8
122 Chapter 17: Rendering
then configure and run the SPM license server.
Instructions about how to do so are provided with
the mental ray renderer sold by mental images.
Oncetheremotehostshavebeenconfiguredto
run a licensed instance of
ray.exe,
you can use
them for distributed rendering simply by naming
them in the
RAYHOSTS file (page 3–1095)
.You
can add hosts to the RAYHOSTS file using the Add
button described in the “Interface” section, below,
just as you would add a satellite processor.
Batch Rendering (Using Backburner or
the Command L ine)
You c an launch distributed bucket rendering from
the command line, u sing
3dsmaxcmd.exe
.
If you use satellite processors, you cannot
use Backburner to manage distributed bucket
rendering. When host processors have SPM
licenses, you can use Backburner to manage
distributed bucket rendering.
You can use the environment variable
MRMAX_OFFLINE_DBR_OVERRIDE to control
whether batch rendering uses distributed bucket
rendering. The state of this variable overrides the
“DBR enable” flag. If it is set to “yes,” “true,” or
“on,” distributed bucket rendering is enabled; if it
is set to “no,” “false,” or “off,” distributed bucket
rendering is disabled. All other values of this
variable are ignored.
See also
Translator O ptions Rollout (mental ray Renderer)
(page 3–115)
Pr ocedur es
To use mental ray distr ibuted r endering:
1.
On the Render Scene dialog, go to the
Processing panel. On the Dist ributed Bucket
Rendering rollout, turn on Dist ributed Render.
Note: The N et Render option on the Common
Parameters rollout has no effect on distributed
bucket rendering.
2. Click to select the names of those satellite or
host systems you want to u se for distributed
rendering.
You can click All to select all the host names in
the list, or None to select none of t he hosts.
3. If other host systems have maps installed on
them, with
exactly
the same file names and
pathnamesasonyourlocalhost,turnon
Distributed Maps.
With Distr ibuted Maps turned on, remote
renderers can use their local copy of maps,
which saves time.
4. Render the scene.
Each system renders the buckets assign ed
to it. The final rendering appears on your
local system, with buckets “arriving” in an
indeterminate order.
Ex ample: To use mental r ay d istr ibu ted bucket
rendering with B ack burner:
This procedure demonstrates how to multiply
thenumberofCPUsusedforrenderingwithout
having to purchase mental ray standalone licenses,
using the 3ds Max satellite technology.
If you have a few machines with 3ds Max licensed,
and many machines w ithout, you can use
both the distributed rendering technology and
Backburner so a rendering job would use 10 CPUs
per Backburner server, thereby increasing the
rendering speed.
For the purpose of this procedure, we’re using a
render farm comprising three machines named A,
B, and C, each running a licensed copy of 3ds Max.
Note: The number of machines you can use
depends on the number of machines running
licensed co pies of 3ds Max. You are able to use
only eight external (or satellite) CPUs per licensed