Distributed Rendering

[pobr03]

Is there anywhere I can find more information on setting up a distributed rendering server?

[Theory13]

Re: Distributed Rendering

hi there pobr03,
there is a folder that gets installed on your machine when you load VfR.
look for "C:\Program Files\ASGvis\Render slave"
copy that folder to anouther machine on your network, and launch the "DRSpawner.exe"

leave it running.

then in render options on your computer you work on you;ll jsut need to check the DR (Distributed Rendering) checkbox, and add the I.P. of the computer you installed the "DRSpawner.exe" program on.

i think that should be it.
good luck!

cheers!
--j.andre.

[pobr03]

Re: Distributed Rendering

Theory 13 you just reduced my workload by 50%.
Cheers.

[Theory13]

Re: Distributed Rendering

LOL. cool.

So anouther question on Distributed Rendering.... can it work with a Mac? i work in an office with 10 Mac computers and just 3 PC's.... is there a way to get the Mac's to help out?? anybody know?

cheers!
--j.andre.

[pobr03]

Re: Distributed Rendering

One more thing, is there any special trick in configuring the port redirection that I need to know about?

[joe_b]

Re: Distributed Rendering

I don't believe you should need to do any magic. If you are having problems making them communicate then let me know. I can't recall the port V-Ray uses for DR at the moment, but I can find out for you.

As for the Macs - our render slave is not a mac executable, so I don't believe that will work unless you are running Windows from a Mac machine (Bootcamp or some other means ).

[pobr03]

Re: Distributed Rendering

Thanks.
I was trying to execute a distributed rendering over the web rather than on a LAN. In the end I did manage to get them to communicate using a VPN but the connection kept dropping out - no fault of VRay I don't think.

Then I found a PC to put on my LAN and have got it running on that. My next question now is that when the slave computer renders, it only leaves a blur and doesn't complete it's little square properly. There is a big mismatch in the power of the two computers. Should this matter?

Cheers.

[joe_b]

Re: Distributed Rendering

The mismatch in power can cause some delays and some synchronization issues - but it should not affect the output generated as far as I know. If you can share your scene with me that would help me determine what is happening - if the scene is confidential then perhaps a stripped version of the scene will still show the issue? If you can pass it along just email it to me at joeb@asgvis.com with whatever textures it may need to render. If the scene is large just drop it in ftp://ftp.asgvis.com/incoming and let me know the archive name. You can just use the regular Window's explorer to navigate to that address and drag and drop it over ( you won't see it show up because it is anonymous write-access only, no read, but it will be sent there ). Thanks!

[foglite]

Re: Distributed Rendering

My office is about to make the leap and purchase VFR and a server as well. We've been thinking of using Linux on the server since we're only interested in using it as a file server, admittedly I have absolutely no experience with Linux so I don't even know how to state the question, but will the distributed rendering work with Linux? I'm using xp on my box and I'd like to harness all the machines in the office when rendering overnight including the server. (which will be a 4 core machine and most the other boxes in the office are Pentium 4's.)Any suggestions?

[Micha_cg]

Re: Distributed Rendering

Linux? I thought about my hardware future too. If I would setup a little renderfarm, than it wouldn't be good to buy WinXP for every machine for rendering only. So, it could be great to use a free OS.

[Theory13]

Re: Distributed Rendering

hmmmm..... i noticed today that textures still arn't going thru with DR'ing? is that true? for some reason i thought i read that it was fixed but that might be something else i'm confusing it with?
thanks,
--j.andre.

[joe_b]

Re: Distributed Rendering

In the current build of VfR4 the bitmaps need to be a folder that is accessible to every slave. When we release our first service release in a month or so there will be new functionality that will let you send textures to each slave for you.

[Theory13]

Re: Distributed Rendering

hi Joe B.
thanks for the reply.