Learn What is Arnold GPU

Arnold is one of the most popular renderers in animation and film production. As the leading cloud rendering services provider and GPU&CPU render farm, Fox Renderfarm is also an Arnold render farm. With the recent release of Arnold-5.3.0.0, the first version of the Arnold GPU (beta) has been officially released. We can share some of the results and thoughts about the pre-test of the Arnold GPU.

You may also want to know: How to Quickly Create an Object ID For Arnold in Maya.

The Principle of Arnold GPU

More than two years ago, Marcos Fajardo (author of the Arnold) talked about the possibility of Arnold GPUs for the first time at SIGGRAPH2015. At the time, a full-platform-supported GPU renderer based on the OpenCL computing framework was designed. However, the current Arnold GPU is based on NVIDIA Optix rendering architecture, the bottom layer is CUDA language, CUDA is much more friendly than OpenCL, the development progress is certainly faster, and the most important thing is that CUDA is faster and more stable. With the release of the RTX series of graphics cards, vector intersection processing is getting faster and faster, and it is more suitable for GPU ray tracing algorithms.

Arnold CPU and GPU effects

The original purpose of Arnold GPU rendering was to keep the CPU and GPU rendering results close to each other, which is the effect and speed of the different rendering modes of the beta version.

Test environment:

Katana3.0 KtoA 2.3.0.0 gpu19 GeForce GTX 1080

Using 8 render threads

Parameter settings:

AA samples = 6

GI diffsue samples = 3

GI specular samples = 3

GI transmisson samples = 3

GI diffsue depth = 2

GI specular depth = 3

GI transmisson depth = 8

Light sampling is the default

Metal

Metal (CPU on the left, GPU on the right)

Rendering time:

CPU - 2m13s

GPU - 10s

In summary, the metal BRDF material does not require much computing performance, and can be well calculated on the GPU, so the CPU and GPU noise is less, GPU rendering is much faster. When there are many hard surface materials in the scene, the GPU will show more powerful speed and performance without losing the rendering quality.

Glass

Glass (CPU on the left, GPU on the right)

Rendering time:

CPU - 31m57s

GPU - 17s

Glass BTDF material, ray tracing renderer is too slow and too inefficient. Although the Arnold GPU renders extremely fast, it is obvious that the rendering details are lost and the noise is dense. Still using the CPU to render slowly is more reliable.

Subsurface scattering  

Subsurface scattering (CPU on the left, GPU on the right)

Rendering time:

CPU - 6m39s

GPU - 36s

Subsurface scattering(SSS), also known as BSSRDF, is the biggest surprise for Arnold GPU in so many tests. The Arnold GPU implements the random_walk BSSRDF in standard_surface.

First, the Arnold 5 comes with two types of SSS:

Dif

Random_walk

Diffusion is an empirically based SSS model that renders results faster because many of the parameters are obtained by looking up the table. This empirical model is also commonly used today. Random_walk is a complete light reflection calculation based on a real physical model.

Going back to the Arnold GPU, it doesn't support diffusion but uses random_walk directly. The results are perfect, the noise is small, and the rendering is very similar to the CPU. In actual production, this is a CG production requirement that is fully qualified for film.

Cornell Box

Cornell_box (CPU on the left, GPU on the right)

Rendering time:

CPU - 23m37s

GPU - 1m27s

The result is perfect, although the rendering time is slow, but the effect is amazing. Compared with Redshift, the speed is fiasco, and the effect is over. The biggest problem with Redshift is that indirect lighting tends to be too bright and dark details are not enough. The effect of the Arnold GPU is basically the same as that of the CPU. At this point, it is the best known in the current renderer (prman doesn't know).

Please note here that the reason why the rendering time of the GPU is significantly faster than the CPU is because the sampling is the same, and the sampling result is the same, the noise of the GPU rendering result is significantly more than the noise of the CPU rendering result.

Arnold Beta Edition Limitations

Because Arnold is still in the early beta version, many features are not available. It should be a little early to use the Arnold GPU for production. Here are some of the bigger drawbacks.

General restrictions

GPU rendering, based on the same sampling, more noise than CPU

GPU rendering will read all textures into memory and video memory, not supporting streaming texture

GPU rendering does not support bucket rendering, all supported AOVs are left in memory

GPU rendering does not support OpenVDB

Shaders restrictions

OSL Shaders is not supported yet

Third-party Shaders are not supported at this time

Does not support AOVs write, does not support write_aov

Lights restrictions

Cylinder_light is not supported yet

Disk_light is not supported at this time

Mesh_light is not supported yet

Light_links is not supported at this time

Light_filters is not supported at this time

The future of Arnold GPU

Arnold wants to use GPU rendering for movie-level projects, but because of the GPU's own shortcomings, many renderings must be calculated using the CPU, which is more efficient. Therefore, it is very important to switch between rendering between CPU and GPU freely. Based on this, Arnold can provide high quality CPU unidirectional ray tracing rendering while providing efficient GPU Optix ray tracing rendering.

A set of APIs supports CPU and GPU

Arnold was originally designed to use a set of APIs that are compatible with CPU and GPU rendering. Now Arnold GPUs are beginning to be compatible with some of the Maya native materials available in MtoA, at least for this, Arnold has made some progress.

Support for OSL Shaders

The latest news, from the developer forum, NVIDIA is working with Sony to develop OSL GPU-based compatibility, including several important features of OSL: Closure and LPEs. Will join the Arnold GPU soon.

Rendering consistency

Now it seems that Arnold still does a good job of restoring effects. GPU rendering tries to move closer to CPU rendering because the two rendering architectures are different and no longer extend.

Fox Renderfarm hopes it will be of some help to you. It is well known that Fox Renderfarm is an excellent cloud rendering services provider in the CG world, so if you need to find a render farm, why not try Fox Renderfarm, which is offering a free $25 trial for new users? Thanks for reading!

Reference: MIYAZAKI

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Top 6 Arnold Render Farms in 2024
Top 6 Arnold Render Farms in 2024
Arnold is a Monte Carlo ray tracing renderer that is widely used in movies. Although it was still a CPU renderer before, Arnold 6.0 and higher now support GPU rendering, previous versions did not support GPU rendering. Many software support the use of Arnold, including Maya, 3ds Max, Houdini, Cinema 4D and Katana.Arnold can efficiently calculate light transmission in CG scenes and support volumetric measurements to create stunningly realistic images. But such high-quality results often require sacrificing time, so reducing Arnold rendering time is necessary. One good way to do this is through Arnold render farms, using the Arnold cloud rendering services to greatly speed up rendering and get the job done.So here we will introduce 6 well-experienced Arnold render farms to you.The Best Arnold Render Farm - Fox RenderfarmFox Renderfarm is an experienced Arnold render farm that has been providing professional cloud rendering services to clients worldwide for many years. It supports the world's most popular 3D software, renderers and plugins, including Arnold, as well as Maya, Cinema 4D, 3ds Max and more. Fox Renderfarm offers a pay-as-you-go service that includes CPU rendering and GPU rendering, for as low as $0.036 per core hour, and provides a render farm price calculator to let you estimate rendering costs.Fox Renderfarm is very new-user friendly, you can get a free $25 trial coupon for signing up, and each user has their own account manager to help you with any problems you encounter. In addition, it is always committed to the CG industry, often hosting 3D rendering challenges to give CG artists the opportunity to inspire their potential and win prizes.Fox Renderfarm always puts the needs of users in the first place and constantly improves its services.Excellent Render Farm for Arnold - RebusFarmRebusFarm supports all common 3D applications, including host applications, as well as secondary rendering applications, such as Arnold, Maya, Blender, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, V-Ray, Redshift, Corona and more. In addition, RebusFarm's goal is to provide the greatest possible rendering power at the most affordable price, while maintaining a service-oriented connection with our customers. RebusFarm is designed to meet the growing demand for rendering power in the 3D animation field.RebusFarm supports both CPU and GPU rendering, and offers free 25 render points to new users, and they frequently host 3D contests.Arnold Cloud Rendering Farm - GarageFarmGarageFarm is a small team of technical and 3d enthusiasts who understand the rendering needs of users because they are 3d artists themselves. GarageFarm supports most software, including Arnold, Blender, 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4D, After Effects, Corona, Rhino, and more. GarageFarm supports both CPU and GPU rendering. In terms of price, if you also use Blender you will get more discounts and even if not, you will be able to get a free credit trial for $25 as a new user. Garagefarm has its own CG podcast series.Maya Arnold Render Farm - 3S Cloud Render Farm3S Cloud Render Farm is a team of passionate people whose 3S means speed, stability and satisfaction. 3S Cloud Render Farm supports software such as Arnold, Maya, Houdini, Cinema 4D, Blender, 3ds Max and more. 3S Cloud Render Farm offers an unlimited number of highly configurable CPU/GPU servers to speed up rendering, while is easy to operate. The free preview render feature provides you with accurate cost and time estimates and free preview images.3S Cloud Render Farm offers a $5 free trial and an additional 15% bonus on the first deposit for new users, only for 72 hours after account registration, among other offers.Arnold Render Farm For Cinema 4D - Drop & RenderDrop & Render is a render farm designed for Cinema 4D (now also supports Blender). Since Arnold is integrated into Cinema 4D, Drop & Render is an Arnold render farm that serves Cinema 4D. Drop & Render supports all versions of Arnold, as well as CPU and GPU rendering. Allows direct output to the workstation and custom checks from the C4D plugin for Arnold. New users will receive a free 10€ credit after completing registration.PaaS Model Arnold Render Farm - iRenderiRender is a remote GPU render farm with a PaaS service model that provides high-performance machines for GPU and CPU rendering, with the goal of enabling 3D artists to have their own cloud rendering farm. It supports many software such as Arnold, Maya, 3ds Max, Blender, Cinema 4D, Octane, Corona, Keyshot, Houdini, and more. iRender offers a 20% bonus to new users if they recharge within 24 hours.SummaryThe best Arnold render farm is the one that fits your needs. If you're still confused which one to choose, try Fox Renderfarm, the leading cloud rendering services provider in the CG industry, and is offering a $25 free trial! So get it a try!
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The Best Arnold Render Farm | Fox Renderfarm
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Arnold for Maya Tutorial: How to Render Wireframe
Arnold for Maya Tutorial: How to Render Wireframe
When making some work, we need to render some special effects, such as only showing the wireframe of the model. In this article, Fox Renderfarm, your best cloud rendering service provider, will show you how to use Arnold for Maya to render the mesh, show the model in wireframe or show the individual wireframe alone.Arnold rendererFirst, you need to modify the settings in the Arnold renderer, and then open the Hypershade to select the shader aiWireframe, the shader that implements the wireframe.aiWireframeLet's look at the properties of the aiWireframe shader, the detailed values:Edge Type is divided into Polygons, Triangles, Patches;Fill Color: This is the colour of the entity of the model itself. After testing, this node is connected to SurfaceMaterial for transparency and masking, but it has no effect, so, the node should be able to accept RGB information. About the LineColor the LineWidth, shown as below,Settings of aiWriteframeThe setting of this material is used as backup content for later use. We use this node as transparency information, to link the rendered material transparency node. We add the basic Arnold shader aiStandarSurface to the model to be rendered, and we can choose to adjust the colour in the basic shader.The key step is to connect the aiWriteframe shader we made earlier to the Opacity node of the basic shader.aiWriteframe link transparent nodeNext, we need to remove the Opaque node from the basic attributes of the model. A model can easily adjust the Opaque node in Arnold. But if there are many models, it will waste a lot of energy and time to adjust each model in turn.In Maya, you can adjust multiple model attributes at the same time through the attribute bar.Remove Opaque in the attributeThe method of batch adjustment of model attributes is in the AttributeSpreadSheet of GeneralEditors under windows. The detailed selection of the attributes of the model is to render the first AIOpaque in the Arnold window, and then click to enter 0. 0 is off and 1 is on here.Modify model properties in bulkLet's take a look at the test results. The picture on the left is the rendered reb colour effect, and the one on the right is the effect with channels.So, regarding the grid now that it can be displayed transparently, how to achieve a mask effect that blends transparency and opacity?First, use the same method to make the first shader, and then use Maya’s most primitive basic shader: surfacesShader, this can control the masking effect very well, we use the made aiWireframe to link the Out Color of the surface shader so that we can achieve the transparency effect of the mask.You can see the masked transparency effect below,Basically, this is how it is made. Of course, you can also use this method to make other effects. Fox Renderfarm hopes it will be of some help to you. As you know, Fox Renderfarm is an excellent cloud rendering farm in the CG world, so if you need to find a render farm that can help you render Arnold or Maya faster, you can try Fox Renderfarm, which is offering a free $25 trial for new users who sign up!
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