Hi
Right now I am looking into different rendering solutions available for 3ds max and their costs. With the help of google I found a pdf document that seems to be an older Autodesk paper. It’s called “3ds max 8 & mental ray” and is five pages long.

In it it says the following:
“3ds max-based associated distributed rendering licenses:
When a scene is built in 3ds max and rendered through Backburner or the 3ds max command line renderer (3dsmax.exe) there is no limit to the number of processors contributing to the mental ray render. This method is most comparable to the free network rendering found with the 3ds max renderer and, in this regard acts the same. Artist can either submit a scene to Backburner and use those management tools to schedule and execute the render or they can create a batch file and use the 3ds max (not the ray.exe) command line renderer.”

So my questions is - Does this mean I only need to buy ONE copy of 3ds max, copy it on all the computers on my renderfarm and can render on all those computers with mental ray for no additional charge?

Although this would be fantastic, I’m still looking for the small print somewhere cause it’s hard for me to believe that I would technically have unlimited mental ray rendernodes with only one copy of max.

cheers,
Daniel

So my questions is - Does this mean I only need to buy ONE copy of 3ds max, copy it on all the computers on my renderfarm and can render on all those computers with mental ray for no additional charge?

That’s right you only need one license for your workstation. You can install Max on up to 9999 (or is it 999?) render nodes without licenses and render. It just means you can’t edit, model or animate your scenes on the render nodes, they just render. That is after the 30 day trial runs out.

Samab 07 July 2008 10:48 AM

That is after the 30 day trial runs out.

Would it be legal to use the same license for all the computers on the renderfarm as for the workstation? That way the 30day trial issue wouldn’t occur?

cheers,
Daniel

edit:
Or did I missinterpret your post? I’m just reading your answer again. You’re saying “after” the 30days. Does that mean those computers on the renderfarm are still able to render after the 30days trial period?

No. You don’t need a license to just render, unlicenced render nodes will render forever. The 30 day trial only applies to running the Max program, not the Backburner Server or the rendering part of Max that Backburner uses.
So basicly, Install Max on your workstation and register your license for it. Then install Max on as many other computers as youy can get your hands on for rendering, you don’t have to register these, and they will render.

And 1 other point - you can’t “copy it on all the computers on my renderfarm” - you must install Max on each machine.

Max 4.2 through 2013.
XP-64 (SP2)
NVidia 9800GTX-512 (Driver 266.58).
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX9.0c.

Yeah… I was not clear enough. With “copy” I ment “install”. :)

Thanks for all the answers. I’m still a little bit shocked that this is possible with max. I was already looking into vray and final render, as people told me that I will have unlimited rendernodes with those for free, but not with mental ray. That’s when I started doing some research myself.

Thanks again - And I’m really happy about those answers!

Daniel

I only mentioned the 30 day trial in case you need to load the full max program on your render nodes, to alter any settings you need.
For example, I had trouble when I used Gamma Correction in a scene, the render nodes ignored it and rendered frames differently to my workstation. To fix it I loaded Max on the nodes and changed the gamma settings to match my workstation and enabled “Load Enable State with MAX Files”, this had to be done in the first 30 days before the trial run out.
But for BB rendering it’s not an issue.