Irradiance maps very slow to load in DR

[arobbert]

I'm storing my light with the Irradiance map. The map loads fine until I increase the settings from low to high or enhance the detail. This causes a long delay before DR nodes begin rendering. The Host machine starts quickly. All the machines are of a similar specification.

This appears to happen while the map loads to each node. The bigger and more detailed the map gets the slower it gets. Has anyone else noticed this? The maps don't seem unusually large (7.7 meg).

This is almost as slow as direct QMC.

I'm using 1.5RC3

[vlado]

If they are all loading it from the same location, it might be a network issue; you can try to copy the map locally and see if it makes things better.

Best regards,
Vlado

[arobbert]

Thanks, that seems to help.

[jonahhawk]

I've also had this same problem when saving lc/ir maps for animated net renders as well. I end up distributing the files manually. I would love for there to be an option to include maps with DR like the option for bitmaps in BackBurner.

[geoffc]

How do you copy an ir map 'locally' to a render slave so that it would find it? Where would you put it and how do you direct the slave to find it?

[jonahhawk]

This is why things like UNC paths and Gigabit switching are important.



it has to be in the same local folder as it is on your machine:

C:\Project\RenderAssets\example.imap

The map has to be in the same path on every machine or the render will fail on that node.

All of our servers are numbered. The path to the C drive on our render nodes is something like this:

\\Node01\c$\Project\Renderassets\

You can write a batch file the oldschool way:

copy C:\Project\RenderAssets\*.* \\Node01\c$\Project\Renderassets\

copy C:\Project\RenderAssets\*.* \\Node02\c$\Project\Renderassets\

copy C:\Project\RenderAssets\*.* \\Node03\c$\Project\Renderassets\

copy C:\Project\RenderAssets\*.* \\Node04\c$\Project\Renderassets\


etc.


You also have to have administrative rights on all of the nodes.

[geoffc]

Thanks Jon, that's a huge help, I'll give it a try now!