User manual

© Next Limit Technologies 2010
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual
Chapter 11. The Network System | 90
4. Use the Add button to submit a job. This will open the Add Job Wizard to help you
through the process. Select one of the following options.
• Normal render: to make a non-cooperative render queue with each node
working on an independent frame.
• Cooperative render: several computers work on the same image, which will be
merged at the end of the process.
• Render Animation: select a scene and the frame range, and the frames will
be distributed among the available nodes. Remember that you can also render
single frames from the same sequence by using a semi-colon “;” when typing.
For example: 1-10;12;20-23 This will render frames 1 through 10, frame 12, and
nally frames 20 through 23. Any padding number is allowed.
• Batch render: This option allows you to select multiple scenes to be rendered.
All the scenes are rendered using their own settings and output paths. You can
perform changes in the rendering settings (render time, SL, resolution, camera,
etc), and this changes are applied to all the scenes added. An interesting feature
is that in this mode you can choose the Batch Type, between Cooperative type
(all render nodes work together in the same scene before starting with another)
or Single type (each render node renders a scene separately).
5. Select the networked path of the scene to the output les. Set the frame range (for
animations), and set the Render Options (Time, Sampling Level). You should also
specify an MXI output, not just the image output. It is possible to select bit depth and
le format independently for each render channel. They can be saved in the same
folder. The “send dependencies” option will send all les the scene is dependant on
(textures, IOR, HDR les) to the Render Nodes. This is very useful to avoid problems
when too many computers are trying to read les from the same folder. You should
leave this option checked unless you have a very fast le server. If you wish to restart
a network render, the Maxwell network will check if the les are already on the Render
Node and will not transfer them again.
You can visualize the progress of the network render in the Jobs window in the
Monitor. You can stop the process, remove any job, add more jobs to the queue, and
display the images that are being computed by the network.
6. Choose a networked path to locate the source les of the project (scenes, textures,
materials, etc). It is highly recommended to use networked paths for your project
les, especially for the output les.
Although highly recommended, it is not necessary to also put the scene in a networked
path; it is enough if the Monitor can access it through the open le dialog. In addition,
if the “Send Dependencies” checkbox is on (default), the scene-dependent materials
do not need to
be in networked paths, as they are sent from the Monitor to the Rendernodes. This
option is faster and has several advantages, but it requires that the Monitor that
submitted the job remains on until all nodes start.
However, if the “Send Dependencies” checkbox is off, the scene-dependent materials
should be located in a networked path accessible from all the Render Nodes, that will
pick them all as they need them. The output image paths should be network paths
accessible from the Manager, which is the machine that is going to save the nal
output there.
This option (“Send Dependencies” disabled) produces a slower le transfer, but it can
be useful when you need to switch off the Monitor that submitted the job, or when
you have a fast repository server for scenes and textures.
You can visualize the progress of the network render in the Jobs window in the
Monitor. You can stop the process, remove any job, add more jobs to the queue, and
display the images that are being computed by the network.
7. Resuming a network job: Resuming jobs in the Network System is possible for
Single, Cooperative and Animation jobs.
When submitting a job, the system checks automatically if the MXI output exists,
and if so it asks you to resume or start the job again.