hi,

here is a plugin that can submit renderjobs to backburner direct from xsi.
before installation you have to do some system setup:

1. copy the “xsibatch.bat” form your application/bin to c:\ on every client you want to use
2. make a system variable called “backburner” on every client you want to use, the value of the variable should point to “cmdjob.exe” (installation path of buckburner)
3. restart computer
4. install the addon
5. the plugin can be found in xsi under render-menue “submit_to_backburner”
6. feel free to modify: pluginmanager-installpath to backburner-plugins-submit_to_backburnerPlugin-right click edit

7. start a backburner manager, a backburner monitor, on every client backburner server
8. when you press the “submit"-button, the plugin will generate a tasklist(txt file) for the backburner. just save it in a location of your choice (except on the desktop, buckburner seems not to have permissions for the desktop)
9. submit renderjobs

successfully tested with backburner v2007 and v2008

(at the moment you have to type the passes names manually and comma-separated, or the “all” option.)

	Attachment
submit_to_backburner_addon.zip

	Attachment

hi,

chunks should work fine.
i realized that sometimes when the scene is locked, you get an “shared violation” error on submitting. this can be avoid by saving the scene under a different name before submitting or you can hardcode a prefix. to do that you have to search the vbs-script “submit_to_backburner.vbs” for “oSaveScene” and write a prefix-name before “.scn"(i.e. “_bb.scn").

ok, there seems to be a problem if backburner is installed in folders containing spaces.
make a bat file with the editor containing this and save it as bb_execute.bat on c:\

@echo off
call “E:\Programme\Autodesk\Backburner\cmdjob.exe”

change the path to your installation path of backburner and put the file on c:\
you have to make such a bat-file on every client.
change then the value of the system variable “backburner” so it points to “c:\bb_backburner.bat”

a hint: turn on “automatic search” on the servers. save the tasklist somewhere where the manager has access to.

ok! I did it. But I have a problem:

After my render starts the xsibatch.exe loading between frames takes more time than an actual frame rendering.... is this normal?

chunks will help? Can anyone explain me what are chunks?

TKS

hmmm maybe if I have 2 computers rendering a 100 frames anim I should use 2 chunks? 50/50?
I’v tried that but I think it doesn’t work…

Help please!!!!

chunks are portions of frames.
so, if you have a renderfarm, and the cunksize is i.e. 5, every client takes 5 frames of the animation and renders it, then after finishing this 5 chunks, it will take the next 5 remaining frames, and so on.
xsibatch works a bit different then 3ds max. without chunk rendering, xsibatch will load the scene again and again for the frame. so you will end up in higher rendertimes.
with chunk xsibatch will load the scene and renders the chunksize with the scene in memory.
but be aware to set the chunksize too high, xsibatch will end up in a memoryleak, espacially if you have a lot of render consuming passes in your scene. so its a balance between rendertime and memory.
a good starting point is a chunksize between 5 and 10.

Thank you very much nospitters.

hello All, and sorry for my English :)

It’s ok but backburner servers returns me error:

Process exited with error code (1) on ‘’ INFO : polymatricksPlugin has been unloaded’

can u help me?

Hey there,

I noticed you said
“7. start a backburner manager, a backburner monitor, on every client backburner server”
Why do you need a manager /machine?
I haven’t been able to get it to work because of line 234, involiving a windows scripting object…

any thoughts?

I know this thread is 4 years old but i would really like to use this if it’s possible with 2012…

I followed all the steps and it’s not throwing any errors but after submitting through the addon ppg absolutely nothing happens :(

Any help out there?