It took a room full of networked computers called a &ldquo;render farm&rdquo; to do in about 14 months what would have taken a single machine 16 years: churn out digital scenes precisely modeled after real life, Mr. Weigert and Mr. Engel said. Artists positioned the sun in the virtual sky, and dictated how every surface&mdash;metal, glass, wood or stone&mdash;would reflect rays and cast shadows. Teams installed virtual hinges in lampposts and etched thousands of fault lines into skyscrapers and houses so when simulated tremors or winds or waves were applied, a process called &ldquo;simming,&rdquo; they&rsquo;d crumble or buckle in natural-looking ways.. Full bibliographic information...