i’ve been tasked with building a proposal for machines & software based around a max pipeline. for software it’s fairly easy, but i’m curious what you guys would add if given a blank check for hardware & apps?
what software past max, zbrush, photoshop, motionbuilder, polyboost?
what spec for systems?
video cards?
render farms (for lightmaps/rtt’s)? how many farm rigs & what spec?
wacom? (cintiq’s only for concept dept)
anything else i’m missing or not thinking of?
pre-thanks for any input!
Hey Steev, good to see you on the board…
I would look at cintiqu’s for the character modelers as well since zbrush or mudbox is so brush based.
min. dual monitors or single large widescreen. monitors, I think I still prefer two vs one large but for animation with max I would go with single large screen running dual nvidia cards.
24 or 30in depending on the task…
http://www.kentshaffer.com/increase-your-productivity-with-a-24-computer-monitor/
(I think this is more related to text based stuff vs. graphics where I think the 30 has the edge)
http://images.apple.com/displays/pdf/cinemadisplay30report.pdf
Something to think about in designing a system, what physical improvements can be made to the human pipeline to gain speed.
http://www.intel.com/technology/quad-core/ the new quad core systems are rocking fast but 6 core are coming soon
Intel's 6-core Xeon and Nehalem CPU info leaked
check the thread on here for useful outside tools http://tech-artists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=74 for anything else.
Start with high-quality items of the absolute minimum needed and add more/change/adjust from there. ‘Blank check’ type scenarios never work well, because centrally-planning something such as a game development or pipeline is impossible to do effectively. It is much better to stay lean and flexible, and iterative, just like a game design, instead of trying to plan everything up front.
Try to find the sweet-spot for system specs- get good RAM you can upgrade and add to artist machines as needed, don’t just get 4GB for everyone off the bat. Procs, again, find that sweet spot. Make sure mobo’s and PSU’s are high quality.
Choose video cards depending on your target specs. If you are working on a game to release in 4 years, maybe start with 8/9 series and upgrade to 280’s in a year when they are cheaper.
Don’t add render farm machines until you start your RTT and lightmap baking.
Artists should be able to choose a Wacom when they are hired.
If given a blank check to do something, you will always get the most value from it when you don’t treat it as a blank check, treat it as the minimum you need. Living within one’s means always yields the greatest prosperity and enjoyment; probably the words of Ben Franklin would be fitting here: http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/ben-franklins-way-to-wealth-part-ii-frugality/ .
It is easy- and fun- to ‘plan out’ what to do with a blank check, but one should never make decisions based on that.
Sorry for the slightly roundabout answer but I felt I needed to say it. I see people plan things way too much and it never works out.
i should explain the “blank check” reference. the idea is to ask too much & expect a bit less. sort of the idea of government budgeting - set the budget high & if by some miracle you get it, you better spend it, or next time you won’t get as much. therefore, the blank check. i want to be able to ask for as much as possible, only expecting the best of what i actually need.
thanks for the suggestions, keep 'em coming!
Assuming Windows (since Max is Windows only), a 64bit version of the OS so that you don’t have to use hacks to run with more than 2 (or 3?) gigabytes of memory. You can then slot 4 or 6 GB into some PCs when required (and RAM is cheap).
As for video cards, I seem to remember very recently that Motionbuilder ran very poorly on our ATI machines but was fine on the NVIDIA.
I find two monitors better than one large one, because you can set certain apps to boot onto a screen - Photoshop on left, Max on right. A few artists at work use one monitor and one Wacom Cintiq.
Other software? Silo and possibly 3D Coat. Xnormal. Crazybump. Irfanview. Firfox with Piclens installed.
If you do have enough for two machines per artist, I highly suggest getting that. Running Max, Photoshop, and then whatever game engine/internal content tool you have is quite taxing on the systems. It also more cost efficient as you don’t need the power house systems.
As for software, I’d say “a programmer you can task directly”. That’s going to be the most flexible piece of software you’ll ever get. 
Budgeting wise, there’s already a number that the production side has. Aiming too high isn’t going to get you anything other than frustration. Rob hit it square on the head.
Plan for what you need, not what you want.
Cheers,
Ted
uv layout ( headus , unfold3d )