Help me get my job done PLS

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Onebad
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Help me get my job done PLS

Post by Onebad » Thu Oct 12, 2017 8:49 pm

Next week I have a scheduled interview with the top dog of IT&Hardware department in CD Projekt RED, the creators of The Witcher games.
I'll be writing an article on the hardware used while making The Witcher 3,
and that is now being used while working on upcoming Cyberpunk 2077.

To keep the story short, it's a supercomputer made by Dell, connected with other smaller (but still super-powerful) workstations, and if you really want to take a look at the specs I can add them from work later.

I know that some of you are hardware and IT nerds, and I'd be very happy if you could any questions that you'd like to ask this guy yourselves. You can keep it pretty technical, as the article itself will be quite specific. If you can think of anything, it would really help me out a lot cause frankly I have no idea what should I speak to him about.

Cheers.

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Donkey
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Re: Help me get my job done PLS

Post by Donkey » Thu Oct 12, 2017 9:32 pm

Well you don't give us a lot to go on, but ... What is it actually used for? I'm guessing it's not a "standard" server per se, i.e. it's not a database or a file server, or a source control server or any of the other standard things, so I *guess* it's used for a high intensity task like pre-rendering complex 3d environments or perhaps for running a very large number of virtual machines, each doing something specific that needs to be centralised as opposed to being able to be done on a workstation? So my initial questions would be exactly that:

1) what is it for / why do they need it?
2) what OS is it running?
3) how many processors and what types?
4) it probably generates quite a lot of heat - so how is it cooled?
5) could it conceivably be built with off-the-shelf components or is it really bespoke?
6) does anyone else have this setup or are CD Projekt RED the only ones Dell has provided this to?
7) is it actually used in the game *creation* process as opposed to running as a back end for a live game?
8) can I have the admin username and password?
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Onebad
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Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:02 pm
Location: Warsaw, Poland

Re: Help me get my job done PLS

Post by Onebad » Thu Oct 12, 2017 9:51 pm

Some of these I can answer now:

1- these computers were used for everything, graphic desing, compiling, testing, everything.
3- intel xeon processors
5- it is bespoke and is still being reguarly modernized by dell
7- it is indeed used in game creation
8 - login:admin pass:admin1

These are good questions, thanks Donkey, I'm not really that much of a tech guy so I'm sorry if it feels like talking to a 5 year old, but im trying to make some research before the interview who can help me better if not the ACG right.

Werwolf
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Re: Help me get my job done PLS

Post by Werwolf » Thu Oct 12, 2017 11:08 pm

Ask him about cloud computing and its impact on gaming or about the infrastructure of modern multiplayer games (logistics, redundancy, latency). Also say thanks from my part that they are one of the few who still say no to DRM.

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