Mandelbulber 1.13

[Buddhi]

Mandelbulber 1.13 - for now this version is only for Linux

Open source program (GNU GPL) for rendering photo-realistic 3D fractals
Free download (executables and source): http://sourceforge.net/projects/mandelbulber/
Website:       http://www.mandelbulber.com/
User manual: http://wiki.mandelbulber.com/index.php?title=User_Manual

New features in version 1.13:

- NetRender feature. Possible to create render farms
usage: Start Mandelbulber on server computer. On image tab check "enable server" and then "scan for clients". Ethernet port (5555) have to be not firewalled. You can choice other port. Start Mandelbulber on clients computers. On image tab check "client enable". The client will connect to server indicated by IP and port number. When client is successfully connected on server side will be visible IP address of the client. You can connect as many clients as you want. When all connections are established, uncheck "scan for clients" on server. Now you can press Render button (or start rendering animation) and enjoy very fast rendering.

For now this feature works only under Linux. I need help from somebody to create Windows port. Unfortunately under Windows sockets mechanism uses different function than on Linux, so for now I don't know how to do this.
If somebody will be interested to create Windows port, everything regarding NetRender will find in netrender.hpp and netrender.cpp files. All Windows functions should be added between #ifdef WIN32, #endif directives. In this way one source code will work on every operating system. If you want to cooperate in this mater I will grant you write access to SVN repository.

SVN repository: http://mandelbulber.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/
This repository is available from Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/mandelbulber/

Please give me any feedback about experieces with NetRender. It still could be a little buggy.

[JohnVV]

just updated my svn folder
but i can not test "NetRender"

[Buddhi]

To test NetRender is even enough to launch two applications on the same computer and use local IP address.

[taurus]

Nice to see, that things still moving with mandelbulber. Nice idea with the net rendering, but as long as i don't do remittance work with mandelbulber i can't afford to use it...

Keep it up!

[Buddhi]

Win32 port for Mandelbulber is almost done. I can see that programs communicate each other via sockets. But the problem is with setting timeout for communication socket. There is needed to set 1s timeout in function for looking for clients. Now it waits infinite time. Unfortunately setsockopt() with SO_RCVTIMEO argument has no effect.
SVN repository is already updated so please look what could be wrong. Timeout is set in netrender.cpp in line 143