CARRARA
RENDER NODE—How To set up Render Node
1. Shut down all computers that will be used for the render (this isn't really necessary, but makes giving the directions more clear, I hope).
2. Boot up all computers that will be used for the render.
3. Decide which computers will be used as Render Nodes.
4. Pick one computer to be the Master.
5. Launch the Render Node application from the Start Menu on all computers that were selected to be Render Nodes.
6. For each Render Node application that is running
6.1. Select File > Preferences.
6.2. Select "Application" from the drop down menu in the Preferences dialog.
6.3 Verify that all running Render Node applications show the same number for "Port1:" By default this is 5020.
6.4 Click OK to close the preferences dialog.
7. Go to the computer that was selected to be the Master and launch the Carrara 8 Pro application from the start menu.
8. Select File > Preferences.
9. Select "Render Room" from the drop down list.
10. In the group "Network Rendering" verify that "Port1" is the same number as "Port1" from step 6.3.
11. Set Sub Net to "Automatic"
12. Click OK to accept those settings and close the Preferences dialog.
13. Enter the Render Room.
14. Switch to the Batch Queue tab in the tray at the bottom of the screen (tabs are located along the left hand side).
15. Click the Add button.
16. Select the Carrara file to be rendered.
17. In the properties tray, Rendering tab, Miscellaneous section (at the bottom of the properties tray, often requires scrolling down to see it) verify that "Enable Network Rendering" is check marked.
18. Switch to the Output tab and Click "Set File Name" so that the resulting render is saved where desired.
19. Click Launch.
20. A render window will appear. Grey tiles with an N represent the areas that are being handled by a Render Node. If the render window and grey tiles appeared, there is no need to go further. Only follow steps
21 through 32 if you saw no grey "N" tiles during the render.
21. If no grey "N" tiles are visible in the render window you need to configure the Sub Net manually. This should only be required if your network consists of multiple network interfaces (such as a wired and wireless connection). In this case, the master Carrara 8 Pro application needs to be told which network to use.
22.Select File > Preferences.
23. Select "Render Room" from the drop down list.
24. In the group "Network Rendering," set Sub Net to "Manual."
25. Click the Start menu and then select "Run"
26. In the dialog, type "cmd" to open a command prompt window.
27. Type "ipconfig"
28. Set the "ID" fields in the Carrara 8 Pro preferences dialog to the same numbers as seen in the "IP Address" from the ipconfig output.
29. Set the "Mask" fields in the Carrara 8 Pro preferences dialog to the same numbers as seen in the "Subnet Mask" from the ipconfig output.
30. In the command prompt window type "exit" to close it.
31. Click OK to accept the settings and to close the preferences dialog.
32. Repeat steps 13 - 20.
CARRARA
RENDER NODE
CHECK LIST:
Did you launch the Render Nodes first and then the Main?
Did you load the scene to be rendered into the Batch Queue?
Did you remember to Enable Network Rendering?
Was the scene complex enough to even need network rendering (simple scenes can finish rendering on the main computer before the render nodes even finish loading the scene data, especially if you have a slow wireless network)?
Did you make sure that Windows was not Port Blocking the Render Nodes (this is typically pretty obvious as Windows will pop up a dialog about it, but it's good to cover all the bases. Is it possible you clicked "Keep Blocking" instead of "Unblock.")?