Setting Up A PC Just For Rendering

[Kreek]

So I have a question for you folks. I see people using their "gaming" PC to record their gameplay, and then render it on a different PC as to be able to continue doing whatever they do while their video renders. Now I have my two PCs for that, but I'm not sure how to set that system up. My biggest question is how you would move your raw uncompressed video files from one PC to another. About 10 minutes of FRAPS is about 50GBs which you can't just transfer over homegroup, as uploading 50GBs to another PC would probably take forever. Then transferring it with a flash drive is also rather unefficient. Is there an easy way to transfer these from one PC to the next?

Thanks!

[DeltrusDisc]

Additional network cards make all the difference. Get a 1Gbps or even better, 10Gbps additional card for each computer and just watch files fly.

You could literally just directly hook them up, port to port, and you'd have some very quick speeds.

See this example thanks to Linus!

[Punisher]

Damn

This is

pure

awesomness

[vesseblah]

Two more common solutions to this question is either:

a) Use a capture card that records straight to h.264. Trim the video, add your logo in front and upload. Zero time spent rendering anything.
b) Do video compression when you're not playing, for example overnight while sleeping.

Having 2nd computer for the job is just too complicated and too expensive for almost everybody.

[n0cturnal]

Additional network cards make all the difference. Get a 1Gbps or even better, 10Gbps additional card for each computer and just watch files fly.

You could literally just directly hook them up, port to port, and you'd have some very quick speeds.

See this example thanks to Linus!

[.video=youtube;Bu6jlA7hPj8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu6jlA7hPj8[/video]

Unless you use SSD for storage on both computers 10Gbit network will be wasted. 1Gbit is plenty for normal usage, I transfer files at 100-111MB/s between the computers, the hard drives won't handle much faster anyway.

Or several HDD in raid as showed in the video.

[DeltrusDisc]

Two more common solutions to this question is either:

a) Use a capture card that records straight to h.264. Trim the video, add your logo in front and upload. Zero time spent rendering anything.
b) Do video compression when you're not playing, for example overnight while sleeping.

Having 2nd computer for the job is just too complicated and too expensive for almost everybody.

But he said he already has the second computer. ;o

[vesseblah]

But he said he already has the second computer. ;o

Who knows... Maybe it's some old junk OP is looking to upgrade or previous PC with possible reuse ideas. If the answer to either of those is "yes", the right answer is forgetting second computer because it's the wrong tool for the job. Sometimes the correct answer to "A or B" questions here is "neither".

[Kreek]

The second computer in question is pretty much my old laptop I used to game on, although it has a pretty decent CPU and would do an ok job at rendering. It would probably take a while longer, but at least I could play while doing so, as rendering pretty much sets CPU usage at 100%. Using a capture card to record straight to h.264 files is a great idea, but you wouldn't be able to add in color corrections and the like would you, without having to put it back in vegas again. I think Live Gamer HD has a feature where you can just upload straight to youtube, but I much prefer fraps/dxtory to something like live gamer HD when it comes to flat out crystal clear video. Pretty good ideas though! I wonder why it never crossed my mind to just render while I'm sleeping. :/

[mojo6912]

An external usb 3.0 hard drive that you can swap from computer to computer or even an internal that you swap.

Have you tried setting the priority on vegas to below normal and then try to play? I found that I am able to play and render if it is on a lower priority.

Neither one of these options would allow you to effectively game + record + render all 3 at the same time though.

[DeltrusDisc]

The second computer in question is pretty much my old laptop I used to game on, although it has a pretty decent CPU and would do an ok job at rendering. It would probably take a while longer, but at least I could play while doing so, as rendering pretty much sets CPU usage at 100%. Using a capture card to record straight to h.264 files is a great idea, but you wouldn't be able to add in color corrections and the like would you, without having to put it back in vegas again. I think Live Gamer HD has a feature where you can just upload straight to youtube, but I much prefer fraps/dxtory to something like live gamer HD when it comes to flat out crystal clear video. Pretty good ideas though! I wonder why it never crossed my mind to just render while I'm sleeping. :/

Most laptop CPUs will not even come close to a full-fledged desktop CPU, in anything.

---------- Post added 2013-03-16 at 02:37 AM ----------

An external usb 3.0 hard drive that you can swap from computer to computer or even an internal that you swap.

Have you tried setting the priority on vegas to below normal and then try to play? I found that I am able to play and render if it is on a lower priority.

Neither one of these options would allow you to effectively game + record + render all 3 at the same time though.

If I am rendering videos, I like to get it done asap. The less things I have to worry about the CPU trying to focus on, the better. Imo, render when you aren't gaming.

[vesseblah]

When I'm rendering WoW videos I usually just leave it on at low priority on the background while I'm gaming if I know for sure I won't be recording more that evening. With low prio settings it has got zero impact on fps and 60min render time might stretch to 90min instead. Works perfectly if done for example after raid when you spend hour of doing dailies or other farming crap or just chilling and chatting with people, and then you can leave upload on overnight instead of rendering.

[Killora]

When I'm rendering WoW videos I usually just leave it on at low priority on the background while I'm gaming if I know for sure I won't be recording more that evening. With low prio settings it has got zero impact on fps and 60min render time might stretch to 90min instead. Works perfectly if done for example after raid when you spend hour of doing dailies or other farming crap or just chilling and chatting with people, and then you can leave upload on overnight instead of rendering.

This. Set the priority for the rendering program to low (or somewhere lower than the game, or set the game higher) and you shouldn't see any impact in game performance.

[vesseblah]

This. Set the priority for the rendering program to low (or somewhere lower than the game, or set the game higher) and you shouldn't see any impact in game performance.

Always correct way is set the render prio lower than game, not the other way around. If you start rising priority of things strange bugs might happen if you override some parts of OS running at normal prio. For example you can experience major lag in USB mouse/keyboard if you run games at high prio.

[Killora]

Always correct way is set the render prio lower than game, not the other way around. If you start rising priority of things strange bugs might happen if you override some parts of OS running at normal prio. For example you can experience major lag in USB mouse/keyboard if you run games at high prio.

Yeah, you're right. Even though i usually can set things to higher priorities without any noticeable issues, i'd still never recommend it. Which makes me wonder why i even said that o_O