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Launch the Manager.exe on the computer that is going to run as Manager, and launch RenderNode.exe in the computers that are going to work as nodes. Remember that you can also run a node on the computer that is running the Manager. It can manage the network rendering and also contribute to the rendering process.
Step 3 3
Launch the Monitor.exe on the computer where you want to control (launch/ display/ stop) the rendering process. The Monitor will automatically connect to the network to search for the Manager and the available Nodes. They will be listed in the Nodes panel. The Monitor can run on the same computer that is running the Manager. Check in the Monitor>Nodes panel that all your computer nodes are listed there. If some of them are not listed, check the firewall settings on that computer and make sure it is not being blocked.
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Choose the job type |
Step 5
Select the networked path of the scene to the output files. 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 file format independently for each render channel. They can be saved in the same folder. The "send dependencies" option will send all files the scene is dependant on (textures, IOR, HDR files) to the Render Nodes. This is very useful to avoid problems when too many computers are trying to read files from the same folder. You should leave this option checked unless you have a very fast file server. If you wish to restart a network render, the Maxwell network will check if the files 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.
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Set the render settings |
Choose a networked path to locate the source files of the project (scenes, textures, materials, etc). It is highly recommended to use networked paths for your project files, especially for the output files.
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Assign the nodes you want to work on this job |
You can also check the "Use any render node available" checkbox, and the Monitor will use any node in your farm as soon as they get available.
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Use any render node available |
Step 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.
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