I have the opportunity to buy Effect option 3 on a SGI O2 Box running a R12000 400mhz 2mb CPU. It has the Full gig of ram, a D9 Stone array & 601 I/O card plus 5D Monsters plug-ins /Sparks. I am curious if any users out there are still using these systems in a production environment.
I Currently own Combustion Ver 2.1, 3 On wintel boxes are there still any advantages with the older Effect/Flint systems? Combustion does not have Action but Effect/Flint does. I also understand that the particle systems on the SGI box are actually 3D systems similar to those in Max & not 2D like combustions?
What are the Render Times like with Effect/Flint on the O2. Do I understand correctly that Combustion plays back from ram & the SGI box plays footage back from the stone array real-time? If this is the case the SGI system could infact allow you to work on longer footage sequences without the time/ram restrains of Combustion? Is this true?
Does Effect have any form of 3D tracking built in? Or anything in this area that C3 doesn't.
I would be pleased to here from anyone still using this software on the SGI boxes. I am interested not just in speed but the overall usability & stability of the SGI O2
I had been told that the paint system on the SGI box is much better than that of combustion because it is not vector based.
Any Advice would be greatly appreciated, The Discreet Effect/Flint Systems still seem to hold there value I am assuming that there is a real reason for this. What can I expect for my money? I would be only wanting to use the system for video work & am not interested in any of the Flash based features of combustion. One last question will this version of Effect/Flint run on an Octane or is it only supported on the O2
Craig > Timberoz