[vtkusers] parallel computer rendering performance

[dave kosman]

Hello,

I'm interested in building a small linux cluster,  to do volume
rendering
with ray casting methods at interactive frame rates.  My existing  VTK
scripts
work well to generate static views of my data,  or (using
RenderWindowInteractor)
interaction with very "clunky" movements!!  I realize my datasets
(512x512x100)
are too large to be effectively handled in my homemade linux-PC
environment,
but I've read that the latest VTK supports parallelization.
1) Does anyone have experience with, or can point me to documentation
for,
     using VTK in a parallel environment for volume rendering?
2) Assuming that I will be chopping my data up into sub-volumes to
reside in
    memory at each node of the cluster, will  "traditional" 100Mb/s
ethernet connections
   between nodes allow for the "re-assembly" of the projected views at
frame
    rates >10 per second?

Thanks,

Dave Kosman