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I work for a mid-size company. All employees are Mac based. A colleague and myself have been tasked with modelling and rendering. We will be using Blender / Cycles. The Macs GPUs are rubbish and I would like to know if there is a method we could use to get Blender to use server-mounted GPUs?

To clarify: my colleague and I will be working on iMacs using blender to model and render. The Macs GPU is not up to the task so efficient rendering is not available using just the iMacs. How do we point Blender to recognise the GPUs on our server over the network to perform this task more efficiently?

Thanks JK

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  • $\begingroup$ What makes a server different from a regular desktop system in this context? $\endgroup$
    – ideasman42
    Commented Feb 24, 2016 at 14:51
  • $\begingroup$ This question is a bit vague. Assuming you can run Cuda or OpenCL on these GPU's, then the answer is yes. Some render farms use GPU's on amazon's cloud for example (see renderstreet). $\endgroup$
    – ideasman42
    Commented Feb 24, 2016 at 14:51
  • $\begingroup$ I would like to know how we can get Blender to work locally at our desks on these iMacs and also have Blender recognise that the rendering (every time we press F12 plus the interactive rendering (shift + Z)) must be done on the GPUs in our remote servers across our network? $\endgroup$
    – JKCapeTown
    Commented Feb 24, 2016 at 14:53
  • $\begingroup$ This is different to your original question, it wasn't clear you wanted to remotely use a GPU from a Blender instance running locally. $\endgroup$
    – ideasman42
    Commented Feb 24, 2016 at 14:55
  • $\begingroup$ To clarify: my colleague and I will be working on iMacs using blender to model and render. The Macs GPU is not up to the task so efficient rendering is not available using just the iMacs. How do we point Blender to recognise the GPUs on our server over the network to perform this task more efficiently? Thx. $\endgroup$
    – JKCapeTown
    Commented Feb 24, 2016 at 14:59

2 Answers 2

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No, there is currently to have a local Blender instance access a remote GPU to make use of it from Cycles. *

There is a network-rendering component to Cycles however this isn't ready for production use, and nobody is actively developing it.

Alternatives:

  • Use a render farm (send your files to the server).
  • Use a remote-desktop login to the faster system (using standard remote desktop access).

... though realistically you may be better off to get a computer that supports swapping out graphics cards.

* Probably this has done under some special conditions, however I'm not aware of this being something you can do right now with off-the-shelf software and hardware. And while rCuda exists its only free for academic use, and Cycles would need to be modified to support it.

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  • $\begingroup$ Well, that is a bit unfortunate. As a last stab at the issue, we have four Python programmers here in the office, would they be able to relatively quickly code a solution / develop that network rendering component? I'd like your input before i go bother them! $\endgroup$
    – JKCapeTown
    Commented Feb 24, 2016 at 15:51
  • $\begingroup$ Likely its quite a large project (C++), linked to wiki page on network rendering inline. $\endgroup$
    – ideasman42
    Commented Feb 24, 2016 at 17:12
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As stated Cycles can't currently use networked hardware for rendering, but I know about these two third party solutions. I have never tested or used them myself, so I can't really vouch for their usability or quality.

I think they are both virtualization software for Blender and Cycles that allow using remote computer's hardware to render. Not sure if they will help for your specific case but I'll leave them here anyway.

  1. Loki Render: https://sourceforge.net/projects/loki-render/
  2. GPU Box http://www.renegatt.com/products
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    $\begingroup$ Thanks guys. Loki is a standalone renderer (save file, open new app, load and render) so not quite what I'm after. GPU Box holds a bit of promise but isn't available on OS X. rCuda seems to be the closest match for my needs but way over my technical skill level; will, however, present all options to the tech guys and see what bubbles to the surface. Again, thanks very much. $\endgroup$
    – JKCapeTown
    Commented Feb 25, 2016 at 8:00

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