L'Ancien Regime

Thanks. Good to hear that your new rig is up and running; I'm without a viable modeling/texturing computer right now and I'm just waiting on the release of those AMD Radeon 3080's... It totally sucks not being able to work in 3d coat etc. as you can well imagine.

Which specific motherboard did you get? What GPU are you using with that?

After years of slow development things are just going crazy.

The thing that's blowing my mind isn't just that you'll be able to get 16/32 cores/threads at 5.1ghz but that the prices are so damn cheap. Intel would rape your wallet brutally if they could offer those specs on a CPU without competition. With the rapid fall in SSD prices and cheap high quality X399 motherboards, the only fly in the ointment is this annoying GPU problem holding things up. Buy a cheap hot noisy RADEON with crappy drivers or pay an arm and a leg for a new NVIDIA GPU that's going to turn into a brick on you the day after the warranty elapses? By the way I've a related question for all you Radeon owners out there; as someone who really doesn't care that much about gaming ( I do game a bit but it's sort of spiritually empty I find) I'm more concerned about how they work out for both interactive vs final production renders. I've heard AMD cards are actually better than NVidia cards in this department. Is this the way to go? I mean 16 GB of HBM VRAM.... https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Radeon-Frontier-Liquid-Retail/dp/B072XLR2K7 "Fantastic card! Using it for 3D modeling and rendering in Maya, Max and other CAD software. Performance is astounding! Big step up from the Quadro 4000. Handles hundreds of thousands of object with tens of millions of polys without a sweat in Maya. Great features for Pro users like 10 bit color, 4 monitor ports, 16GB VRAM, Pro app settings via the pro drivers etc... " https://blog.maxwellrender.com/news/maxwell-4-gpu-frequently-asked-questions/ This is a pretty good article on all the considerations for GPU vs CPU rendering. Is it even worth worrying about a Provisional Render on a GPU if you've got a 32 or 64 thread CPU that can handle ray tracing, SSS, caustics more comprehensively and faster?

Speaking of Arnold GPU ...

I assume all modeling tools only use one or two threads at most, like most games. Multi cores are for rendering, and cooking up new textures. You're going to have a blast with Substance Designer and whatever render engine you use with all those threads and render buckets.

Everything about buying a new computer is dirt cheap right now...EXCEPT the GPU and that's turning out to be insane. 1080Ti's are like $1600 Canadian new. Insane. I hope they solve this problem fast so I can get a decent 2070 at a reasonable price. Or maybe just go buy a Titan V (Volta) for $5400 Canadian???

http://www.cgchannel.com/2018/11/alexey-vanzhula-makes-flux-1-0-available-free/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cgchannel%2FnHpU+(CG+Channel+-+Entertainment+Production+Art) Link to free download; https://gumroad.com/alexeyvanzhula Tools developer Alexey Vanzhula has made Flux 1.0, his real-time Boolean and retopology tool, formerly sold for $100, available to download for free. The toolset was developed for Houdini, but is provided as a Houdini Digital Asset (HDA), which should make it possible to use in other DCC software via Houdini Engine. Like Modo’s MeshFusion in Houdini On its release last year, Vanzhula described Flux as being “like MeshFusion in Modo”, in reference to Modo’s own real-time Boolean modelling plugin, since incorporated into the core application. The software is designed to enable users to create complex Boolean assemblies non-destructively, seeing the results of any changes made to the model hierarchy updated in real time. Flux has since been superseded by the Soft Booleans system in Direct Modeling, Vanzhula’s newest product, which he describes in his forum post announcing the release as creating better topology. However, unlike Direct Modeling, Flux features a retopology toolset: its retopology widget enables any Houdini modelling tool to be used with the software’s TopoBuild SOP. There are also ‘simple tools’ for remeshing volumes in VDB format and baking geometry. Availability and system requirements Flux is available free for Houdini 16.0 and 16.5 only. It should also work in other DCC applications, including Maya and Cinema 4D, via Houdini Engine. If you like Flux and want to support development of future tools, you can support Vanzhula on Patreon.

Here's a Cyber Monday deal; https://www.amazon.de/AMD-506048-Radeon-GDDR5-Grafikkarte-Grafikkarten-GDDR5-Speicher/dp/B072HTFZM4/ref=pd_sbs_147_8?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B072HTFZM4&pd_rd_r=74fd97f1-efd1-11e8-8f7c-734f98c58a09&pd_rd_w=XapA4&pd_rd_wg=qoyfR&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=A3JWKAKR8XB7XF&pf_rd_p=51bcaa00-4765-4e8f-a690-5db3c9ed1b31&pf_rd_r=0KF4GHNEC5CTHKK8QQ6H&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=0KF4GHNEC5CTHKK8QQ6H Really, really wanted to like this card, but... The PROs... Cosmetically, it's a handsome looking card in a stately, blockish, and rather plain looking blue and black metal casing ---- I prefer its looks to all of the nonsensical glowing and flashing LED frenzy provided by so many other graphics cards ---- I don't need the name of a graphics card lit up while it sits inside of a computer case where I'm not going to be looking at it. Feature wise, the combination of two GPUs, each with it's own 16GB of video memory for a total of 32GB just screams "value" at you, especially given the $900 to $1000 price. The CONs... This card all too easily becomes insanely hot!!! Just give it enough to do, and especially something involving both GPUs, and within a mere minute or two, the all-metal outer casing on this card will become so hot that you actually cannot touch it. In fact, I found this thing became so hot that I considered whether I should put it by itself in one of those external GPU boxes linked by Thunderbolt 3, because I was afraid of it cooking chips underneath it on the motherboard and cooking other cards in neighboring slots. I decided I wanted to at least quantify this issue by getting a temperature read from it, but for some reason, AMD's "Radeon Pro" driver software does not seem to include any way to provide any information about the card's temperature ---- I poked all around the menus looking for something that will tell me something about the condition of the card, but there was nothing. ---- WHY IS THAT? I really, really wanted to like this card, but I have to say DO NOT BUY ---- at least not until something is done about this problem! I thought we were supposed to be enjoying the benefits of progress! Tons of memory and decent clocks for a professional card. However, the secondary GPU on mine refused to run anywhere close to the clock of the primary, maxing out at 400Mhz for some reason. Not sure why; and I received 0 response from AMD on the matter. And the prices on the 1080Ti's are out of this world..I guess everyone has figured out that the 2000 series is a bust or something so they can still command insane prices on the 1080ti's. https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=1080ti And no hope on the horizon from NAVI 7nm?

Nope that's one of the threadrippers. Congrats. What mobo will you use for it. My EE friend recommended that MSI’s new X399 Creation motherboard that I listed. And that price is the same....you got yours for $344 USD, that's $424.99 CDN.

I was all set to buy a new short term rig this weekend to serve in the interim but now that's all up in the air. The 1080Ti's are good but they're still commanding a high price despite the glut caused by the falloff in cryptocurrency mining. Those 2070's were annoying anyway in that they didn't allow for SLI or NVlink. What a scam. And there's virtually no good deals for Black Friday on components at all; the best I found was on some low end Asus mobos that were undesireable at any price. I guess I'll just have to wait some more and just surf the web on my $300 Dell Intuos craptop. I suppose I could make do with this for now but I just sense something really good is coming soon; https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Radeon-Vega-Frontier-Edition/dp/B072XKTT7C/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1543014738&sr=1-3&keywords=AMD+Radeon+RX+Vega+64 https://www.amazon.ca/AMD-Ryzen-Processor-Wraith-Cooler/dp/B07B428M7F https://www.anandtech.com/show/13020/msi-new-threadripper-2-motherboard-on-steroids-x399-creation And so on...

Oh god, the dying RTX cards phenomenon isn't just for the 2080 cards....now it's the 2070's too.

http://www.cgchannel.com/2018/11/quadspinner-open-sources-entire-vue-portfolio/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cgchannel%2FnHpU+(CG+Channel+-+Entertainment+Production+Art) Terrain tools developer QuadSpinner has made its entire portfolio of Vue assets available open-source. The collection of resources for e-on software’s world-generation tool includes over 70 atmosphere presets, over 40 MetaNodes and 16 sets of materials, ranging from grasslands to rocks, ice and magma. https://github.com/QuadSpinner/VueLegacy An educational resource as well as a set of production-ready assets Most of the assets in QuadSpinner’s Vue Legacy collection are unlocked, making it possible for artists to explore how they were constructed. There is a further set of “half cooked” development materials from QuadSpinner co-founder Dax Pandhi’s own production library, used on projects like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica. The main GitHub repository also includes supporting files for QuadSpinner’s Vue training videos, which are now being released via its YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/quadspinner/videos In addition, QuadSpinner has open-sourced Pandhi’s 2011 book, Realism in Vue, via a separate GitHub repo. The start of an ongoing open source initiative QuadSpinner, which now develops WorldMachine plugin GeoGlyph and standalone terrain design tool Gaea, describes the release as the start of a wider program of open source projects. “We … have not forgotten our roots, nor the community where it all started,” it wrote in a blog post. “On our 10-year anniversary, we are very pleased to announce the QuadSpinner Open Source Initiative.” “Over the next several years, we will be undertaking various open source projects aimed at helping the CG community at large, and creating new educational resources for environment artists.” Availability and system requirements QuadSpinner’s Vue Legacy assets are available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Most of the files were created with Vue 7.5, 8, 9.5, 10.5 and 11.5, so “most recent versions” of Vue will open them. https://quadspinner.github.io/

Checkout Topaz AI Gigapixel at the 14 min mark; he's advocating doing lower quality renders then upresing them with this AI system and saving time on renders.

I was just rereading that CG Channel article. This is sort of amazing...to see the logic of Houdini's system end up being applied like this to plug in toolkit development so that they're able to be universally applicable across radically different apps.. It’s provided as a Houdini Digital Asset, which means that it should be possible to use it in other DCC applications, including 3ds Max, Cinema 4D and Maya, Unity, via Houdini Engine.

http://www.cgchannel.com/2018/11/master-gpu-rendering-for-production-with-redshift/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cgchannel%2FnHpU+(CG+Channel+-+Entertainment+Production+Art) Since its release in 2014, GPU-based production renderer Redshift has become one of the visual effects industry’s staple tools. Next week, visitors to Gnomon’s Hollywood campus will be able to discover why. In GPU Rendering: An Introduction to Redshift for Production, a free two-hour masterclass, former CoSA VFX CG supervsior David Stipinis will explore how Redshift can be used on personal and professional projects. The session, which can be viewed free on Twitch via the player embedded above, will introduce the renderer’s key features and explore specific workflows for increasing productivity and creativity. The event will close with an audience Q&A, enabling viewers to ask follow-up questions. Free to attend, but register online in advance GPU Rendering: An Introduction to Redshift for Production takes place at Gnomon’s Hollywood campus from 7.30-9:30pm on Thursday 15 November 2018. Entry is free, but you’ll need to register online first. If you can’t make it to LA in person, the session will also be broadcast live on Gnomon’s Twitch channel. You don’t need to register to watch the stream, and can ask questions via Twitter using the hashtag #gnomon.

I was thinking of keeping my next workstation computer offline anyway and doing all my internet communications with other non SMT rigs I have. If I can't buy a new rig to sculpt, 3d texture and render with on Cyber Monday I may go insane.

I had this conversation with my EE friend in E. Europe last night on Skype after I sent him this screenshot from the latest Linus video; ME; Portsmash affects AMD too..it affects all parallel processors EE in EU; AWWW S*****!!! EE in EU; i guess we wont be buying anytime soon! ME; Why?? ME; ******* ME; Its that bad eh? EE in EU; ayup ME; How is it being spread? EE in EU; good question. https://www.zdnet.com/article/intel-cpus-impacted-by-new-portsmash-side-channel-vulnerability/ Researchers say they notified Intel's security team last month, on October 1, but the company has not provided a patch until yesterday, the date on which researchers went public with their findings. An Intel spokesperson was not available for comment regarding the state of the PortSmash patching process before this article's publication. AMD CPUS LIKELY IMPACTED "We leave as future work exploring the capabilities of PortSmash on other architectures featuring SMT, especially on AMD Ryzen systems," the research team said in a version of their paper shared with ZDNet, but Brumley told us via email that he strongly suspects that AMD CPUs are also impacted. The work behind discovering PortSmash is also the first result of "SCARE: Side-Channel Aware Engineering," a five-year security research project funded by the European Research Council. "Security and SMT are mutually exclusive concepts," he added. "I hope our work encourages users to disable SMT in the BIOS or choose to spend their money on architectures not featuring SMT."