max9 64-bit servers w/ a 32-bit manager?

[ShaunDon]

Howdy all!

 

I've held our firm's upgrade to R9 longer than any other release in hopes that the dust will settle over the 32/64bit cross compatibility issues. At this point, all our workstations are 64-bit machines, however we currently run the backburner manager on our file server which is running 32-bit Windows Server 2003. From what I understand, and am looking to confirm, is that it is not possible for 64-bit max to submit to a 32-bit manager even if all the render servers are 64-bit?

 

If anyone can point me to a master thread / website regarding issues on switching to 64-bit max, I would be greatly appreciative. Now that all our hardware is up to snuff, I really would like to roll this out asap, but I'm still a bit skittish over possible issues.

 

Thanks guys!

Shaun

[mtutaj]

here's what I found in the backburner 2007 user guide.

 

Software Requirements for the Backburner Manager

You can install and run the Backburner Manager on any workstation with the following

operating systems installed:

• For Windows workstations, Windows 2000 or WindowsXP Professional (32 or 64-bit

editions).

 

I know of 2 people that are running 64bit workstations I'll be able to find out if they are using 32bit manager

 

Mike

[Tim Nelson]

This one might help, although I don't think it has the answer you are wanting to hear.

 

http://www.chaosgroup.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=165559#165559

[mtutaj]

Just found this in the autodesk discussion group.

 

"Backburner 2007 is also 32-bit application and, like 3ds Max 9 32-bit, can be installed and run on both 32- and 64-bit Windows. Backburner itself does not care how or where a job was created; it will just check which product was used to create it (32- vs 64-bit), and the manager will dispatch this job to any server that has the matching product installed.

 

If a server has both products installed, it can render both 32- and 64-bit jobs dispatched by the manager. Note that the manager, monitor and servers do not need to match one another in terms of 32- vs. 64-bit, allowing for mixed render farms, although the installation and execution conditions for 3ds Max 9 in slave mode are the same as the standalone conditions listed above.

 

Scenes submitted by 3ds Max 9 32-bit will be rendered on slaves that have 3ds Max 9 32-bit installed, and scenes created by 3ds Max 9 64-bit will be sent to servers with 3ds Max 9 64-bit installed. Mixing versions for sequential frames is not recommended, as the mathematical precisions of 3ds Max 9 32- and 64-bit are not the same, and the precision differences accumulated during rendering over many frames can become noticeable. The precision of 3ds Max 9 32-bit, however, should NOT be affected by running on 32- vs. 64-bit Windows because of the 32-bit emulation provided by Windows x64.

 

Finally, scenes created in any supported legacy 32-bit 3ds Max can be opened in both 3ds Max 9 32- and 64-bit. Also, scenes created in both 3ds Max 9 32- and 64-bit can be opened by one another. We advise caution here, since, as with rendering, the precision differences can cause some things to change, as documented in the Readme file included with the 3ds Max 9 installer. The Readme also contains suggestions for minimizing or avoiding these discrepancies when moving scenes between the two products.

"

 

Here is the link http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=518229

 

Hope that helps,

 

By the way, I have BB manager running on Linux using wine.

 

Mike

[ShaunDon]

Thanks guys, that was all extremely helpful! So the manager doesn't really care where the jobs come from. Makes perfect sense. I'll keep reading to be sure, but this gives me hope. Also didn't even think about the option of installing both 32bit and 64bit versions of max9 on the servers -- very helpful.

 

Thanks a bunch!

Shaun

[Tim Saunders]

Old thread, but I'm just looking for clarification or double checking to see if I get this right.

 

Max 32 bit can only send jobs to other Max 32 bit machines--right?

 

I have Max 2008 32 bit on my workstation, but I want to send rendering jobs to a slave that has Max 2008 64 bit. Is this not possible?

[mtutaj]

from what I've been told, install the 32-bit version of max on that machine as well, then you will be able to render either version.

 

Hope that helps

[Tim Saunders]

But will that not use the 64 bit max? I just want to make sure I get to use all my ram and 64 bit capacity.