Modeling the Whole World

Estimating timeframes and budgets has always been my downfall. As the number of visualization projects I’ve been asked about has begun to increase, I think I need to work on my formula. Currently my formula consists of the number of structures, times the level of detail, times the area of the site, plus the amount of lint in my pocket, to the power of the steps it takes to get to my desk, divided by the number of times I say “umm” in a day. Okay, so I don’t really count the number times I say umm each day, but there are eight pieces of lint today.

I bring this up because I was asked to give an estimate for a drive of a 4 mile stretch of road. Yep, 4 MILES! I’m sure I can do it, but I’ve never done anything of this size before and my previously mentioned formula is making me very nervous. Without fail, I’m sure my computer will become possessed and commit suicide within hours of the deadline.

Just the rendering time for this project makes me want to run for the hills. Figuring 30 fps and traveling at a rate of 60 mph hour, I’m looking at 7200 frames for a 4 minute video. Depending on the detail of the rendering, a low estimate would be 2 minutes per frame. So 7200 frames times 2 minutes per frame equals 14,400 minutes or 240 hours or 10 days and that’s just straight rendering time. I’m going to have to set up distributed rendering.

Going into this, I have the DEM and proposed plans for the road, but that’s about it. I’m sure that due to the sheer size of the supporting files, I’m going to need to break the model into smaller sections and render them separately to combine at the end. Just attempting to import half the DEM has caused my computer great pain.

How many people out there have completed projects of this size and how much time did it take you? If you can add any other information that might be helpful, it would be much appreciated.