This might be a little far fetched, but something I’ve always wanted is render management software that specialized/intergrated with Vray. There are several reasons this would be awesome.
1. Edit vray properties from the monitor, like you can with the basic max properties. I hate it when I mess up one setting and have to cancel a job then go back in, fix it (possibly edit more settings if I sent another render from the same file) and resubmit, and then redo any dependencies. It would be so much nicer to just edit that one setting and restart the job.
2. Built in spawner. If Vray had its on server program the spawner functionality could be built into it. This would mean one less program running and less server/spawner conflicts.
3. Rather than have to create a separate irradiance precalc job, one could automatically be created and the manager would know to send that to just one server. And perhaps this could mean that if an irradiance calc fails, it would be smart enough to restart the job.
4. No more freaking 600 minute timeout. (Although that’s more of a bug Autodesk should fix, but don’t seem interested in doing so.)
Any suggestions for anything cheaper than deadline?
I’ve been enjoying deadline on my 2 node farm (its free for 2 nodes), but since one additional license requires me to purchase 3 licenses, the cost is puting my off…
as you test it, is it free for 2 node plus active workstation or 1 node + 1 workstation?
what about your impression? is it easy to set up? are you able to change vray parameters straight from the manager as you were looking for?
Deadline is great. I really like it. There are some things needing updating which I believe are being fixed in the next release of the software (in particular, the vray settings in the deadline-monitor don’t have the new DMC sampler noise threshold parameter to edit!).
One thing I’m annoyed with is I get 2 nodes for free(which is great)… then to go to 3 nodes, I need to buy 3 licenses! As usual the ‘small man’ has to pay the most
Unless I can find a comparable alternative I think I’ll have to bite the bullit and pay 3x the normal node rate, for my next node.
As far as I’m aware, it is 1 workstation and to active nodes… ie you can send a render to 2 nodes from your workstation… although the workstation won’t be part of the render-pool.
Check it out, it was easy as pie to setup. Also, you can request a trial period license which gives you unlimited nodes for a 30days.
Hmm… so backburner is crap… deadline is too expensive… I just enquired about Qube and its even more pricey!
The Supervisor also comes with an OEM licensed MySQL database bundled in. Having the database backend allows many things – stability, reliability, scalability, reporting and data recovery. The cost of the supervisor is $600 USD (300£) and the annual support is $120 USD (60£). The worker licenses cost $300 USD (150£) and the annual support is $60 USD (30£).
That makes deadline seem like a bargain!
So other than these… what other render managers do people here use? Anyone compiled DrQueue to work with max/vray? Any other managers to consider?
At least you guys HAVE backburner. XSI land has nothing. “Wheeee”
Splish is another open source one btw. Not easy to setup because you have to compile everything from source. The author is a smart dude so it’s probably coded well. And well… it’s free and works on any OS.
HI there are a few out there but how good they i dont know… none are free ofcourse but i am researching a replacment for BB so if there are any developers out that that want to right some software for me please let me know..
