Backburner question.

[Conor Clancy]

Hey all, I have a rack running 5 dual Xeons, plus about 15 other PCs around the office that can be utilised in my backburner render farm running Viz 2005 and MAX 6 (I know, I know, I've been trying to get my boss to authorize the cash for upgrades). I can have up to 5 or 6 different projects going at any one time, and my project turnaround is quite high, most projects are in and out in a week or 2.

 

My problem is this. Texture paths. Is there a way to add texture paths to all the servers remotely through backburner? or other software?

[Woody]

In the main directory of Viz, Max or whatever it is your using there should be a 3dsmax.ini file. This file contains the information to your user preferences and also the links to the texture paths. Get one of your machines links correct then open it in a text editor like notpad. You'll see a load of text, but what you need to look out for is below.

 

[bitmapDirs]

Dir1=C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3dsMax8\maps

Dir2=C:\Program Files\Example

Dir3=C:\Program Files\Example

 

Copy the info from your correct ini file (one by one) to the slave machines ini files you'll be rendering on. Apparently you shouldn't just replace the entire file, I don't know why, but if anyone knows why that'd interesting to know.

 

Clear as mud? Hopefully you can work it out from my rambleings.

[Conor Clancy]

Thanks Woody, but I was wondering was there an easier way of doing than that. Yours is the method I have been using.

 

I suppose the best thing for me to do is have a rigidly organised texture library structure that my whole team have to use.

[tcorbett]

Set up a folder on one of the machines, and give the other machines access to this folder. Then replace your local bitmap paths with the UNC link. (A quick way to do this is using the 'Asset Tracking' [shift-T] and choosin the "Set Path" option.

 

(FROM THE AUTODESK VIZ HELP FILES)

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The Autodesk VIZ network rendering system uses the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) to identify directories and files. UNC names begin with a double backslash and do not include a drive letter. This is the convention:

 

\\machine_name\directory\subdirectory\filename

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