We released two shell scripts for OSX which allow users to submit projects using a simplified Commandline interface very similar to that of blender.
Prompt: Gridblender.sh path/to/file.blend PNG 1 301 1
The terminal the proceeds to send the file to all agents, but submits each frame as a seperate job. Needless to say this makes collecting results a pain, but it does work.
A modification of the scripts are being rewritten in PHP that will output text that can then be used with the Application Grid Stuffer. I hope to have an Alpha of this interface ready by the end of the weekend. With this script, one should be able to use GridStuffer to manage jobs and collect the results, resubmit failed frames, etc with an eaiser to use GUI interface.
Eventually we want to create both a Web-based interface and a Aqua GUI interface based upon Xfeed application in the Xcode developers tools. I know PERL and PHP quite well, but Cocoa is completely foreign to me. Basically it will be an attempt to recreate the Custom Plug-in setting from the original Xgrid Preview release 2.
Timeline looks like this:
1 Make BlenderXgrid and GridStuffer work flow eaiser by next week.
2 Create a web-based interface by the end of Feburary.
3 Aqua GUI by Summer 2007
Help Wanted:
If anyone out there knows Cocoa and willing to help develop the interface, we have most of the Xcode already there as well as the original Xgrid App. I can’t say for sure, but there can’t be too many lines of code to change. Maybe 100 max. Not only would this help Blender, but many other Xgrid related projects.