---
title: Why does my mixed OS render farm render animations that flicker?
description: If your render farm is made up of both Windows and Mac OS workers, you may see inconsistencies from frame to frame, depending on the worker's OS.
---

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# Why does my mixed OS render farm render animations that flicker?

## If your render farm is made up of both Windows and Mac OS workers, you may see inconsistencies from frame to frame, depending on the worker's OS.

#### What is happening?

When building a render farm, there is a general rule of thumb to "never mix kernels".  What is a "kernel" you may ask?  The Kernel is the central code to an operating system. 

The way Windows PCs and Macs handle random number generation is different at a kernel level.  Things like noise, procedural textures, or anything that uses a random seed parameter are the most affected by this.

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