Vray SWARM for Sketchup

[jiri_karasek]

Hey guys, I am sorry if there was an answer for such specific question - I didnt really find it so I am asking here:
I will try to keep it short and informative.

I am using Macbook pro for most of my work - cant use Nvidia Graphics in external enclosure to utlitize CUDA cores for rendering.
So I am thinking about building separate machine running Windows with Nvidia graphic cards and using it with SWARM.
My Question is - will there be a trouble runing the Sketchup and Vray on Mac machine and using the render node for swarm on PC?
Is it possible to render on one machine with CPU and the SWARM machine as GPU? If not, can I just render on the SWARM machine with GPU while working on mac?
Are there any issues with rendering with SWARM on PC with multiple GPUs?

I understand the short answer can be: work on the PC when you have it, but really thats not an option atm.

Thanks!
J

[slavcho.brusev]

There should be no issues with this setup.
You can use the CUDA engine in cpu/hybrid mode by checking the C++ option(click on the 3 vertical dots ).

This will use the cpu of the Mac and the Nvidia GPU you have on the Windows machine.

can I just render on the SWARM machine with GPU while working on mac?

Not with the CUDA/RTX engine. You can do that if you use the CPU engine by clicking the below button.

Are there any issues with rendering with SWARM on PC with multiple GPUs?

There shouldn't be any, however, if you encounter one let us know so we can assist.

[ronen_schmitz]

@slavcho.brusev @stefan.isakov

Hi everybody,

I’m hanging on this threat since I’m trying to get similar setup to work.
I have the annual plan of “V-Ray for SketchUp”.

I using my MacBookPro to create, texture and configure my models in SketchUp. I have another Windows PC, that I would like to use for rendering, by using V-Ray Swarm.
At some point I may want use both machines to do the render job, and at some point I may want to keep the render job to be done by the Windows machine only.

Looking into my licenses, I see I have a license for “V-Ray for SketchUp” and license for “V-Ray Render Node”.

1. Do I need another, a second license for “V-Ray Render Node” because the first one is already in use by the Mac?
2. Would be possible to remove the “V-Ray Render Node” license on the Mac, so it may be free to be used by the Windows PC

Passing on the setup:

On the Windows machine I installed “V-Ray Swarm”. At first it looked good, both machines turned up in network, and both had the Status “enabled”. When I started rendering the Windows machine switched to unstable after a moment.
I understood that this is a license issue.

So I tried to follow this post/ threat:
https://forums.chaos.com/forum/v-ray...tatus-unstable
I got confused by it to follow many links to figure out the correct setup.

On the Windows machine I installed Chaos License Server, then, to see if that would work, to no success.

1. Which software need to be on the Windows machine?
2. Only V-Ray Swarm, or something else alongside.
3. How do I manage the license issue.
4. Should I use “auto-detect”, or configure manually.
5. What is this about the different ports – I get conflicting info on why ports to use.

Could somebody help set this up correctly?
It seems like an easy task, but there way too much variables, and reading some post, some seem to not work as intended.

Thanks a lot!
Ronen

[stefan.isakov]

Hello Ronen,
We can see in our database you have the following license:
1 x V-Ray for SketchUp (GUI/Interface) license
1 x V-Ray Render Node license

In order to render on 2 machines (Mac+Windows), you will need to have 2 x V-Ray Render Node licenses.
You can get an additional V-Ray Render Node license and the Unstable status will not appear anymore.
When submitting a scene on your Mac to render on your slave machine(Windows), you are not able to turn off the rendering completely on your Mac, so it will always take a V-Ray Render Node license.
You can turn on the "Cap CPU Utilization" so the rendering on your Mac will be done via 1 core only, the others will not be engaged so you could do another job.

Please find the answers to your questions below:
Do I need another, a second license for “V-Ray Render Node” because the first one is already in use by the Mac? Yes
Would be possible to remove the “V-Ray Render Node” license on the Mac, so it may be free to be used by the Windows PC No
Which software need to be on the Windows machine? V-Ray Swarm and V-Ray license server needs to be activated so that the slave could take a V-Ray Render Node license when rendering.
Only V-Ray Swarm, or something else alongside. V-Ray Swarm and V-Ray license server
How do I manage the license issue. - Get additional V-Ray Render Node license
Should I use “auto-detect”, or configure manually. We recommend using the auto-detect, but if you have any issues, you can use the manual configure, because of the different networks
What is this about the different ports – I get conflicting info on why ports to use. The ports 20208 and 24267 are used for rendering through Swarm and communicating between the Swarm nodes. Port 30304 is used for V-Ray license server. All of these ports should be opened and free, so you could render without an issue.
Let me know if you have any other questions.

[ronen_schmitz]

stefan.isakov

Thank you so much for your comprehensive answer.
Really appreciate it!

[jiri_karasek]

Hello Guys.
So I put together my PC, bought annual licence for another rendering node, but I cant make it work.
After checking the localhost vray swarm network I can see my MBP which is the distributing machine, I can see my PC, both ENABLED. I tried putting in manually the addresses for both machines and licence servers etc. does not work, always when I start rendering on MBP in sketchup using swarm, only MBP is rendering, the other machine changes from enabled to ASSIGNED but never starts to render.
I updated mac to latest MacOS, also latest win on the other machine. I also downloaded all C++ libraries, but nothing works.
If I wouldnt make it work on different 2 macbooks couple of months ago I would say its just so wrong, but I did.
Weird is none of the computers shows a Vray version in the network overview.
Please advice.
Thanks

[stefan.isakov]

Thank you for your question.Please follow the link below in order to open a support ticket to our system and please mention your account/e-mail,

so we can help you further and check your issue:

https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Please make sure to choose "Technical assistance starting the product" during the submitting of the Request Type
And please send us a screenshot of the error if any and another screenshot of the web page "127.0.0.1:24267"

Thank you.