GPU Support Overview and Guidelines

[DriesV]

KeyShot 9.1 introduces support for GPU in Network Rendering. GPU rendering is supported on Windows and Linux Workers.

Note: The same requirements and recommendations regarding hardware and drivers apply as for GPU Mode in KeyShot 9. More information can be found in the manual.

Enabling GPU devices for Network Rendering
If you want your computer's GPU(s) to be available as a Worker on the network, you can enable this in the KeyShot Network Configurator.
Launch KeyShot 9.1 Network Configurator and select Worker Settings. Under Availability, check GPU and select the GPU devices you wish to add as a Worker from the dropdown. Restart the Worker service to affect the changes.

Note: Multiple GPUs of a single machine will be available as a single GPU Worker.
Note: Each GPU device will utilize 16 cores of the Network Rendering license. E.g. a Worker with two GPUs will require a 32 core Network Rendering license.

Sending GPU jobs from KeyShot
Network Rendering jobs will be rendered with GPU if GPU Mode is selected as the Render Engine when sending jobs to the network inside KeyShot 9.1. The Render Engine selection can be be found in the Render Options dialog. By default, Inherit from Real-time view is selected. This will ensure that if GPU Mode is active in the Real-time view, jobs will be rendered with GPU on the network.

GPU jobs in Network Monitor
A new Mode column has been added to both the job list and Worker Status. In the job list, the Mode indicates whether the job will be rendered on CPU or GPU. In Worker Status, the Mode indicates the availability and status of GPU devices for each Worker. The amount of "GPU cores" will be a multiple of 16, since each GPU device will utilize 16 cores of the Network Rendering license.
Note: If a Worker has both CPU cores and GPU devices enabled in the Network Configurator, then the Worker will show up with two separate entries for CPU and GPU availability.

If you have any other questions, simply reply or email us at beta@luxion.com.

Happy GPU'ing!

The Luxion team

[Eugen Fetsch]

Hi Dries, thanks for the update.

Very interesting to see that one GPU takes 16 license cores.

Question:
Did Luxion thought to change the network render policy to license per machine and not per core (like other engines do)?

Costs to run a 258x cores cluster (annually)...
- €120 for VRay
- €250 for Renderman
- €500 for Redshift
- €3.360 for KeyShot

This difference is so insane.

[DriesV]

Hi Eugen,

The KeyShot Network Rendering licensing model has been developed to allow machines in office environments to "donate" a few cores to function as Worker. It isn't uncommon for Workers to have "only" 8 cores in our experience.
Of course, in case of many-core machines with e.g. high-end Threadripper CPUs, this model becomes more expensive. So you do have a fair point and we'll consider your suggestion. 

Dries

[Eugen Fetsch]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I like this "donation" idea - it's very handy for office environments. Hope you can find a way to support both solutions in a fair way. Like the KS Pro and the Floating Enterprise version. Pay more for flexibility or pay less and stick to one machine only.