That's today, Thursday -- 45 C, which is around 113 F in the shade, with sun temperatures around 60 C, which is something like 140 F. That means it's 140 degrees on the roof, and in the roof cavity, one meter above your head ... and the a/c trunking runs through there. So the a/c is blasting, but it isn't blowing cold. It's "blasting" at maybe 90 F, and that, friends, is hot enough to cook a computer if you set it to do a loooong render and leave it to roast.
I caught myself doing this yesterday:
This is an enormously complex Bryce render which, after ninety minutes, was just 18% done. It was going to chug on and on for how long?! In this weather, that's a recipe from a dead computer. Bryce has a "pause render" control, so I hit it, and turned off the PC. Tomorrow, when it's cooler, I'll restart it, let it go again. (Also, the desktop is making some odd noises: means it needs to have its guts vacuumed out, which Dave has volunteered to do.)
On the plus side, I finally, finally, installed Amberlight on the new laptop, and it flies. This processor allows for up to 12 focus points, and the renders are unbelievably fast -- so fast, you have to hover over the stop!! button, grab them before they overcook:
Amberlight is amazing. Now I have it running properly, I'll be doing a lot more with it. Also, in the course of using it on the new laptop, I've discovered that this little HP is powerful enough to run programs with a requirement for "oomph," and this makes me wonder if it might generate simple Vue scenes. No, I'm not talking about something that looks like it's a outtake from Avatar, and took three days to render on a Renderbox --
This stuff is way beyond anything I have the hardware to run:
...that's the stuff of which fantasies are made. It's not the skill to run the software, it's the ten grand you need to throw at it before you can even start. Harrumph. No, no, there are much simpler Vue images that can be coaxed out of the software, which still dance rings around anything even the specialists can squeeze out of Bryce. And I'm interested to at least look at the possibilities...
[EDIT: I went to E-on Software and looked. They no longer sell you the software; they hit you up for a US$20/month subscription, which is perpetual, and a whole lot more than I want to pay. Say you ran the software for five years, then run the conversion to Australian dollars ... and I'd have to get a new graphics card, and ... no, thanks. Bummer. Back to Bryce, I guess...]
Also bored enough to be playing with images for the same of playing with images:
You start with one of the Amerblight renders that turned into chaos (a lot do!) and then you put it through a lot of filters to make something amazing. Abstract art. This was done in Irfanview, not Photoshop ... it's too hot to be bothered even starting up the desktop to run Photoshop. Ack.
And on that note, I'll close. I'm turning into a puddle of goo, so it's time to get a cool drink and pick up a book. Let's try this again tomorrow, when the weather is playing nice. Right now, it's not. Check out this snapshot of the thermometer right outside the backdoor. Yes, you're reading it right: 135.5 F, and it's not even the hottest part of the afternoon yet...
