Use case · 3D rendering
Blender and Cycles, headless.
Render Blender scenes headless with Cycles and OptiX on datacenter RTX GPUs. Upload the .blend, render frames over SSH, download them.
$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y libxi6 libxkbcommon0 libxrender1 libxxf86vm1 libxfixes3 libsm6 libgl1 libegl1$ curl -L https://download.blender.org/release/Blender5.2/blender-5.2.3-linux-x64.tar.xz | tar -xJ$ ./blender-5.2.3-linux-x64/blender -b scene.blend -E CYCLES \ -o //frames/frame_#### -F PNG -a -- --cycles-device OPTIXRender animations and stills with Blender Cycles on a datacenter GPU, without a desktop session.
For whom
- Studios and freelancers with a deadline and a long render.
- Artists who model on a laptop and render elsewhere.
- Pipelines that render frames from the command line.
Which GPU
Pick RTX-class GPUs: their RT cores accelerate OptiX ray tracing.
| Scene | VRAM |
|---|---|
| Product shots, simple scenes | 16 to 24 GB |
| Production scenes, heavy textures | 48 GB |
| Very large scenes, volumes, high-res textures | 80 GB and above |
Cycles needs the whole scene in VRAM. Too little and the render fails or falls back to slow paths.
Multi-GPU offers render one frame across all GPUs, or several frames in parallel with one process per GPU.
Steps
- Pack external assets into the file: File → External Data → Pack Resources.
- Book a machine.
- Upload the
.blendwithrsync. - Follow the Blender recipe. Run the render inside
tmux. - Download the frames, then end the session.
Tips
- Render a single frame first (
-f 1) to check time per frame and memory. - Write frames as files (PNG, EXR), not video. A finished frame survives an interruption.
- Turn off Output → Overwrite and turn on Placeholders in the file: a restarted render skips frames already written.
- Match the Blender version you use locally.
Request access.
Invitations go out by email.