Computing experts bring Hollywood to Sunderland – virtually
Released: Tuesday 29th April 2008 at 00:00
Iron Man is on the big screens this week – and now the University of Sunderland can offer Hollywood standard CGI
Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) brings Iron Man to life on the big screen this week, it has took Doctor Who to new worlds, and created memorable new adverts with everything from singing dogs to cars driving on rooftops. Up until the now the massive computing power needed to create these images has been the preserve of a handful of the world’s top advertising and film companies – but from this week those images are available from a brand new facility launched at the University of Sunderland. Researchers at the University’s School of Computing and Technology have built a new type of computer. Ten years ago a system with the same processing power would have cost many millions of pounds to obtain the same level of performance – the new system does so at a fraction of the cost, with the added bonus of minimising damage to the environment. The Sunderland Grid system uses a cluster of smaller interconnected computers to create a powerful single computer. The general purpose system was designed with the assistance of staff from Dell Computers and Cisco Systems, and this week it became fully operational. Now the system can be used as a ‘render farm’, to render images and models quickly into CGI which can be used in everything from Hollywood blockbusters to architects models which can allow you to travel through buildings before they are built. Grid systems have been attempted in the past, but the University of Sunderland team concentrated on improving the network which connects the computers, and have succeeded in not only improving and accelerating the processing power of the computer, but they have also cut down unnecessary expenditure of energy. The University of Sunderland Grid is one of the first cluster systems to be designed to work in an open space without air conditioning. The Sunderland team concentrate on optimising the computing so that jobs can complete in the fastest possible time. Normally clusters consume large amounts of power and generate heat, Sunderland’s low power Grid is used to provide background heat for the building and does not directly vent hot air to the external atmosphere. Notes: Render farms are computing systems which render images. Many instructions need to be carried out simultaneously by the computer, with initial material, such as models and textures, uploaded to the computer, and the computer quickly processing and download the finished images.
I wondering if i can use this system for my renders for A) faster rendering in larger scale and greater detail & B) for some detailed animations and fly throughs...hummmmmmmm
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