Network Rendering nightmare.

[memo]

Hi all.

I am trying to do network rendering with combustion 4.0.2 on windows XP, but from what i understand from the help files I need to have all of my footage in one public shared folder. Does that include subfolders? I have been network rendering from 3dsmax for years, and i know how to use Backburner…. but the whole input folder system in combustion seems wierd.

Unfortunatley all of my footage is NOT in one folder, as I am working with thousands of sequences of tiffs and rpfs from quite a few different scenes. they are all addressed via UNCs, and they are all in subfolders of my input folder, but it still doesnt work… i get a “Error loading workspace” message in backburner.

Do I really have to put all of my sequences of tiffs, rpfs etc. into the same folder?

[mdillender]

Question 1: Are you using the Education or Commercial version for primary and render nodes?

Question 2: are you saving the workspace itself with UNC or similar mapped drive letter. I have found I sometimes save my workspace with system specific path and include all footage or sequences from UNC or mapped that works for render nodes.

I would suggest start small and work bigger to get the process down.

Just my 2 cents.

Martin

[nanuk]

Hi,

I just finished the setup for a renderfarm today. Share the drives which hold your project. Make sure every renderer gets there. The best way to structure your folder is to place your workspace above all source folders. Then combustion will always get the path for the footage. Make sure every renderer has access to your output directory. You have to share this volume too. You have to run the server on every machine which is a renderer. You have to run the manager on the machine which is submitting the job. In the manager you can see each machine which has signed up to the manager. The render machines should also apear in the monitor yellow flagged, if they are idle, green flagged if they are bussy. When they appear red, something is wrong. Post the errorlog. Perhaps then I can help you. The farm here is running with 8 machines. Very nice!

Cheers nanuk

[memo]

ah …. the one thing i was missing there is my workspace is not in a parent folder of all of my footage folders, but its in a side folder – so i will try putting my workspace above all my source…. rest of what you say is cool.

So just to confirm:
1. I can have footage in many folders, as long as they are in subfolders of where my workspace is?
2. Do i need to set my input folder to anything special? i.e. where the workspace is or something?

cheers,

PS. all copies on all nodes are commercial licenses.

[nanuk]

memo wrote:

ah …. the one thing i was missing there is my workspace is not in a parent folder of all of my footage folders, but its in a side folder – so i will try putting my workspace above all my source…. rest of what you say is cool.

So just to confirm:
1. I can have footage in many folders, as long as they are in subfolders of where my workspace is?
2. Do i need to set my input folder to anything special? i.e. where the workspace is or something?

cheers,

PS. all copies on all nodes are commercial licenses.

1. You can have your footage in subfolders. I normaly split it to, like LIVEACTION, 3D, STILLGRAPHICS and so on. And these folders have subfolders too.
2. You do not have to set that. I did not set it and everything works fine. Different cws in different locations. No Problems!

Hope that helps.

Nanuk

[Author]

Posts