Render Network Q2 Highlights (BTN: Tuesday, July 18th, 2023)
From Technical Improvements to Expanded Community Programs
In the past quarter, the Render Network ecosystem has grown on multiple fronts — from technical improvements to expanded community programs. With the midpoint of the summer approaching, let’s take a look back at the highlights from the last quarter in all things Render Network. Next week’s Behind the Network will act as a Part 2 detailing metrics from the last quarter.
Request For Compute | Grants program
During Q2 the Render Network Foundation took a major step in its goal of expanding the Network ecosystem as a whole through the release of two linked initiatives: the “Request for Compute” survey and the Render Network Foundation Grant cohort.
The Request For Compute (RFC), which can be found here, is phase 1 of the Render Network Foundation’s exploration of making new computing resources available on the Render Network. A simple survey, the RFC is a detailed data gathering step in the future expansion of the Network, where new, long-standing and prospective users can communicate directly to the Foundation their needs, pain points in their current production pipelines and technical specifications they are seeking in a decentralized rendering system. For those that have not participated, you can find the RFC in the link above.
Dovetailing with the RFC, said survey can be found hosted on the Render Network Foundation’s new website, which also debuted this past quarter. Detailed in the BTN from its release, the Foundation website includes a new version of the Render Network whitepaper, a living Roadmap, the previously mentioned request for compute, a slew of featured art, and the 2023 Foundation Grant cohort.
Similar to the RFC, the grant cohort is a live program that is designed to increase Network adoption, but unlike the RFC, the grant cohort focuses on building out the community through community action. Individual users, organizations, or those in-between, can submit a proposal to the grant form for a project of their creation that is tied into the Render Network in the listed categories the Foundation has identified as areas for growth in this round of grants. Once a proposal has been created and submitted through the form, the Foundation team will review each submission and if it lines up with the guidelines outlined within the round of proposals, the Foundation team will funnel along to a quick pitch and refinement, whereby the proposal will have the opportunity to receive funding and directly work alongside the Foundation team to bring the proposal to life. If you believe that you have a project that could benefit from a Foundation grant, feel free to apply to the link here.
Stable Diffusion release
On a technical level, the Render Network released its Stable Diffusion integration earlier in the quarter. Announced previously in the year during the GTC presentation, the Stable Diffusion integration allows users to enter text prompts and generate images rendered across Render Network nodes, directly within the Render Network UI. To date, over 500 prompts have been processed on Network since its widescale release, with an error rate below 2% for all produced images.
Knowledge Base/ Guides and Updates
Alongside the Stable Diffusion update, the user experience for the Render Network has greatly evolved within the last quarter, and alongside it, so have the educational materials within the Knowledge Base. Towards the beginning of the fiscal year, the Knowledge base saw a number of updates to educational materials surrounding governance, the new Foundation system and articles surrounding “DAOs” and the “RNP System”. This quarter has seen another round of updates, focused instead on tutorial materials and guides for the Render Network userbase. Chief among these additions have been the series of tutorial videos and written guides by some of the Network’s most advanced users, such as:
- Using the Render Network on Mac with Pro Tharan
- Caustic Rendering with Silverwing
- Getting started on the Network with Brilly
- Going deeper with Zomax
Perhaps most useful for the average user was the improvements and guide materials surrounding the new ORBX Exporter, which greatly improved on a friction point every user faced when preparing their scenes for the Render Network. With the improvements to the exporter, which now has a much simpler and more effective path, ORBX Exporting errors have dramatically dropped over the quarter since its release.
Community Spotlights Featuring Raoul Marks
Over the previous few months creators on the Render Network have produced incredible works, perhaps none more so than Raoul Marks. Featured in the latest creator spotlight, Raoul, both as a solo artist and as part of the creative duo over at ANTIBODY, has integrated the Render Network thoroughly into his creative pipeline over the last few years, and the dividends have come to fruition over the last few months.
Highlights from his latest work have included the lauded opening title sequence from sci-fi show Silo for Apple+, as well as the latest trailer for Bungie’s reboot of the sci-fi shooter franchise Marathon, both of which were created in differing styles and equal levels of detail on the Render Network. In addition to these 2 projects, the continued work that ANTIBODY has done for shows like The Peripheral, and the updated opening title sequence for season 4 of Westworld were all created using the Render Network for final frame production. We highly encourage any creators and aspiring production personnel to read the artist spotlight from Raoul to get an in-depth idea into how the Render Network has benefited one of the creative world’s unique talents.
Creator Spotlights
In addition to Raoul, the second quarter featured a number of spotlights featuring artist collectives, large creators such as Raoul, as well as emerging creators. We highly encourage all users to read some of the pieces linked below:
Nikon Basu and the rise of 3D in Southeast Asia
Machina Infinitum and GNOMMA, mainstream recognition for the artist collective
Raoul Marks, as previously detailed above.
Hannes Hummel, an emerging star with unconventional origins.
Vision Pro/MR
From the latest Apple Event emerged one of the more exciting updates to the world of mixed reality in a while: the upcoming release of the Vision Pro wearable headset. The MR capabilities of this headset were detailed in full during the event itself, but the Render Network team took it a step further by diving into the work already being done with Spatial Rendering on the Render Network currently, and how it could factor into the future. For more on the possibilities of Render Network becoming the backbone of an MR revolution, the power of NeRFs and where they factor into this possible reality, and the how Spatial rendering will change the animation needs of the near future, please read into our piece from earlier this year.
Roddenberry Archive Release (rendered on Render Network)
Alongside technical achievements by artists like Raoul, this quarter saw the Roddenberry Archive release an immersive experience rendered entirely on the Render Network. The experience included never before seen behind-the-scenes draft materials, a linked short film, as well as archival material related to the show and production stored on-chain. Most impressively, the experience was headed by an interactive 1:1 scale rendering of the Enterprise, able to be experienced in both desktop and VR, with all elements within the piece made to in-universe specifications for the highest level of realism possible.
GTC Keynote / Roadmap
GTC 2023 saw the Render Network take the main-stage once again, which previewed some of the additions to the Render Network ecosystem that have since come to pass, such as the Stable Diffusion integration, the built out living roadmap, and more. A large portion of the presentation was dedicated to the NFT capabilities coming to the Render Network, which included the previously mentioned streaming NFTs in development, alongside a new NFT remix sweet which would allow for assets rendered on chain to be easily mixed and matched to create entirely new scenes for NFT generation.
Stay tuned for next week’s Behind the Network, where we will provide in-depth details about network usage over the last quarter.
Join us in the Rendering Revolution at:
Website: https://render.x.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rendernetwork
Knowledge Base: https://know.rendernetwork.com/
Discord: https://discord.gg/rendernetwork
Render Network Foundation: https://renderfoundation.com/
