GPU renderers and flip fluids

[art3mis]

I'm primarily interested in fluid and particle sims with Houdini. Can any Octane or Redshift experts tell me if GPU renderers are a good option for fluid & particle sims?

[lukeiamyourfather]

GPU renderers are not a good fit for most visual effects shots because of the memory limitations of the GPU compared to the main system memory (e.g. 12GB and 128GB). If the renderer can use the main system memory or use the CPU as a backup it's more fitting for visual effects when the project inevitably hits a memory ceiling while rendering on the GPU. I've tried Octane in Houdini and was not impressed at all. Yeah, a lot of stuff was fast but a lot of stuff was also broken. I haven't tried Redshift in anything yet.

[Sepu]

Hey Luke the cool thing about Redshift is that if the GPU are max out of memory, then it goes to the you main Ram, it slows down a bit but you can render. You should give a swirl. 

[art3mis]

Luke, thanks. A quick search seems to confirm your assessment. Very, very few demos I can find of gpu rendered fluid sims. If anyone can prove me wrong, please do!

so, out of curiosity are you a Mantra only advocate in Houdini?

And what type of hardware are you running?

As a novice, my logic for GPU renders goes something like "quicker renders = more iterations = faster learning" but if my focus is fluid, particle sims might be time to recalibrate my thinking.

 

 

[Guest tar]

You may want to have a look at the computing power required to produce those types of effects in an efficient manner: i.e. 30 machines on the farm

http://www.gridmarkets.com/siggraph2016-phill-mayer.html 

[lukeiamyourfather]

21 hours ago, eco_bach said:

so, out of curiosity are you a Mantra only advocate in Houdini?

I advocate for using the right tool for the job. In many cases for visual effects this is Mantra.

22 hours ago, eco_bach said:

And what type of hardware are you running?

Dual socket machines with 20 cores (40 threads) and 128GB of memory. The more cores the better.

22 hours ago, eco_bach said:

As a novice, my logic for GPU renders goes something like "quicker renders = more iterations = faster learning" but if my focus is fluid, particle sims might be time to recalibrate my thinking.

In production more iterations usually means a better final product. This will help your schoolwork turn out better given the same amount of time but I wouldn't go so far as to say you'd learn more. That's an entirely different story. 

[art3mis]

Thanks, great info