When you add a job to the render queue, the Network Wizard panel pops up to help you configure the type of job you are submitting and its settings.
Job Types
First you have to choose between four different job types:
- Single Job: To make a non-cooperative render queue with each node working on an independent frame.
- Cooperative Job: Several computers work on the same frame individually and then merge the images they have rendered at the end of the rendering process. See the section about The Merging process for a further explanation.
- Animation Job: 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 finally frames 20 through 23. Any padding number is allowed.
- Batch Job: 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 these 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).
Render settings
Once you've selected the job type you are submitting, you can choose the scene to be rendered and its details: output folder, Sampling Level, Render Time, extra channels, etc
On Animation jobs, you can also specify the frame range to be rendered.
Nodes
You can even choose which node(s) will work on each specific job. Enabling the "Use any render node available" makes Maxwell to assign the job to the first node that it finds available on the network.
