What is Carrara RenderNode 8.5 (Win 64-bit)?

What is Carrara RenderNode 8.5 (Win 64-bit)?  I found it in my DIM and I was wondering what is it?  Do I need it installed?  if so why?

Comments

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050

    If you have another computer at home and you want to be able to render over a network, you would install the node on the second machine. DO NOT install the node on your primary computer- that is the host. The node goes on the client computer or computers.

    A side note about nodes. If you have plugins for certain effects or scenes with custom leaves on the trees (such as a Howie Farkes scene), you will need the plugins and the custom leaves installed on the client machines as well as the host machine.

  • Sfariah DSfariah D Posts: 26,258

    Okay what if I get a Mac Book Pro and use it for network rendering for my windows computer?  What would I need to have on the Mac Book?

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited June 2018

    Okay what if I get a Mac Book Pro and use it for network rendering for my windows computer?  What would I need to have on the Mac Book?

    You can use a Node for rendering on a mixed platform network. You would need the Mac Rendernode installed on the MacBook. If you use any third party plugins, the Mac version would also need to be installed on the Mac with the Rendernode. If there is a Windows version of the pugin, but no Mac version, then you won't be able to render any scenes that use that plugin using the Mac Rendernode without problems. For the main (host) computer, all you need is Carrara installed. The Node is strictly for client machines. I have used a Rendernode with a Mac as my host, a couple other Macs and a Windows machine as clients and it worked great.

    I had a hard time with the Windows machine seeing the LAN at first, but that was probably more to with me. I'm like a bad maid in that respect: I don't do Windows. wink

    Post edited by evilproducer on
  • TangoAlphaTangoAlpha Posts: 4,584

    The recent Windows 10 update did much to bugger up mixed-OS networking (to the extent that I had to roll it back). I found that the PC would only operate as the client, not the host. Mostly I use my iMac as the host, with a PC and a Macbook Pro as the clients. But I do mix that around from time to time.

    As EP said, you must have custom leaves and plugins instaled on all machines - that applies to my landscape sets as well as Howie's.

  • mindsongmindsong Posts: 1,701

    although I understand that having Carrara and Carrara's rendernode on the same machine is redundant, does it break things?, or do folks simply think/know it's a bad idea?

    Many folks use DS to render 'RIB' files and have them render in the background using the standalone 3DL renderer, while they can then keep working with DS on the same machine. Is this same workflow possible with Carrara and Carrara's rendernode engine?

    tia,

    --ms

  • TangoAlphaTangoAlpha Posts: 4,584

    No it doesn't break things. You just need to remember which icon to click on for the circumstance.

    I've never tried etiting a file while the render node is running, mostly cos the render is taking all my CPU, so I don't think it would be a very productive experience.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050

    When you are doing a network render, I beleive you need to do it through the batch queue. When rendering with the batch queue, network render or not, you can open another scene in Carrara and edit it or build it. The issue is as TangoApha said, you are sucking processor cycles so it can be a little laggy, and rendering anything is impossibly slow. Inhave done it with those restrictions in mind. It can be done, but it isn't really that more productive.

    What I do find more productive is to use the above mentioned batch queue. I set up multiple scenes, load them in the batch queue and then render them all in one go. The nice thing about the batch queue is that you can pause the render and come back to it later if you need to.

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