Net Rendering Irradiance maps for animation?

[Viscacha]

Does anyone know how to net render the irradiance map for an animation with only camera movement. We have been using Vray for awhile but for all animation we calculate each frame of the animation over from scratch each time. This is partly because sometimes we have objects moving in the scene and have too, partly because we have a 80 machine render farm (at nights) and have the time, and partly because we have not found a better way. We have been looking at some threads that show saving every nth frame on muliframe incredmental or incremental add. We did do one animation this way but we used 1 machine to calculate all the IR maps and then loaded them across the farm. Will this same process work if we send thru backburner? Or is there a way to use many machines to calculate the ir map? Hopeful the question makes sense. Any help would be great.
Thanks john <--aka "the viscacha"

[tom schuelke]

Hmm

Untill now i-maps only can be rendered on a single machine as i know. this is due to the fact, that each frame depends on the last renderresults, so doing it over a network using the backburner would cause problems, because each computer would have to wait for the result of the last frame.

but as far as i know single fram i-map calculation will be distributed over network using the 1.5. (not yet in the inernal build)

i may be wrong in this, but i think i´ve read about it. so you could start precalculation of animations as well, over the vray spawner, because several computer could help rendering a single frame.

we´ll see

Tom

[Viscacha]

Does the order matter (meaning render out frame 50 then 100 then go back to 20)? Or just the fact that each image builds on the next and that 2 or more machines could not access and add information to the same file at the same time? In short, We are trying to speed up the overall rendering process without hardware and i think with a few tests even if rendered out on 1 machine (ir maps) we could improve our results. Do you animate much Tom? If so what is your process or do you have too many moving objects to be of use y saving maps. (oh bye the way i saw your image of the interior of a plane on another thread, very very nice!)
Thanks

[tom schuelke]

Hi Viscacha

thanks for those compliments. while a big part of the plane was from me, it rather was a teamwork.

by the way not vray, but max radiosity. Now vray is better and faster. so the next plane will sure be vray. (see some first tests in the wishlist section, "lightlayers")

well

i think its realy the order of frames renderd by the backburner. because if you use incremental ad to current frame, a single computer can build the next frame upon the results of the last frame. And when you do this with the backburner, frames would jump like you said.

We now have done a lot of animtion with vray. Usualy Architectural ore design renderings. and usualy, there are not to much things, moving, so incremental ad to current frame like you´ve seen sometimes in the formum usualy realy is the fastest way, because you get absolutely flickerfree results.

so prerendering on a single computer should be a way for you to speed up your renderings very much, because of flickerfree results, you can lower your i-map settings, compared to single frame very very much.

if you´ve got some moving objects, the mate shadow option in the vray object, or wrapper settings might solve your problems. just render them in another pass.

we did an animaiton of a new train in hamburg with also a new way it had to go through a subburb that didnt exist. composed with real video material. and the moving trains, we could without any problems light with fake lights. You didnt see this in the overal lighting.

just try incremental ad to current frame, each tenth frame, save the resulting i-map and make the rest with the backburner.

in interiors, the new 1.5 will save your live, because due to the lightmap, you will also in interiors be able to render as fast as in exteriors. in that case you only use lightmap as secoundary bounces method, in animation modus.

that works unbeleavable good.

so good luck

Tom
www.lichtecht.de

[Viscacha]

Wow thanks, I am excited to test it, we have been having alot of flicker and it is always fustrating to work so hard on an animation, have the stills look great and then watch it on tv and see so much flicker (not related to fields or antialiasing) Thanks again for the tips

[serge]

you can use your renderfarm for imap calculation (animation)

for example
node1: frame 1-100 every 10 frames
node2: frame 100-200 every 10 frames
......
and so on

merge all the imap you have saved with imap viewer
save your new imap

[Viscacha]

Thanks Serge, We just did a test and it works great so far. The Imap Viewer is very cool, we did not even know it existed. Thanks again

[Smalerbi]

you can use your renderfarm for imap calculation (animation)

for example
node1: frame 1-100 every 10 frames
node2: frame 100-200 every 10 frames
......
and so on

merge all the imap you have saved with imap viewer
save your new imap

Hi Serge,

I currently have a 3200 frame animation. 500 frames out of the 3200 has a car driving through the scene. So it would seem I would need to render the irmap every frame for the moving car but once the car leaves the camera view, I could render the balance every 10th frame or so.

I was wondering if you or someone else could please explain this with a bit more detail. How can you render your irmaps over a network this way? How do you set up your rendering slaves to render specific frames using backburner or are you using a stand alone copy of Vray on every machine? My final question is the irmap viewer. I have no idea where to find this or how to use it. It would be great to combine or glue all of the saved irmaps into one for the final rendering sequence…..could you please explain how this works

Thanks,

Scott.

[Da_elf]

simply setup one render job to sent to the backburner as 0-100 and specify one computer on the network. then send another job to the backburner of the same scene but 101-200 and then render that on another computer. take the two resulting imaps into imap viewer and voila you can combine them. im not sure where the view is located right now. probably in the download section somewhere

[Smalerbi]

simply setup one render job to sent to the backburner as 0-100 and specify one computer on the network. then send another job to the backburner of the same scene but 101-200 and then render that on another computer. take the two resulting imaps into imap viewer and voila you can combine them. im not sure where the view is located right now. probably in the download section somewhere

Thanks for the quick response. I hate to sound so stupid but I still do not get it. Are you saying, open up another max session with the same file and than send it out to another node? Otherwise, how do you send out different jobs and frames from one session of max through the same backburner. Also one more question, what is the best way to save the irmap? Should I use “incremental add to current map” or “Multiframe incremental”?

With regards to the irmap viewer, I will check out the download section. I hope I do not need my password. I forgot it some time ago and I emailed the guys a chaos group for it but I never received a response.

Thanks again.

Scott.

[Da_elf]

in your max session setup the scene for the 1st 100 frames then turn on netrender and click render. this will send you to the netrender window. make sure (use all servers) is off then select a computer from the list and click render. then it goes back to max. setup for your next 100 frames and click render. back in the netrender window look at the top under job name or something like that there should be a + there. click it to change the name. select another computer and submit

[Smalerbi]

in your max session setup the scene for the 1st 100 frames then turn on netrender and click render. this will send you to the netrender window. make sure (use all servers) is off then select a computer from the list and click render. then it goes back to max. setup for your next 100 frames and click render. back in the netrender window look at the top under job name or something like that there should be a + there. click it to change the name. select another computer and submit

Thanks, I will give this a try. The last piece of the puzzle would be the saving method. I’m saving the irmap to a specific file and under a specific name. When I start a new backburner session, should I save the irmap under a different name and then glue them all together using the irmap viewer? And the final question from my previous post……Should I use “incremental add to current map” or “Multiframe incremental”?

Thanks for all of your help and patience.

Scott.

[Viscacha]

Question 1-yes, save as a different Imap name for each. and then use the merge feature on the Imap viewer. Once they are all merged then save the file as something with a new name.
Question 2-We have been using "incremental add to current" but hitting the reset button before we launch and have great success that way. We have been doing it for about for about 2 weeks since i posted this thread and have already used it on 4 different jobs and it has worked great for all of them.
We needed our password and it is under the documentation section of the downloads.

[Smalerbi]

Question 1-yes, save as a different Imap name for each. and then use the merge feature on the Imap viewer. Once they are all merged then save the file as something with a new name.
Question 2-We have been using "incremental add to current" but hitting the reset button before we launch and have great success that way. We have been doing it for about for about 2 weeks since i posted this thread and have already used it on 4 different jobs and it has worked great for all of them.
We needed our password and it is under the documentation section of the downloads.

Thanks for the help but I’m having another issue. I’m missing a step because I can not get the map to save. After rendering the irmap on a rendering slave as suggested, there is no map in the file. Attached is a screen shot on how I set up the saving process. The only way I can get an irmap to save is to render the scene on the machine where I have my copy of Vray. But I can not rely on that machine because it crashes every time and that is a different topic. Please let me know what steps I’m missing.

Thanks again,

Scott

www.drealm.net/vray/irmap-settings.jpg

[Viscacha]

Ohh i just looked at your setting they look the same except your rendering location... can your rendering slaves see your C drive? we always put stuff on the network.

Here you go, try this and let me know if you are still having problems