Rendering in SketchUp: From Modeling to Presentation for Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Interior Design

Other Rendering Options

There are other ways to render a model that bypass a computer’s hardware. As of this writing, no IRP for SketchUp takes advantage of either option discussed here with the exception of Shaderlight. However, this could change and would be an excellent and economical approach to rendering.

Network Rendering

Most studio rendering programs can use multiple computers to produce a single rendering. Network rendering utilizes the processors from one or more computers linked together by a typical, internal computer network. These linked computers are called a render farm (Fig. 4.6).

Fig. 4.6: The computer with the rendering file (green) directs the rendering through the server (orange), which is processed by the network of computers (gray).

Even slow computers, when teamed together, can create a formidable array of processing. Major motion picture companies, professional render artists, and large offices utilize render farms using SRPs.

Cloud Rendering

Cloud computing enables your software and data to be run, stored, and processed by computers located someplace other than your home or office. Large companies, like Google and Amazon, offer cloud computing services. You can store, back up, and even run applications remotely, taking advantage of a company’s large backbone of powerful and plentiful computers (Fig. 4.7). The sheer amount of processing power made ...