vSwarm - Main Info

vSwarm - A free renderfarm for all!

- Official "Why Should I Join" here -

Currently supports Blender, and the aim is to include Luxrender</b>.

- Overall Guide -</b>

You can help in the rendering by downloading and installing the client (~385mb, yes, it's slightly big), built in VMware (Virtual computer) to exclude the process from your computer, thus keeping your PC safe.
_{(No data of your computer from the virtual computer is accessible [and vice versa], and if something goes wrong in VMware, the application can just be shut down)}
- but hey, this is not necessary! It just helps you gain priority, and of course keeps the whole idea of free renderfarm in together.

First off, you have to register. Betcha you didn't see that one coming, did ya?

Submitting animations to render is easy, just you have to set up a normal render setup (Resolution, AA, nodes (if you will), format, etc.).
There are two things that are just recommended - compress the file and set render threads to 5 or so (helps multicore PC's). ^{(Of course you have packed all textures to the .blend)}

Then you upload the compressed .blend with a web-filemanager (If file less than 10mb), or trough FTP with your favourite FTP-client. (Recommended if over 10mb)

You open the Job Creator, give it a name (For you to recognize it), select the application (Blender, Lux is currently just in deveploment), the file, add the frames to render and hit Submit.
And voilà! The animation is then sent to good-hearted people sharing their CPU. Individual frames then will appear in the "results" -folder (That you can access trough Web-filemanager or FTP).

Some random info:
~ No-one can get your .blend or frames of the render, and also you can't get anyone elses; thanks to VMware.
~ There is no limit of the size/amount on the server, at least for now.
~ They're planning to develop a commercial version (You get money from sharing your CPU, and you can buy priority) of this. If it happens, the free vSwarm will be kept free for users with good heart. They'll make it (the commercial version) if we (Users) want them to make it.
~ The plan is to get about 10,000 users (& clients) in the end of 2009. I don't know the number of current users (And I think we're nowhere near 10,000), but imagine at least about 1,000 PC's rendering your animation!


On the site is also Wiki/Support and a forum.

Links ~
Main Site - vSwarm
Registering
The Client
"Why Should I Join"
"How It Works</i>" - official, sums it up very well (of course)

Thank you for reading this.