DR Rendering

[reality3d]

Ok I feel like a moron, as it seems (after going over the old topics) that I am the only one with no idea why DR doesn't work.

My network is setup correctly, (done heaps of network rendering)
I started vrayspawner on the server machines, I tick distributed rendering ON, I add the servers, when I hit resolve servers it picks up the ip addresses.

so all seems to be ok. I am only doing a little 640 *480 file as a test.
when I render it only buckets with 0.0.0.0 come up, so I assume that it's not using DR correctly, also without DR selected I render in 3.34mins
with DR I render in 4mins.... slower.

Something I can't find info on is exactly what is meant to happen when you DR. does it come up on the other computers screens?
Does it all render to the clients screen??? Do I need to save the image file in order for it to work.

Any help would be great.
Thanks.

[jujubee]

Make sure your VRLServer (on your main machine) can see out of a firewall if you have a firewall installed.

Point your other comps max Vray render dialogue so that it sees the license on your main comp. Also, make sure in max preferences that your paths point to shared network drives (so that it picks up shared bitmaps/irmaps, etc.) Make sure plugins you have installed are shared or installed on each of the slaves. Turn off Max on the slaves and start the spawners. They should minimize to the bottom of the screen on each of your slaves. You will not see any previews from these comps after this point.

So you do your normal scene on your main comp. In the Vray settings, you took the appropriate steps to set DR. You should be able to hit render and the info will get automatically transfered to the slaves. First passes such as the IRmap and lightcache (depending on your version) should be calculated locally. Later vray versions distribute the irmap calculation to all the machines. When the render starts to finalize (clean image), you should see multiple buckets start to appear and process your scene locally (not on the slaves.) You don't have to save the image to see it.

Hope that helps.

[reality3d]

yeah that's the problem, I have done everything that you said there, but still I only get the buckets from the clients, the ones marked 0.0.0.0
I have even opened the file on the servers to make sure I haven't missed a bitmap or a plugin, but it renders fine from those machines..

Am totally confused.... is 640 * 480 to small a file to do it with?
BTW am using max 6 and vray 1.47

And yes also the servers a loading correctly, they start out as vraydummy.max and then when I render they are vray_scene.. or something like that.

[jujubee]

Are you sure the slaves can see out of the firewall - ie. Windows firewall? Also, are they all running the same versions?

[reality3d]

yeah all got the same version, and I don't have the windows firewall enabled..... maybe if I through the computer through the window it will solve the issue..... or at least make me feel better!!
I know I have done something stupid. just need to figure out what. and with my brain after new years, it could be really stupid.

[visions]

In Max prefrences, under files do you have increment on save enableled?

keep it off and then try.....just something i read here a real long back.

Vivek

[Giovanni]

hmm, two things:

1. did you check the server name in the server list under distributed render dialog box?

2. If everything is setup right, as it seems, probably the rendering is too fast. Try with larger rendering, and wait several minutes. Sometimes it takes awhile for the slave render nodes to start partecipating in the render.

hope it helps...

regards,


gio

[reality3d]

THAT"S IT!!!
simply a chase of too small a file. I set it to 3508*2631 and bingo after a few minute the servers joined in..
That will teach me for being inpatient and wanting to test on a small file.
Thanks for you help guys. Much appreciated