About this Section

The major challenge in a distributed rendering system like the render hive is that all nodes need to come to a consensus about who renders which specific part of a given render job at what time and at which price. Since all nodes are equal, there is no central server which distributes the render jobs like in conventional render farms. While this guarantees a maximum of fairness and that no one can temper with the render job order, it introduces technical and conceptual challenges. The required decentralized distribution algorithm needs to be reliable, fast, cost-efficient, and must not require the exchange of an excessive amount of messages and data between the render hive nodes. This section outlines the general rendering process from submitting the render job to paying the render result.