Distributed Render - Crossover Cable not working. 5g Wifi Working. Should I get router for a local network?

[Daniel_Ray]

Hey everyone,

I'm testing out distributed render and i'm getting some problems with networking. My Router that is connected to the internet is not in my room so I have to use wifi. It's a 5g Wifi so it's not too bad. When I rendered a large test scene , it took around 20-40 seconds before I was able to see the the render node buckets to start rendering.

Is 20-40 seconds bad? I have no baseline for that but I'm assuming it will be better if I use an ethernet cable. my wifi says the speed is 866.7 Mbps but it is 3 out of 5 bars in Wifi Signal.


I then tried a crossover cable but it was not able to connect. I got this to work with Modo's render network before but it was very troublesome. I could transfer files between computers but Vray was not detecting the render. I think it was sending the render to the original wifi ip address(connection timeout in event log). I then tried doing custom Ip address and that did not work as well. Although I think I forgot to put anything in the DNS settings.


I'm thinking about getting a router or using a gigabit switch( bought it but never figured out how to use it). Would the router with wifi disabled be better in this situation?

Sorry, network setups have always been a nightmare for me.

Edit: I don't want to use distributed render with WIFI as a long term solution. I did a 1 hour render test and I lost connection 45 minutes in and the slave did not reconnect.

Edit 2:

Did a test render of a dense scene and it rendered the scene in 12 minutes with the wifi render node. Without the render node it was around 17 minutes. It took 2 minutes for the render node buckets to start assisting. 30% increase in render speed. I was estimating it to be around 60 percent faster.

DR attached to see the delay. I feel like it should hit at least 50% performance increase with a better network solution.

[boyan]

Hey Daniel,

Thank you for the feedback.

I'm testing out distributed render and i'm getting some problems with networking. My Router that is connected to the internet is not in my room so I have to use wifi. It's a 5g Wifi so it's not too bad. When I rendered a large test scene , it took around 20-40 seconds before I was able to see the the render node buckets to start rendering. Is 20-40 seconds bad? I have no baseline for that but I'm assuming it will be better if I use an ethernet cable. my wifi says the speed is 866.7 Mbps but it is 3 out of 5 bars in Wifi Signal.

This is normal don't worry about it. Apparently, this is a timeline for the transfer of the scene file and assets from host to remote PC.

I then tried a crossover cable but it was not able to connect. I got this to work with Modo's render network before but it was very troublesome. I could transfer files between computers but Vray was not detecting the render. I think it was sending the render to the original wifi ip address(connection timeout in event log). I then tried doing custom Ip address and that did not work as well. Although I think I forgot to put anything in the DNS settings.

Well, It seems you have a network issue. Did you renew the IP of the second PC? Both PC need the same mask and close IP 192.168.1.100 and next one 192.168.1.101.

I'm thinking about getting a router or using a gigabit switch( bought it but never figured out how to use it). Would the router with wifi disabled be better in this situation?

Sorry, network setups have always been a nightmare for me.

Edit: I don't want to use distributed render with WIFI as a long term solution. I did a 1 hour render test and I lost connection 45 minutes in and the slave did not reconnect.

The gigabit switch is a perfect solution and WiFi will not interact the DR if you're going to use the wire cable. About the drop speed problem, I think you need to reconfigure your router as try to increase a beacon interval. You can find more info here: https://routerguide.net/beacon-inter...ireless-speed/

Cheers,

[Daniel_Ray]

Hey Daniel,

Thank you for the feedback.




This is normal don't worry about it. Apparently, this is a timeline for the transfer of the scene file and assets from host to remote PC.



Well, It seems you have a network issue. Did you renew the IP of the second PC? Both PC need the same mask and close IP 192.168.1.100 and next one 192.168.1.101.



The gigabit switch is a perfect solution and WiFi will not interact the DR if you're going to use the wire cable. About the drop speed problem, I think you need to reconfigure your router as try to increase a beacon interval. You can find more info here: https://routerguide.net/beacon-inter...ireless-speed/

Cheers,

I have no idea how to renew the second IP, I have been restarting both pc's because sometimes they wouldn't see each other on the network. I really have no idea what's going on anymore but this crossover cable really does not want to work with Vray. I think the problem with the crossover cable is that it's an unidentified network and I don't know how to fix that. But I think it's time to give up on that , too much headache. I will just get a router and pray it works.


Would the gigabit switch have to be connected to a router as well?

[Daniel_Ray]

Thanks for the help!

Router made it a bit easier. Although there were still problems getting it up and running but it's all good now. I just had to make sure the Networks had very different Ip addresses and make my Wifi have priority for the internet access. Also I had to manually re enter the new render node IP because it was accessing the old one(This wasn't working with crossover cable for some reason, maybe because it was an unidentified network.)

Rendered a 17 minute scene in 7 minutes and 10 seconds. And it was slightly higher than my performance increase estimate at 68% performance increase instead of 60%.

edit:

Although the problem is, it seems like I need internet access at ALL times in order to use Vray. Is there a setting that can fix this or make the delay longer? I have wifi internet so, I lose connection sometimes.

[vladimir.nedev]

Although the problem is, it seems like I need internet access at ALL times in order to use Vray. Is there a setting that can fix this or make the delay longer? I have wifi internet so, I lose connection sometimes.

You can borrow the licenses for offline usage in the online license server.
https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...or+Offline+Use

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[boyan]

Hey Daniel,

Also I had to manually re-enter the new render node IP because it was accessing the old one(This wasn't working with crossover cable for some reason, maybe because it was an unidentified network.)

This is what I've meant.

Cheers,

[Daniel_Ray]

Thanks again everyone and I apologize for all the questions. At least now I will know how to setup a network by myself.

boyan - Yeah thanks, I didn't get what you said at first but then I realized that's what you were talking about after I was looking at the event log and seeing old IP.

[kay vonlanthen]

hey everyone. i didnt want to create a new thread but im starting to use DR renderingas well. im not at home im testing it at my moms so its not my "final set up" (meaning i cant buy a new router or something(for now)). is there a more detailed turorial how to set up a DR render network? the official guide is not helping at all. read through that many times, word by word. its too generalized i think. on top of that there is literally now english tutorial on yt that shows step by step instructions how i set up win10. might be basic for some but as mentioned, networking can be a pain for some
what i understood was i need maya open on pc "A", tick on DR rendering under settings (duh) of course type in the IP address which im totally not sure if i did that right. then on pc "B" i open render slave. official guide doesnt tell me if both stand alone and slave has to run. doesnt show how to use dr check tool. would love to have more specific instructions on how to set it up.

thanks in advance

[Daniel_Ray]

On vacation but a few pointers.

The maya workstation on main pc and the slave has to be run on second pc.

Vray finds slave easier with exact ip but if not familiar with ip settings just type in name of computer.

Top left of vfb . There should be a render element that says DR. With adaptive sampling you should see if it is working.

If you have specific questions i can try and answer. Sorry for rushed statements i am not near computer and dont remember clearly.

[boyan]

Hey, Hey!

About the DR rendering, I think the link - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...+Render+Server will be useful for you.

Happy holidays