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Network Rendering with 3ds Max

Posted by visualz, 12 July 2011 8:00 pm

This is a brief video to discuss, at a very high level, the different types of network rendering available to Autodesk 3ds Max users out-of-the-box. (4 minutes).

I'd also like to offer up a link to an older whitepaper I put together a few years back. Please note that while I havent updated this technical information in a little while, the fundamentals outlined within are still applicable to Autodesk Backburner.

Down on the Farm (PDF)

no excuse not to rrrrrender!

//gD

7 Comments

visualz

Posted 27 July 2011 2:27 pm

thats correct. you install 3ds max on as many machines as you want and dont need to ever even launch or license the app. these machines then run SERVER.EXE and sit and wait to render. there is an option to have SERVER run as a windows "service" thats always on i the background, but i didnt get into this specific option in the video. I prefer to run the EXE version myself to see the window pop up and read messages - but one could argue that with a lot of machines, manually launching SERVER would be a task that requires walkign around a large facility before you go home (interns!).

every little bit adds up quick and the best part of having a job queue. i cant tell you how much ive learned over the years simply by queuing up jobs, rendering tests, learnign from the results and tossing the frames away. i cant stand seeing machines sit idle... its a sickness ive developed!

//gD

Jacques pena

Posted 27 July 2011 2:27 pm

Great write up Gary. This was a good refresher for me, since its been a long time since I setup anything in regards of Network rendering.

Kristoffer Helander

Posted 27 July 2011 4:37 pm

Thanks for clearing that up Gary! Very cool!

Is it the same for Maya and Softimage as well? 1 license = 9999 render nodes?

visualz

Posted 27 July 2011 4:44 pm

re: maya and softimage. I honestly dont know. i'd imagine they are unlimited with their software renderers but for mental ray, you might need to purchase more stand-alone licenses for those applications beyond a certain number - however i dont know this exact count (i think its like 8 machines for free but i'd ask your local reseller). with 3ds max and backburner using mental ray its 9,999 machines and no limit to things like cpus or cores per machine

//gD

visualz

Posted 28 July 2011 1:31 pm

i can pass along the request but please understand i am not in product design or development.

//gD

visualz

Posted 3 November 2011 5:16 am

it depends on the renderer(s) AND the card. for example, mental ray and the scanline renderer arent GPU accelerated, but iRay and quicksilver can take advantage of it. the ones that do, typically the main consideration is that the entire max scene and textures needs to be able to fit in the memory of the videocard - so it might be better to get one high end card with, for example, 6gb or memory than it is to have two with 3gb. if you check over on Shane's blog i knwo there is a older post that is a FAQ about the Cuda/Fermi specifics.

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Network Rendering with 3ds Max

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