Distributed render, stand alone renderer

[BVA]

I use a workstation with 10 render machines on the side.
To date I installed max on all render nodes, all the service packs and then Vray on each machine.

Is this the best way to do it if I only use distributed renderer? Or, will vray stand alone work just as well and safe me the time of loading max on all the nodes?

[vlado]

The way you do it now is the best way to approach this. While using the standalone is possible, I suspect it will introduce other issues.

Best regards,
Vlado

[RockinAkin]

The way you do it now is the best way to approach this. While using the standalone is possible, I suspect it will introduce other issues.

I'm curious what issues might arise?

I've used V-Ray Standalone (for maya) on render slaves without having to install maya on those machines, and it's worked great.

What problems could I run into if I were to take the same approach with V-Ray 3.0 for max?

[vlado]

I'm curious what issues might arise?

I've used V-Ray Standalone (for maya) on render slaves without having to install maya on those machines, and it's worked great.

What problems could I run into if I were to take the same approach with V-Ray 3.0 for max?

Maya is a different story; V-Ray Standalone can render absolutely anything that V-Ray for Maya itself can render, in exactly the same way, pixel for pixel. With 3ds Max, because the integration of the V-Ray plugin is much tighter, we do rely to some extent on components that are part of 3ds Max itself (f.e. procedural textures), or 3ds Max-specific plugins (like FumeFX, ForestPro, MultiScatter, Ornatrix etc). While we have made attempts to write V-Ray equivalents to the procedural textures, and we do support some of the 3rd party plugins to various degrees, it is still not exactly the same as rendering right inside 3ds Max.

For many simple cases, things might work fine, but for more complicated work, it might be difficult to work around these limitations.

Best regards,
Vlado

[RockinAkin]

Ah, gotcha. So for now I'll just keep installing max along with v-ray for any render nodes.

Assuming none of those plugins are being used - is there a list somewhere of which procedural textures are supported by V-Ray 3.0 standalone?