A Deep Dive into RNDR’s Phase II

As the technological development of our second stage comes to an end, we want to give our RNDR community a clear view of what we’ve accomplished so far and what we’re up to now.

During Phase I, the RNDR Team worked to integrate the RNDR Token with the existing ORC system, completing the first step towards building the RNDR Network’s decentralized ecosystem. Phase I allowed users to exchange RNDR tokens for rendering services using centralized third party servers.

As of now, the RNDR Network has officially reached the end of Phase II development. We currently have a System Tray Application on Windows (with Linux support available in the near future) that is now able to render ORBX files and process them through the Ethereum Blockchain, assigning RNDR tokens directly to GPU contributors’ crypto-wallets in return for providing their processing power to our platform.

RNDR’s Phase II Walkthrough

Order a render job through the ORC interface and pay with RNDR tokens

Users can select a job to render from the ORC interface and pick parameters such as render target, resolution, number of samples and frames, and version of OctaneRender®.

After selecting the output extension, users are able to estimate the cost of their job before they start rendering by using the OctaneBench (OB) score estimator.

Transactions will be signed through Metamask and rendering will begin once the transaction is mined. Tokens will be held in an escrow account from the time a job is requested until it is completed

The system will process the transaction only when the job is completed, as outlined in the initial transaction, via an escrow smart contract that will keep track of active jobs and amounts to be paid out. Distributing a Job

The RNDR Network will enable users to access a distributed GPU network that allows faster rendering. An anonymous individual can use their GPU to perform renders in exchange for RNDR tokens. From the node side, the ETH address is the only personal information needed to be given. The RNDR software will need to be installed to enable rendering.

If a scene has multiple frames it will be be rendered from different nodes across the entire RNDR Network. In this Phase II Walkthrough, we currently have two nodes from two different locations rendering each frame. The first frame starts to render and the render balance goes up as the job is being processed. Users can follow the status of a job

During the job, users will be able to preview the scene and see how many RNDR tokens have been used for the render frame. Job completion and RNDR tokens withdrawal

Upon completing the job, all of the render scenes will be downloaded to the users’ computers. Once the render is completed, the escrow smart contract will release the RNDR tokens so that they can be withdrawn by the renderer.

Additional notes: The frames that have been rendered in this Phase II Walkthrough are all predetermined. Custom scenes cannot be uploaded at this phase of the project. In addition, the RNDR tokens used in this demo are running on the Ethereum Testnet called Ropsten and hold no ”real” value.

RNDR’s Development Phase III

An exclusive group of providers and requesters have been involved in the Beta testing on Ropsten (Ethereum Testnet Environment). As we analyze the initial results, RNDR’s developers will implement the necessary bug fixes and gradually bring in additional users onto the testnet as we transition to Mainnet.

RNDR Beta

Sign up to be an early RNDR miner/artist!

Everyone that fills out this form will gradually be entered into the network — Genesis participants already have their seat granted. The RNDR Team will release dates regarding network entry and the waitlist soon.

If you would like to sign up for beta please click this link.

On the Road to RNDR

The RNDR Team is now working on Phase III, aiming to expand the network’s global partnerships and improving the platform for rendering and streaming through smart contracts and blockchain technology.

Rendering holographic media demands more GPU processing power than is available locally or in the cloud, as we described in one of our previous blog posts. With most residential and light-commercial circuits only able to power 4–6 GPU’s at full capacity, local GPU render farms are impractical to install, and, above all, their high costs make them prohibitive for independent artists. Further, as resolution and frame rate increase, artists with private farms - like large VFX Hollywood studios and tech companies - will have difficulty meeting the rendering demands of next generation CGI driven media. As a result, there is increasing pressure on the server-side cloud GPU rendering.

In a recent article, Kalin Stoyanchev, RNDR’s Project Lead, clearly stated the project’s value proposition:

“Currently less than 1% of the world’s GPU power is accessible to creators, leaving a huge gap of wasted idle computing power in addition to stifling innovation and prohibiting the creation of incredibly complex graphics. Our goal is to have the demand covered with no expense in terms of hardware, allowing for accessible costs and the democratization of rendering resources and with today’s launch of the Render Network, we are taking a significant step toward providing access to exponentially more computing power, at a more affordable cost to creators, with the utmost security of their digital assets ownership.”

On the other hand, content creators will have the opportunity to generate new income streams by earning tokens during their GPU downtime. Their profit can later be used when they are on a deadline and in need of rapid on-demand scaling or when they need new levels of High Performance Compute.

The Ultimate Vision: A Photon Driven Economy

Content creators are working with new dimensions of complexity such as higher frame rates, higher resolution, more complex objects, and more realistic images. In order to make this work more efficient, new forms of distribution, collaboration, and monetization are needed. As the Internet grows, it becomes almost impossible for studios or independent artists to track the media they create, protect assets and prove an infringement through copyright and trademark laws. The retroactive process of going through the legal system after something has already been stolen is too slow for today’s fast-moving digital world.

Current Digital Rights Management (DRM) is ineffective: with high transaction costs and a lack of efficient exchange, producers often forgo creating holographic content and adoption among consumers is slowed down.

Blockchain’s potential for content creators has three main advantages: Rights Protection, Monetization, and Democratization — it Brings Power Back to Artists. From Phase IV onwards, OTOY envisions RNDR Token as a foundation for monetizing authorship in a marketplace where virtual creations and ideas are exchanged based on creative value added on top of a base “manufacturing” cost (rendering expenses, among others). The speed, safety and reliability OTOY aims at for the RNDR Network will surely redefine collaborative artistic processes.

One of RNDR’s Advisors, Brendan Eich, (JavaScript creator, co-founder of Mozilla and founder of Brave and the BAT token), stated:

“This project will revolutionize the way that 3D assets and their respective digital rights are transferred and distributed across people and entities. OTOY is transforming their state-of-the-art expertise for rendering into a decentralized network that will cater to a wider audience”.

Join us in the Rendering Revolution

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