Render Farm

[Steve Ethridge]

I am trying to set up a render farm to JUST utilize the processing power of other PC's in my office and use it with DBR in Max Design 2009. I don't want to have to do a full install of Max on the other 2 machines. Can anybody explain to me the process for installing whatever files I need to install on the other machines? Max help mentions 4 files found in the mentalray satellite folder but I have no idea what to do with them on the other machines. Anybody have any helpful info?

[Travis Schmiesing]

Not sure what files you would need, or if it is possible. But... it doesn't cost anything but disk space for installing Max on those machines. They do not need to be licensed copies for DBR and Backburner use.

[Carl Ahearne]

As Travis eludes to, I think you have to install Max on all of the machines, but they do not have to be licensed. What I would say is that once you install then, go in and set-up Max as per your main computer, i.e set up Gamma and LUT type setting etc, default material paths and such like.. Do this while you still have 30 days left in the trial, otherwise you won't be able to change them after that period...

I did a render at some point, and after rendering lots of frames, I realised the Gamma was different on some of the machines.. Not good, so learn from my mistakes

[Steve Ethridge]

I'm not looking to have the other machines render frames. I am only looking to add their cpu's for more power.

[Carl Ahearne]

As far as I know, you can't just use the power of another computer; they all render frames out. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong...

What's the problem with them rendering frames anyway? Once the machines are set up, they are ready to go, and you don't have to do much after the initial setup...

[Juan Carlos Rosalejos]

for DBR they dont render frames, they render buckets and for backburner they can render frames or strips.

[Dan Grover]

What's the problem with them rendering frames anyway? Once the machines are set up, they are ready to go, and you don't have to do much after the initial setup...

It's for if you want a bit more speed for large res stills, I would imagine.

[Joel C.]

I'm not looking to have the other machines render frames. I am only looking to add their cpu's for more power.

More power for ... what?

The answer is probably more power to render faster.
So, don't worry about license issues - AutoDdesk lets you install other copies on other machines to do that very thing.

[Travis Schmiesing]

Unless you are trying to navigate around a strict IT department there is no reason for not simply installing Max on the other machines and being done with it. You could have had that done in little more than the time it took to post the question.

[Tom Livings]

Im struggling to get DR to work with Mental Ray. Where does it tell me how many cpu's are being used to render the frame? Im having to rely on a guess from the render time, but it doesnt seem to make sense.
Ive installed max on 8 quad machines in a network. Ive then entered the ip addresses for the machines in the DBR panel (all using default port).
1: Do I need to do anything else? Its not showing any errors.
2: Is there any way I can force the render log to show?
3: Whats the maximum cores can work on one rendering?
4: Are light calculations (FG and/or GI) DR enabled, or do they need to be done on one processor?

Im new to MR,
Thanks!
Tom.