Top 6 best render farms for Houdini in 2024
In this article, we will review and introduce you to the 6 best render farms for Houdini. We will see if the render farms support Houdini fully with the latest version, and with all those renderers above.
[Update time 19 Jan 2024] Houdini is a 3d software used for CG in films, TV and games. It utilizes a node-based procedural approach, which enables digital artists with an unprecedented level of power, flexibility, and control.
SideFX has developed Houdini with a comprehensive set of features, including modeling, rigging, animation, particle effects, dynamics, compositing, integrated rendering, and more. You can use Houdini on Windows, macOS or Linux operating systems. The renderers supported by Houdini are also plentiful. Mantra is its standard renderer, which will utilize CPU power to render. If you want to use GPU power and speed, you can use Redshift or Octane for Houdini. This software also supports Arnold and V-Ray, which can utilize both CPU and GPU power.
Table of Contents
Why use render farms for Houdini?
Render farm is a group of networked computers, used for rendering images, and animations. There are two types of render farms – SaaS and IaaS. We have introduced them to you in our series of overviews of render farms.
Houdini, like many other 3d software, will need a powerful machine (or many machines) to render. A normal 3D artist might not have a strong enough rig, or they find it costly to manage a rig with many extra fees (electricity, cooling, maintenance, etc.). That would be a reason why render farms exist. Artists can still access high-performance computer systems and render their jobs at a much faster speed.
Top 6 best render farms for Houdini
This list is not a ranking. We only introduce them. We will try to list the version of Houdini they support, the render engine and other plugins you can use, and some advantages and disadvantages notes for you.
iRender Farm
iRender is a render farm from Vietnam, established in 2019. It’s kind of new and still needs some more time for recognition of big names in the industry. However, its approach and development are really impressive.
The platform of iRender is IaaS, which means you can control and use their remote servers as your computer. Therefore, you can install any version of Houdini (which runs on Windows 10 or Linux …) and any renderers.
- Hardware: RTX3090/RTX4090 GPU and AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 3955WX @ 3.9 – 4.2GHz, AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 5975WX @ 3.6 – 4.5GHz.
- Pricing: pricing starts at $5.76/hour/node to $42/hour/node. 50% bonus for students and educational purposes. 100% bonus for the first charge within 24 hours.
- Houdini support:
| Houdini version | Renderer | Plugins |
| 16.0 16.5 17.5 18.0 18.5 19.0 | Arnold Arnold GPU Karma Karma-XPU Mantra Redshift RenderMan V-Ray V-Ray GPU Simulation And more | qLib Lynx MOPS AELib Axiom Solver And more |
Note:
- Support all GPU or CPU renderers for Houdini
- Support all plugins
- Support Linux remote server
- No macOS remote server. You will need to use your macOS to connect to their Windows or Linux OS remote server for using
- Need to install your app and transfer your license to their servers.
AnimaRender
AnimaRender is a render farm from Russia, established in 2016. It is one of the best render farms for Houdini. Like many other render farms, they are SaaS and also provide CPU as well as GPU rendering. You will download their plugin and integrate it into your Houdini, then you can start your render from the interface of your software.
Interestingly, they have GPU Rental service, where you can rent their rig (5x1080Ti and 5x2080Ti) for at least 3 days. You will connect to their GPU server through Anydesk/VNC. So you can install another version of Houdini on their instance and use it as you want.
- Hardware: Dual Xeon 64-128 Gb RAM and Threadripper 3970x 256 Gb RAM for CPU. GTX1080Ti and RTX2080Ti for GPU.
- Pricing: pricing starts at $0.5/hour/server.
- Houdini support: AnimaRender supports some recent versions of Houdini and of course some popular renderers.
| Houdini version | Renderer | Plugins |
| 17.5 18.0 18.5 19.0 and more | Arnold CPU Mantra Octane GPU Redshift GPU V-Ray CPU and more | no |
Note:
- No plugin supported
- Only support Arnold CPU and V-Ray CPU
- GPU is kind of old (GTX1080Ti and RTX2080Ti)
- No Linux supported
- You can use their GPU rental service if you want to use renderer or plugin that they don’t support. But you will need to rent the server for at least 3 days with a price starting from $249.
Fox Renderfarm
Fox Renderfarm is from China, established in 2009. It’s a well-known render farm that is the choice of many 3D artists and is the service for many hits and blockbusters. The approach is still SaaS, but you will proceed with the render on their website.
- Hardware: 28 cores (hyperthreading available), 64-128 GB RAM
- Pricing: GPU pricing: $1 – $2/node/hour (2 GPU cards); CPU Pricing: $0.036 – $1.428/hour (16 Physical Cores – 28 Physical Cores).
- Houdini support: Because of its approach as SaaS, you will need to check if their Houdini version and render engine match yours. Below is the list we have collected:
| Houdini version | Renderer | Plugins |
| 13.0 14.0 15.0 16.0 16.5 17.5 18.0 18.5 19.0 | Arnold Mantra Redshift V-Ray | no |
Note:
- Have Fox Renderfarm Cloud Rendering Client app for Houdini, which you can use on your own PC and don’t need to go on their website.
- Low cost
- Support many versions of Houdini
- No Octane supported
- No plugin supported
GridMarkets
GridMarkets is a render farm from America, established in 2011. It keeps a low profile with more than 5.000 users from more than 110 countries around the world. However, the support for big 3D software and render engines is superb. It’s a SaaS platform, where you need to download their plugin and integrate it into your software, then send your files through their plugin and get back the rendered images.
- Hardware: minimum machine configuration is 12 cores (24 threads) at 3+ GHz with 64 GB RAM. GPUs are Tesla P100 and Tesla V100.
- Pricing: free trial $20 for new users. Pricing starts at $1.05 for On Demand, $707 for Daily Plan and $500/month for Subscription.
- Houdini support: they support many versions of Houdini as well as renderers.
| Houdini version | Renderer | Plugins |
| 16.0 16.5 17.0 17.5 18.0 18.5 19.0 | Arnold Karma Mantra Redshift RenderMan V-Ray | Axiom Solver |
Note:
- Support many version of Houdini
- Support plugin, but limited
- Windows, MAC and Linux supported
- No Octane supported
Pixel Plow
Pixel Plow is a render farm from America, established in 2012. In June 2017, it began to support GPU rendering. Pixel Plow keeps a low profile like GridMarkets and has a SaaS approach. You will need to install a plugin called Agent to integrate into your Houdini, and then submit your job through it. They will analyze then render your jobs, and deliver your frames to the output path you have set up.
- Hardware: Nvidia GTX 1060, GTX 1070, or RTX 2060 Super GPU
- Pricing: pricing starts at $0.005 to $0.06 per GHz-hr for CPU rendering, and $0.0015 to $0.018 per Octbnchpts-hr for GPU rendering.
- Houdini support: unlike many other render farms that support many versions of Houdini, Pixel Plow only supports one version and limited renderers.
| Houdini version | Renderer | Plugins |
| 18.5.633 | Mantra Reshift 3.0.59 | MOPS 1.4.0 qlib-dev AELib |
Note:
- Support plugins
- Low cost
- Only support Windows and macOS, no Linux
- Support a limited version of Houdini
- Only support Mantra and Redshift, no other renderers
- GPU is kind of old
Ranch computing
Ranch is a company in France that provides high-performance 3d rendering services. It’s a well-established farm which has a long history of 15 years in this industry. They provide a SaaS platform, with a plugin integrated into your Houdini called RANCHecker. It will help you to check if your project is okay. If it’s okay, it will upload through RANCHecher. Then you go to their website and submit it. And now it’s their job to render for you and notify you when it’s done.
- Hardware: CPU: Dual Xeon E5-2690 v2, Dual Xeon E5-2697A v4, Dual Xeon E5-2690 v4 |GPU: RTX 3090 cards | RAM: 128 – 256 GB.
- Pricing: As low as $0.016/GHz & $0.08/OBh. Up to 70% bonus and 30$ for free trial
- Houdini support: Ranch supports many versions of Houdini, along with a number of renderers and plugins.
| Houdini version | Renderer | Plugins |
| 17.5 (beta support) 18.0 (beta support) 18.5 (beta support) 19.0 (beta support) | Arnold Arnold GPU Karma Karma-XPU Mantra Redshift RenderMan V-Ray V-Ray GPU Simulation | qLib Lynx MOPS |
Note:
- Support Arnold GPU and V-Ray GPU
- Support Simulation
- Plugins supported
- No Octane supported
Final words
To conclude, when selecting a render farm for your Houdini project, there are many options. In this article, we can only list some of the best render farms for Houdini from all over the world, with great support for the Houdini versions, render engines, and plugins. You should check carefully the version they support and the version you use, along with the renderer. If you are still not sure, their support staff can help you through their website.
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