Batch rendering workflow using DR

[Bertjenkins]

Hi folks

I am currently using DR on 4 machines (4 mac pro's running Maya). It's working nicely for RT, and i love the way Vray handles all the assets and sends them to the machines that need it.

I'd like to do the same with batch rendering. Ie send different frame ranges and different cameras/ render layers (they are the only variables i need) to different machines for rendering, without having to check all the maps, etc.



What's the easiest way to do this? Is there any plugins out there or do i need a render manager? They seem a bit over complicated for my pretty basic requirements. Or should i just use vray standalone - if so , how? Just wondered how other people do this.

any help would be very helpful!

PS I don't really want to use backburner as i've wasted so many hours with it in the past on osx/maya.

[Morbid Angel]

You got a tough spot with the whole Mac's thing but in newer vray builds (nightlies) they directly support DR rendering in batch mode. If you just leave DR enabled in your scene you should be able to run a render.exe command and get the dr working. Unfortunately if you want to batch render stuff you have to use a batch render manager. BB is free and now works with maya. Of course you can also use vray standalone but its a bit more complicated but in my opinion its a better choice in the long run...

[Bertjenkins]

The Mac's are actually pretty good with DR, it works fine... it also works fine in batch mode. However sometimes it doesn't make the render faster, eg if theres a huge vray proxy or whatever that takes ages to load onto all machines. I just wondered if sending the entire scene might be faster in this instance. Problem with Backburner is it just doesn't seem to work with maya on osx. Maybe it does these days, but i'm slightly scared to go back there... it has given me a lot of pain in the past!

So if you use vray standalone, is it just a cae of command line renders from the host machine telling the other machines what to do? Are there any tutorials on standalone?

[Morbid Angel]

So if you use vray standalone, is it just a cae of command line renders from the host machine telling the other machines what to do? Are there any tutorials on standalone?

If you run vray command prompt (can be found under vray installation dir) you can then run a vray.exe command (probably different extension under mac). Once you do that vray will print all the commands supported in the shell window, from which you can piece together a command line for executing your scene.

However the fact that the DR machines do not render faster in batch mode could mean a different problem, for example you may need to specify dynamic memory limit under batch render command.

[Bertjenkins]

Hi guys

This is really stressing me out. I have just tried Pipeline and Deadline, both of which seem way too complicated. I get them all set up and the renders fail... i don't have time to try and find out why. All i want to do is make use of my vray license- ie render out scenes on different machines which dont have the dongle attached. Surely it can't be that hard? Cant seem to find one tutorial online for command line rendering in osx. All i want to do is export the vrscene file (or just use the maya file) to another machine and make it render! Ideally choose which camera it uses or use different frame ranges... but if i could just make it render that would be enough to get started with!

[Bertjenkins]

Thought i'd try to do it through maya instead- I seem to get a 'cannot obtain a license' even though the setvrlservice is pointing to the machine with the correct license. I've wasted so much time doing this, i can't believe it's so hard just to set off a vray render on multiple machines. I'm gonna have to render this job on mental ray now- arrrgh!

[Morbid Angel]

how did you point to your license server is it a computer name or ip? I would suggest to try ip if name fails or vise-verse, also remember that if you have 1 vray license you cant use it at the same time on two machines so make sure both your maya/vrays closed before you try it on your other machine.

[Bertjenkins]

Thanks so much for the reply- much appreciated! i just played around with it and added a .local to the computer name. It works now. Yes seems to be fine as long as maya is not running on two machines simultaneously. I'm now going to try and get Pipeline going - i'm getting greedy now, but want to try and set all renders off from one machine rather than checking each one through on separate machines and redirecting file paths, etc... I'm hoping that now the license issue is resolved that Pipeline will work... fingers crossed!