I definitely see the benefit of the SheepIt rendering farm. I can envision building up points now and cashing in the accumulated good will of points in the future when I could use some extra rendering power. But, SheepIt is not without privacy and security concerns.
I’d recommend anyone considering using SheepIt review their brief “Terms of Use” and “Privacy Policy” (https://www.sheepit-renderfarm.com/legal.php#terms). SheepIt does collect information on your computer’s configuration. The rendering client uses this information to optimize rendering assignments based upon your RAM, CPU and GPU.
If you are having your project rendered, be aware that your Blend file is downloaded to each computer that is rendering it. They are in temporary folders called farm_*. For Windows, these folders can typically be found in C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Local\Temp. For Unix-likes, they are stored in /tmp or /var/tmp. If you are working on a commercial or confidential project, you may want to reconsider getting it rendered under SheepIt.
While these issues may not be a deal breaker for some, anyone signing up to SheepIt should at least be aware of the possible privacy and security risks.
I look forward to contributing to help render Omar’s demo reel!
