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Setting up Vray network rendering over Windows 7


Jason Matthews
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He guys! I am having all kinds of trouble setting up my render farm at home. I have gone through all the online guides including Spot3D and cannot seem to get the rendering to work. I am trying to render a simple still image. So this is what I have going on.

 

1. I have two computers (about to get two more) both running Windows 7 64bit.

2. I have installed 3D Max on both, and Vray 1.5 + RT on my main workstation and Vray slave + RT slave on the render node.

3. I have told the render node the IP address of my workstation in which to pull the license from.

4. I have set up permissions by sharing folders on each machine (workstation has access to node, node has access to workstation). See attached image.

5. I read on Spot3D that IPv6 is not supported so I went on the MSFT website and changed to IPv4 on both machines.

6. I went into 3D Max and set up a simple scene with simple materials and the only map applied is Vray dirt and did test render on workstation with no issues.

7. I went to the settings tab and checked the DR button and typed in the IP address of the render node an checked "restart slaves on render end"..

8. I started backburner monitor and manager on the workstation and backburner server on the render node.

9. Both computers can see each other.

10. I started the DRspawner as admin on the render node.

11. Render node receives the job and starts 3D Max Dummy

12. Then I get an error message saying: Missing dll: vray_rtmax2012.dlr - Vray RT 1.50.SP3.

13. I remove RT from the active shader and render again using the same steps above.

14. Now the render node does everything as before except now it has been stuck "transforming verticies" for the last 10 minutes and then I get the error message that [Vray] Could not obtain a license (10060). See attached.

 

I am sorry this is long winded but I wanted to give the full picture. If anyone has insight into this please let me know. Any help is as always greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

1.PNG

2.PNG

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Backburner has nothing to do with Vray DR. You used to have to run at least one backburner job with the slave nodes but that is no longer the case (I think). You have to choose if you want to use Vray DR OR if you want to use backburner.

 

That being said, I had a similar licensing problem, so I can suggest a few things.

 

1) Make sure that your workstation and slaves are all in the same windows workgroup. If you are using ALL Windows 7 machines then you can use homegroups.

 

2) If you are using a router (which I assume you are) make sure you set up "fixed" instead of "dynamic" ip addresses on each machine.

 

3) Try to use the name of the computer instead of the IP address on the Vray client license settings dialogue.

 

If you are stuck transforming vertices, then you should maybe try a simpler scene. I would also recommend using at least one bitmap file on a material in your scene so you can make sure that the slave nodes can "see" it.

 

My last recommendation is to keep resetting your router and restarting your machines while testing.

 

Good luck!

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So now I have bypassed BB and am running straight vraydr. It solicites the rendering to the other machine and tells me that Server 192.168.2.10 (which is my render node) is starting the the frame. I see 20 buckets on my machine (12 buckets from my workstation and 8 from render node) but the rendering is taking longer. I look at the resources on the render node and my CPU is not being used but the RAM is. What is happening here?

 

 

Jason Matthews

Edited by Saturn
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Jason,

 

Not sure about the RAM issue, but re: Vray License Server for DR, you also have to give the license server the proper credentials. This is in addition to giving the node the proper permissions and running the license server as an admin. I set up a 2-node farm a few weeks ago, and this was the last sticking point. Here's the instructions, pasted from a past thread:

 

On the node:

Go to Start Button --> right-click Computer --> Manage

Management window:

Go to Services --> scroll down & right-click VRaySpawner --> Properties --> Log On tab --> select This Account, fill in user name that has access credentials to texture server (if there is none, make a user on server with password..must be the same as workstation wanting to do DR), add correct password, confirm --> click OK. Stop then Start VRaySpawner.

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Thanks Ben, I will give it a try. I have been manually starting the service, but this will help.

 

Bradley, I read that the homegroup is IPv6 which is not supported by Vray DR. I created a network running off my wireless. I will adjust router settings and see if that helps. I think I am set to static IP but will double check.

 

Man this is irritating!

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Hello all. I have finally got my render nodes to work, however now the maps are missing on some of the buckets (see attached). I have set up all map paths in such a way that they go through the network into my hard drive (see attached "paths"). I am kind of at a loss because my render node sees the Vray license and I receive no erroes from the node itself, only the the workstation (see attached "WS").

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks,

Paths.PNG

buckets.jpg

WS.PNG

Edited by Saturn
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This is what helped me narrow down problems when I was doing it: Go to "My Computer" and check to see if the other machines are listed. Do this for all the computers you are using -- even the slaves. Make sure that they can all see each other and that you can browse each machine's shared folder list. If they aren't all listed, then you've got yourself a networking problem. If they are all listed, then it's probably a Vray problem.

 

ALSO, have you made sure to point your slaves to the correct directories by going to 3ds Max on the slaves and choosing 'Customize>Configure User Paths>External Files' and then adding all sub-directories your texture maps are in?

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This is what helped me narrow down problems when I was doing it: Go to "My Computer" and check to see if the other machines are listed. Do this for all the computers you are using -- even the slaves. Make sure that they can all see each other and that you can browse each machine's shared folder list. If they aren't all listed, then you've got yourself a networking problem. If they are all listed, then it's probably a Vray problem.

 

ALSO, have you made sure to point your slaves to the correct directories by going to 3ds Max on the slaves and choosing 'Customize>Configure User Paths>External Files' and then adding all sub-directories your texture maps are in?

 

Thanks for the response, Bradley. My computers do see each other via "My Computer" and I can browse each machine via a different machine. I have a password setup on the main workstation. I will remove it tonight and see what happens. Also, I have pulled up the command prompt and pinged each computer and have had no connection issues.

 

I have not configured paths on the stations, but I thought that as long as the maps and models are located as a relative path (see "paths" image above" that all computers will use them. Nonetheless, I will configure the paths tonight.

 

Also, I can run RT on the render nodes and there are no issues

Edited by Saturn
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Hi Jason,

 

Did you try what I suggested in reply #6? The important part of that wasn't to get the service to start automatically, but to give the service the permissions, which is something you need to do in addition to simply giving the computer admin rights and being able to browse one computer to the other.

 

If that's not it, here's a link to a good tutorial that will help make sure all computers are in the same workgroups and properly shared with each other. Sounds like you have that part correct though.

 

http://vray.info/tutorials/vray_distributed_rendering_and_backburner/

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Yes I did follow your recommendation and that got me partly there. The sequence of starting the service on the render node prior to starting max worked. I am not having a license issue, and it is rendering just not with maps. I will look at the link you provided and go from there.

 

Thank you for your responses!!

 

 

Jason Matthews

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Hi Jason,

 

Did you try what I suggested in reply #6? The important part of that wasn't to get the service to start automatically, but to give the service the permissions, which is something you need to do in addition to simply giving the computer admin rights and being able to browse one computer to the other.

 

If that's not it, here's a link to a good tutorial that will help make sure all computers are in the same workgroups and properly shared with each other. Sounds like you have that part correct though.

 

http://vray.info/tutorials/vray_distributed_rendering_and_backburner/

 

That did the trick! I created the same username on all render nodes and then told the shared folder on the workstation to specifically allow that user to access it. Now if I can just get the itoosoftware plugin to be seen by the rendernodes...

 

As a side note, I had to get a fast enough connection between the machines in order for the render nodes to not time out. A got a gigabit switch running CAT6e cables.

 

Thanks for the help guys!!

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Yea I shouted so loud last night from joy that I woke up my wife. Whoops. ;)

 

I installed forest lite on the render node but it didn't work. I think because I already had Max running and vray services going. I will do a fresh install tonight and see where it takes me.

 

Thanks again for all the help and patients!!

 

 

Jason Matthews

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