Network Rendering Setup

[Axe]

So according to the product description (Terragen 2 Deep) I should be able to render simultaneously on up to 6 computers.
quote: 5 additional render node licenses, depending on the edition, which means that you can render images on up to 6 computers per user   
I have 4 computers on my home network and would like to set them up essentially as a render farm.  So far my searches of the forum have not been enlightening on how to do this, other than it looks like I need some form of render manager and that I may have to crop the images and send different pieces to each computer to be assembled later (a poor method compared to other applications that will do the same image simulanteously - such as Maxwell).  The manual has no info on how to do this, either.

Can someone please provide me instructions on how to set this up?  Can I just load Terragen 2 Deep on multiple systems with my current license or do I need some other software (render node only?) to enable this?

Thanks,
Axe

[folder]

i know nothinng about remdering farms, but if you type render farm in the search box you will find 9 pages of info.  the first sections have a lot of command line info


folder

[Oshyan]

Your license allows you to install Terragen 2 on up to 6 computers in total (assuming you have Deep with Animation). But Terragen 2 does not currently include any functionality for managing renders across multiple systems. You would need to either distribute render tasks manually, or use a render manager. A list of compatible render managers we're aware of is on our website under Terragen 2 Resources: http://www.planetside.co.uk/content/view/52/88/ there are several free options.

There are 2 possibilities for splitting up renders, either stills or animation. For stills you would need to use crop renders and likely need some amount of top area overlap to ensure good stitching. You would need to assemble the crop render areas into a full image in another application. Generally, due to the higher level of effort to take advantage of rendering single frames across multiple systems, we don't recommend it, except in the case if ultra high resolution images where render time may otherwise be prohibitive.

For animations it's simply a matter of distributing frame range sets to each system, either manually using multiple TGDs or using a render manager as mentioned above. With the manual method, if all systems are a similar speed, it can work well to set a "Sequence Step" equal to the number of machines you will have rendering, then offset the start frame by 1 for each system. So if you have 6 systems and are rendering 600 frames, system 1 would render 1-600, skipping 6 frames in-between renders (i.e. frame 1, 7, 13, etc.), system 2 would render 2-600 (frames 2, 8, 14...), etc. and system 6 would render 6, 12, 18.

- Oshyan

[Axe]

Thanks Oshyan.  Why not just render frames 1-100 on one system, 101-200 on the next system, etc? 
Also, is there any difference in GI calculations if rendering cropped areas (thus potential for change in exposure between cropped areas)?

Axe

[Oshyan]

The advantage of rendering alternating frames is - assuming the machines are roughly the same specs - you get contiguous frame output faster. In other words if 6 machines are rendering frames 1-6 simultaneously, when they're done with the first frame you have frames 1-6, which are contiguous. You can view them sequentially and potentially catch any discontinuities or other issues. If you're doing blocks of 100 frames, which is also an option, then you end up with frame 1, 101, 201, 301, 401, and 501 at the end of first frame rendering. None of them are contiguous so you can't really see much from it. At the end of rendering 10 frames each with the first method, you'd have 60 frames, 2+ seconds of footage, whereas the other way you'd have 6 1/3 second segments.

There can definitely be GI differences with crop setups, but we'll have some functionality in the upcoming 2.4 release that should help with that.

- Oshyan

[Axe]

Thanks - that's very helpful.

Axe

[Akin Black]

Does that mean 2 paid for copies would give 12 machines to render over?

[Oshyan]

Does that mean 2 paid for copies would give 12 machines to render over?

Correct, provided you were not also working on scene development at the same time.

- Oshyan

[PabloMack]

I am also interested in doing this. So the install and use for render nodes is no different than for the system with which I do interactive work? Is the command line renderer optional or is it mandatory for "render nodes"? I am just one guy so I couldn't use these two systems interactively at once if I wanted to. These systems are separated by about 60m but I just installed a new Gigabit Ethernet so they can talk with eachother FAST.

[Oshyan]

The install is the same and you do not have to use the commandline renderer if you don't want to.

- Oshyan

[PabloMack]

Thanks, Oshyan.