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Testing network rendering with VRAY demo version?


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Hi!

 

We are looking for a good complement renderer to Maxwell that we are using today.

Vray is very interesting since we do a lot of animations also...

 

We've already got a 86 core renderfarm set up with maxwell, and I want to try Vray with a few of those nodes. But it seems like the network rendering in vray is missing in the demo version that we've downloaded.. is that correct?

 

What I've understood a small application is started on each noad, to use DR?

Or can I use Backburner even when I render with Vray?

 

Best Regards Patrik

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Nice thread this :)

 

Anyway, launched manager on one of my nodes, serverport 3333, manager port 4444

Started server on the same node, connects like it should.

Started server on another node (same network, same switch even) tryed to connect to the correct IP number of the manager, and using the same netmask, but I'm getting an error, "unable to bind"

 

any idea?

all the computers are using Xp64, and are on the same network.

 

regards Patrik

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Ive never seen that 'unable to bind' error. You amy have better luck on the chaosgroup forum (Vlado will put you straight).

 

Network rendering with Vray falls into 2 catagories, either Distributed rendering or Network rendering. DR is only suitable for stills, but it still ties up the machine that sent the render. It pulls in the other cores on the farm to render buckets. You can render in strips over the network also (Backburner).

For animation it just allocates frames over Backburner.

 

Setting up the network rendering is fairly simple. Get network rendering working before you try and get DR working.

Tom.

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Anyway, launched manager on one of my nodes, serverport 3333, manager port 4444

Started server on the same node, connects like it should.

Started server on another node (same network, same switch even) tryed to connect to the correct IP number of the manager, and using the same netmask, but I'm getting an error, "unable to bind"

 

that error has nothing to do with vray, that is a problem with your backburner/3dsmax setup, which means you need to bother Autodesk, not chaosgroup (vlado).

 

Only time I've ever seen that error was when I had two instances of server launched and the second couldn't connect to the manager because a previous instance on the machine was already connected to the manager under that specific IP.

Edited by BrianKitts
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I searched and found some info about that DR only is suitable for Still images?

Just want to have it verified that it's better to go with backburner?

 

Best Regards Patrik

 

The VRAY spawner (DBR) distributed rendering is great for single frame test renders but is not efficient for rendering out animation sequences.

 

For rendering animations, it's better to use VRAY through BackBurner or some other queue manager.

 

You do need a VRAY license dongle ($1000) but setting everything up to work with Backburner is extremely easy once VRAY is licensed.

 

 

Adam

BOXXlabs

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hehe hallo FJ, is everything fine with you?

yeah after Bentley decided to drop the Maxwell Exporter, we have to look for another base-software, and 3dsmax will probably be our choice.

The possibility to render animations with vray is a huge advantage also...

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hehe hallo FJ, is everything fine with you?

yeah after Bentley decided to drop the Maxwell Exporter, we have to look for another base-software, and 3dsmax will probably be our choice.

The possibility to render animations with vray is a huge advantage also...

 

hey, yea im great ever since i made the switch myself :D thx

yea, 3dsmax got everything goin' for it. not only Autodesk is always on top of things, but also a lot of 3rd party developers contribute to expanding the possibilities even further.

its exciting to have a lot to choose from.

u also might wanna have a look at FryRender :cool:

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I've got everything running now with backburner, 3dsmax and VRAY Demo atm to do some tests... I've managed to render with "Split Scanlines" but only without GI...

 

If I turn on GI, and render, it renders without GI...

I guess this has to do with the VRAY demo excluding certain options?

 

Am I right?

 

Best regards Patrik

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Hmm. I use DR for animations all of the time and it works like a charm :)

 

DR is pretty good for this if you only have 2 or 3 machines...

 

Any more nodes than this and current DR schemes become increasingly inefficient.

 

If you want maximum efficiency from your "farm" when rendering animation sequences, I strongly encourage using Backburner or some other queue manager and the full VRAY network rendering setup methodology.

 

;)

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Hmm. I use DR for animations all of the time and it works like a charm :)

 

Oh, well I never tried it, due to the way it works. There is a certain overhead involved with loading buckets, I just assumed that 1 machine / frame was quicker.

 

Also, I assumed that my workstation would be the host. Is this wrong? Can my nodes host a DR rendering?

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"...I just assumed that 1 machine / frame was quicker..."

 

It is.

 

"...Can my nodes host a DR rendering..."

 

To my knowledge, the VRAY DR process can only be "spawned" from an open 3DSMAX session on a workstation. This system will then have some or all of its resources dedicated to the management of this process, and itself contributing to the rendering.

 

This is probably NOT the optimal situation if you need to be continuing your design work as animations get rendered on your farm. Ideally, you want to "free up" your workstation form as much of that processing as possible so that you can stay maximally productive.

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DR is pretty good for this if you only have 2 or 3 machines...

 

Any more nodes than this and current DR schemes become increasingly inefficient.

 

If you want maximum efficiency from your "farm" when rendering animation sequences, I strongly encourage using Backburner or some other queue manager and the full VRAY network rendering setup methodology.

 

;)

 

Hmm, interesting. We really don't have a farm here. We have 6 high powered workstations that I use whenever I'm doing an animation or a series of animations. This does require me to constantly using VPN to check on the status of everything as I typically render animations over the weekends. These workstations are typically being used by my co-workers during the weekdays though. Backburner is definately something I'll have to look into in the future as it would make it easier for me to "set it and forget it" so to speak...

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Hmm, interesting. We really don't have a farm here. We have 6 high powered workstations that I use whenever I'm doing an animation or a series of animations. This does require me to constantly using VPN to check on the status of everything as I typically render animations over the weekends. These workstations are typically being used by my co-workers during the weekdays though. Backburner is definately something I'll have to look into in the future as it would make it easier for me to "set it and forget it" so to speak...

 

Good for you - This will probably also increase rendering speed by about 2X.

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So how does the setup for that work? You have VRay spawner running on your slave machines and them link them together via. Backburner?

 

no. You actually don't use the DR spawner at all.

 

Just set up Backburner and submit 3DSMAX jobs to it. If the scene is set to use VRAY, then the full VRAY renderer will be used on each node.

 

In this scenario, each rendernode gets it own frame. (Using the DR, the rendering of one frame is split up and done across multiple nodes. This is inefficient for rendering animations)

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