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Blender Render Farm Software
Why Build a Render Farm for Blender?
A Render Farm can sound like a daunting project to build, however, all you need is two computers that are connected to the same network, and you have everything you need to build a blender render farm.
The reasons why you may want to do this are simple, let's take an example of a single frame you wish to render.
For every computer you add to your render farm, you get approximately a 1/n speed up, where n is the total number of machines you have connected. For example, if you have two computers in your render farm, then the speed up is 1/2, which means results will take half the time. If you have three computers, then results will take 1/3 the time, and so on.
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If you're interested in a render farm for rendering 3d animations in Blender, then the exact same mathematics apply.
The chart above shows the characteristics of a render farm, and how its performance change as you add more computers to it. This curve applies to stills and animations. Let's break it down.
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1. The curve above is for a made up animation and render farm. The animation is ten frames, which take one second each. The time the render farm takes to complete this animation is shown on the vertical axis.
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2. On the horizontal axis, the number of computers increases, from 1 to 20. You can see the render time falling as a result.
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3. The shape of the curve is dictated by how many, and of what hardware each computer in the render farm has.
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4. Notice, at first, the decrease in render time is much, much larger than towards the end of the curve. This means, as you add more computers, the speed improvements from each diminish.
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5. The final point, for your projects, there may be an ideal size based on how much money you're willing to spend. Each computer you add costs money. Of course if you're building a render farm from computers you have already bought, then good news, you can still get some use from them and speed up your rendering!
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If you'd like to dive deep into the details of render farms, then we've written an extended article about selecting CPUs for rendering.
How to build a render farm with our software
If you're keen to build your own Blender Render farm with our render farm software, then you might want to check out our docs. We've tried really hard to make this as simple as possible. Our plugin/addon for Blender is a single download, and installs just like any other addon for Blender. We've written documentation, and an FAQ which you can access using the "Learn More" button below 😀
Supports Free and Open Source 3d tools
Blender moves fast, so if you're keen to build your own blender render farm, we've got you covered. We keep this page updated as to the versions of Blender that we support.
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Support for versions of Blender 3.0 to 4.3 is available for supporters of our development fund. There is a free version for evaluation which has support up to Blender 3.6 LTS.
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Our addon is open source licensed, meaning that there are NO restrictions on the number of computers you can run in your own render farm. The software, once you have downloaded it, is yours to do with as you please. If you are happy to support us with a subscription, you're supporting us, the developers behind this project, and helping us to keep developing our render farm addon so it can improve and adapt to the needs of everyone.
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If you'd like to try our render farm addon, click the "Download the addon" link where you can create a free account and download the free version 🙂🥰
Got something to show off?
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Tag it with #crowdrender!
If you've made something amazing using our software, you can help support us by sharing it on social media and using #crowdrender or @crowdrender to tag us! Better yet, you can send us your work and if we like it, we'll share it via our social media channels, which you can check out by using the icons below :)
Testimonials
Midge Sinnavae
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I no longer hate my slow-ass laptop when working on location. I’m able to access the power of my workstation working remotely. My workflow is a lot more flexible and I can show clients results on the spot. It’s really easy to set up and I can’t wait to see what other great additions the team will add in the future!
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M.L.
frigging amazing addon, seriously impressive work, especially because it is so easy to use, I did encounter a few problems making my gamer PC use GPU only, my MacBook pro does not like when blender is set to GPU, I semi solved it and chopped my render from 12 min to 4min pr. render test :D.... those guys' deserve a gigantic THANK YOU for doing this project