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Network Rendering


AsOne

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Has anyone setup Network Rendering in a Mac environment?  

 

I am currently running FormZ on a 2015 iMac.  I have a MacBook Pro and Mac mini that I could be using for rendering and thought Network Rendering would work well. 

 

Do I need to have Mac Server installed?  

 

Can I connect over WiFi or Ethernet?  

 

How difficult is it to setup the TCP/IP connections?

 

Probably I will answer some of these questions as I set it up, just thought someone could point me in the right direction.  The FormZ manual is quite detailed, but setting up the basic TCP/IP connection is not detailed (or I haven't seen it yet).  

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Ok I went through the Manual and have absolutely no idea what I am doing.  Support:  Is there a way to have someone walk me through the setup process?  Or is there anyone out there who knows how to make this happen?  

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RenderZone network rendering?  I've done it a good bit, maybe this will help get you going...

 

1-  Run the FormZ Render Server App on your main computer that has the files for the project you are wanting to network render. 

 

2 - Then start the FormZ Render Client on each of your other computers (assuming you already have it installed on them).  It will ask you to add a Server, and you need to add the IP address for your computer where you started the Render Server App.  This is listed in the top of the FormZ Server application window.   That's all you really need to do, but if you want to adjust the Client Settings, the 'Client Strength' higher than the default 50% can help to speed up the rendering, but will drastically slow down those machines if they are being used for anything else.

 

3 - Go back to your main computer where you started the Render Server App.  If you want to also use this computer to also add to the rendering power, you'll need to also start the FormZ Render Client on this machine as well.  I'll warn you that also using this machine to render can sometimes cause failures, and just make the machine really slow since it is running all 3 FormZ applications.  I don't know why, but if you get stuck, try only running it on the other machines to rule it out.

 

4 - On your main machine, launch FormZ and open your project.  Goto Display > Network Render Status > Settings > Browse.  Select your server which should be this machine as you started on your main machine in step 1.  Add...  Connect as Guest, click OK.

 

5 - Pick your view you want to render and goto Display > Network Render.  Pick your options for Renderer.  File Retrieval set to Automatic is much easier to use, set your format and destination.  Click OK.

 

That's it.  You just rendered 1 view over the network.  You can watch the status using the FormZ Render Server app, and the file when complete should be in the destination you picked in step 5.

 

If you want to batch render multiple views, you can do this by selecting each view you want to render in the View Palette (holding Shift + Clicking will let you select multiple views at once).  Then right click on the selected Views and choose Network Renderer.  Pick your options and click OK.. and it will cue up each view in the Network Server and render automatically.

 

Extra Info -

 

You do not need to manually copy your files to each computer if you do it this way.  Just run everything from your main machine where the Server is running.

 

WiFi with a strong signal is acceptable, but it will be slower at the Sending and Receiving stages than ethernet if the files and maps are large.  It's workable, but it's something to keep in mind if you are going to be doing this a lot, each machine should really be hardwired to the network for best performance.

 

Windows machines also work great to add in as well, mixing and matching Windows + Macs can be really helpful if you are in an office environment with a mixture of both.

 

Does not yet work with VRAY.  -  They have their own Distributed Network Rendering, which requires their own licensing, so I'm not sure if this method will ever work with VRAY, but it would be great if Tech could chime in here?

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Justin,

 

Thanks for the tips!!!  I do want to use it for V-Ray as well.  

 

Tech:  Would I contact V-Ray to set network rendering up?  Or will it be available via the FormZ Render client?  

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Justin,

 

Thanks for the tips!!!  I do want to use it for V-Ray as well.  

 

Tech:  Would I contact V-Ray to set network rendering up?  Or will it be available via the FormZ Render client?  

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