Distributed Render

[nizu]

Re: Distributed Render

Working nicely for me
(windows master -> 1 ubuntu slave )

I just had to set working directory to /tmp/ when launching vrayslave.
(my link to 'vrayslave' looks like this: "gnome-terminal -e (insert vrayslave location) --working-directory /tmp/ )

[hhoffren]

Re: Distributed Render

I wonder what has happened between versions modified in 29 Jan 2010 vs 23 Mar 2010. January version's distributed rendering works, but 23 March version renders "black" or "bg color only" buckets.

Found these lines:
The Vray slave's console says "warning: scene is empty".
The Blender's console tries to find the scene file from local disk's system temp folder ""C:\Users\**UserFolder**\AppData\Local\Temp/vrscene.txt".

Checked the vrscene.txt files in two computers.
The one at the "main" computer that has blender and launches the rendering has
#include "y:\folder\folder\*and so on*"
Another computer's file says
#include "../folder/folder/*and so on*"

The main computer has it right but it renders black buckets. The "pure slave" computer renders blue background. I'm using the "Win-Win" setting.

Windows 7
blender-2.49b-win64-python26
VRay core: 1.80.01

This is small annoyance at the moment as everyting works with older script.. and I'm moving to Blender 2.5 with Vray.

..and I'm off to Easter holiday in a moment, so I hope I gave enough details as I can come back to test next Tuesday at earliest. Happy holidays to whoever has one!

[StompinTom]

Re: Distributed Render

Hi,

What's the status of DR in a Windows-Windows configuration? I'm not quite sure how to get it to work...

[bdancer]

Re: Distributed Render

@StompinTom, I'll try to improve it this weekend.

[geejay]

Re: Distributed Render

Could someone give a short step-by-step howto set up distributed rendering? I am trying with two linux machines, I have everything up and running but the slave is not found, regardless if it is running on the same machine or on the other one.

Thanks!

Edit: What is the difference between the DR and network licenses in the license server status?

[bdancer]

Re: Distributed Render

I've made some changes in DR so please test.

Win-Win:
1. Create a directory and share it.
2. Enable DR on system panel.
3. Choose this directory in exporter (System panel -> Exporting paths -> DR)
4. Add IP's or hostnames of render-nodes separeted by ";" like 192.168.0.10;192.168.0.11;my-render-node etc.
5. Start V-Ray in slave mode:

vray.exe -server

6. Press render, everything should go fine.


Unix-Unix:
Master:
1. Create /render directory.
2. Check permissions and owner (it should have read-write access by your user).
3. Choose this directory in exporter (System panel -> Exporting paths -> DR)
4. Share this directory using samba (I prefer system-config-samba tool to configure shares)

Slave:
1. Create /render directory.
2. Check permissions and owner (it should have read access by user).
3. Mount network share to this directory or add smth like this line to fstab:

//192-168.0.1/render /render smbfs guest,user 0 0

4. Start V-Ray in slave mode:

vray -server

Win-Unix:
Master:
1. Create a directory and share it.
2. Enable DR on system panel.
3. Choose this directory in exporter (System panel -> Exporting paths -> DR)
4. Add IP's or hostnames of render-nodes separeted by ";" like 192.168.0.10;192.168.0.11;my-render-node etc.

Slave
V-Ray stores scene file in $TMP directory on render node (/tmp). We must mound your shared DR directory on top of this directory.
1. Create /render directory.
(Share name could be any, but directory names must be the same. For, example you can create C:\win_dr directory and call the share like "my_render_folder", but you must mount it as /win_dr)
2. Check permissions and owner (it should have read access by user).
3. Mount network share to this directory or add smth like this line to fstab:

//192-168.0.1/render_share /render smbfs guest,user 0 0

4. Start V-Ray in slave mode:

vray -server

Some more little additions:
- "Flip H/W" change image from portrait to landscape proportions
- Fix "Affect diffuse"

[maces]

Re: Distributed Render

Hi,

is the source tarball already updated to 0.70?

maces

[bdancer]

Re: Distributed Render

@maces, there were no need to change the sources.

[geejay]

Re: Distributed Render

4. Start V-Ray in slave mode:

vray -master

Shoudn't that be

vray -server

?

Anyways, I can't get it to work (Unix-Unix). Is there some way to debug this, I can't even see it contacting the slave... The dir is mounted in exactly the same location on both machines, r/w access. Script version is 2.49.12.70

It just renders a black image if I enable DR, with DR off it renders black.

Thanks!

[bdancer]

Re: Distributed Render

@Hoverkraft

Shoudn't that be...

Yep =)

Is there some way to debug this, I can't even see it contacting the slave.

If it can't contact hosts you will get smth like this:

[2010/May/24|23:33:43] warning: Could not connect to host 192.168.1.4: Unknown error
[2010/May/24|23:33:43] Using 0 hosts for distributed rendering.

If it could:

[2010/May/24|23:35:32] Connected to render host 127.0.0.1
[2010/May/24|23:35:32] Using 1 hosts for distributed rendering.

[geejay]

Re: Distributed Render

I only get the "using 0 hosts line" without any warning. I am now trying this only on localhost, running "vray -server" and the host application on the same machine. I tried the loopback address (127.0.0.1) and the real ip of the machine, I don't get any reaction. And I tried running vrayslave instead. Not setting any ip also doesn't work. This is a standard Ubuntu 10.04 install, I am not blocking any ports afaik. Any more ideas what I could do to diagnose this? If the shared path is wrong or there is a license problem, I should at least get an error message, right? Is there a commandline only way to test this?

[bdancer]

Re: Distributed Render

@Hoverkraft, disable "Autorun" and you will get full command line at the end of the log.
Also check port number on your slaves.

    -renderhost="host{;host}" - use these host(s) for distributed rendering.
         Hosts can be specified either as computer names or by IPs. More than
         one -renderhost options can be specified.

    -portNumber=n - specifies the port number to use for distributed
         rendering. The port numbers of the render servers and the render
         client must match for DR to work. The port can also be overridden
         using the VRAY_DR_CONTROLPORT environment variable. This command
         line option overrides the environment variable.
         (default is 20204)

[geejay]

Re: Distributed Render

I can't get this to work. I don't get any error messages, just "using 0 hosts". Netcat doesn't show any activity on the ports used for DR. Is there anyone who has this working on Unix-Unix? I am using a nightly build btw. If you got this working it would be nice to know some specifics (OS version, VRay version, exporter version).

Hope I can work this out eventually.
Thanks!

[leandro_cs]

Re: Distributed Render

Hi andrey.

I got a problem with dr. It works very well with one slave, but it only contact the first server and ignores the other ip adress like using just the first number.

Any tips?

Win-Unix
Master in Win7 64 bits
And 2 render slaves in Ubuntu 10.04 64 bits

[bdancer]

Re: Distributed Render

@cyberlecs, I guess you have some license restrictions: as far as I know now - one standalone license is only for one machine, if you want DR you need to buy more licences. But I will ask chaosgroup again about this.