2008

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 copies of 3ds Max. You are able to use only eight external (or
satellite) CPUs per licensed copy of 3ds Max: four dual-processor machines or
eight single-processor machines (or equivalent).
1 Choose which machines (other than machines A, B, and C) will serve as
satellites, install 3ds Max on each, and write down each machine's IP
address.
2 Use the Windows Notepad program or a text editor to open the
max.rayhosts file on machine A, located in mentalray subdirectory within
the program folder.
3 In the max.rayhosts file, under the “localhost” entry enter the IP address
of each satellite CPU to be used; up to eight in all (see Figure 1).
Figure 1 - Example of a rayhost file
4 Repeat the previous step on machines B and C with the remaining IP
addresses.
5 Launch Backburner Manager on the machine submitting the job or any
other machine. Launch the Backburner Server on machines A, B, and C.
WARNING It is necessary for the machine running the Backburner Server to
have 3ds Max licensed. A mental ray standalone license will not enable you
to use the distributed bucket rendering feature, and Backburner will prompt
you with a license error.
mental ray Renderer | 6135