Image PGP submitted using RRS and rendered remotely on EPCC's rendering farm
The first part of the work was concerned with an investigation of suitable
platforms and rendering packages available to the project for this work
package. With respect to hardware platforms, the vast majority and particularly
the High Performance Computing resources available to the project are Unix-based.
On the contrary, the survey found that the majority of rendering software is
Windows-based.
Download the PGPGrid Rendering
Environment Survey (PDF, 288 Kbytes).
We thus used EPCC's desktop cluster and 3DStudioMax (3DSMax) for the project.
We used the 3DSMax internal clustering facilities (Backburner) and focused our
efforts towards providing Grid middleware that would allow PGP access to a remote
rendering facility while keeping control of the animation. This addresses a
well-known problem with sites already offering processing cycles for rendering:
the animators submit the rendering jobs but at the same time relinquish control
of their animation.
We designed and implemented the PGPGrid Remote Rendering System (RRS). It is
a Java and webservices-based application that uses GridFTP for file transfers
and employs the standard Globus mechanisms and the X.509 certificate scheme
for authentication and authorisation. The system includes a 3DSMax MAXScript
client application, thus providing the animators with a simple to use and
familiar to them interface.
View the PGPGrid Animation (WMV format, 346 Kbps,
696 Kbps or
1440 Kbps.
Download the PGPGrid Remote Rendering Service Documentation and Software (Zipped Archive, 5.3 Mbytes).
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