Support > FAQ

Frequetly Asked Questions

Q: Why use RenderRocket?

A: RenderRocket is the most intelligent remote render farm installation and utilizes the most advanced hardware available. Designed by industry professionals with over 20 years of combined special effects and animation production experience, RenderRocket is the culmination of creative vision and technical excellence. Our team has experience in every facet of CG animation production, and can assist you in developing an outsourced rendering solution that can take your production to the next level.

Q: What rendering software does RenderRocket support?

A: Currently, all versions of Maya, Mental Ray for Maya, and the Maxwell Renderer. We are developing support for other render packages, and will be making announcements as they reach beta testing phase.

Q: Do you support 3ds Max?

A: Yes. The renderer options available to 3DS Max include: Default Scan Line, Mental Ray, Vray and Maxwell Render.

Q: Do you support Pixar's Renderman?

A: No. Pixar does not currently license Renderman for on-demand usage. However, with customer-provided licenses, we can setup and maintain a virtual private render farm with Renderman (PRMAN). Note: depending on the implementation of Renderman (MTOR or Artist Tools, etc...), additional setup time may be required.

Q: How much does it cost?

A: Our service is priced to be a cost effective alternative to purchasing and maintaining in-house render hardware. The cost is based on the duration of render time and the number of servers used. The Render Time Calculation page allows you to estimate the time required and cost of rendering your project with Render Rocket. Here you will find many of the answers to your questions regarding the pricing options and policies of Render Rocket.

Q: How long does it take to set up my rendering environment?

A: In most cases, you can use our service without any custom configuration; just upload and go. If your render requires custom shaders or plugins, or any other pipeline customization, addtional setup may be required.

Q: How fast are your computers?

A: Please see our Tech Specs page for information on our render farm configuration.

Q: Do you support HDR image formats?

A: Yes. We support all file formats that are native to Maya. This includes 16 and 32 bit TIFs, TGAs, SGIs, HDR, and Open EXR. This applies to textures maps, as well as for render output.

Q: Why would I use the "Dual-Threaded" option?

A: The Dual Threaded option is primarily intended for memory intensive renders. If you are rendering large format frames, enabling "Dual Threaded" processing allows 2 CPUs to render a single frame. In addition, twice as much system memory will be allocated for rendering "Dual Threaded" frames.