For large 3D Studio Max animations it is possible to utilise all machines in the Digital Studio labs and distribute frames to different machines; e.g if the total animation is made up of 300 frames then 30 machines will process a block of 10 frames each. As all machines will work simultaneously on the block of frames then the whole render job is completed 30 times quicker.
The Backburner distributed rendering system allows for multiple jobs to be submitted to the queue so all the animations stack up to be worked on flat out by all the machines in the render farm. This will allow queued-up jobs to process, say overnight, and so be ready for use the next morning.
This process will work for Mental Ray and VRay jobs as well (custom material locations permitting) but don’t forget this process is for distributing separate frames of an animation across the network – it won’t speed up the rendering of single images. Plain 3DS single scene renders cannot be split up for distributed rendering (Mental Ray and VRay do have a separate distributed rendering facility where the scene is divided into “bucket’ areas, with each render node working on a bucket)
Please Note that machines should not be used as render nodes if they are needed by other students. Ideally network rendering should take place only in the evenings and at weekends.
Follow these steps to setup and utilise the lab machines in a render farm.
1.
On all the machines you wish to run as render nodes:
Start – Programs – Autodesk – Backburner –Server
Backburner Server Log window opens.
IF in the log displays the message “INF: Looking for a manager…”
THEN you must manually point the machine to the server manager:
Edit – General Settings
Click OFF “automatic search” and type in “digitalstudio”.
Close the window to stop Backburner server and then restart it.
Backburner Server Log window appears again showing “INF: Registration to 193.60.70.237 accepted”
This server node is now ready and waiting for render jobs.
2.
On the machine you are working from open the 3DS project that is ready for rendering
In the render setup window (F10) ensure that “Save to File” is selected –
NOTE: YOU CANNOT NETWORK RENDER A MOVIE FILE DIRECTLY– ANIMATIONS MUST BE RENDERED AS INDIVIDUAL FRAME IMAGES AND THEN COMBINED AFTERWARDS AS A MOVIE.
NOTE: THE LOCATION YOU ARE SAVING TO MUST BE A NETWORK LOCATION ACCESSIBLE BY ALL MACHINES
The S: drive is a network drive shared by all machines in either room T202 or T205 – if all your machines are in one room then use a folder on the S: drive.
IF you want to use machines from both rooms
THEN you will need to specify a network location common to both rooms. You can do this by typing in fully qualified network address.
In the File Name field type either file://digitalstudio/graphicdesign or file://digitalstudio/architecture
then click save and then browse to a folder beneath this share.
Type in the filename for your animation in the File Name field and hit Save.
This is now a common location that all network machines in both rooms can reach (“graphicdesign” being the S:\ drive in T202, and “architecture” being the S:\ drive in T205).
In the Render Setup window ensure that “Net Render” is ticked and hit Render
Network Job Assignment Window appears
Job Name: needs to be filled in with a name of a job that is not already running (this name is useful for tracking your render job in the Queue Monitor)
In the field Enter Manager Name or IP Address type “digitalstudio” and press Connect
List of available servers appears
Ensure “Use All Servers” is checked and hit Submit.
Render job is submitted for processing
3.
This render job now is offloaded and you can continue working in 3DS and add more render jobs to the queue – they will all stack up and be processed in order.
You can monitor the render queue using the Backburner Queue Monitor
Start – Programs – Autodesk – Backburner –Monitor
This is useful for spotting jobs that have errors in them.
Notes
If your scene contains custom materials made up with your own bitmap images then these images must be in a network location accessible by all the machines. The materials will need to be updated before you send the job so that they point to the bitmap file in its network location (rather than somewhere on your local computer). Regular 3ds materials / bitmaps are fine because they already exist in the same local place on all the machines.
If a render contains a reference to a bitmap that the render server cannot access then it will report an error in the Backburner Monitor