S2 - Chapter 1 - Dev Log #3 (Patreon)

Hello, 

The last log was mostly about S1 & Ch2. This log now includes some new Season 2 stuff. 

How so? 

Well, I got an upgrade. 

If you don't care about hardware and behind-the-scenes stuff. Scroll down until the previews start. 

I was running into a wall with a scene in SG. I couldn't render it as it featured the big classroom & 11+ visible characters. 

Sure, I could've used fewer characters but that's not the solution to the issue. 

Especially in the college, I want to show crowded scenes with lots of students and professors running around. 

I value immersion more than the actual image quality by now. 

At first, I tried to render the scene in two images. (Hide half the people -> Render it -> Show/Hide the other half -> Render it -> Put together in Photoshop. 

It didn't work. The scene is so crowded and everyone so close to one another that the shadows were fucked and seams started to form. 

I also tried to remove some characters, but I couldn't even render the 7 characters. (From 12 to 7.) 

Then I wanted to move that scene over to the WiAB PC to render it with the A6000. Yeaaah, the WiAB PC was lacking 50-100 assets that I would've had to hunt down.  

And the new Cloud library is still uploading (It's been weeks.). 

So I reached out to a B2B business in Germany that sells hardware and asked them for an offer for two A6000 Ada's. 

These fuckers come in at 10k€ in Germany. Each. 

So, I talked to them over the phone and told them what I would need... and that I'm looking for a reliable hardware business to work with. 

I got both A6000 Ada's for 13k. I also didn't buy them but leased them, as it's super easy to deduct 100% of the cost as a business expense. 

And the best/saddest part? The leasing rate of these cards together is less than 40% of my monthly energy bill. Let that sink in. 

I didn't like the Ada. I didn't want to get it. And now I tested them for two days. 

I knew they would be slower than my current setup... 

But I was wrong. Those Ada's outperform my 4090+3090 easily. 

I have some numbers: 

4090 + 3090

Render 1: 6:28min 

Render 2: 8:42min 

2x A6000 Ada: 

Render 1: 5:13 

Render 2: 7:01 

The reason I didn't want to get the Ada was that they got rid of the NvLink and memory pooling. 

But I found an SLI option in the Nvidia settings... And I think it somewhat works. 

I went back to the scene I couldn't render previously and rendered it without any issues. (12 Characters). 

I then noticed something funny... The cards were only using 25 GB VRAM out of 48. 

How is that possible? 

If that was the case, the 4090 & 3090 should've been able to render the version with 7 characters. (These cards have 24GB VRAM and the scene would've definitely dropped below 24GB by removing 5 characters.)

That's why I think the SLI (NvLInk) actually works to a degree. Theorethically I could render this scene with 24-26 characters.  

That's amazing.

So yeah, I gave in and got myself two Ada's for a "decent" price and now have a friendly relationship with a B2B Hardware business in Germany. (Which will help a lot in the future.) 

And I'm very impressed by the Ada's. I never expected them to be faster than my 4090+3090. 

They also only use half the energy compared to the 4090/3090 combo. 

I could also add two more of them to the case.   

I hate to say it... But the Ada's delivered. 

Prepare for some big, immersive scenes in the future. 

And now I'll answer the question from the beginning:  How am I able to do Season 2 again? 

Thanks to the Ada, I can now do what I've been doing with WiAB for SG. 

Work on two updates at the same time.
Previously, I couldn't do it if any scene featured more than two characters. (In each Daz instance).  

Alrighty, let's start with the Season 2 previews. (Limited to three.) 4K attached.

Judging by how S1 ended. Season 2 has different starting routes. (Mila, the Cheeto & solo)

Some Mila. 

I'm kinda sick of the Cheeto's open hair. It's such a low quality asset. I also don't like to use her ponytail all the time, so I've begun to experiment with new hairstyles. 

The look the Cheeto gives you while you try to explain, why taking a bath together is a bad idea before she dismisses everything you just said with a funky "Yo!"

Now to the current priority target. Season 1. 

Sadly, the A6000s arrived after I finished the basketball scene... So I had to limit myself there. 

But the basketball is done and only a few smaller scenes are left and then I'll need to do the postwork and... Oh god... The gallery for Chapter 2 & Chapter 5.  

Some more basketball comparisons. 4k Attached. 

I had to laugh a few times when I checked out the older images... Like what the actual fuck. 

Old (Bella slamming MC into oblivion.) 

Obviously, the new version has a much better dynamic. Bella isn't a hulk anymore, you'll actually deal some blows to her too this time, and the scene flows much better. 

New

Less than 200 lines are left. I can see the light. 

It also feels so good to work on Season 2 again. 

Oh, I almost forgot. I've also started to work on the first Blender cinematic. It's the new Intro for SG, as I sadly had to remove the old one due to music license issues. 

I bought the license for the new intro song almost two years ago. Since then this intro cinematic has been in my head...  and soon I get to use the music.  

I feel good.  

I hope you do too.

- Ocean