controversial or unclear issues. If it is not working regularly, it should be alarming.