Rendered on a Packard Bell dot s netbook in under 20 minutes
Not just possible, but downright desirable! Being able to create entire 3D scenes in something not much larger than a paperback book, with a battery life that’s good for a whole chunk of a day – I mean, what’s not to love?
OK, there’s some limitations, but nothing show-stopping. The biggest limitation is the screen resolution. At 1024×600 for most smaller netbooks your work area is going to be a little cramped, to say the least. There’s way and means around even that problem though (to the point where it becomes not a problem at all), and remember that screen resolution has no bearing on the size of the images you can make. Want a 4000×3000 behemoth of a render? If you’re prepared to wait for it, no problem. If you really want more screen estate (seriously, it’s not needed) then you could attach a 22″ LCD display and still have plenty of change from the cost of a laptop.
More significant is the trade-off in processor speed. A typical desktop box will run rings round a little Intel Atom powered netbook when it comes to raw number-crunching, and that means render-times will be slower than you’d get from a desktop machine (or even a full sized laptop for that matter). Given that a netbook is half to two-thirds the price of a laptop though, and a third that of a desktop setup, it’s well worth slightly longer the wait. And that wait isn’t long at all if you’re using DAZ Studio. The render above took just under 20 minutes to complete. The one below in seven minutes – and that’s with high-resolution textures and UberEnvironment lighting. That’s good enough for me.
More about the hows and whys of running DAZ Studio on a netbook, next time.
oh, daz studio, why do you have so many issues on my mac. have i not downloaded your latest version? have i not given you many models to play with? beautiful, scantily clad models? your cousin bryce runs fine.
Because, of the way Mac OS X 10.6.2 talks to your chipset/video board. Granted, both Apple and DAZ are doing two Independent investigations into the problem.
i supposed as much, but good to know.