Announcement

**super gnu** · 25-02-2015, 05:37 AM

since max is windows only id definitely go with a windows farm. you could probably use linux and render through vray standalone, but it would be a right pain in the arse.

make sure all machines are on the same network ( gigabit or higher is pretty essential) put a copy of 3dmsmax and vray on each (you can isntall 3dsmax as a demo, and vray has an option on installing to install for a rendernode)

i assume you have 6 vray licenses? since vray 3 you will need a license for each machine. if you are on vray 2.4 or lower you can use one license for all of them.

make sure you have all plugins you use installed on all machines, and they are all the same version number.

set up backburner (or deadline if you want something decent but not free) and run the manager on one of the machines (your workstation will be fine) then start the server on each render node, with the manager address pointing to the machine with the manager on. you can put the render server in the "startup" folder in windows so it starts when the machine starts.

you will also need to run the queue monitor on your workstation so you can see what is going on.

if you want to use DR or RT, you will need to have their respective servers running on your nodes too. you can either set them to start as services, or put them in the same startup folder as the backburner server.

iirc you need to run at least one backburner job first, for everything to start working properly.

you will obviously need the vray license server running on a machine (workstation fine again) and all the nodes set to use licenses from there (ignore if using vray 2.4 or less, the rendernodes dont need licenses in this case)

unless i forgot something, that should be enough to get you to the point where you are saying " but its not working!" and then we can troubleshoot.

**VI_MOVE** · 25-02-2015, 08:40 AM

You'll need a fileserver connected to your network, so that every node can pick up textures and other files. You could setup and share a raid drive or something similar on your workstation, which might be sufficiant for 6 clients. It's essential that you always point every external file within 3ds max to this network space to let your nodes know where to get the data. Even if this drive physically sits on your workstation and therefore has a local drive letter, never point there, but use the network path instead. This is either possible if you set up mapped drives on every node with the same provided letter or by using the UNC path. Be sure that this filespace is fast (!) if you're not planning to lose ages watching max to load your projects

Check the firewall on any node that participates and make sure that all programs needed and their belongs (Backburner, 3ds Max & Vray) are able to communicate with each other.

**Srieg** · 25-02-2015, 09:50 AM

Thanks guys! I will give it a shoot in a couple of days and will let you know what my results.

Cheers!

**super gnu** · 25-02-2015, 10:01 AM

ha.. yes i completely missed out the critical step of making sure all your resources are in a location that is accessible using the same path, on all your machines.

some people go to the extent of having a local folder c:\temp or something on each machine, and some syncing software to keep that folder matched to the central resource storage location.

then each machine just looks on its local hard drive (or ssd) for resources .. having said that if your network and file storage are fast enough, its definitely not necessary for only 6 machines.

to avoid any lag here, ive got a raid 0 pair of ssd's (close to 1.2GB/sec) for my working drive, and 10gb infiniband for my networking. (hehe ive only got 3 machines

Announcement

Render Farm how to

Render Farm how to

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment