Backburner....

[Mediastation]

I had similar problems with Backburner (scenes not rendering all frames, nodes sitting idle with jobs still in the queue) a few months back.

Here's the solution that worked for me:

Uninstall BB2007 from one machine on your render farm.

Install Backburner 3 and use it to run the Manager. Do not run the Server on this machine! Just the Manager!

All the other machines will run fine using BB2007 Server, as it's just the Manager that causes the problem.

[QuakeMarine1]

im sure BB is pretty stable with 4-6 machines. Try 50 machines. of course everything gets complicated with that many machines.

no problems here with the setup mediastorm mention

[gilpo]

I had similar problems with Backburner (scenes not rendering all frames, nodes sitting idle with jobs still in the queue) a few months back.

Here's the solution that worked for me:

Uninstall BB2007 from one machine on your render farm.

Install Backburner 3 and use it to run the Manager. Do not run the Server on this machine! Just the Manager!

All the other machines will run fine using BB2007 Server, as it's just the Manager that causes the problem.

I second this suggestion. Works well for us.

[percydaman]

im sure BB is pretty stable with 4-6 machines. Try 50 machines. of course everything gets complicated with that many machines.

no problems here with the setup mediastorm mention

well you da man. I knew if I posted what I did, someone would respond that their gazillion machine renderfarm worked like a dream.

[meanadam]

What if Chaos built a Vray BB manager type thing? (that also worked as a DR manager).... that would be potentially awesome.

[QuakeMarine1]

make no sense for chaosgroup
spend time and cash for what

butterly, deadline, smedge, muster, drqueue, spider, backburner, RoyalRender, and mybe 10 more I miss here

the world have enough manager

[stilgarna]

make no sense for chaosgroup
spend time and cash for what

butterly, deadline, smedge, muster, drqueue, spider, backburner, RoyalRender, and mybe 10 more I miss here

the world have enough manager

+ Render Pal Manager

Best regards...

[meanadam]

butterly, deadline, smedge, muster, drqueue, spider, backburner, RoyalRender, and mybe 10 more I miss here

Great. Do any of these work better than BB and cost less than $XXX per machine? Also do any mix 64 and 32 bit other than $500 Deadline 2.0?

DrQueue looks interesting.

Still... I would like to see a DR manager. But maybe this is also gonna be known as "Vray Stand-Alone 1.5"?

OOH... also one that lets you change the Vray settings in the Manager window? And even better: the Vray camera settings - so you can adjust the exposure without going back to the scene every time?

[QuakeMarine1]

all these manager go via command line to assign frames
no way to include vray commands into that structure because vray is a plugin and not a part of the application (dream**)
I am sure standalone have commands to switch all the parameters you mention but that far away .. isnt it?

<<Do any of these work better than BB
what do you need to render - only 3dsmax then stay BB

<<and cost less than $XXX per machine?
DrQueue - my experiacne is buggy and badly supported
Renderpal cost less then 1k$ and provide unlimited nodes

<<Also do any mix 64 and 32 bit other than $500 Deadline 2.0?
dont mix different bit systems !
images are looking different - more brighten - particle have different location - same for fur - same for displacement - different refections - plugins X dont work proper

OK it depend on WHAT is going on in the scene
a simple teapot makes no problems
but keep yourself free of problems and avoid mixing

search in the forum - someone scripted a DR tool