E N F U Z I O N 3 D U S E R G U I D E. Axceleon, Inc. EnFuzion3D User Guide. For Windows, OS X and Linux Users

Transcription

1 Axceleon, Inc. EnFuzion3D User Guide For Windows, OS X and Linux Users

2 Legal Notices EnFuzion3D 2015 User Guide for Windows, OS X and Linux Users Document Version: Publication Date: Compatible with EnFuzion3D Software Versions: 15.1, 15.0 Copyright Axceleon Inc. All rights reserved. Axceleon and EnFuzion3D are trademarks of Axceleon Inc. EnFuzion and CloudFuzion are registered trademarks of Axceleon Inc. All other trademarks mentioned herein are properties of their respective owners. Axceleon Inc Stevens Creek Blvd, Suite 100 Cupertino, CA info@axceleon.com Web

3 Table of Contents 1 Introduction Organization of this Document Notes to OS X and Linux Users EnFuzion3D Overview Terminology Submitting Scenes for Rendering Tracking and Controlling Active Runs Tracking and Controlling Completed Runs Managing Compute Nodes Managing Compute Pools Reporting Problems and Getting Help EnFuzion3D Reference Guide EnFuzion3D Desktop Window EnFuzion3D Desktop Menu Compute Nodes Window Active Runs Window Executing Jobs List Window Completed Runs Window Job List Window Messages from Render Nodes Image Browser Thumbnail Browser Compute Pools Files Used by EnFuzion3D ds Max Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Software Compatibility Installing 3ds Max and Renderers Installing Direct Submission Support in 3ds Max Installing Application Plug-ins

4 4.5 Setting up File Sharing Submitting a Scene from EnFuzion3D Desktop Managing Interactive Services Warning Submitting a Scene from within 3ds Max Tracking Your Submission Using V-Ray for 3ds Max with EnFuzion3D Tile Rendering with EnFuzion3D Complete Reference Information After Effects Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Software Compatibility Installing After Effects Configurations for Windows Based Render Farms Configurations for OS X Based Render Farms Invoking EnFuzion3D Setting up File Sharing Submitting a Project File for Rendering Tracking Your Submission Making Movies with EnFuzion3D Complete Reference Information CINEMA 4D Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Software Compatibility Installing CINEMA 4D Installing Direct Submission Support Configuring the CINEMA 4D Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Working Around a Known Limitation on OS X Compute Nodes Invoking EnFuzion3D Preparing a Scene for Submission Setting up File Sharing Submitting your Scene Tracking your submission Complete Reference Information

5 7 Houdini Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Software Compatibility Installing Houdini Configuring the Houdini Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Invoking EnFuzion3D Setting up File Sharing Preparing a Scene for Submission Submitting a Scene Tracking Your Submission Complete Reference Information LightWave Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Software Compatibility Installing LightWave Configuring the LightWave Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Working Around a Known Limitation on OS X Compute Nodes Invoking EnFuion3D Setting up File Sharing Submitting a Scene Monitoring Rendering Progress Complete Reference Information Maya Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Note to mental ray Users Software Compatibility Installing Maya Installing Direct Submission Support Configuring the Maya Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Working Around a Known Limitation on OS X Compute Nodes Maya Job Submission Interface Setting up File Sharing Verifying Render Settings Submitting a Scene from EnFuzion3D Desktop

6 9.11 Submitting a Scene from within Maya Tracking Your Submission Automated.mi File Generation, Submission and Rendering Working with Layers and the mental ray Renderer A Tutorial Tile Rendering with EnFuzion3D Using RenderMan for Maya with EnFuzion3D Using Arnold and V-Ray Renderers Complete Reference Information mental ray Standalone for Maya Plug-in When to Use This Plug-in Software Compatibility Installing mental ray Standalone Exporting.mi Files from Maya Configuring the mental ray Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Invoking EnFuzion3D Setting up File Sharing Submitting a Scene Tracking Your Submission Batch Generating.mi Files Tile Rendering with EnFuzion3D Complete Reference Information Nuke Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Software Compatibility Installing Nuke Installing Direct Submission Support Configuring the Nuke Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Invoking EnFuzion3D Setting up File Sharing Submitting a Comp File from EnFuzion3D Desktop Submitting a Comp File from Nuke Tracking Your Submission

7 11.10 Complete Reference Information RealFlow Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Software Compatibility Installing RealFlow Configuring the RealFlow Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Invoking EnFuzion3D Setting up File Sharing Submitting a Scene from EnFuzion3D Desktop Tracking Your Submission Complete Reference Information Softimage Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Note to mental ray Users Prerequisites Submitting the First Scene to an EnFuzion3D Based Render Farm Automated.mi File Generation, Submission and Rendering Working with Passes and the mental ray Renderer A Tutorial Complete Reference Information mental ray Standalone for Softimage Plug-in When to Use This Plug-in Prerequisites Terminology Submitting the First Scene to an EnFuzion3D Based Render Farm Tracking Your Submission Complete Reference Information EnFuzion3D Command Line Interface Using the EnFuzion3D Command Line Interface Render Farm Administrators Guide Installing EnFuzion3D Configuring the Control Root Computer Configuring Compute Nodes Managing Compute Pools

8 16.5 Setting Up File Sharing Managing Shared File Systems Managing Heterogeneous Render Farms Configuring Multiple Compute Nodes Upgrading Your Current Version of Software Appendix A 3ds Max Job Submission Parameters A.1 Job Submission Parameters A.2 Render Settings A.3 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips Appendix B After Effects Job Submission Parameters B.1 Job Submission Parameters B.2 Other Buttons B.3 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips Appendix C CINEMA 4D Job Submission Parameters C.1 Job Submission Parameters C.2 Other Buttons C.3 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips Appendix D Houdini Job Submission Parameters D.1 Job Submission Parameters D.2 Other Buttons D.3 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips Appendix E LightWave Job Submission Parameters E.1 Job Submission Parameters E.2 Other Buttons E.3 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips Appendix F Maya Job Submission Parameters F.1 Job Submission Parameters F.2 Rendering Settings F.3 Render Settings Dialog F.4 Other Buttons F.5 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips Appendix G mental ray Standalone for Maya Job Submission Parameters

9 G.1 Job Submission Parameters G.2 Other Buttons G.3 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips Appendix H Nuke Job Submission Parameters H.1 Job Submission Parameters H.2 Other Buttons H.3 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips Appendix I RealFlow Job Submission Parameters I.1 Job Submission Parameters I.2 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips Appendix J Softimage Job Submission Parameters J.1 Job Submission Parameters J.2 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips Appendix K mental ray from Softimage Job Submission Parameters K.1 Job Submission Parameters K.2 Rendering Settings K.3 Other Buttons K.4 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips Appendix L Job Submission Advanced Settings L.1 Job Submission Parameters, Advanced Settings

10 Chapter 1 1 Introduction This document describes how to use EnFuzion3D to manage your render farm. It is intended for render farm users and administrators. This document also provides reference information on the applications plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. Please make sure that you have successfully installed EnFuzion3D before you follow instructions in this guide. For installation and configuration instructions, please refer to the EnFuzion3D Installation Guide. 1.1 Organization of this Document This document contains information for render farm users and administrators. Chapters in this document are as follows: Chapter 1 - Introduction Chapter 2 - EnFuzion3D Overview This chapter introduces you to EnFuzion3D, EnFuzion3D Desktop and the typical workflow for render farm users. Chapter 3 - EnFuzion3D Reference Guide This chapter provides the complete reference information for the EnFuzion3D user interface. Chapters 4-14 These chapters explain how to use EnFuzion3D with various rendering software. Each chapter provides a tutorial on how to submit a specific job type using EnFuzion3D. There is one chapter for each supported rendering software package. Chapter 15 - EnFuzion3D Command Line Interface This chapter describes the EnFuzion command line interface. Chapter 16 - Render Farm Administrators Guide This chapter is intended for the render farm administrators. The chapter contains details on render farm configuration and operation. All render farm administrators should read this chapter. Appendices A-L This chapter provides the complete reference information on the applications plug-ins for EnFuzion3D for all the supported rendering packages. 10

11 1.2 Notes to OS X and Linux Users Most aspects of EnFuzion3D work the same way on Windows, OS X and Linux platforms. While most of the syntax, screenshots and examples in this guide are given in the Windows syntax, they can be easily related to their equivalent on other OS platforms. In cases where OS-specific contents are needed, they are captured in sections titled Notes to Linux Users or Notes to OS X Users. 11

12 Chapter 2 2 EnFuzion3D Overview This chapter provides an overview of EnFuzion3D, EnFuzion3D Desktop, and a typical workflow of an artist using an EnFuzion3D managed render farm. In this chapter, you will learn how to use the EnFuzion3D Desktop to do the following tasks: Submitting a scene for rendering Tracking and controlling the rendering progress Monitoring and managing render nodes Managing compute pools Viewing images Debugging problems Report problems Please note that the complete reference information for the EnFuzion3D Desktop is in Chapter 3 EnFuzion3D Reference Guide. 2.1 Terminology Figure 2-1: EnFuzion3D Desktop Before you start to work with EnFuzion3D, it is important to understand some key terms that are used frequently in this document. 12

13 Run each Run represents one submission to the render farm, typically to render one Scene with multiple Frames. Job each Job is one unit of work for the render farm, mostly commonly the rendering of one Frame. Run ID a Run ID is a unique numerical number assigned by EnFuzion3D to each Run. Use Run IDs to track your submissions. Submission Name a Submission Name is assigned by the user to identify each submission. Several submissions can use the same Submission Name. Submission Parameters these are parameters specified by the user, at the time of submissions. They include settings like input Scene name, output path, start/end frames. EnFuzion vs. EnFuzion3D - we use the term EnFuzion to refer to the underlying resource management and parallel processing technology used by EnFuzion3D, which is a specific implementation of EnFuzion for managing render farms. User Submit Computer -- we use the term User Submit Computer to refer to an artist workstation. These terms are used interchangeably throughout this document. Compute Node -- we use the term Compute Node to refer to render nodes. These terms are used interchangeably throughout this document. 2.2 Submitting Scenes for Rendering EnFuzion3D supports Scene Submission from the EnFuzion3D Desktop and from inside of supported rendering software packages. Both of these methods are explained briefly below Submitting Scenes from EnFuzion3D Desktop EnFuzion3D Desktop provides two ways to submit Scenes for rendering: The Submit Menu The rendering software Icons Choosing the rendering software of choice will open an application-specific Job Submission Window. Figure 2-2: Opening Job Submission Window EnFuzion3D Desktop offers Job Submission Windows for all supported rendering software. Getting-started tutorials for how to submit each job type are offered in subsequent chapters of this guide, along with complete reference information for all the Job Submission Parameters. 13

14 2.2.2 Direct Submission from Inside of Rendering Software EnFuzion3D provides plug-in support for many rendering software packages, enabling you to submit scenes for rendering directly from inside of those third party software environments. For all the supported rendering software packages, the EnFuzion3D installer automatically installs plug-ins to enable direct submission, unless otherwise stated in later chapters on individual plug-ins. Figure 2-3: Submitting to EnFunzion3D from Maya When you upgrade the rendering software on Compute Nodes after you have installed EnFuzion3D, you can manually install the direct submission plug-ins by choosing ToolsInstall Application Scripts. Figure 2-4: Installing Direct Submission Support Please refer to later chapters in this guide for details on how to submit scenes from various rendering software packages. 2.3 Tracking and Controlling Active Runs After you submit a Scene using EnFuzion3D, an Active Run is created, and it is shown in the Active Runs Window, as highlighted in Figure 2-5. The Active Runs Window shows all the Scenes on the render farm that are being rendered, or that are waiting to be rendered. 14

15 Figure 2-5: Active Runs Window What s the status of my scene? Active Runs, or Scenes in this window are color coded to help you quickly assess how your rendering is progressing. The different colors signify the following: Green means rendering is in progress for a Scene, and no Frames have failed to render so far. Red means that rendering is in progress for a Scene, but some Frames have failed to render. Blue means that no Frames are being actively rendered, and no Frames have failed. A common reason for this is Frames having been rescheduled. These Run require user investigation to determine why Frames have been rescheduled, and why after rescheduling, they are still not being rendered. Black means these Scenes are in the render queue, waiting for rendering to start How do I start, stop rendering or resubmit a scene? When you select a Run (Scene) and right-click on it, you will see many actions that can be applied to a Run, including ways to stop or restart rendering on a Scene, or to resubmit a Scene. The complete reference information for all the menu items are in Chapter 3. Figure 2-6: Controlling the Scene Rendering Process How do I look at all the Frames as they are being rendered? EnFuzion3D Desktop makes it very easy to track to status of all of your Frames. From the Active Runs Window, clicking on Runs will show you a Frames list. 15

16 Figure 2-7: Frames List My Scene didn t render, what happened? EnFuzion3D makes it very easy to access all the information on render nodes, scenes, frames, and rendering software. Tracking down causes of problems is usually just a click or two away, a typical work flow is as follows: A Run (Scene) has turned Red, showing that some Frames have failed To see why, you double-click on an Active Run to see all the Frames To see why a particular Frame failed, you click on it to see the messages from relevant render nodes, as shown in Figure 2-8. You see that there are error messages from EnFuzion3D and from the rendering software. You click on them to get the cause of the failed Frame You can simply zip up all the related files for our support team Figure 2-8: Checking Error Messages 16

17 Figure 2-9: Content of Application Log from Maya 2.4 Tracking and Controlling Completed Runs The Completed Runs Window shows Scenes that have been rendered successfully, failed, or aborted by a user. Figure 2-10: Completed Runs Window What s the status of my scenes? The Completed Runs window shows the status of Scenes that are no longer in the render queue. Each Scene in this window is color coded to help you quickly assess its status. The colors signify the following: Black Runs are Scenes with all the Frames successfully rendered Red Runs are Scenes with some or all Frames that failed to render Blue Runs are Scenes that did not complete in rendering. There have been no failed Frames, but rendering may have been aborted by the user before all the jobs completed successfully How do I resubmit a failed run? When you select a Run (Scene) and right-click on it, you will see many actions that can be applied to a Run, including a way to resubmit a Scene, as shown in Figure The complete reference information for all the menu items are in Chapter 3 EnFuzion3D Reference Guide. 17

18 Figure 2-11: Actions for Completed Runs How do I view rendered images? EnFuzion3D offers several built-in viewers to view Thumbnails, Rendered Images, and Animated Frame Sequences. You can access these viewers from the Active Run Window or a Computed Run Window by right clicking on a Run, and choose View Images to open the Image Browser. Figure 2-12: Image Browser Using the EnFuzion3D Image Brower, you can easily view the rendered Images, Thumbnails of Frames, or Animated Frame Sequences. Note that EnFuzion3D uses the Maya fcheck or Softimage flip to play animated frames sequences. You need to make sure that these players are installed on the artist workstation. If you want to use another player, please contact Axceleon support to find out how. 18

19 Figure 2-13: EnFuzion3D Image Viewer Figure 2-14: Integrated Animation Player 19

20 Figure 2-15: Integrated Thumbnail Browser What to do with missing thumbnails? The Thumbnail Browser helps you to quickly identify Frames that did not render, and are missing, as shown in Figure Using the Select Missing button, you can quickly select the problem Frames and use the Submit Selected button to resubmit the missing frames. Figure 2-16: Select Missing Frames for Re-submission How to select arbitrary frames from re-rendering? The Thumbnail Browser also lets you select arbitrary Frames for re-rendering. To do this, you can either type the frame numbers in the Selected Frames field, separated by commas, or right click on any frame to toggle between Select and Deselect. Use the Submit Selected button to complete the re-submission. 20

21 Figure 2-17: Select Arbitrary Frames for Re-submission My scene didn t render, why? Once a Run has been placed in the Completed Run Window, EnFuzion3D will not take any more automatic actions on these Runs. For Runs that did not complete successfully, you will need to investigate the reasons, make necessary changes, and resubmit if necessary. The process to identify what might have cause the rendering to fail is the same as what was discussed in Section above What should I send to Axceleon to get help? The best way to report a problem or to get help is to us the Diagnostic Files. To do this, you right-click on any Run, and choose Zip Diagnostic Files, as shown in Figure This action will take you to the Windows file browser, where you can easily find the.zip file and send it to us. Figure 2-18: Zip Diagnostics Files for Help My old Runs disappeared from the Completed Runs Window, why? EnFuzion3D keeps information on your submissions for a week by default, after that, EnFuzion3D deletes this information on old submission from the <EnFuzion3D Installation Directory>\Work directory. You can change the frequency of how often this is done by editing the enfuizon.nodes file. For more information, please consult the Chapter 16 Render Farm Administrators Guide. 2.5 Managing Compute Nodes You can monitor the operations of your render nodes using the Compute Nodes Window. The Compute Nodes Windows is primarily a tool for the render farm administrator to use to manage the Compute Nodes. Please do not make any changes to the render nodes without consulting the reference information in the next Chapter. 21

22 2.6 Managing Compute Pools Figure 2-19: Compute Nodes Information When EnFuzion3D is installed on Compute Nodes, the installation program automatically discovers what rendering software packages are installed on each Compute Node and automatically creates Compute Pools. EnFuzion3D also assigns each Compute Node its Pool Membership according to the rendering software discovered on that Compute Node. You can use the Pool Window to view the default Compute Pools created by EnFuzion3D, to create new Compute Pools or to make changes to existing Compute Pool Membership. For example, we have three Compute Nodes: Figure 2-20: Compute Pools Compute Node A has Maya 2014, Maya 2015, Arnold installed on it Compute Node B has Maya 2015, After Effects installed on it After you install EnFuzion3D on these Compute Nodes, 4 Compute Pools will be created, and their membership assignments will look like the following: Pool Name Maya 2014 Pool Maya 2015 Pool Pool Members Compute Node A Compute Nodes A and B 22

23 Pool Name Arnold Pool After Effects Pool Members Compute Node A Compute Node A Table 2-1: Example Compute Pool Settings EnFuzion3D automatically submits Scenes to the right Compute Pools according to Scene types. You can over-ride the default assignments by using the Advanced Settings during Job Submission. After you upgrade any of the Compute Nodes with new rendering software or new versions of them, you must restart the Node Service on that Compute Node, so that EnFuzion3D will update its Compute Pools settings. 2.7 Reporting Problems and Getting Help When you encounter problems, there are several sources of help to consider. On-line FAQ: For installation and start-up help, please make sure to check our on-line FAQ at EnFuzion3D Log Files: EnFuzion3D keeps extensive log files, detailed every event that happens on a render farm. Learning how to use these log files to identify the source of your problems can be very helpful. You can access EnFuzion3D log files for each Frame by simply doubling clicking on it. You can find a list of log files associated with each Frame in Chapter 3 EnFuzion3D Reference Guide, on how to access them, and how to use them to find out the status of your rendering process. Diagnostic Files: The best way to report a problem to Axceleon or to get help from us is to us the Diagnostic Files. To do this, you right-click on any Run, and choose Zip Diagnostic Files. This action will take you to the Windows file browser, where you can easily find the.zip file and send it to us. 23

24 Chapter 3 3 EnFuzion3D Reference Guide This Chapter provides the complete reference for the EnFuzion3D Desktop. The chapter is organized by its major components - menus, windows and actions related to Compute Nodes, Scenes, Frames, Images, and Compute Pools. 3.1 EnFuzion3D Desktop Window Figures 3-1 shows the default startup view of the EnFuzion3D Desktop Window. This is the most commonly used interface for artists to submit jobs and monitoring rendering progress. Figure 3-1: EnFuzion3D Desktop Default View Figures 3-2 shows the expanded all-windows view of the EnFuzion3D Desktop. All the sub-windows can be expanded for a zoomed view. Figure 3-2: EnFuzion3D Desktop All-windows View 24

25 3.2 EnFuzion3D Desktop Menu Table 3-1 below provides reference information for all the Menu items in the main EnFuzion3D Desktop Window. Table 3-1: EnFuzion3D Desktop Manu Reference Information Name EnFuzion3DQuit EnFuzion3D SubmitPrevious Submission SubmitRecent Submissions Submit<Type of> Scenes ViewShow Default Desktop ViewShow All Windows ViewShow Nodes ViewShow Executing Jobs ViewView Images ViewView Thumbnails View Refresh Runs Tools->Clear Local Cache Files ToolsInstall Application Scripts ToolsGet Pool Membership ToolsChange Pools ToolsVerify Control Root Access ToolsConnect to EnFuzion Web Action Quit EnFuzion3D Resubmit the last submission Opens a Windows file browser to let you find and resubmit Runs that you have recently submitted form locally stored history. Runs are identified by.run files. This is especially useful for users on large render farms where it may take time to find your Runs or that the past submission history might have been deleted by the render farm manager. Open the various EnFuzion3D Job Submission Windows for supported rendering packages Restore the default desktop windows settings Show all the sub-windows in EnFuzion3D Desktop Open the Node List Windows to display status of all the render nodes on the render farm. Open the Executing Jobs List to show a snapshot of all the Frames that are being rendered at that moment, and on which Compute Nodes the rendering is taking place.. Open the EnFuzion3D Image Browser to browse rendered frames Open the EnFuzion3D Thumbnail Browser to browse thumbnails of rendered frames Refresh the current view Delete files from the EnFuzion Control Root Computer that are cached on the local User Submit Computer. You must delete these files when your EnFuzion Control Root Service is moved to another computer. Installs scripts inside of rendering software package to enable direct job submission Show the existing Compute Pools on your render farm and their membership Make changes to the definition of Compute Pools on your render farm Test to see if an artist workstation is connected to the EnFuzion3D Control Root Computer. Note that submission will fail when an artist workstation is not connected to the Control Root Computer. Open the EnFuzion Web Interface 25

26 Name Help->About Action Display the version number of EnFuzion3D 3.3 Compute Nodes Window The Compute Node Information Window gives you a snapshot of the status of your render nodes. Figure 3-3: Compute Nodes Window Checking Compute Nodes Status Table 3-2 below explains what the fields mean in the Compute Nodes window. Table 3-1: Compute Nodes Fields Field Name Node ID Host Status Uptime Downtime Job Limit Job Executing Memory Memory Usage CPU Speed CPU Usage Description Render node ID assigned by EnFuzion3D Name of the render node Status of the render node, can be Executing, Idle, Busy, Down, Starting, Terminating Elapsed since the node last changed its status to Up Total time that the node was Down The maximum number of concurrent Jobs that this Compute Node can execute The number of Jobs currently executing on this Compute Node The amount of memory in KB on this Compute Node The maximum amount of memory in use on this Compute Node Speed of the CPU in MHz Percentage of CPU use, same as what is reported by the Windows Task Manager 26

27 Field Name Operating System EnFuzion3D Description Operating system running on this Compute Node EnFuzion3D software version running on this Compute Node Managing Compute Nodes Managing Compute Nodes is primarily a task for Render Farm Administrators. Right-clicking on a Compute Node present a list of actions that can be applied to that Compute Node. Table 3-2 shows what these actions mean. Figure 3-4: Managing Compute Nodes Name Show Pools Start Node Stop Node Remove Node Open Remote Desktop Action Show all the Compute Pools that have been defined on the render farm and each Compute Pool s membership Manually start or restart a Compute Node, when its status is Down. Manually stop a Compute Node Manually remove a Compute Node from the render farm without stopping the Compute Node. Access the command line on the remote Compute Node without the need for another remote desktop application. 3.4 Active Runs Window Table 3-2: Controlling Render Nodes The Active Runs Window is where you monitor and control Scenes in the render queue. 27

28 Figure 3-5: Active Runs Window Checking Scenes Rendering Progress Active Runs (Scenes) in this window are color coded to help you quickly assess how your rendering is progressing. The different colors signify the following: Green means rendering is in progress for a Scene, and no Frames have failed to render so far. Red means that rendering is in progress for a Scene, but some Frames have failed to render. Blue means that no Frames in a Scene have failed, and no Frames are being actively rendered. A common reason for this is a large number of Rescheduled Frames. These Runs require user investigation user action to resubmit. EnFuzion3D will not automatically restart these Runs. Black means these Scenes are in the render queue, waiting for rendering to start Table 3-3 below explains all the Fields and the AutoUpdate checkbox in the Active Runs window, as seen in Figure 3-5. Table 3-3: Fields in the Active Runs Window Field Name Run ID Submission User Status Uptime Finish In Priority Application Pools Waiting Executing Field Description ID of a Run, i.e. ID for a submitted Scene Name of the submission you used when submitting a Scene The name of the user who submitted the Scene Current status of a Scene. Status can be Started or Stopped. Elapsed time since the Scene was submitted Estimated time required to complete all the Frames of a Scene Priority of the Scene Name of the rendering package(s) to be used for rendering this Scene The Computer Pools the Scene can be rendered in Number of Frames/Total Frames waiting to be rendered Number of Frames currently being rendered 28

29 Done Failed Rescheduled Job Length Total Time Show My Runs AutoUpdate Number of Frames that has been successfully rendered Number of Frames that has failed Number of times Frames that have been rescheduled Average execution time for a Frame Sum of execution times of all the Frames When this checkbox is selected, the window displays only the Scenes that you have submitted. If turned on, the Active Runs Window is refreshed every 20 seconds. Turn the option off, if you do not want that the window is refreshed automatically. Press twice to refresh the display Checking Frames Rendering Progress Double-clicking on a Run or Scene will open up the Job List Window, which shows the status of all the Frames in a Scene. You can get more information on the Job List Window in the Job List Window section later in this chapter Controlling the Rendering Process Right clicking on an Active Run shows all the actions that can be applied to that Run. Table 3-4 below explains the actions that are available. Figure 3-6: Controlling Active Runs Table 3-4: Actions for Active Runs Name Show Jobs Show EnFuzion Run Log Show EnFuzion Submission File Action Open the Job List Window to display status of each Frame. Displays the EnFuzion Run Log, a log file that contains a complete history of events related to the status of a Run. It is very useful for troubleshooting. Shows the EnFuzion Submission File. EnFuzion3D produces this file when a Run is submitted. It is very useful for troubleshooting. 29

30 Name Show User Notes Approve Start Stop Abort Change Priority Resubmit Run Reschedule Failed Jobs Zip Diagnostic Files Action Display user notes that were provided when the Scene was submitted for rendering. When a Scene is submitted for rendering, it can be submitted with the condition that Approval is required from the user before all the Frames of a Scene are rendered. This gives the user a chance to render only a few Frames, to look at the output, before approving the rest of the Frames to be rendered. Choosing Approve here tells EnFuzion3D to submit all the rest of the Frames to be rendered. The default number of test Frames to be rendered before Approval is configurable by the render farm administrator. Start a Run. This command starts or restarts the rendering for a Scene. Stop a Run. Terminate rendering for Frames that are being rendered, and suspend other Frames from being rendered. The Scene will remain in the Active Runs queue. No more Frames from the Scene will be rendered until the Run is started. Abort a Run and move the Scene from the Active Runs list to the Completed Runs list. No more Frames will be rendered. Show a dialog for changing the priority of a Run, i.e. the priority of a Scene Resubmitting a Scene for rendering. Reschedule failed Scene for rendering. Failed Scenes are resubmitted to the execution queue, and their status is set to rescheduled. Make a.zip file of all the log files associated with a Scene. The.zip file is stored in the <Installation_Dir>\Submissions\Work directory, or $HOME/enfuzion/submissions/work on OS X and Linux. The diagnostic files are useful for error reporting or getting help from Axceleon. 3.5 Executing Jobs List Window The Executing Jobs List Window, shown in Figure 3-7, answers the question of which Compute Node is currently rendering which Frame? Figure 3-7: Executing Jobs List Window Table 3-5 below shows all the fields in the Executing Jobs List Window. Table 3-5: Executing Jobs List Window, Fields and Actions Name Run ID Action This is the Run ID assigned by EnFuzion3D, used to identify and track your submissions on the render farm. 30

31 Name Run Name User Job ID Host Execution Time User CPU Kernel CPU Action Same as Submission Name, which is assigned by the user to identify each submission. The User who submitted the job Typically this is the Frame number Name of the Computing Node How long this Compute Node has been rendering this Frame The user CPU time that was used by the renderer on a Compute Node (in ms) The kernel CPU time that was used by the renderer on a Compute Node (in ms) Memory Page Faults The maximum amount of memory used by the renderer on a Compute Node (in Kb) The number of page faults which occurred during the rendering on a Compute Node, Windows only Table 3-6 below shows all the Actions that can be applied to Jobs in Executing Jobs List Window. Table 3-6: Actions for Executing Jobs Name Reschedule Job Abort Job Show Jobs Show Nodes Action Resubmit this Frame for rendering again Abort rendering on this Frame Opens the Job List Window to show all the Frames in a Scene. Open the Nodes Window to show the status of all the Nodes. 3.6 Completed Runs Window The Completed Runs Window, shown in Figure 3-8, shows the status of Scenes that are no longer in the render queue. 31

32 Figure 3-8: Completed Runs window Checking Completed Scenes The Completed Runs window shows the status of Scenes that are no longer in the render queue. Each Scene in this window is color coded to help you quickly assess its status. The colors signify the following: Black Runs are Scenes with all the Frames successfully rendered Red Runs are Scenes with some or all Frames that failed to render Blue Runs are Scenes that did not complete in rendering. There has been no failed Frames, but rendering may have been aborted by the user before all the jobs completed successfully Table 3-7 below explains all the Fields and the AutoUpdate checkbox in the Completed Runs window, as seen in Figure

33 Table 3-7: Fields in the Completed Runs Window Name Run ID Submission User Status Submitted Completed Uptime Waiting Done Failed Rescheduled Job Length Total Time Show My Runs Show Recent Runs AutoUpdate Description Run ID of a Run, i.e. a Scene Submission name for a Scene The user who submitted the Scene Current Status of a Scene, which can be Done or Failed. The status is Failed when some of the Frames have not completed rendering successfully. or rendering was aborted by the user. The time at which the Scene was submitted The time at which the Scene completed rendering, either successfully or with a failure Elapsed time between the Submitted time and the Completed time. Number of Frames / Total number of Frames still waiting in the queue when the Scene completed Number of Frames that completed rendering successfully Number of Frames that failed Number of times all the Frames from the Scene were rescheduled Average execution time for a Frame Sum of execution times of all the Frames When this checkbox is selected, the window displays only the Scenes that you have submitted. When this checkbox is selected, the window displays only the Scenes that were completed during the last 24 hours. If turned on, the Completed Runs Window is refreshed every 20 seconds. Turn the option off; if you do not want that the window is refreshed automatically. Press twice to refresh the display Checking Completed Frames Double-clicking on a Run or Scene will open up the Job List Window, which shows the status of all the Frames in a Scene. You can get more information on the Job List Window in the Job List Window section later in this chapter Managing Completed Scenes Table 3-8 below explains the actions that can be applied to Scenes that have either rendered successfully or failed, or aborted. These actions are shown in Figure 3-9. Right click on any Run (Scene) to apply these actions. 33

34 Figure 3-9: Additional Actions for Completed Scenes Table 3-8: Actions for Completed Runs Name Show Jobs Show Image List Show Thumbnails Show Image Files Show EnFuzion Run Log Show EnFuzion Submission File Resubmit Run Reschedule Failed Jobs Zip Diagnostic Files Export to CSV Export to Spreadsheet Action Open the Job List Window to display status of each Frame Opens the Image Browser. The Image Browser provides information about image output files. Opens the Thumbnail Browser. The Thumbnail Browser shows rendered images. Show the Image files in the Windows Explorer Displays an EnFuzion log file that contains a complete history of events related to the status of a scene. It is useful for troubleshooting. Shows the submission file. This file is produced by EnFuzion when the run is submitted. It is useful for troubleshooting. Resubmit a Run for rendering Reschedule failed Frames for rendering. Failed Frames are resubmitted to the execution queue. Their status is set to rescheduled. Make a.zip file of all the log files associated with a Scene. The.zip file is stored in the <Installation_Dir>\Submissions\Work directory. The diagnostic files are useful for error reporting or getting help from Axceleon. Export the Complete Run information to a CSV file Export the Completed Run information to an.xls file 3.7 Job List Window The Job List Window, shown in Figure 3-10, provides detailed information for each Frame in a Scene. This windows is opened when you click on a Run in the Active Runs or the Complete Runs windows Monitoring Status of Frames 34

35 Frames in this window are color coded to help you quickly assess how your rendering is progressing. The different colors signify the following: Black marks Frames that have been successfully rendered Red marks Frames that have failed to render Green marks Frames that are executing, or currently being rendered Blue marks Frames that are waiting or rescheduled Figure 3-10 below shows the Job List Window, and Table 3-9 explains the fields in the Job List Window. Figure 3-10: Information on Each Frame Table 3-9: Fields in the Job List Window Name Run Information Name Action This is a summary of submission parameters of the Scene whose Frames rendering status is displayed below. Frame number or user supplied name Status Status of a Frame status, can be done, waiting, aborted, rescheduled Host Name of the computer that rendered this Frame Start Time The time at which rendering started for this Frame End Time The time at which rendering completed for this Frame Execution Time The time it took to render this Frame User CPU The user CPU time that was used by the renderer on a Compute Node (in ms) Kernel CPU The kernel CPU time that was used by the renderer on a Compute Node (in ms) 35

36 Name Memory Page Faults Show All AutoUpdate Action The maximum amount of memory used by the renderer on a Compute Node (in Kb) The number of page faults which occurred during the rendering on a Compute Node, Windows only If turned on, EnFuzion3D shows all instances of a Frame when it was scheduled or rescheduled for rendering. If the checkbox is turned off, only the last instance is shown. If turned on, the Job List Window is refreshed every 20 seconds. If turned off, you can press this button twice to force a screen refresh Actions for Frames Table 3-8 explains the actions available for Frames in the Job List Window. These actions are activated with the right button click on your mouse. Figure 3-11: Actions for Frames Table 3-10: Right Click Actions for Jobs Name Show Image Show Log Files Show Command Action Show the rendered image, using Maya fcheck or Softimage flip. Please contact Axceleon if you want to integrate another image viewer. Open the EnFuzion Job Log Files Windows where you can access 4 different log files for each Frame. Please see the section below for more information on these log files. Show the command that EnFuzion3D used on the Compute Node to call the rendering software 36

37 Name Show Environment Show EnFuzion Parameters Reschedule Job Abort Job Show Image List Show Thumbnails Show Image Files Show EnFuzion Run Log Show EnFuzion Submission File Show User Notes Approve Run Start Run Stop Run Abort Run Change Run Priority Resubmit Run Reschedule Failed Jobs Zip Diagnostic Files Export to Spreadsheet Action Show the environment variables on the Compute Node Show all Scene Submission Parameters Reschedule this Frame for rendering. Abort rendering for a Frame. Opens the Image Browser. The Image Browser provides information about image output files. Opens the Thumbnail Browser. The Thumbnail Browser shows rendered images. Show the Image files in the Windows Explorer Displays an EnFuzion log file that contains a complete history of events related to the status of a scene. It is useful for troubleshooting. Shows the submission file. This file is produced by EnFuzion when the run is submitted. It is useful for troubleshooting. Display user notes that were provided when the Scene was submitted for rendering. When a Scene is submitted for rendering, it can be submitted with the condition that Approval is required from the user before all the Frames of a Scene are rendered. This gives the user a chance to render only a few Frames, to look at the output, before approving the rest of the Frames to be rendered. Choosing Approve here tells EnFuzion3D to submit all the rest of the Frames to be rendered. The default number of test Frames to be rendered before Approval is user configurable by the render farm administrator. Start a Run. This command starts or restarts the rendering for a Scene. Stop a Run. Terminate rendering for Frames that are being rendered, and suspend other Frames from being rendered. The Scene will remain in the Active Runs queue. No more Frames from the Scene will be rendered until the Run is started. Abort a Run and move the Scene from the Active Runs list to the Completed Runs list. No more Frames will be rendered. Show a dialog for changing the priority of a Run, i.e. the priority of a Scene Resubmitting a Scene for rendering. Reschedule only the failed Frames in a Scene for rendering. Make a.zip file of all the log files associated with a Scene. The.zip file is stored in the <Installation_Dir>\Submissions\Work directory. The diagnostic files are useful for error reporting or getting help from Axceleon. Export the Completed Run information to an.xls file 37

38 3.8 Messages from Render Nodes When you are rendering your Scenes on your workstation, you can easily see the output and error messages from your rendering software. When your render nodes are remote, you need another way to access these messages from the remote render node, for each Frame. The Job Log Files Window, shown in Figure 3-12, lets you access these messages easily. Figure 3-12: Accessing Output and Error Messages from Remote Render Nodes EnFuzion3D gathers 4 log files to help you track the events on the render nodes, they are as follows: Application Log This is the output from your rendering software, obtained from the Compute Node. Standard Output Show the messages from the rendering software obtained from the Compute Node Error Output - Show the errors messages from the rendering software obtained from the Compute Node EnFuzion Log This is a summary created by EnFuzion3D to show the information that it keeps for a Frame. 3.9 Image Browser The EnFuzion3D Image Browser provides information about image output files. It uses the Maya fcheck or the Softimage flip utility to display images. Fcheck is tried first, flip is tried You must have Maya or Softimage installed for this feature to work properly. If you wish to use another viewer, please contact Axceleon at support@axceleon.com. The Image Browser displays information about image output files. EnFuzion3D tries to determine the image location automatically from the submission. If that is not possible, the image location can be specified by the user. Table 3-11 below explains the Fields, Buttons and Right Click Actions in the EnFuzion3D Image Browser window. 38

39 Figure 3-13: EnFuzion3D Image Browser Table 3-11: EnFuzion3D Image Browser Fields, Buttons and Right Click Actions Name Image Location Run ID Selected Frames Browse Refresh Show Thumbnail Show Animation Show Files Submit Selected Number Description This field shows the location of the Image Output Files to be displayed. Frame numbers are replaced with the letter *. This is the Run ID assigned by EnFuzion3D, used to identify and track your submissions on the render farm. You can manually select Frames by their Frame Number, separated by commas, e.g. 1, 2, 5. This field can be auto-filled when you right click on any Frame and choose Select/Unselect. Use this button to specify Image Location. Refresh the display. You need to press this button to refresh the information, since it is not refreshed automatically by EnFuzion3D. Open the EnFuzion3D Thumbnail browser. Show Animation of image output files, using Maya fcheck or Softimage flip. Open the system file browser in the directory with image output files. This feature works only on Windows. It is not supported on OS X or Linux. You can select one or more Frames from the list and resubmit them rendering. To select or unselect more than one Frame, right click on a Frame and choose Select/Unselect to toggle your choice. Image frame number File Name Image output file name Size Size of the file Date Modified Time at which the file was last modified 39

40 Name Show Image Description A right click on the file brings up a menu item, which can be selected to show the image. Maya fcheck or Softimage flip are used to show the image. Right click is activated with the right button click on your mouse Thumbnail Browser The EnFuzion3D Thumbnail Browser uses the Maya fcheck or the Softimage flip utility to convert and display images. You must have Maya or Softimage installed for this feature to work properly. Fcheck is tried first, flip is tried second. If you wish to use another viewer, please contact Axceleon at support@axceleon.com. The EnFuzion3D Thumbnail Browser generates thumbnails from the output images and shows them for a quick viewing. Clicking on a thumbnail shows a full image. Thumbnails are stored in the thumbnails subdirectory of the directory with output images. Thumbnail files have _tmb.jpg appended to the image name. EnFuzion3D tries to determine the image location automatically from the submission. If that is not possible, the user can specify the image location. Table 3-12 below explains the Fields and Buttons in the EnFuzion3D Thumbnail Browser window, as seen in Figure Figure 3-14: EnFuzion3D Thumbnail Browser Table 3-12: EnFuzion3D Thumbnail Browser Fields and Buttons Name Image Location Browse Description This field shows the location of the thumbnails to be displayed. Frame numbers are replaced with the letter *. Use this button to specify Image Location. Start Frame Start Frame number of Thumbnails to be displayed End Frame End Frame number of Thumbnails to be displayed 40

41 Name Description Step Run ID Selected Frames Refresh Show Image Frame number increment of Thumbnails to be displayed This is the Run ID assigned by EnFuzion3D, used to identify and track your submissions on the render farm. Select Frames by their Frame Number, separated by commas, e.g. 1, 2, 5. Refresh the display. You need to press this button to refresh the thumbnails, since they are not refreshed automatically by EnFuzion3D. Open a new EnFuzion3D Image browser. Show Animation Show Animation of thumbnails, using Maya fcheck or Softimage flip. Show Files Select Missing Submit Selected Open the system file browser in the directory with image output files. When inspecting the Thumbnails, this action lets you select all the Frames that do not have a Thumbnail, making it easy for you to resubmit only those Frames. Resubmit the Frames in the Selected Frames field for rendering 3.11 Compute Pools A Compute Pool is a logical grouping of Compute Nodes that share some attributes, for example, that they all have Maya 2015, or that they all run Windows. Once a Compute Pool is defined, jobs can be submitted to that pool specifically. Please note that although Compute Pools give users an additional level of control, it is not necessary for EnFuzion3D to operate. The EnFuzion scheduler is able to match jobs to resources on the render farm, and utilize all the compute resources automatically. Render farm administrator should plan the use of Compute Pools carefully, to balance the optimal utilization of some sources against the total throughput of the render farm. EnFuzion3D manages Compute Pools as follows: When EnFuzion3D is installed on Compute Nodes, the installation program automatically discovers what rendering software packages are installed on each Compute Node and automatically creates a Compute Pool for each different rendering software type, if one hasn t been created earlier, and assigns each Compute Node its Pool Membership accordingly. For example, on a Compute Node where EnFuzion3D discovers Maya 2014, Maya 2015 and After Effects, EnFuzion3D will make this Compute Node a member of three Compute Pools - Maya2014, Maya2015 and AfterEffects. By default, EnFuzion3D treats all Compute Nodes equally at the time of Job Submission. When a Job is dispatched to a Compute Node that lacks resources to process it, EnFuzion3D will automatically reschedule it on other Compute Node, and repeat the process until it finds a Compute Node that can process the Job. Because EnFuzion has a high performance and reliable scheduler, this trial and error approach is very dependable, requires the least amount of user intervention, and the least subject to human error. In the event 41

42 that none of the Compute Nodes on the render farm can handle the Job, because, for example, you don t have a particular renderer, EnFuzion3D will then set the Job status to failed Actions for Frames You can use the Pool Window to view the default Compute Pools created by EnFuzion3D, to create new Compute Pools or to make changes to existing Compute Pool Membership. Figure 3-15: Compute Pools Window Table 3-11 below explains all the field and buttons in the Compute Pools Window. Table 3-13: Compute Pools Name Compute Nodes Pools Create Pool Delete Pool Selected Pool Add Remove Apply Description This window shows all the Compute Nodes on the render farm. This window shows all the EnFuzion3D and user-defined Compute Pools. Use this button to create a new Compute Pool. For this release, you need to use the EnFuzion3D Web Interface to delete Compute Pools. Please refer to Chapter 16 Render Farm Administrators Guide for this information. When you choose to make changes to a specific Compute Pool by clicking on its name, it becomes the Select Pool, meaning that the Add and Remove functions will be applied to this Compute Pool. Add a Compute Node to the Selected Pool. Remove a Compute Node to the Selected Pool. Apply the changes to the Compute Pool definitions. 42

43 3.12 Files Used by EnFuzion3D This section provides information on files and directories that are used by EnFuzion3D. There is no need for the users to deal with these files during the day-to-day operation. <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/submissions This is the main submissions directory. It holds all information about user submissions, a submission log file and all working files. <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/submissions/submit.log The submit.log file contains a record of user submissions. The file includes basic information about a submission, which includes the time of the submission, the file submitted, the Run ID and submission status. The submit.log file is recorded for diagnostic and troubleshooting purposes. It is not used by EnFuzion3D and can be deleted by the user at any time. <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/submissions/last.log This file contains the name of the last submitted Run. <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/submissions/*.run Each time a user submits a Run, a unique file name <Submission Name>.run is created. These files are shown in the Previous... submission menu, which allows users to quickly resubmit a previously submitted run. A new submission with the same name will replace the previous version of the same.run file. Since the user creates these files, EnFuzion3D does not delete them. It is up to the user to delete these files when they are no longer needed. When EnFuzion3D is upgraded to a new version, it is recommended that you always delete old <Submission Name>.run files, since an old <Submission Name>.run file may not take advantage of any new EnFuzion3D features. <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/submissions/work This directory is a working area for EnFuzion3D. It holds temporary files and directories with information about user jobs. Users can delete the files in this directory when EnFuzion3D is not running. Please note that EnFuzion3D recycles Run IDs when the EnFuzion3D Control Root is rebooted. When this happens and a Run ID is reused, EnFuzion3D automatically erases files of the old version. Diagnostic files that are produced by the menu command Zip Diagnostic Files are also stored in this directory. These files are named run-<run ID>.zip. <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/config/submit.config[.txt] This file contains the address of the EnFuzion3D Control Root computer. 43

44 This file enables access to the EnFuzion3D Control Root computer and must not be deleted or modified by EnFuzion3D users. The EnFuzion3D installation program automatically creates this file. If the address of the EnFuzion3D Control Root computer changes, then you must update its address in the file. The address is specified as <host>:<port>. <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/config/submit3d.config[.txt] This file contains default configuration values for the EnFuzion3D.. This file can be modified by render farm administrators or users to change the default values and adapt EnFuzion3D for their specific needs. EnFuzion3D reads the file, but does not modify its content. <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/config/properties[.txt] This file contains a list of properties of Compute Nodes, used to hold the names of the Computer Pools. New values are retrieved from the EnFuzion3D Control Root Computer and added to this file when the Update button is pressed in the Advanced Submit Options panel. Users can delete the file at any time. If the file is deleted, updated Computer Pool information can be retrieved from the EnFuzion3D Control Root Computer using the Update button. Please see the section on how to assign Compute Nodes to Pools in the chapter with the Administrator s Guide. <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/config/*-template.run These template files specify many aspects of the applications plug-ins behavior and default settings. These template files are an integral part of EnFuzion3D and must not be deleted or modified by EnFuzion3D users. Render farm administrators can adapt the template files to meet custom requirements of their render farm. For more information on the syntax of the files and how to modify them, please contact Axceleon. <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/temp/EnFuzion3d.log This is a detailed diagnostic log for EnFuzion3D. The log is reset every time that EnFuzion3D is started. Users can delete the file at any time. 44

45 Chapter 4 4 3ds Max Plug-in for EnFuzion3D This chapter provides an overview on how to use the Autodesk 3ds Max plug-in for EnFuzion3D, and how to use the Chaos Software Ltd. V-Ray TM renderer for 3ds Max. 4.1 Software Compatibility To confirm software compatibility between EnFuzion3D and 3D application software, please see the latest EnFuzion3D software release notes on If you would like to configure EnFuzion3D to support a different version of your 3D application software, please contact Axceleon at support@axceleon.com. 4.2 Installing 3ds Max and Renderers Install 3ds Max and your renderers of choice by following the directions from their respective vendors. You must install them on all the User Submit Computers and all the Compute Nodes. 4.3 Installing Direct Submission Support in 3ds Max Install MAXScript on User Submit Computers to enable direct submission inside of 3ds Max. The steps are: Install EnFuzion3D Start 3ds Max Choose MAXScript > Run Script... and then open <EnFuzion3D_ Installation_Dir>\Config\3dsMax\registerEnFuzion3DMenu.ms Running this MAXScript adds a menu item EnFuzion Render to the 3ds Max Rendering menu. EnFuzion Render menu lets you submit Scenes directly from the 3ds Max Rendering menu. The 4.4 Installing Application Plug-ins The 3ds Max Plug-in for EnFuzion3D integrates EnFuzion3D with 3ds Max to enable distributed rendering on an EnFuzion3D managed render farm. All supported application plug-ins are automatically installed when you install EnFuzion3D. If you update the version of 3ds Max after you have installed EnFuzion3D, you must restart all the Compute Nodes that have been updated, so that EnFuzion can reconfigure its 3ds Max plug-in on those Compute Nodes. Upon a successful installation of EnFuzion3D, you can start the Job Submission Interface for 3ds Max 45

46 scenes by choosing Submit->3ds Max Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Desktop. The Job Submission Interface for 3ds Max is shown in Figure 4-1 below. Figure 4-1: EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface for 3ds Max Jobs Alternatively, you can open the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface for 3ds Max from within 3ds Max: Open a scene in 3ds Max and set render options for the scene Open the Rendering menu and choose EnFuzion3D Render, as shown in Figure Setting up File Sharing Figure 4-2: Invoking EnFuzion3D from 3ds Max Distributed rendering requires that all the scene files, texture files and other project files are stored at a location that is accessible by all Compute Nodes and from all the User Submit Computers. Likewise, all the Compute Nodes must also be able to access a shared location to store render images. 46

47 IMPORTANT: If you have at least one remote Compute Node, you must first set up file sharing between your User Submit Computer and your Compute Nodes before attempting distributed rendering. There are two ways to set up file sharing: Shared File Repository A render farm manager sets up a file server to hold all the scenes, project directories and images directories for all the users and computers on a render farm. Simple File Sharing You manually share your own project directories and images directories, so that you can use distributed rendering without a render farm wide Shared File Repository. If you are just getting started, or that you have a small render farm, Simple File Sharing is a good choice. It can be set up in just a few minutes. Please see Setting Up Simple File Sharing in Chapter 16 to see how to do it on Windows and OS X platforms. 4.6 Submitting a Scene from EnFuzion3D Desktop Invoke the Job Submission Interface by choosing Submit3ds Max Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Interface. Submit your first test scene using the minimum number of Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure 4-3. The submission is kept simple so you can quickly verify that your render farm is working properly. Submission Parameters Scene browse to locate the Scene. Frames frame range Output Directory specify a location for output images. Output File Name specify a name. Note that you must specify a file extension, e.g. myimage.jgp, else the submission will fail. Use default values for the rest of the parameters. Click on Submit to continue. Figure 4-3: Submitting a Scene Note that you must provide an extension for the Output File Name, e.g. myimage.jpg. Without a valid extension, the job submission will fail. Clicking on the Submit button brings up a summary of your Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure 4-4. Submit the Run to the render farm by clicking on the Confirm and Submit button. 47

48 Figure 4-4: Confirm Settings and Submit the Scene 4.7 Managing Interactive Services Warning Running 3ds Max 2015 on Compute Nodes can sometimes trigger the Windows Interactive Services Detection dialogue, as shown in Figure 4-5. This does not prevent successful job execution. Figure 4-5: Widows Interactive Services Detection You can disable Interactive Services Dialog Detection messages on Compute Nodes as follows: In Windows Start Menu, search for the word Services Click on Services and find Interactive Services Detection Right click on Interactive Services Detection and choose Properties You can Stop or Disable the Interactive Services Detection Services 48

49 Note that the Stop option will stop the Interactive Services Detection Services until you restart the machine, whereas Disable option will permanently stop these messages. 4.8 Submitting a Scene from within 3ds Max To submit from within 3ds Max, open your scene in 3ds Max, specify render settings for the scene, and choose RenderEnFuzion Render, as shown in Figure 4-2. This will in turn open the EnFuzion3D 3ds Max Job Submission Interface where you can complete the job submission. When a Scene is submitted to EnFuzion3D from 3ds Max, all the Submission Parameters are automatically filled out by EnFuzion3D from the Scene settings Tracking Your Submission Check the Messages window to verify the status of your submission. If your submission is successful, your submission is assigned a Run ID, and it will be displayed in the Active Runs or the Completed Runs Windows. You can use the Run ID to identify your submission and track its progress on the render farm. Please go to Chapter 2 EnFuzion3D Overview for instructions on how to track rendering progress of your submissions, retrieve results, and debug any problems if they occur Using V-Ray for 3ds Max with EnFuzion3D To render a scene with the V-Ray for 3ds Max renderer, make sure that when you create the scene, you specify V-Ray as your render of choice, and save your preference in the scene. Once this is done, simply submit your scene to the render farm by following the same steps as illustrated above. Of course you must also make sure that V-Ray for 3ds Max is installed and licensed on all of your Submit Computers and Compute Nodes Tile Rendering with EnFuzion3D EnFuzion3D supports tile rendering using 3ds Max, with the built-in renderer, and the V-Ray renderer. EnFuzion3D makes tile rendering easy for users by automating the following steps: Divide - Divide your Scene into tiles of your specified dimensions Render - Distribute the tiles to Compute Nodes for rendering with your renderer of choice Stitch - Stitch all the rendered tiles back into one image For information on how to render large images in tiles using 3ds Max and EnFuion3D, please refer to Appendix A 3ds Max Job Submission Parameters Complete Reference Information Please refer to Appendices A-L for the complete reference information for all the application plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. 49

50 Chapter 5 5 After Effects Plug-in for EnFuzion3D This chapter provides an overview on how to use the Adobe After Effects Plug-in for EnFuzion3D. 5.1 Software Compatibility To confirm software compatibility between EnFuzion3D and 3D application software, please see the latest EnFuzion3D software release notes on If you would like to configure EnFuzion3D to support a different version of your 3D application software, please contact Axceleon at support@axceleon.com. 5.2 Installing After Effects Install After Effects by following the directions from Adobe. You must install After Effects on all the User Submit Computers and all the Compute Nodes. 5.3 Configurations for Windows Based Render Farms This section explains the following configuration steps for computers on a Windows based render farm: On User Submit Computers - how to install Direction Submission Support, so that users can submit scenes for rendering from inside of After Effects On Compute Nodes - how to configure them for distributed rendering On Compute Nodes - how to configure the After Effects Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Installing Direct Submission Support Direction Submission Support enables users to submit scenes for rendering from inside of their 3D applications. This is a configuration step for User Submit Computers only. The simplest way to install direct submission support for After Effects is as follows: Open the EnFuzion3D Desktop on User Submit Computers Choose the Tools Install Application Scripts command This command enables direct submission support for all supported versions of After Effects that EnFuzion3D finds on a User Submit Computer. Alternatively, for an added level of control and flexibility, you can manually copy the scripts in place by following the steps below: 50

51 Copy the file <EnFuzion3D Installation Directory>\Config\AfterEffects\saveRenderQueue.jsx to the directory <After Effects Installation Directory>\Support Files\Scripts\Startup. In the directory <After Effects Installation Directory>\Support Files\Scripts\Startup, rename the file commandlinerenderer.jsx to commandlinerenderer.jsx-save. If you choose to use another name for this file, make sure that it does not have a.jsx postfix. Copy the file <EnFuzion3D Installation Directory>\Config\AfterEffects\commandLineRenderer.jsx to the directory <After Effects Installation Directory>\Support Files\Scripts\Startup. Copy the file <EnFuzion3D Installation Directory>\Config\AfterEffects\enf_SaveRenderQueue.jsx to the directory <After Effects Installation Directory>\Support Files\Scripts. Copy the file <EnFuzion3D Installation Directory>\Config\AfterEffects\enf_Submit.jsx to the directory <After Effects Installation Directory>\Support Files\Scripts Configuring Compute Nodes for Distributed Rendering You must configure your All of your Compute Nodes as follows to prepare them for distributed rendering managed by EnFuzion3D: In the directory <After Effects Installation Directory>\Support Files\Scripts\Startup directory, rename the file named commandlinerenderer.jsx to commandlinerenderer.jsx-save. If you choose to use another name for this file, make sure that it does not have a.jsx postfix. Copy the file <EnFuzion3D Installation Directory>\Config\AfterEffects\commandLineRenderer.jsx to the directory <After Effects Installation Directory>\Support Files\Scripts\Startup Configuring the After Effects Plug-in for EnFuzion3D The After Effects Plug-in for EnFuzion3D refers to a set of programs and configuration files that reside on Compute Nodes, whose job is to integrate EnFuzion3D with After Effects to enable distributed rendering. All supported 3D application plug-ins are automatically installed and configured when you install EnFuzion3D. When you update the version of After Effects after you have installed EnFuzion3D, you must restart all the Compute Nodes that have been updated, so that EnFuzion can reconfigure its After Effects plug-in on those Compute Nodes. 5.4 Configurations for OS X Based Render Farms This section explains the following configuration steps for computers on an OS X based render farm: On User Submit Computers - how to install Direction Submission Support, so that users can submit scenes for rendering from inside of After Effects On Compute Nodes - how to configure them for distributed rendering On Compute Nodes - how to configure the After Effects Plug-in for EnFuzion3D On Compute Nodes how to work around a known limitation on OS X Installing Direct Submission Support for After Effects Direction Submission Support enables users to submit scenes for rendering from inside of their 3D applications. This is a configuration step for User Submit Computers only. 51

52 The simplest way to install direct submission support for After Effects is as follows: Open the EnFuzion3D Desktop on User Submit Computers Choose the Tools Install Application Scripts command This command enables direct submission support for all supported versions of After Effects that EnFuzion3D finds on a User Submit Computer. Alternatively, for an added level of control and flexibility, you can manually copy the scripts in place by following the steps below: Copy the file /Users/<Artist User >/<EnFuzion3D Installation Directory>/config/aftereffects/ saverenderqueue.jsx to the directory /Applications/Adobe After Effects <version>/scripts/startup. In the directory /Applications/Adobe After Effects <version>/scripts/startup, rename the file commandlinerenderer.jsx to commandlinerenderer.jsx-save. If you choose to use another name for this file, make sure that it does not have a.jsx postfix. Copy the file /Users/<Artist User>/<EnFuzion3D Installation Directory>/config/aftereffects/ commandlinerender.jsx to the directory /Applications/Adobe After Effects <version>/scripts/startup. Copy the file /Users/<ArtistUser>/<EnFuzion3D Installation Directory>/config/aftereffects/ enf_saverenderqueue.jsx to the directory /Applications/Adobe After Effects <version>/scripts. Copy the file /Users/<Artist User >/<EnFuzion3D Installation Directory>/config/aftereffects/ enf_submit.jsx to the directory /Applications/Adobe After Effects <version>/scripts. Substitute <Artist User> with the name of the EnFuzion3D user on the User Submit Computer, and <version> with the version number of the After Effects installed on that computer Configuring Compute Nodes for Distributed Rendering You must configure your All of your Compute Nodes as follows to prepare them for distributed rendering managed by EnFuzion3D: In the directory /Applications/Adobe After Effects <version>/scripts/startup, rename the file commandlinerenderer.jsx to commandlinerenderer.jsx-save. If you choose to use another name for this file, make sure that it does not have a.jsx postfix. Copy the file /Users/<EnFuzion3D User>/<EnFuzion3D Installation Directory>/config/aftereffects/ commandlinerender.jsx to the directory /Applications/Adobe After Effects <version>/scripts/startup. Substitute <EnFuzion3D User> with the name of the Administrator user you installed EnFuzion3D to run under, and <version> with the version number of the After Effects installed on that computer Configuring the After Effects Plug-in for EnFuzion3D The After Effects Plug-in for EnFuzion3D refers to a set of programs and configuration files that reside on Compute Nodes, whose job is to integrate EnFuzion3D with After Effects to enable distributed rendering. All supported 3D application plug-ins are automatically installed and configured when you install EnFuzion3D. When you update the version of After Effects after you have installed EnFuzion3D, you must restart all the 52

53 Compute Nodes that have been updated, so that EnFuzion can reconfigure its After Effects plug-in on those Compute Nodes Working Around a Known Limitation on OS X Compute Nodes On OS X based Compute Nodes, when no user is logged in, rendering may fail with the following message: INIT_Processeses(), could not establish the default connection to the WindowServer There are two workarounds to prevent this situation: Login a user permanently on all the Compute Nodes. For this purpose, login as the Administrator user you installed EnFuzion3D under, which ideally is the same user that you installed your 3D application software under. Alternatively, change the access permission of the After Effects aerender program as follows: cd /Applications/Adobe After Effects <version> sudo chmod +s aerender sudo chown root aerender Adjust the instructions above to match your software version number and its actual installation location. You must do this on all of your Compute Nodes. Restart the affected Compute Nodes after you make these changes. 5.5 Invoking EnFuzion3D Upon a successful installation of EnFuzion3D and the After Effects Plug-in for EnFuzion3D, you will be able to access EnFuzion3D in two ways: Invoke EnFuzion3D directly, or Invoke EnFuzion3D from After Effects To submit directly from EnFuzion3D, start EnFuzion3D and choose Submit->After Effects Scenes to select the After Effects Job Submission interface. The Job Submission Interface for After Effects is shown in Figure 5-1 below. 53

54 Figure 5-1: EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface for After Effects Alternatively, you can start the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface for After Effects from After Effects. Open After Effects and the Project you are working with, add the composition that you want to render to the After Effects Render Queue and choose FileScriptsenf_Submit.jsx from the After Effects menu to submit a Run to EnFuzion3D, as shown in Figure 5-2. When you invoke the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface from After Effects, within the context of an After Effects Project, EnFuzion3D will automatically pick up all the Job Submission Parameters from the After Effects Render Queue of the Project. 5.6 Setting up File Sharing Figure 5-2: Invoking EnFuzion3D from After Effects Distributed rendering requires that all the scene files, texture files and other project files are stored at a location that is accessible by all Compute Nodes and from all the User Submit Computers. Likewise, all the 54

55 Compute Nodes must also be able to access a shared location to store render images. IMPORTANT: If you have at least one remote Compute Node, you must first set up file sharing between your User Submit Computer and your Compute Nodes before attempting distributed rendering. There are two ways to set up file sharing: Shared File Repository A render farm manager sets up a file server to hold all the scenes, project directories and images directories for all the users and computers on a render farm. Simple File Sharing You manually share your own project directories and images directories, so that you can use distributed rendering without a render farm wide Shared File Repository. If you are just getting started, or that you have a small render farm, Simple File Sharing is a good choice. It can be set up in just a few minutes. Please see Setting Up Simple File Sharing in Chapter 16 to see how to do it on Windows and OS X platforms. 5.7 Submitting a Project File for Rendering EnFuzion3D works with the After Effects Render Queue seamlessly. You can submit jobs queued in the After Effects Render Queue to an EnFuzion3D-run render farm directly from After Effects. Open your Project File in After Effects, and open the After Effects Render Queue, as shown in Figure 5-3. Add items for rendering to the After Effects Render Queue. Items to be rendered must have status Queued, as seen in Figure 5-3. Figure 5-3: After Effects Render Queue Enable After Effects to export the After Effects Render Queue information. In After Effects, turn on Preferences -> General -> Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network, as shown in Figure

56 Figure 5-4: After Effects Render Queue Submit your project file for rendering by choosing FileScriptsenf_Submit.jsx from the After Effects menu, as illustrated in Figure 5-2 above. This will open the EnFuzion Job Submission Interface with all the Submission Parameters are automatically filled out by EnFuzion3D from the After Effects Render Queue. Submit your first test to your render farm with the minimum number of Submission Parameters. submission is kept simple so you can quickly verify that your render farm is working properly. The Submission Parameters Project File -- aetest.aep Frames -- 0 End Frame 47 Composition makeimages, this must be a valid composition in the project file. Render Queue Items New/First Queued Version Choose the version of AE you are using Click on Submit to continue. Figure 5-5: Submitting a Composition Clicking on the Submit button brings up a summary of your Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure 5-6. Submit the Run to the render farm by clicking on the Confirm and Submit button. 56

57 Figure 5-6: Confirm Settings and Submit the Composition Check the Messages window to verify the status of your submission. If your submission was successful, your Run will be assigned a Run ID. Note this Run ID and use it to track your Run on the render farm. 5.8 Tracking Your Submission Check the Messages window to verify the status of your submission. If your submission is successful, your submission is assigned a Run ID, and it will be displayed in the Active Runs or the Completed Runs Windows. You can use the Run ID to identify your submission and track its progress on the render farm. Please go to Chapter 2 EnFuzion3D Overview for instructions on how to track rendering progress of your submissions, retrieve results, and debug any problems if they occur. 5.9 Making Movies with EnFuzion3D The EnFuzion3D After Effects plug-in lets you make a frame sequence and a movie in an automated process. The steps are: Using After Effects, open the Project File you want to work with, Define a composition that makes a frame sequence and submit it for rendering to the After Effects Render Queue. Make sure to define render settings, the output module, the output directory and the output image format, Define a composition that makes a movie and submit it for rendering to the After Effects Render Queue. Make sure to define render settings, the output module, the output directory and the output image format. The composition should have NO input Layers. The appropriate Layer with images will be automatically provided by EnFuzion3D. A movie composition in the After Effects Render Queue will take output images from the first preceding frame composition in the After Effects Render Queue. 57

58 Invoke the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface by choosing FileScriptsenf_Submit.jsx from the After Effects menu. Select the All Queued and Make Movies option when submitting the compositions to EnFuzion3D. An example is shown below. We have a Project File called aetest.aep. For this Project File we want to make a QuickTime Movie. To do this, we must: Define a composition makeimages, which makes a frame sequence ring_[#####].png. Make sure to define render settings, the output module, the output directory and the output image format. Add all the Layers to your composition. Define a companion Composition makemovie, with NO Layers specified, called ring.mov. Make sure to define render settings, the output module, the output directory and the output image format. Add both compositions to the After Effects Render Queue in the After Effects Render Queue, with the frame sequence compositing immediately before its companion movie sequence composition, as shown in Figure 5-7. This will cause EnFuzion3D to use the frames generated by the companion makeimages composition to generate the movie module. Frame composition queued first Movie composition queued immediately after Figure 5-7: Queuing Companion Frame and Movie Compositions Submit both compositions for rendering by choosing FileScriptsenf_Submit.jsx from the After Effects menu. This opens the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface, as seen in Figure 5-9. From the EnFuzion3D for Render Farm Job Submission Window, make sure to check Render Queue Items All Queued and Make Movies, as seen in Figure

59 Figure 5-8: Making a Movie with EnFuzion3D Clicking on the Submit button brings up a summary of your Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure 5-6. Submit the Run to the render farm by clicking on the Confirm and Submit button Complete Reference Information Please refer to Appendices A-L for the complete reference information for all the application plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. 59

60 Chapter 6 6 CINEMA 4D Plug-in for EnFuzion3D This chapter provides an overview on how to use the MAXON CINEMA 4D plug-in for EnFuzion3D. 6.1 Software Compatibility To confirm software compatibility between EnFuzion3D and 3D application software, please see the latest EnFuzion3D software release notes on If you would like to configure EnFuzion3D to support a different version of your 3D application software, please contact Axceleon at support@axceleon.com. 6.2 Installing CINEMA 4D Install CINEMA 4D by following the directions from Maxon. You must install CINEMA 4D on all the User Submit Computers and all the Compute Nodes. 6.3 Installing Direct Submission Support Direction Submission Support enables users to submit scenes for rendering from inside of their 3D applications. This is a configuration step for User Submit Computers only. The simplest way to install direct submission support for CINEMA 4D is as follows: Open the EnFuzion3D Desktop on User Submit Computers Choose the Tools Install Application Scripts command This command enables direct submission support for all supported versions of CINEMA 4D that EnFuzion3D finds on a User Submit Computer. The same steps apply to Windows and OS X based User Submit Computers. 6.4 Configuring the CINEMA 4D Plug-in for EnFuzion3D The CINEMA 4D Plug-in for EnFuzion3D refers to a set of programs and configuration files that reside on Compute Nodes, whose job is to integrate EnFuzion3D with CINEMA 4D to enable distributed rendering. All supported 3D application plug-ins are automatically installed and configured when you install EnFuzion3D. When you update the version of CINEMA 4D after you have installed EnFuzion3D, you must restart all the Compute Nodes that have been updated, so that EnFuzion can reconfigure its CINEMA 4D plug-in on those Compute Nodes. 60

61 6.5 Working Around a Known Limitation on OS X Compute Nodes On OS X based Compute Nodes, when no user is logged in, rendering may fail with the following message: INIT_Processeses(), could not establish the default connection to the WindowServer There are two workarounds to prevent this situation: Login a user permanently on all the Compute Nodes. For this purpose, login as the Administrator user you installed EnFuzion3D under, which ideally is the same user that you installed your 3D application software under. Alternatively, change the access permission of the CINEMA 4D program as follows: cd /Applications/MAXON/CINEMA 4D <version>/cinema 4D.app/Contents/ MacOS/ sudo chmod +s CINEMA 4D sudo chown root CINEMA 4D Adjust the instructions above to match your software version number and its actual installation location. You must do this on all of your Compute Nodes. Restart the affected Compute Nodes after you make these changes. 6.6 Invoking EnFuzion3D Upon a successful installation of EnFuzion3D, you can start the Job Submission Interface for CINEMA 4D scenes by choosing Submit-> CINEMA 4D Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Desktop, as shown in Figure 6-1. Figure 6-1: EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface for CINEMA 4D Jobs 6.7 Preparing a Scene for Submission Identify the scene (.c4d file) you wish to render, and turn on logging in the scene by: 61

62 Selecting menu EditPreferences:Renderer Checking Create Renderer Log File This is shown in Figure 6-2 below. 6.8 Setting up File Sharing Figure 6-2: Turn on logging for a Scene Distributed rendering requires that all the scene files, texture files and other project files are stored at a location that is accessible by all Compute Nodes and from all the User Submit Computers. Likewise, all the Compute Nodes must also be able to access a shared location to store render images. IMPORTANT: If you have at least one remote Compute Node, you must first set up file sharing between your User Submit Computer and your Compute Nodes before attempting distributed rendering. There are two ways to set up file sharing: Shared File Repository A render farm manager sets up a file server to hold all the scenes, project directories and images directories for all the users and computers on a render farm. Simple File Sharing You manually share your own project directories and images directories, so that you can use distributed rendering without a render farm wide Shared File Repository. If you are just getting started, or that you have a small render farm, Simple File Sharing is a good choice. It can be set up in just a few minutes. Please see Setting Up Simple File Sharing in Chapter 16 to see how to do it on Windows and OS X platforms. 6.9 Submitting your Scene Invoke the Job Submission Interface by choosing SubmitCINEMA 4D Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Interface. Submit your first test scene using the minimum number of Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure 6-3. The submission is kept simple so you can quickly verify that your render farm is working properly. 62

63 Submission Parameters Scene browse to locate the scene. Frames 1-60 Specify Output Directory Specify Output File Name Use default values for the rest of the parameters. Figure 6-3: Submitting a Scene Clicking on the Submit button brings up a summary of your Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure 6-4. Submit the Run to the render farm by clicking on the Confirm and Submit button. Figure 6-4: Finalize Scene Submission to the Render Farm To submit a scene directly from the Cinema 4D Script menu, select ScriptUser Scripts EnFuzion Submit, as shown in Figure

64 6.10 Tracking your submission Figure 6-5: Cinema 4D Direct Submission to EnFuzion Check the Messages window to verify the status of your submission. If your submission is successful, your submission is assigned a Run ID, and it will be displayed in the Active Runs or the Completed Runs Windows. You can use the Run ID to identify your submission and track its progress on the render farm. Please go to Chapter 2 EnFuzion3D Overview for instructions on how to track rendering progress of your submissions, retrieve results, and debug any problems if they occur Complete Reference Information Please refer to Appendices A-L for the complete reference information for all the application plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. 64

65 Chapter 7 7 Houdini Plug-in for EnFuzion3D This chapter provides an overview on how to use the Side Effects Software Houdini TM Plug-in for EnFuzion3D. 7.1 Software Compatibility To confirm software compatibility between EnFuzion3D and 3D application software, please see the latest EnFuzion3D software release notes on If you would like to configure EnFuzion3D to support a different version of your 3D application software, please contact Axceleon at support@axceleon.com. 7.2 Installing Houdini Install Houdini by following the directions from Side Effects Software. You must install Houdini on all the User Submit Computers and all the Compute Nodes. An additional configuration step is required for Houdini on Compute Nodes. The user account that EnFuzion3D uses to run on Compute Nodes must have read, write and modify permissions to the Houdini directory, so that EnFuzion3D can manage the render log. Follow the steps below to set these permissions: In the Windows Explorer, right click on C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini Select PropertiesSecurity Under Group or user names, select Users Under Permissions for Users turn on Full Control Click OK. 7.3 Configuring the Houdini Plug-in for EnFuzion3D The Houdini Plug-in for EnFuzion3D refers to a set of programs and configuration files that reside on Compute Nodes, whose job is to integrate EnFuzion3D with Houdini to enable distributed rendering. All supported 3D application plug-ins are automatically installed and configured when you install EnFuzion3D. When you update the version of Houdini after you have installed EnFuzion3D, you must restart all the Compute Nodes that have been updated, so that EnFuzion can reconfigure its Houdini plug-in on those Compute Nodes. 7.4 Invoking EnFuzion3D Upon a successful installation of EnFuzion3D, you can start the Job Submission Interface for Houdini scenes by choosing Submit-> Houdini Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Desktop. 65

66 7.5 Setting up File Sharing Figure 7-1: EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface for Houdini Jobs Distributed rendering requires that all the scene files, texture files and other project files are stored at a location that is accessible by all Compute Nodes and from all the User Submit Computers. Likewise, all the Compute Nodes must also be able to access a shared location to store render images. IMPORTANT: If you have at least one remote Compute Node, you must first set up file sharing between your User Submit Computer and your Compute Nodes before attempting distributed rendering. There are two ways to set up file sharing: Shared File Repository A render farm manager sets up a file server to hold all the scenes, project directories and images directories for all the users and computers on a render farm. Simple File Sharing You manually share your own project directories and images directories, so that you can use distributed rendering without a render farm wide Shared File Repository. If you are just getting started, or that you have a small render farm, Simple File Sharing is a good choice. It can be set up in just a few minutes. Please see Setting Up Simple File Sharing in Chapter 16 to see how to do it on Windows and OS X platforms. 7.6 Preparing a Scene for Submission Identify the Scene (.hip file) you wish to render. You must first export the corresponding ifd files before the ifd files can be submitted to the render farm using EnFuzion3D. Follow these steps below to export he ifd files: Open the Scene in Houdini Select the Render View tab in main window Select Open output driver parameters button, a driver parameters window will open Check Disk File option and enter a path where ifd files will be stored 66

67 7.7 Submitting a Scene Figure 7-2: Set up ifd Files Invoke the Job Submission Interface by choosing SubmitHoudini Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Interface. Submit your first test scene using the minimum number of Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure 7-3. The submission is kept simple so you can quickly verify that your render farm is working properly. 67

68 Submission Parameters Scene - The name of the first.ifd file Output Directory The location where rendered images should be stored. Output File Name Common part of file names generated by the renderer. A sequence number is added to the output file name for each generated file. Use default values for the rest of the parameters. Click Submit to continue. Figure 7-3: Submitting a Scene Clicking on the Submit button brings up a summary of your Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure 7-4. Submit the Run to the render farm by clicking on the Confirm and Submit button. Figure 7-4: Finalize Scene Submission to the Render Farm 7.8 Tracking Your Submission Check the Messages window to verify the status of your submission. 68

69 If your submission is successful, your submission is assigned a Run ID, and it will be displayed in the Active Runs or the Completed Runs Windows. You can use the Run ID to identify your submission and track its progress on the render farm. Please go to Chapter 2 EnFuzion3D Overview for instructions on how to track rendering progress of your submissions, retrieve results, and debug any problems if they occur. 7.9 Complete Reference Information Please refer to Appendices A-L for the complete reference information for all the application plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. 69

70 Chapter 8 8 LightWave Plug-in for EnFuzion3D This chapter provides an overview on how to use the NewTek LightWave Plug-in for EnFuzion3D. 8.1 Software Compatibility To confirm software compatibility between EnFuzion3D and 3D application software, please see the latest EnFuzion3D software release notes on If you would like to configure EnFuzion3D to support a different version of your 3D application software, please contact Axceleon at support@axceleon.com. 8.2 Installing LightWave Install LightWave by following the directions from Newtek. You must install LightWave on all the User Submit Computers and all the Compute Nodes. 8.3 Configuring the LightWave Plug-in for EnFuzion3D The LightWave Plug-in for EnFuzion3D refers to a set of programs and configuration files that reside on Compute Nodes, whose job is to integrate EnFuzion3D with LightWave to enable distributed rendering. All supported 3D application plug-ins are automatically installed and configured when you install EnFuzion3D. When you update the version of LightWave after you have installed EnFuzion3D, you must restart all the Compute Nodes that have been updated, so that EnFuzion can reconfigure its LightWave plug-in on those Compute Nodes. 8.4 Working Around a Known Limitation on OS X Compute Nodes On OS X based Compute Nodes, when no user is logged in, rendering may fail with the following message: INIT_Processeses(), could not establish the default connection to the WindowServer There are two workarounds to prevent this situation: Login a user permanently on all the Compute Nodes. For this purpose, login as the Administrator user you installed EnFuzion3D under, which ideally is the same user that you installed your 3D application software under. Alternatively, change the access permission of the LightWave Layout command as follows: cd /Applications/Newtek/LightWave3D_<version>/Layout.app/Contents/ MacOS/ 70

71 sudo chmod +s Layout sudo chown root Layout Adjust the instructions above to match your software version number and its actual installation location. You will need to do on all of your Compute Nodes. Restart the affected Compute Nodes after you make these changes Invoking EnFuion3D Upon a successful installation of EnFuzion3D, you can start the Job Submission Interface for LightWave scenes by choosing Submit->LightWave Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Desktop. 8.6 Setting up File Sharing Figure 8-1: EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface for LightWave Jobs Distributed rendering requires that all the scene files, texture files and other project files are stored at a location that is accessible by all Compute Nodes and from all the User Submit Computers. Likewise, all the Compute Nodes must also be able to access a shared location to store render images. IMPORTANT: If you have at least one remote Compute Node, you must first set up file sharing between your User Submit Computer and your Compute Nodes before attempting distributed rendering. There are two ways to set up file sharing: Shared File Repository A render farm manager sets up a file server to hold all the scenes, project directories and images directories for all the users and computers on a render farm. Simple File Sharing You manually share your own project directories and images directories, so that you can use distributed rendering without a render farm wide Shared File Repository. If you are just getting started, or that you have a small render farm, Simple File Sharing is a good choice. It can be set up in just a few minutes. Please see Setting Up Simple File Sharing in Chapter 16 to see how to do it on Windows and OS X platforms. 71

72 8.7 Submitting a Scene Invoke the Job Submission Interface by choosing SubmitLightWave Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Interface. Submit your first test scene using the minimum number of Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure 8-2. The submission is kept simple so you can quickly verify that your render farm is working properly. Submission Parameters: Scene browse to locate the scene Frames Specify frame range Content Directory specify a location of the Content Directory for the scene Use default values for the rest of the parameters. Figure 8-2: Submitting a Scene Clicking on the Submit button brings up a summary of your Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure 8-3. Submit the Run to the render farm by clicking on the Confirm and Submit button. Figure 8-3: Confirm Settings and Submit the Scene 72

73 8.8 Monitoring Rendering Progress Check the Messages window to verify the status of your submission. If your submission is successful, your submission is assigned a Run ID, and it will be displayed in the Active Runs or the Completed Runs Windows. You can use the Run ID to identify your submission and track its progress on the render farm. Please go to Chapter 2 EnFuzion3D Overview for instructions on how to track rendering progress of your submissions, retrieve results, and debug any problems if they occur. 8.9 Complete Reference Information Please refer to Appendices A-L for the complete reference information for all the application plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. 73

74 Chapter 9 9 Maya Plug-in for EnFuzion3D This chapter provides an overview on how to use the Autodesk Maya Plug-in for EnFuzion3D, and how to use the following renderers: Maya Software renderer Maya Hardware renderer Maya vector mental ray renderer mental ray standalone for Maya renderer V-Ray TM renderer Arnold renderer 9.1 Note to mental ray Users Use this plug-in, i.e. Maya Plug-in for EnFuzion3D, when you are: Starting with.ma or.mb Files and want to render using mental ray Starting with.ma or.mb Files, and want to use EnFuzion3D to automatically generate.mi Files as an intermediate step, and then to render these.mi files with mental ray Standalone. Use the mental ray Standalone plug-in for EnFuzion3D when you already have.mi Files, and you want to render them with mental ray Standalone. Please see Chapter 10 mental ray Standalone Plug-in for EnFuzion3D for more information. 9.2 Software Compatibility To confirm software compatibility between EnFuzion3D and 3D application software, please see the latest EnFuzion3D software release notes on If you would like to configure EnFuzion3D to support a different version of your 3D application software, please contact Axceleon at support@axceleon.com. 9.3 Installing Maya Install Maya by following the directions from Autodesk. Computers and all the Compute Nodes. You must install Maya on all the User Submit 74

75 9.4 Installing Direct Submission Support Direction Submission Support enables users to submit scenes for rendering from inside of their 3D applications. This is a configuration step for User Submit Computers only. The simplest way to install direct submission support for Maya is as follows: Open the EnFuzion3D Desktop on User Submit Computers Choose the Tools Install Application Scripts command This command enables direct submission support for all supported versions of Maya that EnFuzion3D finds on a User Submit Computer. Alternatively, for an added level of control and flexibility, you can manually copy the scripts in place by following the steps below: On Windows: Copy the file <EnFuzion3D Installation Directory>\config\Maya\* to the directory <Maya User Directory>\scripts, where the default location of <Maya User Directory>\scripts directory is C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\My Documents\maya\scripts On OS X: Copy the file < EnFuzion3D Installation Directory >/config/maya/* to the <Maya User Directory>/scripts directory, where the default location of <Maya User Directory>/scripts directory is ~/Library/Preferences/Alias/maya/scripts On Linux: Copy the file < EnFuzion3D Installation Directory >/config/maya/* to the <Maya User Directory>/scripts directory, where the default location of < Maya User Directory >/scripts directory is ~/maya/scripts. 9.5 Configuring the Maya Plug-in for EnFuzion3D The Maya Plug-in for EnFuzion3D refers to a set of programs and configuration files that reside on Compute Nodes, whose job is to integrate EnFuzion3D with Maya to enable distributed rendering. All supported 3D application plug-ins are automatically installed and configured when you install EnFuzion3D. When you update the version of Maya after you have installed EnFuzion3D, you must restart all the Compute Nodes that have been updated, so that EnFuzion can reconfigure its Maya plug-in on those Compute Nodes. 9.6 Working Around a Known Limitation on OS X Compute Nodes On OS X based Compute Nodes, when no user is logged in, rendering may fail with the following message: INIT_Processeses(), could not establish the default connection to the WindowServer There are two workarounds to prevent this situation: Login a user permanently on all the Compute Nodes. For this purpose, login as the Administrator user you installed EnFuzion3D under, which ideally is the same user that you installed your 3D application software under. Alternatively, change the access permission of the Maya Render command as follows: cd /Applications/Autodesk/maya2016/Maya.app/Contents/MacOS/ 75

76 sudo chmod +s Render sudo chown root Render Adjust the instructions above to match your software version number and its actual installation location. You must do this on all of your Compute Nodes. Restart the affected Compute Nodes after you make these changes. 9.7 Maya Job Submission Interface Upon a successful installation of EnFuzion3D, Maya Plug-in for EnFuzion3D and the direct job submission support, you will be able to submit jobs for rendering in two ways: Submit from EnFuzion3D Desktop, or Submitting jobs directly from within Maya To submit from EnFuzion3D Desktop, open the Maya Job Submission Interface by choosing the menu Submit->Maya Scenes or by clicking on the Maya icon. The Maya Job Submission Interface is shown in Figure 9-1 below. Figure 9-1: EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface for Maya Jobs To submit from within Maya, open your scene in Maya, specify render settings for the scene, and choose RenderEnFuzion3D Render, as shown in Figure 9-2. This will in turn open the EnFuzion3D Maya Job Submission Interface where you can complete the job submission. 76

77 Figure 9-2: Invoking EnFuzion3D from Maya 9.8 Setting up File Sharing Identify the Scene (.ma or.mb file) you wish to render. Open the Scene in Maya. Open File->Project->Set and File->Project->Edit Current to confirm Project Name and Location, as shown in Figure 9-3. Figure 9-3: Verifying Maya Project Name and Location Verify that the Project Location, Maya Scene File Locations and Maya Project Data Locations are accessible over the network. Distributed rendering requires that all the scene files, texture files and other project files are stored at a location that is accessible by all Compute Nodes and from all the User Submit Computers. Likewise, all the Compute Nodes must also be able to access a shared location to store render images. 77

78 IMPORTANT: If you have at least one remote Compute Node, you must first set up file sharing between your User Submit Computer and your Compute Nodes before attempting distributed rendering. There are two ways to set up file sharing: Shared File Repository A render farm manager sets up a file server to hold all the scenes, project directories and images directories for all the users and computers on a render farm. Simple File Sharing You manually share your own project directories and images directories, so that you can use distributed rendering without a render farm wide Shared File Repository. If you are just getting started, or that you have a small render farm, Simple File Sharing is a good choice. It can be set up in just a few minutes. Please see Setting Up Simple File Sharing in Chapter 16 to see how to do it on Windows and OS X platforms. 9.9 Verifying Render Settings Open your Scene with Maya and examine its Render Settings, as seen in Figure 9-4. Make sure you have set all the required Render Settings. EnFuzion3D allows you to overwrite some of these Render Settings at submission time, but you should always set all necessary Render Settings using Maya. Figure 9-4: Verifying Maya Render Settings IMPORTANT: If you have changed the Maya Project Settings, you must exit from Maya to ensure that all the Project settings are saved. If you have changed only the Scene or its Render Settings, then you must save the Scene before it is submitted for rendering Submitting a Scene from EnFuzion3D Desktop Invoke the Job Submission Interface by choosing SubmitMaya Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Interface. Submit your first test scene using the minimum number of Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure 9-5. The submission is kept simple so you can quickly verify that your render farm is working properly. 78

79 Use Maya software renderer for your first tests. Directions on how to use the other renders are presented later in this chapter. Submission Parameters Scene browse to locate the Scene. The file must be accessible over the network. Frames 1 Step -1 Project Directory specify a location of the project. The directory must be accessible over the network. Renderer Maya software (Only for heterogeneous farms) specify Image Directory under the Render Settings menu. Use default values for the rest of the Submission Parameters. Click on Submit to continue. Figure 9-5: Submitting a Scene If some of the Compute Nodes in your render farm use a different operating system than your computer, then you need to specify also Image Directory under the Render Settings menu. Clicking on the Submit button brings up a summary of your Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure 9-6. Submit the Run to the render farm by clicking on the Confirm and Submit button. Figure 9-6: Confirm Settings and Submit the Scene 9.11 Submitting a Scene from within Maya To submit from within Maya, open your scene in Maya, specify render settings for the scene, and choose RenderEnFuzion3D Render, as shown in Figure 9-7. This will in turn open the EnFuzion3D Maya Job Submission Interface where you can complete the job submission. When a Scene is submitted to EnFuzion3D from Maya, all the Submission Parameters are automatically 79

80 filled out by EnFuzion3D from the Scene settings Tracking Your Submission Figure 9-7: Direct Submission from within Maya If your submission is successful, your submission is assigned a Run ID, and it will be displayed in the Active Runs or the Completed Runs Windows. You can use the Run ID to identify your submission and track its progress on the render farm. Please go to Chapter 2 EnFuzion3D Overview for instructions on how to track rendering progress of your submissions, retrieve results, and debug any problems if they occur Automated.mi File Generation, Submission and Rendering EnFuzion3D speeds up and streamlines the process of generating, submitting and rendering.mi Files for use with the mental ray Standalone renderer. Specifically, EnFuzion3D enables the user to do the following: Direct submission from Maya Speeding up.mi Files generation by using multiple machines on the render farm Streamlining.mi Files generation, submission and rendering processes into one step Rendering with the mental ray Standalone for Maya renderer To configure EnFuzion3D to automate the.mi file generation, submission and rendering, users must turn on the Use Standalone checkbox, and specify the necessary parameters from the EnFuzion3DJob Submission Interface for Maya, as shown in Figure 9-8. Appendices A-L provide the complete reference information on these configuration parameters. 80

81 Figure 9-8: Parameters for.mi File Generation, Submission and Rendering 9.14 Working with Layers and the mental ray Renderer A Tutorial This section offers a tutorial on how to use EnFuzion3D with the mental ray renderer to render a multi-layered scene. This information is relevant to anyone using the mental ray renderer and working with layers. For this example we have a Maya scene (.ma or.mb), with 1 Maya layer and 2 mental ray layer defined. The 2 mental ray layer can be rendered using the mental ray for Maya renderer or the mental ray Standalone renderer, depending on the type of software license you have. The two sections below tell you how to render this Scene with each option Using the mental ray for Maya render To render the multi-layered scene described above, using the Maya software renderer and the mental ray for Maya renderer, please note the following: Start Maya, open the scene, and invoke EnFuzion3D render from Maya. This opens the EnFuzion3DJob Submission Interface, as shown in Figure 9-1. When EnFuzion3D loads the scene, it automatically loads the basic Submission Parameters for each Layer, e.g., Frames, Step, and Renderer. There is no need for users to do anything unless they want to override something. Highlight one or more Layers you wish to submit in one Run. You can Use Shift-Down Arrow to highlight several Layers or Control-Click to select individual Layers. EnFuzion3D will render each Layer according to the Submission Parameters you have set for that Layer. Figure 9-9 below shows the minimum Submission Parameters needed to submit our example scene for rendering, using the Maya software renderer and the mental ray for Maya renderer. Please refer to Appendices A-L for the complete reference information on all the Submission Parameters. 81

82 Submission Parameters: Scene Should be filled out when you invoke the EnFuzion3D Job Submission interface from Maya. Browse to locate otherwise. Frame and Step Should be filled out when you invoke the EnFuzion3D Job Submission interface from Maya. Enter if needed. Project Directory Should be filled out when you invoke the EnFuzion3D Job Submission interface from Maya. This is a required field. It provides the location of the Maya Project Directory. Layers - Should be filled out when you invoke the EnFuzion3D Job Submission interface from Maya. Highlight Layer(s) to submit. Click Submit to continue. Figure 9-9: Working with Layers and Maya software renderer Using the mental ray for Maya render To render the multi-layered scene described above, using the Maya software renderer and the mental ray Standalone renderer, please note the following: Start Maya, open the scene, and invoke EnFuzion3D render from Maya. This opens the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface, as shown in Figure 9-1. When EnFuzion3D loads the scene, it automatically loads the basic Submission Parameters for each Layer, e.g., Frames, Step and Renderer. There is no need for users to do anything unless they want to override something. Highlight one or more Layers you wish to submit in one Run. You can Use Shift-Down Arrow to highlight several Layers or Control-Click to select individual Layers. EnFuzion3D will render each Layer according to the Submission Parameters you have set for that Layer. To render the mental ray Layers with the mental ray Standalone renderer, you need to do the following: o o o Check the Use Standalone checkbox, and Provide settings for File per Frame, Render, Delete.mi Files,.mi Directory,.mi File Name and mental ray Options (if you are working with texture files) IMPORTANT: You must provide a setting for Render SettingsImage Directory. This is a required parameter. Neglecting to do this will cause your render to fail. 82

83 When you are using EnFuzion3D to automate the.mi file exporting and rendering process, you are implicitly submitting 2 Runs at the same time. The first Run calls Maya to export the.mi files, and the second Run calls mental ray to do the actual rendering. Therefore there are two potential Compute Pools that you need to set and this is especially true when you have different pools of machines for Maya and for mental ray Standalone. If this is your situation, please note the following: o o You use the Compute Pool setting on the Advanced Submit Options dialogue to determine the machines to use for exporting.mi files with Maya. You use the submit3d.config.[txt] file to set the default Compute Pool for rendering with mental ray Standalone. In the submit3d.config.[txt] file, and the mental ray Standalone for Maya section, uncomment line that says: ComputerPool<Name of Pool> Replace <Name of Pool> with the actual name of the Compute Pool that contains all the machines that have mental ray Standalone licenses, e.g. MayaMI351. Please see Section for instructions on how to add machines to the mental ray Standalone Compute Pool. Setting the aforementioned parameters will cause EnFuzion3D to automatically generate the required.mi Files for the mental ray Standalone renderer, and to submit and render them. Figure 9-10 below shows the minimum Submission Parameters needed to submit our example scene for rendering, using the Maya software renderer and the mental ray for Maya renderer. Please refer to Appendices A-L for the complete reference information on all the Submission Parameters. Figure 9-10: Working with Layers and mental ray Standalone renderer 83

84 Submission Parameters: Submission Parameters - continued Scene Should be filled out when you invoke the EnFuzion3DJob Submission interface from Maya. Browse to locate otherwise. Render Render the.mi Files after they are generated. If this option is not checked,.mi Files are generated, but not rendered. Frame and Step Should be filled out when you invoke the EnFuzion3DJob Submission interface from Maya. Enter if needed. Project Directory Should be filled out when you invoke the EnFuzion3DJob Submission interface from Maya. This is a required field. It provides the location of the Maya Project Directory. Layers - Should be filled out when you invoke the EnFuzion3DJob Submission interface from Maya. Highlight Layer(s) to submit Delete.mi Files Delete.mi Files after they are successfully rendered. If this option is not checked or if rendering fails,.mi files are not deleted. Use Standalone Use the mental ray Standalone renderer to render the mental ray Layers. If this option is not checked, mental ray for Maya will be used instead..mi Directory The location for the generated, intermediate.mi files Renderer Make sure this setting is correct for each Layer.mi File Name Name for the generated.mi Files. File Per Frame Generate a.mi file for each frame. If this option is not checked, one.mi file is generated for all the frames. Render Settings Image Directory Location for the rendered images Click Submit to continue. 84

85 9.15 Tile Rendering with EnFuzion3D EnFuzion3D supports tile rendering with the following renderers: Maya software renderer mental ray for Maya EnFuzion3D makes tile rendering easy for users by automating the following steps: Divide - Divide your Scene into tiles of your specified dimensions Render - Distribute the tiles to Compute Nodes for rendering with your renderer of choice Stitch - Stitch all the rendered tiles back into one image For information on how to render large images in tiles using Maya and EnFuion3D, please refer to Appendix F Maya Job Submission Parameters Using RenderMan for Maya with EnFuzion3D The EnFuzion3D for Maya plug-in works with the RenderMan for Maya renderer without any additional configuration steps. However, you can install an optional MEL script so that EnFuzion3Dis able to detect the location of output images. This MEL script is provided by Axceleon. Follow the steps below to install the MEL script on Windows: Save the original script from Pixar for safekeeping. The original can be found at: c:/program Files/Pixar/RenderMan_for_Maya<version>/scripts/renderManExecBatchRenderLay er.mel Copy the Axceleon provided script from: <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/config/renderman/renderManExecBatchRenderLaye r.mel to the location of the original Pixar MEL script: c:/program Files/Pixar/RenderMan_for_Maya<version>/scripts/renderManExecBatchRenderLay er.mel Follow the steps below to install the MEL script on OS X: Save the original script from Pixar for safekeeping. The original can be found at: /Applications/Pixar/RenderMan_for_Maya<version>/scripts/renderManExec BatchRenderLayer.mel Copy the Axceleon provided script from: 85

86 <EnFuzion_Installation_Dir>/config/renderman/renderManExecBatchRender Layer.mel to the location of the original Pixar MEL script: /Applications/Pixar/RenderMan_for_Maya<version>/scripts/renderManExec BatchRenderLayer.mel 9.17 Using Arnold and V-Ray Renderers To render a scene with the Arnold or V-Ray renderers, make sure that when you create the scene, you specify Arnold or V-Ray as your render of choice, and save your preference in the scene. Once this is done, simply submit your scene to the render farm by following the same steps as illustrated above. Of course you must also make sure that the Arnold or V-Ray renderers plug-ins are properly installed and licensed on all of your Submit Computers and Compute Nodes Complete Reference Information Please refer to Appendices A-L for the complete reference information for all the application plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. 86

87 Chapter mental ray Standalone for Maya Plug-in This chapter provides an overview on how to use the NVIDIA ARC GmbH mental ray Standalone for Maya Plug-in for EnFuzion3D. In the remainder of this chapter, the mental ray Standalone for Maya Plug-in for EnFuzion3D will be referred to as mental ray Standalone Plug-in for simplicity When to Use This Plug-in Use this plug-in when you want to use the mental ray Standalone renderer, and you have already exported the required.mi Files. If you are starting with.mi and.mb Files, and you wish to use EnFuzion3D to automatically generate the.mi Files required by the mental ray Standalone renderer, please see Chapter 9 on how to do it with the for Maya Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Software Compatibility To confirm software compatibility between EnFuzion3D and 3D application software, please see the latest EnFuzion3D software release notes on If you would like to configure EnFuzion3D to support a different version of your 3D application software, please contact Axceleon at support@axceleon.com Installing mental ray Standalone Install mental ray Standalone by following the directions from Autodesk, Inc. You must install mental ray Standalone on all the Compute Nodes Exporting.mi Files from Maya The mental ray Standalone Plug-in requires that you export.mi Files from your Maya scene.. Please follow the steps below to export.mi Files for rendering on an EnFuzion3D-run render farm: From Maya menu, choose FileExport All to open the Export All window, as shown in Figure 10-3 below. In the Options panel, choose the following options while exporting.mi Files for rendering: o o o Files of type Choose mental ray File Format Choose ASCII Frame Extension Choose name.#.ext for multiple frames or name.ext for a single frame o Frame Padding Choose 0 87

88 o In File name supply a file name for the.mi file in the form of name only Choose Export to start the export process. If you selected Output File Per Frame,.mi Files will be created in the form name.#.mi. Otherwise, the file name will be name.mi.. Figure 10-1: Export Dialogue 10.5 Configuring the mental ray Plug-in for EnFuzion3D The mental ray Plug-in for EnFuzion3D refers to a set of programs and configuration files that reside on Compute Nodes, whose job is to integrate EnFuzion3D with mental ray to enable distributed rendering. All supported 3D application plug-ins are automatically installed and configured when you install EnFuzion3D. When you update the version of mental ray after you have installed EnFuzion3D, you must restart all the Compute Nodes that have been updated, so that EnFuzion can reconfigure its mental ray plug-in on those Compute Nodes Invoking EnFuzion3D Upon a successful installation of EnFuzion3D, you can start the Job Submission Interface for mental ray scenes by choosing Submit->mental ray Standalone Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Desktop. The Job Submission Interface for mental ray Standalone is shown in Figure 10-5 below. 88

89 Figure 10-2: Job Submission Interface for mental ray Standalone Jobs 10.7 Setting up File Sharing Distributed rendering requires that all the scene files, texture files and other project files are stored at a location that is accessible by all Compute Nodes and from all the User Submit Computers. Likewise, all the Compute Nodes must also be able to access a shared location to store render images. IMPORTANT: If you have at least one remote Compute Node, you must first set up file sharing between your User Submit Computer and your Compute Nodes before attempting distributed rendering. There are two ways to set up file sharing: Shared File Repository A render farm manager sets up a file server to hold all the scenes, project directories and images directories for all the users and computers on a render farm. Simple File Sharing You manually share your own project directories and images directories, so that you can use distributed rendering without a render farm wide Shared File Repository. If you are just getting started, or that you have a small render farm, Simple File Sharing is a good choice. It can be set up in just a few minutes. Please see Setting Up Simple File Sharing in Chapter 16 to see how to do it on Windows and OS X platforms Submitting a Scene Invoke the Job Submission Interface by choosing SubmitMaya MI Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Interface. Submit your first test scene using the minimum number of Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure The submission is kept simple so you can quickly verify that your render farm is working properly. 89

90 Submission Parameters: Scene - Browse to locate the first.mi file in the Scene that you want to render. We use apple.1.mi in our example. The name will be changed by EnFuzion3D to the form apple${frame}.mi, so that all the related.mi Files can be submitted at once. Frames frame range Output Directory specify a location for output images. The directory must be accessible over the network. Use default values for the rest of the parameters. Click on Submit to proceed. Figure 10-3: Submitting a Scene 2 When you browse to locate the first.mi file in a scene, for example app.1.mi, EnFuzion3D will automatically change the name to the form apple${frame}.mi, so that all the related.mi Files can be submitted at once. In release 15.0, if you resubmit this scene, when the Job Submission Windows opens, the scene name will show as apple#.mi, not apple${frame}.mi. This does not affect rendering. You can just ignore it. Clicking on the Submit button brings up a summary of your Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure Submit the Run to the render farm by clicking on the Confirm and Submit button. 2 The test scene used in this example is copyrighted and provided courtesy of Autodesk, Inc. 90

91 10.9 Tracking Your Submission Figure 10-4: Confirm Settings and Submit the Scene Check the Messages window to verify the status of your submission. If your submission is successful, your submission is assigned a Run ID, and it will be displayed in the Active Runs or the Completed Runs Windows. You can use the Run ID to identify your submission and track its progress on the render farm. Please go to Chapter 2 EnFuzion3D Overview for instructions on how to track rendering progress of your submissions, retrieve results, and debug any problems if they occur Batch Generating.mi Files The following command takes a Maya Scene and generates.mi Files: maya -batch -command "Mayatomr -mi -pf 2 -file <output>.mi -xp rrarrarrrr" -file <Scene>.ma Replace <output> with the name of the output.mi Files and <Scene>.ma with the Maya Scene file. The command can be included in a script or executed from a command line Tile Rendering with EnFuzion3D EnFuzion3D 15.0 supports tile rendering using the mental ray Standalone renderer. rendering easy for users by automating these steps: EnFuzion3D makes tile Generate Produce an.mi file from your Maya Scene Divide Divide your Scene into a number of tiles Render Distribute the tiles to various Compute Nodes for rendering and render them 91

92 Stitch - Stitch all the rendered tiles back into one image For information on how to render large images in tiles using mental ray Standalone for Maya and EnFuion3D,, please refer to Appendix F Maya Job Submission Parameters Complete Reference Information Please refer to Appendices A-L for the complete reference information for all the application plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. 92

93 Chapter Nuke Plug-in for EnFuzion3D This chapter provides an overview on how to use the Foundry Visionmongers Ltd. Nuke TM Plug-in for EnFuzion3D, and how to use the V-Ray renderer with Nuke Software Compatibility To confirm software compatibility between EnFuzion3D and 3D application software, please see the latest EnFuzion3D software release notes on If you would like to configure EnFuzion3D to support a different version of your 3D application software, please contact Axceleon at support@axceleon.com Installing Nuke Install Nuke by following the directions from The Foundry. You must install Nuke on all the User Submit Computers and all the Compute Nodes Installing Direct Submission Support Direction Submission Support enables users to submit scenes for rendering from inside of their 3D applications. This is a configuration step for User Submit Computers only. To enable direct submission on Windows based User Submit Computers, follow these steps below: Copy the file C:\EnFuzion3D\config\nuke\menu.py to C:\Users\<username>\.nuke directory Copy the file C:\EnFuzion3D\config\nuke\ enfuzion_nuke.py to C:\Users\<username>\.nuke directory You may have to adjust the file locations to match your actual installation locations. Note: The EnFuzion Desktop's command ToolsInstall Application Scripts that installs direct submission scripts for various applications does not do so for Nuke. This is intentional so as to prevent the inadvertent overwriting of an existing menu.py in the directory C:\Users\<username>\.nuke Configuring the Nuke Plug-in for EnFuzion3D The Nuke Plug-in for EnFuzion3D refers to a set of programs and configuration files that reside on Compute Nodes, whose job is to integrate EnFuzion3D with Nuke to enable distributed rendering. All supported 3D application plug-ins are automatically installed and configured when you install EnFuzion3D. When you update the version of Nuke after you have installed EnFuzion3D, you must restart all the Compute Nodes that have been updated, so that EnFuzion can reconfigure its Nuke plug-in on those Compute Nodes. 93

94 11.5 Invoking EnFuzion3D Upon a successful installation of EnFuzion3D, you can start the Job Submission Interface for Nuke scenes by choosing Submit->Nuke Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Desktop Setting up File Sharing Figure 11-1: EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface for Nuke Distributed rendering requires that all the scene files, texture files and other project files are stored at a location that is accessible by all Compute Nodes and from all the User Submit Computers. Likewise, all the Compute Nodes must also be able to access a shared location to store render images. IMPORTANT: If you have at least one remote Compute Node, you must first set up file sharing between your User Submit Computer and your Compute Nodes before attempting distributed rendering. There are two ways to set up file sharing: Shared File Repository A render farm manager sets up a file server to hold all the scenes, project directories and images directories for all the users and computers on a render farm. Simple File Sharing You manually share your own project directories and images directories, so that you can use distributed rendering without a render farm wide Shared File Repository. If you are just getting started, or that you have a small render farm, Simple File Sharing is a good choice. It can be set up in just a few minutes. Please see Setting Up Simple File Sharing in Chapter 16 to see how to do it on Windows and OS X platforms Submitting a Comp File from EnFuzion3D Desktop Invoke the Job Submission Interface by choosing SubmitNuke Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Interface. Submit a test Comp File to your render farm with the minimum number of Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure The submission is kept simple so you can quickly verify that your render farm is working properly. 94

95 Submission Parameters Comp File --nuke-9.0v3.nk Frames -- 1 Step 1 Version Choose the version of Nuke you are using Click on Submit to continue. Figure 11-2: Submitting a Composition Clicking on the Submit button brings up a summary of your Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure Submit the Run to the render farm by clicking on the Confirm and Submit button Submitting a Comp File from Nuke Figure 11-3: Confirm Settings and Submit the Composition You can start the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface for Nuke from Nuke. Open Nuke and the comp that you want to render and choose RenderEnFuzion from the Nuke menu to submit a Run to EnFuzion3D, as shown in Figure

96 11.9 Tracking Your Submission Figure 11-4: Invoking EnFuzion3D from Nuke Check the Messages window to verify the status of your submission. If your submission is successful, your submission is assigned a Run ID, and it will be displayed in the Active Runs or the Completed Runs Windows. You can use the Run ID to identify your submission and track its progress on the render farm. Please go to Chapter 2 EnFuzion3D Overview for instructions on how to track rendering progress of your submissions, retrieve results, and debug any problems if they occur Complete Reference Information Please refer to Appendices A-L for the complete reference information for all the application plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. 96

97 Chapter RealFlow Plug-in for EnFuzion3D This chapter provides the information on how to use the Next Limit Technologies RealFlow plug-in for EnFuzion3D Software Compatibility To confirm software compatibility between EnFuzion3D and 3D application software, please see the latest EnFuzion3D software release notes on If you would like to configure EnFuzion3D to support a different version of your 3D application software, please contact Axceleon at support@axceleon.com Installing RealFlow Install RealFlow by following the directions from Next Limit. You must install RealFlow on all the User Submit Computers and all the Compute Nodes Configuring the RealFlow Plug-in for EnFuzion3D The RealFlow Plug-in for EnFuzion3D refers to a set of programs and configuration files that reside on Compute Nodes, whose job is to integrate EnFuzion3D with RealFlow to enable distributed rendering. All supported 3D application plug-ins are automatically installed and configured when you install EnFuzion3D. When you update the version of RealFlow after you have installed EnFuzion3D, you must restart all the Compute Nodes that have been updated, so that EnFuzion can reconfigure its RealFlow plug-in on those Compute Nodes Invoking EnFuzion3D Upon a successful installation of EnFuzion3D, you can start the Job Submission Interface for RealFlow scenes by choosing Submit->RealFlow Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Desktop. 97

98 Figure 12-1: EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface for RealFlow Jobs 12.5 Setting up File Sharing Distributed rendering requires that all the scene files, texture files and other project files are stored at a location that is accessible by all Compute Nodes and from all the User Submit Computers. Likewise, all the Compute Nodes must also be able to access a shared location to store render images. IMPORTANT: If you have at least one remote Compute Node, you must first set up file sharing between your User Submit Computer and your Compute Nodes before attempting distributed rendering. There are two ways to set up file sharing: Shared File Repository A render farm manager sets up a file server to hold all the scenes, project directories and images directories for all the users and computers on a render farm. Simple File Sharing You manually share your own project directories and images directories, so that you can use distributed rendering without a render farm wide Shared File Repository. If you are just getting started, or that you have a small render farm, Simple File Sharing is a good choice. It can be set up in just a few minutes. Please see Setting Up Simple File Sharing in Chapter 16 to see how to do it on Windows and OS X platforms Submitting a Scene from EnFuzion3D Desktop Invoke the Job Submission Interface by choosing SubmitRealFlow Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Interface. Submit your first test Scene (.flw file) using the minimum number of Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure The submission is kept simple so you can quickly verify that your render farm is working properly. Submission Parameters: Scene browse to locate the Scene. The file must be accessible over the network. Frames 1 Step 1 Use default values for the rest of the parameters. Click on Submit to continue. Figure 12-2: Submitting a Scene Clicking on the Submit button brings up a summary of your Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure Submit the Run to the render farm by clicking on the Confirm and Submit button. 98

99 12.7 Tracking Your Submission Figure 12-3: Finalize Scene Submission to the Render Farm Check the Messages window to verify the status of your submission. If your submission is successful, your submission is assigned a Run ID, and it will be displayed in the Active Runs or the Completed Runs Windows. You can use the Run ID to identify your submission and track its progress on the render farm. Please go to Chapter 2 EnFuzion3D Overview for instructions on how to track rendering progress of your submissions, retrieve results, and debug any problems if they occur Complete Reference Information Please refer to Appendices A-L for the complete reference information for all the application plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. 99

100 Chapter Softimage Plug-in for EnFuzion3D This chapter provides an overview on how to use a legacy version of the XSI Softimage Plug-in for EnFuzion3D. IMPORTANT: This plug-in is not officially supported by EnFuzion3D In the remainder of the Chapter, we use the term XSI interchangeably with Softimage to be consistent with the legacy software and text Note to mental ray Users There are many ways to use EnFuzion3D to work with the mental ray render. Please see below on the supported usage options: Supported: mental ray for XSI Supported: mental ray Standalone for XSI, if you are starting with.scn Files, and want to use EnFuzion3D to automatically generate.mi or.mi2 Files, and then to render them with mental ray Standalone. If you already have.mi or.mi2 Files, please see Chapter 14 for information on how to use the mental ray Standalone Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Prerequisites You must complete all the prerequisites below for your EnFuzion3D XSI plug-in to function properly Verifying XSI Version Please note that XSI Softimage is not supported by the current version of EnFuzion3D version Please contact Axceleon if you wish to receive an older version of EnFuzion3D to work with Softimage. Please note that EnFuzion3D does not work with the free download version of XSI Foundation, since that version of XSI does not include support for batch rendering Installing XSI Install XSI by following the directions from Softimage. You must install XSI on all the User Submit Computers and all the Compute Nodes Verifying Your Shared File Repository The EnFuzion3D XSI plug-in requires that all of your XSI project files are accessible over the network by all the Compute Nodes. 100

101 Please refer to the EnFuzion3D Installation Guide for more details on sharing files over the network and on setting up a Shared File Repository (For Windows Users Only) Using EnFuzion3D without a Shared File Repository For Windows users, it is possible to start without a central Shared File Repository. You can simply share your entire XSI Project Directory on your own computer, including the Image Directory. Remember to explicitly enable the following while setting up sharing of your XSI Project Directory: Share this folder on the network Allow network users to change my files This enables all Compute Nodes to read Scene files from your shared drive and write the rendered Images back Installing the EnFuzion3D XSI Plug-in The EnFuzion3D XSI plug-in is a program which integrates EnFuzion3D with XSI to enable distributed rendering on a render farm administered by EnFuzion3D. The EnFuzion3D XSI plug-in is a standard part of the EnFuzion3D software distribution. Install the EnFuzion3D XSI plug-in by following the steps below: Step 1: Perform the EnFuzion3D installation, and Step 2: On all User Submit Computers, install a script so that Runs can be submitted for rendering directly from XSI. Copy <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/config/XSI/* to the <XSI_User_Dir>/Application/Plugins directory, where The default location for <XSI_User_Dir>/Application/Plugins directory for XSI 5.0 on Windows is: c:\users\<username>\softimage\xsi_5.0\application\plugins The default location for <XSI_User_Dir>/Application/Plugins directory for XSI 5.0 on Linux is: ~/Softimage/XSI_5.0/Application/Plugins Step 3: On all Windows Compute Nodes, install Python so that you can use the Service Mode feature. Download and install the latest Python distribution from EnFuzion3D 15.0 is tested with Python 2.4. Download and install pywin32 extensions from sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32. Make sure that the pywin32 package corresponds to the Python distribution. For Python 2.4, the package name should be pywin32-<nnn>.win32-py2.4.exe Confirm that XSI can locate the Python installation by doing the following: o Start XSI 101

102 o o o Open View, Scripting, Script Editor Open File, Preferences Verify that Python is listed in the Script Language drop down menu Invoking the EnFuzion3D XSI Plug-in Upon a successful installation of EnFuzion3D and the EnFuzion3D XSI Plug-in, you will be able to access EnFuzion3D in two ways: Invoke EnFuzion3D directly, or Invoke EnFuzion3D from XSI To submit directly from EnFuzion3D, start EnFuzion3D and choose Submit->XSI Scenes to select the XSI submission interface. The Job Submission Interface for XSI is shown in Figure below. Figure 13-1: EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface for XSI Alternatively, you can submit Runs directly from XSI, using one of the two options below, as shown in Figure 13-2: Submit Runs via the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface From the XSI Render Menu, choose RenderEnFuzion3D Render Submit Runs directly without opening the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface 102

103 From the XSI Render Menu, choose RenderEnFuzion3D Cmd Render When you invoke the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface from XSI, within the context of an XSI Scene, EnFuzion3D will automatically pick up all the Job Submission Parameters from the Scene. Figure 13-2: Invoking EnFuzion3D from XSI 13.3 Submitting the First Scene to an EnFuzion3D Based Render Farm This section takes you through the steps of submitting your first Scene to your render farm. This will get you familiar with EnFuzion3D and identify any installation and configuration problems. IMPORTANT: Please follow all the steps precisely as they are presented here. Follow the recommended troubleshooting steps if you encounter any problems. Step 1: Prepare Your First Scene for Rendering Identify the Scene file (.scn files) you wish to render. Please follow the steps below to prepare a Scene (.scn file) for rendering: Turn on the TOC (Table of Content) for the Scene. To prepare the Scene for rendering on an EnFuzion3D render farm, the table of contents must be turned on in XSI. Follow the steps below to create a.scntoc file for a Scene: o o Open FilePreferences Data Management, and Check the Create Scene TOC (Table of Content) file option, see Figure 13-3 below. 103

104 Figure 13-3: Create Scene TOC (Table of Content) file Make sure that all of your Compute Nodes can read the Scene over the network. The Scene must be placed in a Share File Repository or properly exported so that all Compute Nodes can read it. To test this, you should log on to each Compute Node as the EnFuzion3D user and see if you can read the Scene File. Your render will fail if all of your Compute Nodes cannot read the source Scene. Please also refer to Chapter 16 for more information on how to configure Compute Nodes. Make sure that all of your Computer Nodes can write to the location of Output Directory for your rendered images. To test this, you should log on to each Compute Node as the EnFuzion3D user and see if you can write something into the Output Directory location. Your render will fail if all of your Compute Nodes cannot write to the destination Output Directory. Please also refer to Chapter 16 for more information on how to configure Compute Nodes. Step 2: Invoke the Job Submission Interface From XSI, open the Scene that you want to work with. Specify its render settings and invoke the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface by choosing RenderEnFuzion3D Render as illustrated in Figure 13-3 above. Step 3: Submit the Scene When a Scene is submitted to EnFuzion3D from XSI, all the Submission Parameters are automatically filled out by EnFuzion3D. For your first test, submit the Scene to your render farm with the minimum number of Submission Parameters. The submission is kept simple so you can quickly verify that your render farm is working properly. Please follow these steps exactly to carry out your first submission. 104

105 Submission Parameters Scene browse to locate the Scene. The file must be accessible over the network. We use club_bot.scn in our example. Start Frame 1 End Frame 10 Output Directory specify a location for output images. The directory must be accessible over the network. Output File Name clubbot.# Use default values for the rest of the parameters. Click on Submit to continue. Figure 13-4: Submitting a Scene 3 Provide values for fields Scene, Start Frame, End Frame, Output Directory and Output File Name as described in Figure For your first test Scene, please do not change any other default values, including any of the Advanced settings. Click on the Submit button to continue. Clicking on the Submit button brings up a summary of your Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure Submit the Run to the render farm by clicking on the Confirm and Submit button. 3 The test scene used in this example is copyrighted by and provided courtesy of Softimage. Softimage and XSI are registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. 105

106 Figure 13-5: Finalize Scene Submission to the Render Farm Check the Messages window to verify the status of your submission. If your submission is successful, your Run is assigned a Run ID. Note this Run ID and use it to track your Run on the render farm Automated.mi File Generation, Submission and Rendering EnFuzion3D (versions 9.0 SP2 and later) speeds up and streamlines the process of generating, submitting and rendering.mi Files for use with the mental ray Standalone renderer. Specifically, EnFuzion3D enables the user to do the following: Direct submission from XSI Speeds up generation of.mi Files by using multiple machines on the render farm Streamlines the.mi Files generation, submission and rendering processes into one step Works with mental ray Standalone for XSI renderer To configure EnFuzion3D to automate the.mi file generation, submission and rendering, users must turn on the Use Standalone checkbox, and specify the necessary parameters from the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface for XSI, as shown in Figure Appendix J provides the complete reference information on these configuration parameters. 106

107 Figure 13-6: Parameters for.mi File Generation, Submission and Rendering 13.5 Working with Passes and the mental ray Renderer A Tutorial This section offers a tutorial on how to use EnFuzion3D with the mental ray renderer to render a multi-pass Scene. This information is relevant to anyone using the mental ray renderer and working with Passes. For this example, we have a XSI Scene (.scn) with 2 Passes. This Scene can be rendered using the built-in mental ray for XSI renderer or the mental ray Standalone renderer, depending on the type of software license you have. The two sections below tell you how to render this Scene with each option Using the built-in mental ray for XSI Renderer To render the multi-pass Scene described above, using the built-in mental ray for XSI renderer, please note the following: Start XSI, open the Scene, and invoke EnFuzion3D render from XSI. This opens the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface, as shown in Figure When EnFuzion3D loads the Scene, it automatically loads the basic Submission Parameters for each Pass, e.g., Start Frame, and End Frame. There is no need for users to do anything unless they want to override some values. Highlight one or more Passes you wish to submit in one Run. You can Use Shift-Down Arrow to highlight several Passes or Control-Click to select individual Passes. EnFuzion3D will render each Pass according to the Submission Parameters you have set for that Pass. Figure 13-7 below shows the minimum Submission Parameters needed to submit our example Scene for rendering, using the built-in mental ray for XSI renderer. Please refer to Appendix K for the complete reference information on all the Submission Parameters. 107

108 Submission Parameters: Scene Should be filled out when you invoke the EnFuzion3D Job Submission interface from XSI. Browse to locate otherwise. Start Frame and End Frame Should be filled out when you invoke the EnFuzion3D Job Submission interface from XSI. Enter if needed. Output Directory specify a location for output images. The directory must be accessible over the network. Output File Name name should be in the form of <name>.# Layers - Should be filled out when you invoke the EnFuzion3D Job Submission interface from XSI. Highlight Layer(s) to submit or check Choose All to submit all Layers at once. Click Submit to continue. Figure 13-7: Working with Passes and mental ray for XSI Using the mental ray Standalone Renderer To render the multi-pass Scene described above using the mental ray Standalone renderer, please note the following: Start XSI, open the Scene, and invoke EnFuzion3D render from XSI. This opens the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface, as shown in Figure 12. When EnFuzion3D loads the Scene, it automatically loads the basic Submission Parameters for each Pass, e.g., Start Frame, and End Frame. There is no need for users to do anything unless they want to override some values. Highlight one or more Passes you wish to submit in one Run. You can Use Shift-Down Arrow to highlight several Passes or Control-Click to select individual Passes. EnFuzion3D will render each Pass according to the Submission Parameters you have set for that Pass. To render the mental ray Passes with the mental ray Standalone renderer, you need to do the following: Check the Use Standalone checkbox, and Provide settings for Render, Delete.mi Files,.mi Directory,.mi File Name and mental ray Options (if you are working with texture files) 108

109 When you are using EnFuzion3D to automate the.mi file exporting and rendering process, you are implicitly submitting 2 Runs at the same time. The first Run calls XSI to export the.mi files, and the second Run calls mental ray to do the actual rendering. Therefore, there are two potential Compute Pools that you need to set, and this is especially true when you have different pools of machines for XSI and for mental ray Standalone. If this is your situation, please note the following: You use the Compute Pool setting on the Advanced Submit Options dialogue to determine the machines to use for exporting.mi files with XSI. You use the submit3d.config [.txt] file to set the default Compute Pool for rendering with mental ray Standalone. In the submit3d.config [.txt] file, and the mental ray Standalone for XSI section, uncomment line that says: ComputerPool <Name of Pool> Replace <Name of Pool> with the actual name of the Compute Pool which contains all the machines that have mental ray Standalone licenses, e.g. XSIMI351. Please see Section for instructions on how to add machines to the mental ray Standalone Compute Pool. Setting the aforementioned parameters will cause EnFuzion3D to automatically generate the required.mi Files for the mental ray Standalone renderer, and to submit and render them. Figure below shows the minimum Submission Parameters needed to submit our example Scene for rendering, using the XSI software renderer and the mental ray for XSI renderer. Please refer to Appendix Appendix J Softimage Job Submission Parameters for the complete reference information on all the Submission Parameters. 109

110 Figure 13-8: Working with Passes and mental ray Standalone renderer Submission Parameters: Submission Parameters (Continued) Scene Should be filled out when you invoke the EnFuzion3D Job Submission interface from XSI. Browse to locate otherwise. Start Frame and End Frame Should be filled out when you invoke the EnFuzion3D Job Submission interface from XSI. Enter if needed. Passes - Should be filled out when you invoke the EnFuzion3D Job Submission interface from XSI. Highlight Pass(es) to submit Render Render the.mi Files after they are generated. If this option is not checked,.mi Files are generated, but not rendered. Delete.mi Files Delete.mi Files after they are successfully rendered. If this option is not checked or if rendering fails,.mi files are not deleted. Use Standalone Use the mental ray Standalone renderer..mi Directory The location for the generated, intermediate.mi files Output Directory Should be filled out when you invoke the EnFuzion3D Job Submission interface from XSI. This is a required field. It provides the location for the output images. Output File Name Provide a name for the output images in the form of <Name>.#.mi File Name Name for the generated.mi Files. Render Settings.. Image Directory Location for the rendered images Click Submit to continue Complete Reference Information Please refer to Appendices A-L for the complete reference information for all the application plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. 110

111 Chapter mental ray Standalone for Softimage Plug-in This chapter provides an overview on how to use the mental ray Plug-in for EnFuzion3D for use with a legacy version of the XSI Softimage. IMPORTANT: This plug-in is not officially supported by EnFuzion3D In the remainder of the Chapter, we use the term XSI interchangeably with Softimage to be consistent with the legacy software and text 14.1 When to Use This Plug-in Use this plug-in when you want to use the mental ray Standalone renderer, and you have already exported the required.mi Files. If you are starting with.scn Files, and you wish to use EnFuzion3D to automatically generate the.mi Files required by the mental ray Standalone renderer, please see Chapter 13 on how to do it with the Softimage Plug-in for EnFuzion3D Prerequisites You must complete all the prerequisites below for your EnFuzion3D mental ray for Softimage plug-in to function properly Verifying mental ray for XSI Softimage Version EnFuzion3D version 15.0 does not officially support Softimage. Please contact Axceleon if you would like to receive an older version of EnFuzion3D to work with XSI Softimage Installing mental ray for XSI Install mental ray for XSI by following the directions from Softimage. You must install mental ray for XSI on all the Compute Nodes Exporting.mi2 Files from XSI The procedure to export.mi2 files from XSI is beyond the scope of this document. Please refer to technical documents from Softimage to obtain information on how to export.mi2 file from XSI Verifying Your Shared File Repository The EnFuzion3D mental ray for XSI plug-in requires that all of your.mi2 files and all supporting files are accessible over the network by all the Compute Nodes. 111

112 Please refer to the EnFuzion3D Installation and Configuration Guide for more details on sharing files over the network and on setting up a Shared File Repository (For Windows Users Only) Using EnFuzion3D without a Shared File Repository For Windows users, it is possible to start without a central Shared File Repository. You can simply share your entire mental ray for XSI Project Directory on your own computer, including the Image Directory. Remember to explicitly enable the following while setting up sharing of your mental ray for XSI Project Directory: Share this folder on the network Allow network users to change my files This enables all Compute Nodes to read Scene files from your shared drive and write the rendered Images back Installing the EnFuzion3D mental ray for XSI Plug-in The EnFuzion3D mental ray for XSI plug-in is a program which integrates EnFuzion3D with mental ray for XSI to enable distributed rendering on a render farm administered by EnFuzion3D. The EnFuzion3D mental ray for XSI plug-in is a standard part of the EnFuzion3D software distribution Invoking the EnFuzion3D mental ray for XSI Plug-in Upon a successful installation of EnFuzion3D, you can start the Job Submission Interface for mental ray for XSI by choosing Submit->XSI MI Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Interface. The Job Submission Interface for mental ray for XSI is shown in Figure 14-1 below Terminology Figure 14-1: EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface for mental ray for XSI Before you start to work with EnFuzion3D, it is important to understand some key terms which are used frequently in this document. Please review these terms carefully. 112

113 Run each Run represents one Scene that was submitted for rendering to the render farm. A Run contains Jobs, usually one job per Frame in the Scene. Jobs each Job is one unit of work for the render farm. Each job represents one Frame to be rendered, unless the user requests that several Frames are combined into a single job. Run ID a Run ID is assigned by EnFuzion3D to each Run. EnFuzion3D Run IDs are in the form of Use a Run ID to identify your Scene on a render farm. Run IDs are unique for each Run. Submission Name a Submission Name is assigned by the user to each Run. Use Submission Name to identify your Scene on a render farm. There can be several Runs with the same Submission Name. Submission Parameters these are parameters provided by a user for each Run. They specify the execution environment for that Run and include settings like input Scene name, output path, start/end frames etc Submitting the First Scene to an EnFuzion3D Based Render Farm This section takes you through the steps of submitting your first Scene to your render farm. This will get you familiar with EnFuzion3D and identify any installation and configuration problems. IMPORTANT: Please follow all the steps precisely as they are presented here. Follow the recommended troubleshooting steps if you encounter any problems. Step 1: Prepare Your First Scene for Rendering Identify the Scene files (.mi2 files) you wish to render. Please follow the steps below to prepare a Scene (.mi2 file) for rendering: Make sure that all of your Compute Nodes can read the Scene over the network. The Scene must be placed in a Share File Repository or properly exported so that all Compute Nodes can read it. To test this, you should log on to each Compute Node as the EnFuzion3D user and see if you can read the Project File. Your render will fail if all of your Compute Nodes cannot read the source Scene. Please also refer to Chapter 16 for more information on how to configure Compute Nodes. Make sure that all of your Computer Nodes can write to the location of Output Directory for your rendered images. To test this, you should log on to each Compute Node as the EnFuzion3D user and see if you can write something into the Output Directory location. Your render will fail if all of your Compute Nodes cannot write to the destination Output Directory. Please also refer to Chapter 16 for more information on how to configure Compute Nodes. Step 2: Invoke the Job Submission Interface Invoke the Job Submission Interface by choosing Submit-> XSI MI Scenes from the EnFuzion3D Interface. See Figure 13-1 above. Step 3: Submit the Scene Submit the Scene to your render farm with the minimum number of Submission Parameters. The submission is kept simple so you can quickly verify that your render farm is working properly. Please follow 113

114 these steps exactly to carry out your first submission. Provide Submission Parameters Scene - Browse to locate the first.mi2 file in the Scene that you want to render. The files must be accessible over the network. We use mr.1.mi2 in our example. This has been changed to mr.#.mi2 by EnFuzion3D so that all the related.mi2 files can be submitted at once. Start Frame 1 End Frame 10 Output Directory specify a location for output images. The directory must be accessible over the network. Output File Name specify the name of the output image file. Use default values for the rest of the parameters. Click on Submit to proceed. Figure 14-2: Submitting a Scene 4 Provide values for fields Scene, Start Frame, End Frame, Output Directory and Output file Name as described in Figure For your first Scene, do not change any other default values, including any of the Advanced settings. Click on the Submit button to continue. Clicking on the Submit button brings up a summary of your Submission Parameters, as shown in Figure Submit the Run to the render farm by clicking on the Confirm and Submit button. 4 The test scene used in this example is copyrighted by and provided courtesy of Autodesk. Softimage and XSI are registered trademarks of Autodesk. 114

115 Figure 14-3: Finalize Scene Submission to the Render Farm 14.5 Tracking Your Submission Check the Messages window to verify the status of your submission. If your submission is successful, your submission is assigned a Run ID, and it will be displayed in the Active Runs or the Completed Runs Windows. You can use the Run ID to identify your submission and track its progress on the render farm. Please go to Chapter 2 EnFuzion3D Overview for instructions on how to track rendering progress of your submissions, retrieve results, and debug any problems if they occur Complete Reference Information Please refer to Appendices A-L for the complete reference information for all the application plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. 115

116 Chapter EnFuzion3D Command Line Interface EnFuzion3D offers a Command Line Interface in addition to the graphical Job Submission Interface. This section describes the EnFuzion3D Command Line Interface Using the EnFuzion3D Command Line Interface A complete description of the EnFuzion3D Command Line Interface is available in the EnFuzion3D User Manual. It is out of the scope of this document. This document only describes the syntax of the EnFuzion3D Command Line Interface that is specific for Render Farms. Very few EnFuzion3D installations will need all the functionality of the full EnFuzion3D Command Line Interface. The EnFuzion3D Command Line Interface currently supports 3ds Max, Maya and Softimage. Contact info@axceleon.com, if you need support for additional applications EnFuzion3D Command Line Interface Usage The EnFuzion3D Command Line Interface is invoked with the EnFuzion3D3d program, which is available in the following directories: On Windows, in <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Directory>\bin; On OS X, in /Applications/.app/Contents/MacOS; On Linux, in ~//bin. The syntax for invoking the EnFuzion3D Command Line Interface is as follows: EnFuzion3d [options] General Options: -help -log <log_file> value is "log.txt" -nolog -nogui required for intervention. Print out this help to the log file Specify the name of the log file. Default Turn off the log file Do not show submission GUI. This option is Submissions from a script without user 3ds Max Options: 116

117 Maya Options: -app 3dsmax Submit a 3ds Max Scene (required) -scene <scene_file> Scene file to be rendered (required) -loadvalues [on off] Load Scene values from the Scene.xml file (optional). Default value is off. -submission <string> Submission name (optional). Default value is Scene name. -account <string> Account name (optional). Default value is Scene name. -notes <string> User notes (optional). Default value is empty. -startframe <integer> Starting frame (optional). Default value is 1. -endframe <integer> Ending frame (optional). Default value is 1. -step <integer> Step increment (optional). Default value is 1. -framesperjob <integer> Frames per job (optional). Default value is 1. -imagedir <path> Directory path for output images (required). There is no default value. -imagename <image_name> Output image name (optional). There is no default value. -resolutionx <integer> Image resolution in X dimension (optional). There is no default value. -resolutiony <integer> Image resolution in Y dimension (optional). There is no default value. -options <string> 3ds Max command line options (optional). There is no default value. -template <file> Customization template for the EnFuzion3D plug-in for 3ds Max template (optional). There is no default value. -app maya Submit a Maya Scene (required). -scene <scene_file> Scene file to be rendered (required) -project <path> Project directory (required). There is no default value. -loadvalues [on off] Load Scene values from the Scene _enf.xml file (optional). Default value is off. -submission <string> Submission name (optional). Default value is Scene name. -account <string> Account name (optional). Default value is Scene name. -notes <string> User notes (optional). Default value is empty. -renderer [sw hw vr mr rman turtle] Specify the renderer (optional). Default value is sw, Maya software renderer. -version [ ] Maya version (optional). Default value is camera <camera> Camera for rendering (optional). There is no default value. -layer <layer>[,<layer>] List of Layers to be rendered (optional). There is no default value. -startframe <float> Starting frame (optional). Default value is

118 -endframe <float> Ending frame (optional). Default value is 1. -step <float> Step increment (optional). Default value is 1. -framesperjob <integer> Frames per job (optional). Default value is 1. -imagedir <path> Directory path for output images (optional). There is no default value. -imagename <image_name> Output image name (optional). There is no default value. -resolutionx <integer> Image resolution in X dimension (optional). There is no default value. -resolutiony <integer> Image resolution in Y dimension (optional). There is no default value. -options <string> Maya batch command line options (optional). There is no default value. -template <file> Customization template for the EnFuzion3D Maya plug-in (optional).there is no default value. Softimage Options: -app xsi Submit a Softimage Scene (required) -scene <scene_file> Scene file to be rendered (required) -loadvalues [on off] Load Scene values from the Scene.scntoc file (optional). Default value is off. -submission <string> Submission name (optional). Default value is Scene name. -account <string> Account name (optional). Default value is Scene name. -notes <string> User notes (optional). Default value is empty. -pass <pass>[,<pass>] List of passes to be rendered (optional). There is no default value. -startframe <integer> Starting frame (optional). Default value is 1. -endframe <integer> Ending frame (optional). Default value is 1. -step <integer> Step increment (optional). Default value is 1. -framesperjob <integer> Frames per job (optional). Default value is 1. -imagedir <path> Directory path for output images (optional). There is no default value. -imagename <image_name> Output image name (optional). There is no default value. -service Use Softimage as a service (optional). If this option is selected, then resolutionx, -resolutiony, and - options have no effect. -resolutionx <integer> Image resolution in X dimension (optional). There is no default value. -resolutiony <integer> Image resolution in Y dimension (optional). There is no default value. -options <string> Renderer command line options (optional). There is no default value. -template <file> Customization template for the Softimage plug-in for EnFuzion3D (optional). There is no Default value. Common Advanced Options: 118

119 -approval <frame>[,<frame>] Frames for approval (optional). There is no default value. -notify [user_input] notifications (optional). User_input values = started, done, failed, stopped, and approval. There is no default value. - <user@host>[,<user@host>] Addresses for notifications (optional). Default value is submitting user. -pool <pool>[,<pool] List of pools to be used for rendering (optional). There is no default value. -computerlimit <integer> Maximum number of concurrent computers to be used for rendering (optional). There is no default value. -priority Priority (optional). Default value is 50. -terminateafter <seconds> Job execution limit (optional). Default value is 2 hours. -terminateinactive <seconds> Terminate job, if inactive (optional). Default value is 2 minutes. -jobretries <integer> Job retries after a job failure (optional). Default value is 8. -noderetire <integer> Node retirement after successive job failures (optional). Default value is 5. -processors <float> Number of processors on a single node to be used for one frame (optional). Default value is 0, which means use all processors. -startdelay <seconds> Delay between starting rendering on a single node (optional). Default value is 5 119

120 Chapter Render Farm Administrators Guide This chapter is intended for render farm administrators. If you are responsible for setting up and configuring your render farm, please make sure to read this chapter. The chapter covers the following topics: Installing EnFuzion3D Managing the Control Root Computer Managing Compute Nodes Managing Compute Pools Updating a current installation of EnFuzion3D Setting up file sharing Managing file system issues Managing heterogeneous render farms 16.1 Installing EnFuzion3D The EnFuzion3D Installation Guide provides an overview of how to set up an EnFuzion3D managed render farm. Please refer to the Installation Guide for steps to start small, and test as you install EnFuzion3D on more computers on your render farm. This chapter will only cover important issues for administrators Computers, Users and Privileges An EnFuzion3D managed render farm has three kinds of computers: One Control Root Computer, Many User Submit Computers, aka, artist workstations, and Many Compute Nodes, aka, render nodes. 120

121 We recommend the following settings when you install EnFuzion3D on these machines, shown in Table One-Machine Configuration Computer Root Computer User Submit Computer Compute Nodes Log in as this user to install EnFuzion3D Administrator Administrator The normal artist user The same user that you used to install and run your rendering software, e.g. Maya User Privilege, required to install Administrator Privilege Administrator Privilege User Administrator Privilege EnFuzion3D will execute as this user Administrator Administrator User The same user that you used to install and run your rendering software, e.g. Maya Table 16-1: Installation User Privilege Requirements Firewall Settings for IP Port Numbers EnFuzion3D uses TCP Port Numbers by default, Please make sure that these ports are not blocked by your Windows firewall, or being used by other applications. While it is possible to reconfigure EnFuzion3D to use other ports, we recommend that you use these ports to start with Firewall Settings for Services EnFuzion requires the following services to run. If you cannot start the EnFuzion Web Interface, or that some Compute Nodes are always down or intermittently down, we recommend that you check your firewall settings to make sure that these EnFuzion processes are able to start, specifically, Control Root Computer User Submit Computer Compute Nodes Services that must run enfdispatcher enfeye N/A EnfNodeServer enfstartersvc User Access Control (UAC) Settings By following the recommendations on user privilege settings in the section above titled Computers, Users and Privilege, you will be able to install EnFuzion3D so that it can run with the User Access Control setting at any level Configuring the Control Root Computer This section describes a common configuration task on the Control Root Computer: configuring notifications. 121

122 Setting up Notifications For the notifications to work, render farm administrators need to configure the options in the root configuration file. The root configuration file is called root.options[.txt]. It is located in the <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/EnFuzion/config directory. The notification options are mailserver, which specifies the outgoing server; mailport, which specifies the server port number; and mailuser, which is the originating address for messages. Mailserver is usually not required on Linux and OS X, since servers are bundled with the system. The standard value for mailport is 25. To set the notification options, change the following lines in the root.options file: # mail server host name mailserver "mail.company.com" # mail server port number mailport 25 # mail user From: identity for outgoing notices mailuser EnFuzion3D@company.com Make sure to restart the EnFuzion3D Control Root software, after you modify any of the values in the root.options file. For more information on this topic, please refer to the EnFuzion User Manual Managing the \Work Directory EnFuzion3D saves information for every submission or Run made on the render farm. This information is stored in the <EnFuzion3D_installation-Directory>/Work/run-<run_id> directories. Note that these directories do not store rendered images, they store information about each Run, whether it s still active, or complete successfully, or failed, or aborted. This is the information that is displayed in by the EnFuzion3D Desktop, in the Active Runs and Completed Runs Windows, as shown in Figure On a busy render farm, this information can grow in size quickly. By default, EnFuzion3D deletes a run- <run_id> directory in 7 days if it has not been accessed. This default value is set up in the root.options file in the <EnFuzion3D_installation-Directory>/config directory. As an administrator, you can choose to extend this time, or to copy this information to another location for long-term safe keeping on a regular basis Configuring Compute Nodes Figure 16-1: Information for Each Submission This section describes common configuration tasks on Compute Nodes: 122

123 Installing rendering software Setting environment variables Restarting Compute Nodes Startup Script for Windows based Compute Nodes Mapping a Shared File Repository on Windows based Compute Nodes; Configuring a Heterogeneous Render Farm Installing Render Applications Rendering applications and their plug-ins must be installed on each Compute Node that you want to use for rendering. They must have a valid license to execute. Alternatively, you can also install rendering applications on a designated subset, a Computer Pool, of all Compute Nodes. EnFuzion3D cannot execute rendering jobs without proper installation and licensing of rendering applications Auto-detection of Rendering Software on Compute Nodes Both EnFuzion3D and rendering applications on Compute Nodes require that certain environment variables, such as the PATH, are set. Starting from EnFuzion3D 2015, EnFuzion3D auto-detects the installation directories for supported rendering software, and automatically sets up the environment variables for its own operation. The EnFuzion3D installer does this automatically, at the time of installation on Compute Nodes. This frees users from having to manually configure Compute Node settings on a large number of computers. When you update your rendering software after you have installed EnFuzion3D, you must restart the affected Compute Nodes. See the next section for how to restart Compute Nodes. EnFuzion3D keeps all the environment variables it discovers, sets and uses in the <EnFuzion3D_Installation _Dir>/environment[.txt] file. When necessary, this file can be edited by the users. To set the value of an environment variable, add the following line to the environment file: <name>=<value> To add a string at the end of the value of an environment variable, add the following line to the environment file: <name>+=<value> You must restart EnFuzion3D on the Compute Node for changes to the environment file to take the effect Restarting Compute Nodes After you install or update software on the Compute Nodes, you need to restart them after the changes are made. There are several ways to restart the Compute Nodes: Restart Compute Nodes from the EnFuzion3D Desktop, by choosing Start Node, as shown in Figure below. 123

124 Figure 16-2: Restarting Compute Nodes Restart Compute Nodes from the EnFuzion3D Web Interface, by choosing a Node, and click on Start, as shown in Figure Figure 16-3: Restart Compute Nodes Using the EnFuzion Web Interface Configuring Multiple Compute Nodes You can use the EnFuzion3D job distribution feature to update many Compute Nodes with one simple command from the command line. This feature makes it very easy to configure and update a large number of nodes. To use EnFuzion3D to perform a task on multiple Compute Nodes, you need to prepare an EnFuzion3D Run File. Below is an example Run File for copying an EnFuzion.options[.txt] file to multiple Compute Nodes. Create a Run File called update.run, and include in it the following: task main copy EnFuzion.options.txt node:c:/enfuzion endtask job host <hostname>; Replace <hostname> with the name of the Compute Node you want to update. Add one job host line for 124

125 each additional host that you want to update. Put the EnFuzion.options.txt file in the local directory and use the following command to submit the Run File and execute the update: c:\enfuzion\bin\enfsub update.run EnFuzion.options.txt Please refer to the EnFuzion User Manual for a complete description of the Run File and its syntax Managing Compute Pools A Computer Pool contains Compute Nodes which share some common attributes, such as having Maya installed or running Linux. By default, EnFuzion3D on Compute Nodes automatically recognizes and creates Computer Pools for the underlying operating system and the rendering packages installed. Users can define additional Computer Pools. Each computer can be a member of multiple Computer Pools. Computer Pools are defined in the <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/EnFuzion.options[.txt] file on each Compute Node. To make a Compute Node a member of a pool, add the following line to the file: property <pool_name> Replace <pool_name> with the name of the pool. The name must start with a letter and can contain letters, numbers and _. The node can be added to several pools by including multiple property lines or by specifying multiple pools in the same line, separated by,. New values will be picked up by EnFuzion3D automatically after a few minutes, so there is no need to restart a node after EnFuzion.options[.txt] is modified. Compute Pools can be specified conditionally. The node is a member of a pool, if a certain directory or file exists on the system. This is described with the following line: path <path> property <pool_name> EnFuzion3D checks for existence of the <path>. If the path exists on the system, then the node becomes a member of the <pool_name> pool. Use / for the directory separator in the <path> on all operating systems, including Windows. An example for Maya 7.0 on Windows: path "C:/Program Files/Alias/Maya7.0/bin" property Maya70 If directory C:/Program Files/Alias/Maya7.0/bin exists on the system, then the node becomes a member of the Maya70 pool Compute Pools Priority Often, it is necessary to prioritize a certain type of Runs (e.g. After Effects jobs) on certain machines (machines with After Effects loaded). EnFuzion3D allows users to assign priorities to Compute Pools to accomplish this. Compute Pool Priorities are specified individually for each machine. Compute Pool Priority for a Compute Node is configured with the poolpriority option in the <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/EnFuzion.options file on each Compute Node. A poolpriority option specifies the order in which Runs of different types are executed on a Compute Node. The syntax of the poolpriority line is as follows: 125

126 poolpriority <pool_1>, <pool_2>,...<pool_n> Runs submitted to <pool_1> will have the highest priority on this Compute Node and Runs submitted to <pool_2> through <pool_n> will have decreasing priorities on this Compute Node. Please note that Pools not explicitly listed on the poolpriority line of a Compute Node will have the lowest priority on that Compute Node. The EnFuzion dispatcher selects which Run is to be executed next on each Compute Node in the following order: Priority of a Run A Run with a higher Run Priority will always execute first. A Run submitted to a Compute Pool with a higher Compute Pool Priority on that Compute Node Compute Pool Priority takes effect amongst Runs that have the same Run Priority. A Run that does not use allocated Compute Nodes. Node allocation for each run is assigned by the scheduler and can be seen in the EnFuzion3D Web Interface. Runs that use allocated Compute Nodes Submission order An Example: We have a render farm with 10 Compute Nodes. All 10 machines have Maya installed, while 4 out of 10 machines also have After Effects installed. We want the After Effects Projects to have the highest priority on those 4 Compute Nodes. Once the After Effects Projects are done, those machines can be made available for rendering Maya Scenes again. To set this up, you need to add the following line to the EnFuzion.options file on each of the 4 After Effects Compute Nodes: poolpriority AfterEffects70, Maya Customize Default Computer Pool Settings EnFuzion3D allows render farm administrators to customize Compute Pool settings for each user and for each Run type, e.g. Maya Runs or After Effects Runs. Once the default Compute Pool is set for a given Run type, Runs of that type will be submitted automatically to the designated pool. Please note that using the same mechanism, it is also possible to set global, job-type-agnostic pool setting such as Windows pool, or Macs pool. Customizing pools will help increase user productivity and ensure optimal use of render farm resources. Please note that users can always over-ride the preset Computer Pool setting when needed. To set a default Computer Pool setting for a certain Run type, 126

127 Edit the submit3d.config[.txt] file, find the section which corresponds with your Run type of interest, e.g. After Effects, or Maya Uncomment the line that says: ComputerPool <name> Replace <name> with the name of the designated Computer Pool for your Run type on your actual render farm. See Section to find out how to add Compute Nodes to this pool. Please note that after you edit the submit3d.config[.txt] file, you need to restart EnFuzion3D on the artist workstations, for the new settings to take effect Startup Script for Windows based Compute Nodes EnFuzion3D provides a mechanism for users to supply a Node Startup Script for each Windows based Compute Node in a render farm. EnFuzion3D executes this Node Startup Script each time a Compute Node is started. A Node Startup Script can be used to perform any user-defined actions when a Compute Node starts, for example, mapping a Shared File Repository to a local drive letter. The script is named startup.bat and must be placed in the <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/bin directory on a Compute Node. The script must be a Windows batch file. A sample startup.bat file is provided in the <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/bin directory. Standard output and standard error messages from running startup.bat are stored in the <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/Temp directory in files startup.stdout.txt and startup.stderr.txt. Any related EnFuzion3D diagnostic messages which result from running the startup.bat are printed to enfnodea.log and enfnodeb.log files in the same directory. There is no equivalent to startup.bat on OS X and Linux platforms Setting Up File Sharing Distributed rendering requires that all the scene files, texture files and other project files are stored at a location that is accessible by all Compute Nodes and from all the User Submit Computers. Likewise, all the Compute Nodes must also be able to access a shared location to store render images. If you have at least one remote Compute Node, you must first set up file sharing between your User Submit Computer and your Compute Nodes before attempting distributed rendering. There are two ways to set up file sharing: Shared File Repository A render farm manager sets up a file server to hold all the scenes, project directories and images directories for all the users and computers on a render farm. Simple File Sharing You manually share your own project directories and images directories, so that you can use distributed rendering without a render farm wide Shared File Repository Setting Up Simple File Sharing on Windows If you are just getting started, or that you have a small render farm, Simple File Sharing is a good choice. It can be set up in just a few minutes, and it will enable distributed rendering without a render farm-wide Shared File Repository, which may require a system administrator to set up. 127

128 The concept is very simple - all you need to do is to share your entire Project Directory on your own computer, including the Image Directory. On Windows 7, sharing a folder is easily done with these two simple steps: Locate your Project Directory and Image Directory, choose the Share With menu, shown in Figure 16-3, Choose the user from the list of users that your rendering software and EnFuzion3D runs under, Grant that user Read/Write rights. This enables all Compute Nodes to read Scene files from your shared drive and write the rendered Images back. Figure 16-3: Share Project Directory Setting Up Simple File Sharing on OS X If you are a OS X user and you are running your first render test on a one-machine test render farm, you may need to first create a Shared Test Directory on your machine, depending on how the rendering software was installed and how user permissions were set up on the project directories. The Shared Test Directory should contain all the project files, scene files and texture files for your test. It will also hold the rendered images. The explicit creation of a Shared Test Directory will help you prevent potential file permission problems simply. The steps to creating a Shared Test Directory are as follows. Please do this before proceeding to the next section. Create a directory in /Users/Shared, for example /Users/Shared/EnFuzionShared. Share this directory by allowing Owner, Group and Others to have Read & Write Access, as shown in Figure Make sure to choose Apply to enclosed items 128

129 Figure 16-4: Create a Shared Test Directory This Shared Test Directory for your one-machine render farm serves as your temporary Shared File Repository. As you expand beyond your one-machine render farm, please refer to the EnFuzion3D Installation Guide for more details on sharing files over the network and on setting up a Shared File Repository Setting Up A Shared File Repository There is a comprehensive description for how to set up a Shared File Repository in Chapter 4 of the EnFuzion3D Installation Guide. Please consult the guide for further instructions Managing Shared File Systems Application plug-in for EnFuzion require that all Scene files, texture files and other project files are accessible over the network by all the Compute Nodes. This section provides the information that relates to sharing files on the network Conversion of File Names to the UNC Format During job submission from Windows machines, any file names or directory paths that are on a shared drive are automatically converted by EnFuzion3D to the UNC format. A UNC format is in the form \\<server>\<share>. This includes any files on the mapped drives, such as Z:, or files that are on a local shared drive Mapping a Shared File Repository on Windows based Compute Nodes EnFuzion3D uses the UNC format to name files. If your project files are shared using the standard Windows sharing with SMB/CIFS, no special configuration is required on Compute Nodes. However, if your project files are on an NFS server, or they need to be mapped to a specific drive on the Compute Node, then you need to configure Compute Nodes to be able to access these files. To map a directory from a SMB/CIFS server or an NFS server, add the following line to the startup.bat file on all Compute Nodes: 129

130 net use * \\<server>\<share> /persistent:no If you need to provide the user name and password when connecting to the file server, use the following line in the startup.bat file on all Compute Nodes: net use * \\<server>\<share> <password> /USER:[<domain>/]<user> /persistent:no To map a directory from a SMB/CIFS server to a specific drive letter, add the following line to the startup.bat file on all Compute Nodes: net use <letter>: \\<server>\<share> /persistent:no Make sure to restart the EnFuzion3D Compute Node, after you modify the startup.bat file Managing Heterogeneous Render Farms Your render farm is heterogeneous if some Compute Nodes run a different operating system from what the Submit Computers run. If that is the case, then the same shared project files are probably referenced differently on the Compute Nodes and on the Submit Computers. Consider the following example. Our project files are stored in a Shared Repository, which can be referred to in many different ways from User Submit Computers: //myhost/repository - as a UNC path on a Windows User Submit Computer F: - as a letter drive on a Windows User Submit Computer /Volumes/repository - on an OS X User Submit Computer On the render farm, suppose we have Windows, Linux and OS X Compute Nodes, which refer to the same Shared Repository as follows: //myhost/repository - as a UNC path on a Windows Compute Node G: - as a letter drive on a Windows Compute Node /mnt/repository - on a Linux Compute Node /private/var/repository - on a OS X Compute Node It is obvious that, for the render farm to function correctly, Paths Translation is needed to convert project file references on User Submit Computer to file references on Compute Nodes. EnFuzion3D detects path correspondence and performs Paths Translation between User Submit Computers and Compute Nodes; In most cases, paths translation is completely automated, and requires no special installation and configuration steps by the user to work. When the automatic translation does not work, two additional user configuration options are available. EnFuzion3D will not change any paths that are contained in the Scene itself, such as texture paths. All paths in the Scene must be relative to the project. If you want to use file paths that are not relative to the project and have a heterogeneous render farm, please contact Axceleon at info@axceleon.com. EnFuzion3D offers three levels of Paths Translation operations, in increasing order of user control: Automatic Paths Translation Search, or 130

131 Mapped Paths Correspondence The next three sections explain when and how to use each of these Paths Translation options Automatic Paths Translation The simplest of the three Paths Translation options is the Automatic Paths Translation option. This translation is completely automated and no special configuration steps are required by the user. The only requirement is that shared file systems are mounted on Compute Nodes. EnFuzion3D will automatically translate the paths between User Submit Computers and Compute Nodes. The Automatic Paths Translation works for Compute Nodes running Linux and OS X. For Windows Compute Nodes, the Automatic Paths Translation works with Windows User Submit Computers. If you have OS X or Linux User Submit Computers, but your Compute Nodes are Windows, or in the event that the Automatic Paths Translation does not work in your environment, then you can use the search option or the Mapped Paths Correspondence option explained in the following sections Search for Path Correspondence Use the search option for Path Correspondence under the following conditions: You have OS X or Linux User Submit Computers and Windows Compute Nodes, or The Automatic Paths Translation option does not work in your environment. In these cases, the search option offers an easy-to-use mechanism to accomplish Paths Translation. You simply specify network shares or mounted file systems. EnFuzion3D searches them for a Path Correspondence and performs path substitution if a correspondence is found. To use the search for Paths Translation on a Compute Node, you need to create a <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/paths[.txt] file on the node. Key attributes of the paths.txt file are as follows: Lines that start with '#' are comments and are ignored. Add a search command for each share or a mounted file system. There is no limit on the number of lines, so you can specify multiple shares. A search command is specified by the search keyword, followed by a path of the share address or a mounted file system on the Compute Node. EnFuzion3D will search that path for a correspondence with the path used during Submission by the User Submit Computer. You must use / not \ for the directory separator in the paths on all operating systems, including Windows. Example: A Shared Repository is accessible as //myserver/share from a Windows-based Compute Node. Add the following line to the paths.txt file to search //myserver/share for a path correspondence: search //myserver/share A Windows-based Compute Node has a Shared Repository mapped to Drive S:. Add the following line to the paths.txt file: 131

132 search S: A Linux-based Compute Node has a Shared Repository mounted on /mnt/share. Add the following line to the paths.txt file: search /mnt/share An OS X based Compute Node has a Shared Repository mounted on /Volumes. Add the following line to the paths.txt file: search /Volumes Instructions in the paths.txt file are evaluated in the order in which they appear in the file. If an instruction finds a match with a path from the User Submit Computer, then the path substitution is performed and no further instructions will be read and used. In the event that the Automatic Paths Translation does not work in your environment, use the Mapped Paths Correspondence option Mapped Paths Correspondence The Mapped Paths Correspondence option lets you explicitly specify the Paths Correspondence. It gives users the ultimate level of control and assurance. To use the Mapped Paths Correspondence option for Paths Translation, you need to create a <EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/paths[.txt] file on each Compute Node. Key attributes of the paths.txt file are as follows: Lines that start with '#' are comments and are ignored. Add a mapping command for each share or a mounted file system. There is no limit on the number of lines, so you can specify multiple shares. A command used for Mapped Paths Correspondence consists of pairs of keywords and the corresponding file paths. The keywords are as follows: windows - This keyword precedes the path on a Windows User Submit Computer; osx - This keyword precedes the path on a OS X User Submit Computer; linux - This keyword precedes the path on a Linux User Submit Computer; windowsnode - This keyword precedes the path on a Windows Compute Node; osxnode - This keyword precedes the path on a OS X Compute Node; linuxnode - This keyword precedes the path on a Linux Compute Node. You must use / not \ for the directory separator in the paths on all operating systems, including Windows. Examples: 132

133 Windows directory //myhost/repository/ corresponds to /private/var/repository on OS X Compute Nodes. Add the following line to paths.txt: windows "//myhost/repository/" osxnode "/private/var/repository" Drive F: on a Windows based User Submit Computer corresponds to /mnt/share on OS X and Linux based Compute Nodes. Add the following line to paths.txt: windows "F:" osxnode "/mnt/share" linuxnode "/mnt/share" Directory "/Users/john/share" on a OS X User Submit Computer corresponds to //mac/share on Windows and /mnt/share on Linux Compute Nodes. osx "/Users/john/share" windowsnode "//mac/share" linuxnode "/mnt/share" Instructions in the paths.txt file are evaluated in the order in which they appear in the file. If an instruction finds a match with a path from the User Submit Computer, then the path substitution is performed and no further instructions will be read and used Configuring Multiple Compute Nodes You can use the EnFuzion3D job distribution feature to update many Compute Nodes with one simple command from the command line. This feature makes it very easy to configure and update a large number of nodes. To use EnFuzion3D to perform a task on multiple Compute Nodes, you need to prepare an EnFuzion3D Run File. Below is an example Run File for copying an EnFuzion.options.txt file to multiple Compute Nodes. Create a Run File called update.run, and include in it the following: task main copy EnFuzion.options.txt node:c:/enfuzion endtask job host <hostname>; Replace <hostname> with the name of the Compute Node you want to update. Add one job host line for each additional host that you want to update. Put the EnFuzion.options.txt file in the local directory and use the following command to submit the Run File, which will execute the file copy on multiple Compute Nodes: c:\enfuzion\bin\enfsub update.run EnFuzion.options.txt Please refer to the EnFuzion User Manual for a complete description of the Run File and its syntax Upgrading Your Current Version of Software Please consult the EnFuzion3D Installation Guide for detailed information on how to upgrade to a new version of EnFuzion3D3D. 133

134 Appendix A Appendix A 3ds Max Job Submission Parameters This appendix provides the reference information for all the settings and options of the 3ds Max plug-in. It describes Scene Information Settings, Rendering Settings, Advanced Settings, configuration files, known limitations and troubleshooting tips. A.1 Job Submission Parameters This section provides the complete reference information for the settings in the Scene Information section of the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Window for 3ds Max, as seen in Figure A-1. Figure A-1: Job Submission Parameters Scene The Scene setting specifies the name of the Scene.max file that you want to render. This is a required field. Its value can be typed directly in the field, selected with the Browse button, or dragged and dropped from the desktop. When a new Scene is specified and its corresponding.xml file exists, EnFuzion3D automatically fills out other fields in the submission form. Browse button The button opens a file browser, which allows you to select a Scene file. 134

135 Load Values button The Load Values button loads the Job Submission form with values found from the Scene Description File. This button is useful for quickly resubmitting a Scene from outside of 3ds Max. This button will work only after a Scene Description File has been generated by EnFuzion3D, after one of the following events: A direct Submission from within 3ds Max, or You have extracted Render Settings by using the Extract Values button. Extract Values button The Extract Values button extracts Render Settings stored in a Scene and then fills out the Job Submission form with the extracted values. This button is useful for submitting Scenes from outside of 3ds Max. The time it takes for this operation to complete depends on the speed of your computer and the size of your Scene. It may take a few seconds to several minutes. The Extract Values action generates a Scene Description File that contains the extracted Render Settings. Once a Scene Description File has been created for a Scene, you can use the Load Values button to load the Render Settings quickly in the future when you resubmit that Scene. The Scene Description File is an xml file. Submission Name This is a user assigned name for your submission. Use Submission Name to find your job on a render farm. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. Previous button The button allows you to quickly resubmit a previous submission. It opens a file browser with your previous submission files, which are in the form <Submission Name>.run. When you select a file with a previous submission, EnFuzion3D fills out the submission form with values from the file. Note that the <Submission Name>.run files for previous submissions are stored in the directory /<EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/submissions. Account This field allows you to specify a name, which is used for reporting and accounting purposes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. This setting is used by the EnFuzion3D activity report generator. Notes The Notes field is a scratchpad for users to keep any submission notes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D leaves the field undefined. 135

136 The value is recorded in the submission file and the log file. Frames The Frames setting specifies the range of Frames to be rendered. This is a required field. Value for this field can be a single Frame number, or a range of Frames in the form of Step The Step setting specifies your step size. A value of 1 renders every frame between the start frame and the end frame; a value of 5 renders only every 5 th frame, such as 1, 6, 11, 16 etc. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Frames Per Job The Frames Per Job setting specifies how many Frames are combined into a single job. If multiple short frames are combined together, then the initialization time per frame is reduced. This setting can make a significant difference in the total rendering time for short frames, where the rendering of a single frame takes less than a minute to complete. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Output Directory The Output Directory setting provides the directory for output image files. This is a required field. Often this setting is stored in the.xml file and loaded automatically when the Scene is specified. All Compute Nodes must have write access to this location. Browse button The button opens a directory browser, which allows you to select the output directory. Output File Name The Output File Name setting provides the name for output image files. This is an optional field. If it is not specified, then the default value defined in the Scene is used. Often the Output File Name setting is stored in the.xml file and loaded automatically when the Scene is specified. The Output File Name must be in the form of <name>.<ext>, where <name> is the name of the output image files and <ext> is an image format. The <ext> must be an image format, such as BMP, TGA, JPG, TIF, which is recognized by 3ds Max. If you specify movie formats such as AVI and MOV, then you must include all the Frames for a movie in one Job by using the Frames Per Job setting. 3ds Max will fail to render your image if you do not supply a valid <ext>. Version The Version settings lets you choose the version of the rendering software you want to use. You must make sure that the version of software you choose is installed on all the render nodes. EnFuzion3D support multiple versions of your rendering software to coexist; there is nothing you need to configure EnFuzion3D for this. Render Settings button 136

137 This button open the Render Settings window. See the Render Settings section for more information. Advanced button This button opens the Advanced Submit Options Dialog. The Advanced Settings are the same for all the applications plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. Please refer to Appendix L for information on the Advanced Settings. Clear button This button clears the submission form and sets the values to default. Submit button This button opens the submission dialog. Close button This button closes the dialog. A.2 Render Settings This window lets you specify additional 3ds Max Render Settings, as shown in Figure A-2. Values you specify here will over ride values that are stored in the Scene. All fields in this dialog are optional. Figure A-2: Render Settings Camera The Camera list specifies the names of the cameras that are available for image rendering. Often the Camera names are stored in the _enf.xml file and loaded automatically when the Scene is specified. Select the camera that you want to use for rendering. The settings X Resolution, Y Resolution, Tiles in X, Tiles in Y, and Tile Overlap allow you to change the resolution of output images or to split the rendering of large images into smaller tiles. Figure A-3 shows what these settings mean. 137

138 Tiles in X = 3, Tiles in Y = 2 Y Resolution Tile Overlap X Resolution One Tile Figure A-3: Render in Tiles X Resolution Set the X Resolution of output images. Y Resolution Set the Y Resolution of output images. Tiles in X When you wish to split one large frame into multiple smaller tiles and render them on different machines, the Tiles in X specifies how many horizontal tiles the frame is split into. Tiles in Y When you wish to split one large frame into multiple smaller tiles and render them on different machines, the Tiles in Y specifies how many vertical tiles the frame is split into. Tile Overlap Tile Overlap specifies the overlap between adjacent tiles. Using the example in Figure 20-3, EnFuzion3D generates 6 Jobs, as shown in Figure A-4. The Job Names have the form of Frame#_X-Coordinate_Y-Coordinate. 138

139 Figure A-4: Render in Tiles Figure A-5 shows the corresponding Job Name and the Tile it represents in the Frame for our example _001_ _002_ _003_ _001_ _002_ _003_ 001 A.3 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips This section provides the information on any known limitations of the 3ds Max Plug-in for EnFuzion3D and any renderer-specific troubleshooting tips. A.3.1 Figure A-5: Job Names and Corresponding Tiles Multiple Versions of 3ds Max on the Compute Nodes If you use 3ds Max 2015 on a Compute Node, make sure that previous copies of 3ds Max on the same machine are uninstalled and their directories deleted. 139

140 Appendix B Appendix B After Effects Job Submission Parameters This appendix provides the complete reference information for the EnFuzion3D After Effects plug-in. It describes Scene Information Settings, Rendering Settings, Advanced Settings, configuration files and known limitations and troubleshooting tips. B.1 Job Submission Parameters This section provides the complete reference information for the settings in the Project Information section of the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Window for After Effects, as seen in Figure B-1. Figure B-1: Submission Parameters Project Information Project File The Project File setting specifies the name of the project.aep file that you want to render. This is a required field. Its value can be typed directly in the field, selected with the Browse button, or dragged and dropped from the desktop. Browse button 140

141 The button opens a file browser, which allows you to select a project file. Load RQ The Load RQ (Render Queue) button loads the Job Submission form with values found from the Project Description File. This button is useful for quickly resubmitting a Project from outside of After Effects This button will work only after a Project Description File has been generated by EnFuzion3D, after one of the following events: A direct Submission from within After Effects, or You have extracted Render Settings by using the Extract RQ button. Extract RQ The Extract RQ (Render Queue) button extracts Render Settings stored in a Project and then fills out the Job Submission form with the extracted values. This button is useful for submitting Projects from outside of After Effects. The time it takes for this operation to complete depends on the speed of your computer and the size of your Project. It may take a few seconds to several minutes. The Extract RQ action generates a Project Description File which contains the extracted Render Settings. Once a Project Description File has been created for a Project, you can use the Load RQ button to load the Render Settings quickly in the future when you resubmit that Project. The Project Description File is an xml file. Submission Name This is a user assigned name for your submission. Use Submission Name to find your job on a render farm. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the project name as a default. Previous button The button allows you to quickly resubmit a previous submission. It opens a file browser with your previous submission files, which are in the form <Submission Name>.run. When you select a file with a previous submission, EnFuzion3D fills out the submission form with values from the file. Note that the <Submission Name>.run files for previous submissions are stored in the directory /<EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/submissions. Account This field allows you to specify a name, which is used for reporting and accounting purposes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the project name as a default. Notes The Notes field is a scratchpad for users to keep any submission notes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D leaves the field undefined. 141

142 The value is recorded in the submission file and the log file. Render Queue Items The Render Queue Items setting specifies which item or items from the After Effects Render Queue you want to submit to the EnFuzion3D-run render farm. EnFuzion3D uses only After Effects Render Queue items with status Queued. All other Render Queue items are ignored. New/First Queued The New/First Queued setting lets you submit the first item in the After Effect Render Queue to EnFuzion3D. Last Queued The Last Queued setting lets you submit the last item in the After Effect Render Queue to EnFuzion3D. All Queued The All Queued setting lets you submit to EnFuzion3D all the items in the After Effect Render Queue with status Queued. Make Movies To make movies you must do the following: Define a composition that makes a frame sequence. Add all the Layers to your composition, and queue the frame sequence in the After Effects Render Queue. Define a companion movie composition with no Layers specified. Queue the movie sequence immediately after its companion frame sequence in the After Effects Render Queue. Checking the Make Movies checkbox and the All Queued checkbox will cause the frame sequence to be rendered first, and then used as an input for generating the movie sequence. Please see Section 5.4 for a tutorial on how to use the automated movie-making features provided by EnFuzion3D. Frames The Frames setting specifies the range of Frames to be rendered. This is a required field. Value for this field can be a single Frame number, or a range of Frames in the form of Step The Step setting specifies your step size. A value of 1 renders every frame between the start frame and the end frame; a value of 5 renders only every 5 th frame, such as 1, 6, 11, 16 etc. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Frames Per Job The Frames Per Job setting specifies how many frames are combined into a single job. If multiple short frames are combined together, then the initialization time per frame is reduced. This setting can 142

143 make a significant difference in the total rendering time for short frames, where the rendering of a single frame takes less than a minute to complete. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Composition The Composition setting specifies the composition within the project that you want to be rendered. This is a required field. Render Settings The Render Settings field allows you to specify a different value from the one in the project. This is an optional field. If it is not specified, then the default value defined in the Project File is used. Output Module The Output Module field allows you to specify a different value from the one in the project. This is an optional field. If it is not specified, then the default value defined in the Project File is used. If you require a custom Output Module, which is defined on your local workstation and is required for rendering on the farm, you must configure the Compute Nodes with the custom Output Module before submitting your jobs. The steps for configuring custom Output Modules on Compute Nodes are as follows: Save the Custom Output Module Settings on your Submit Computer to a *.aom file. Copy the.aom file to all the Compute Nodes. On each Compute Node, log in as the EnFuzion3D user, open After Effects and load the.aom file. This process makes your Custom Output Module Settings known to the After Effects programs on each Compute Node. Output Directory The Output Directory setting provides the directory for output image files. This is an optional field. If it is not specified, then the default value defined in the Project File is used. All Compute Nodes must have write access to this location. Browse button The button opens a directory browser, which allows you to select the output directory. Output File Name The Output File Name setting provides the name for output image files. This is an optional field. If it is not specified, then the default value defined in the Project File is used. The Output File Name must be in the form of <name>[######].<ext>, where <name> is the name of the output image and <ext> is an image format. The <ext> must be an image format, such as BMP, TGA, JPG, TIF, which is recognized by After Effects. If you specify movie formats such as AVI and 143

144 MOV, then you must include all the Frames for a movie in one Job by using the Frames Per Job setting. Import Sequence When a movie job is resubmitted, this field allows you to quickly render a different sequence of input images. Version The Version settings lets you choose the version of the rendering software you want to use. You must make sure that the version of software you choose is installed on all the render nodes. EnFuzion3D support multiple versions of your rendering software to coexist; there is nothing you need to configure EnFuzion3D for this. Command Line Options The Command Line Options setting allows you to specify additional command line options, which are passed by EnFuzion3D to the After Effects rendering command, aerender.exe. Consult the documentation for aerender.exe for supported command line options. Advanced button This button opens the Advanced Submit Options Dialog. The Advanced Settings are the same for all applications plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. Please refer to Appendix L for information on the Advanced Settings. B.2 Other Buttons This section provides information on additional buttons on the submission dialog. Clear button This button clears the submission form and sets the values to default. Submit button This button opens the submission dialog. Close button This button closes the dialog. B.3 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips This section provides the information on any known limitations of the After Effects Plug-in for EnFuzion3D and any renderer-specific troubleshooting tips. 144

145 Appendix C Appendix C CINEMA 4D Job Submission Parameters This appendix provides the reference information for all the settings and options of the CINEMA 4D plug-in. It describes Scene Information Settings, Rendering Settings, Advanced Settings, configuration files, known limitations and troubleshooting tips. C.1 Job Submission Parameters This section provides the complete reference information for the settings in the Scene Information section of the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Window for CINEMA 4D, as seen in Figure C-1. Figure C-1: Submission Parameters Scene The Scene setting specifies the name of the Scene.c4d file that you want to render. This is a required field. Its value can be typed directly in the field, selected with the Browse button, or dragged and dropped from the desktop. Browse button The button opens a file browser, which allows you to select a Scene file. Submission Name 145

146 This is a user assigned name for your submission. Use Submission Name to find your job on a render farm. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. Previous button The button allows you to quickly resubmit a previous submission. It opens a file browser with your previous submission files, which are in the form <Submission Name>.run. When you select a file with a previous submission, EnFuzion3D fills out the submission form with values from the file. Note that the <Submission Name>.run files for previous submissions are stored in the directory /<EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/submissions. Account This field allows you to specify a name, which is used for reporting and accounting purposes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. This setting is used by the EnFuzion3D activity report generator. Notes The Notes field is a scratchpad for users to keep any submission notes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D leaves the field undefined. The value is recorded in the submission file and the log file. Frames The Frames setting specifies the range of Frames to be rendered. This is a required field. Value for this field can be a single Frame number, or a range of Frames in the form of Step The Step setting specifies your step size. A value of 1 renders every frame between the start frame and the end frame; a value of 5 renders only every 5 th frame, such as 1, 6, 11, 16 etc. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Frames Per Job The Frames Per Job setting specifies how many frames are combined into a single job. If multiple short frames are combined together, then the initialization time per frame is reduced. This setting can make a significant difference in the total rendering time for short frames, where the rendering of a single frame takes less than a minute to complete. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Output Directory The Output Directory setting provides the directory for output image files. This is an optional field. When a value is not provided explicitly, the valued specified with CINEMA 4D and stored in the Scene is used automatically. All Compute Nodes must have write access to this location. 146

147 Browse button The button opens a directory browser, which allows you to select the output directory. Output File Name The Output File Name setting provides the name for output image files. This is an optional field. When a value is not provided explicitly, the valued specified with CINEMA 4D and stored in the Scene is used automatically. The Output File Name, when explicitly specified here, must be in the form of<name> with no suffix. Multipass Output Directory The Multipass Output Directory setting provides the directory for output image files. This is an optional field. When a value is not provided explicitly, the valued specified with CINEMA 4D and stored in the Scene is used automatically. All Compute Nodes must have write access to this location. Multipass Output File Name The Multipass Output File Name setting provides the name for output image files. This is an optional field. When a value is not provided explicitly, the valued specified with CINEMA 4D and stored in the Scene is used automatically. The Multipass Output File Name, when explicitly specified here, must be in the form of<name> with no suffix. Command Line Options The Command Line Options setting allows you to specify additional command line options, which are passed by EnFuzion3D to the CINEMA 4D rendering command, CINEMA 4D.exe. Consult the documentation for CINEMA 4D.exe for supported command line options. Advanced button This button opens the Advanced Submit Options Dialog. The Advanced Settings are the same for all the applications plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. Please refer to Appendix L for information on the Advanced Settings. C.2 Other Buttons This section provides information on additional buttons on the submission dialog. Clear button This button clears the submission form and sets the values to default. Submit button This button opens the submission dialog. Close button 147

148 This button closes the dialog. C.3 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips This section provides the information on any known limitations of the CINEMA 4D Plug-in for EnFuzion3D and any renderer-specific troubleshooting tips. 148

149 Appendix D Appendix D Houdini Job Submission Parameters This appendix provides the reference information for all the settings and options of the Houdini plug-in. It describes Scene Information Settings, Rendering Settings, Advanced Settings, configuration files, known limitations and troubleshooting tips. D.1 Job Submission Parameters This section provides the complete reference information for the settings in the Scene Information section of the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Window for Houdini, as seen in Figure D-1. Figure D-1: Submission Parameters Scene The Scene setting specifies the name of the first.ifd file, which is generated from.hip file by Houdini. This is a required field. Its value can be typed directly in the field, selected with the Browse button, or dragged and dropped from the desktop. Browse button The button opens a file browser, which allows you to select a Scene file. Submission Name This is a user assigned name for your submission. Use Submission Name to find your job on a render farm. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. 149

150 Previous button The button allows you to quickly resubmit a previous submission. It opens a file browser with your previous submission files, which are in the form <Submission Name>.run. When you select a file with a previous submission, EnFuzion3D fills out the submission form with values from the file. Note that the <Submission Name>.run files for previous submissions are stored in the directory /<EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/submissions. Account This field allows you to specify a name, which is used for reporting and accounting purposes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. This setting is used by the EnFuzion3D activity report generator. Notes The Notes field is a scratchpad for users to keep any submission notes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D leaves the field undefined. The value is recorded in the submission file and the log file. Output Directory The Output Directory setting provides the directory for output image files. All Compute Nodes must have write access to this location. Browse button The button opens a directory browser, which allows you to select the output directory. Output File Name The Output File Name setting provides the first part of the name for output image files. A sequence number is added for each rendered file. The Output File Name must be in the form of name.#.[ext], e.g. image.#.jpg. Command Line Options The Command Line Options setting allows you to specify additional command line options, which are passed by EnFuzion3D to the Houdini rendering command, mantra.exe Consult the documentation for mantra.exe for supported command line options Advanced button This button opens the Advanced Submit Options Dialog. The Advanced Settings are the same for all the applications plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. Please refer to Appendix L for information on the Advanced Settings. 150

151 D.2 Other Buttons This section provides information on additional buttons on the submission dialog. Clear button This button clears the submission form and sets the values to default. Submit button This button opens the submission dialog. Close button This button closes the dialog. D.3 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips This section provides the information on any known limitations of the Houdini Plug-in for EnFuzion3D and any renderer-specific troubleshooting tips. D.3.1 Install Application Scripts not implemented for Houdini In the 15.0 release, the EnFuzon3D Desktop ToolsInstall Application Scripts has not been implemented for Houdini. This means that you will not be able to submit jobs from inside of Houdini to an EnFuzion3D managed render farm. We expect this will be corrected soon. Please for updates. 151

152 Appendix E Appendix E LightWave Job Submission Parameters This appendix provides the reference information for all the settings and options of the LightWave plug-in. It describes Scene Information Settings, Rendering Settings, Advanced Settings, configuration files, known limitations and troubleshooting tips. E.1 Job Submission Parameters This section provides the complete reference information for the settings in the Scene Information section of the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Window for LightWave, as seen in Figure E-1. Figure E-1: Submission Parameters Scene The Scene setting specifies the name of the Scene.lws file that you want to render. This is a required field. Its value can be typed directly in the field, selected with the Browse button, or dragged and dropped from the desktop. Browse button The button opens a file browser, which allows you to select a Scene file. Submission Name 152

153 This is a user assigned name for your submission. Use Submission Name to find your job on a render farm. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. Previous button The button allows you to quickly resubmit a previous submission. It opens a file browser with your previous submission files, which are in the form <Submission Name>.run. When you select a file with a previous submission, EnFuzion3D fills out the submission form with values from the file. Note that the <Submission Name>.run files for previous submissions are stored in the directory /<EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/submissions. Account This field allows you to specify a name, which is used for reporting and accounting purposes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. This setting is used by the EnFuzion3D activity report generator. Notes The Notes field is a scratchpad for users to keep any submission notes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D leaves the field undefined. The value is recorded in the submission file and the log file. Frames The Frames setting specifies the range of Frames to be rendered. This is a required field. Value for this field can be a single Frame number, or a range of Frames in the form of Step The Step setting specifies your step size. A value of 1 renders every frame between the start frame and the end frame; a value of 5 renders only every 5 th frame, such as 1, 6, 11, 16 etc. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Frames Per Job The Frames Per Job setting specifies how many frames are combined into a single Job. If multiple short frames are combined together, then the initialization time per frame is reduced. This setting can make a significant difference in the total rendering time for short frames, where the rendering of a single frame takes less than a minute to complete. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Config Directory The Config Directory specifies the directory with configuration files. This is an optional field. Content Directory The Content Directory specifies the location of your Scene. This is a required field, and it must be set to the same path as what is specified in the Scene.lws file. 153

154 Advanced button This button opens the Advanced Submit Options Dialog. The Advanced Settings are the same for all the applications plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. Please refer to Appendix L for information on the Advanced Settings. E.2 Other Buttons This section provides information on additional buttons on the submission dialog. Clear button This button clears the submission form and sets the values to default. Submit button This button opens the submission dialog. Close button This button closes the dialog. E.3 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips This section provides the information on any known limitations of the LightWave Plug-in for EnFuzion3D and any renderer-specific troubleshooting tips. E.3.1 Install Application Scripts not implemented for LightWave In the 15.0 release, the EnFuzon3D Desktop ToolsInstall Application Scripts has not been implemented for LightWave. This means that you will not be able to submit jobs from inside of LightWave to an EnFuzion3D managed render farm. We expect this will be corrected soon. Please support@axceleon.com for updates. 154

155 Appendix F Appendix F Maya Job Submission Parameters This appendix provides the reference information for all the settings and options of the Maya plug-in. It describes Scene Information settings, Rendering settings, Render Settings dialog, Advanced dialog, and known limitations and troubleshooting tips. F.1 Job Submission Parameters This section provides the complete reference information for the settings in the Scene Information section of the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Window for Maya, as seen in Figure F-1. Figure F-1: Submission Parameters Scene The Scene setting specifies the name of the Scene.ma or.mb file that you want to render. This is a required field. Its value can be typed directly in the field, selected with the Browse button, or dragged and dropped from the desktop. When a new Scene is specified and its corresponding EnFuzion3D generated _enf.xml file exists, EnFuzion3D automatically fills out other fields in the submission form. Browse button 155

156 The button opens a file browser, which allows you to select a Scene file. Load Values button The Load Values button loads the Job Submission form with values found from the Scene Description File. This button is useful for quickly resubmitting a Scene from outside of Maya. This button will work only after a Scene Description File has been generated by EnFuzion3D, after one of the following events: A direct Submission from within Maya, or You have extracted Render Settings by using the Extract Values button. Extract Values button The Extract Values button extracts Render Settings stored in a Scene and then fills out the Job Submission form with the extracted values. This button is useful for submitting Scenes from outside of Maya. The time it takes for this operation to complete depends on the speed of your computer and the size of your Scene. It may take a few seconds to several minutes. The Extract Values action generates a Scene Description File, which contains the extracted Render Settings. Once a Scene Description File has been created for a Scene, you can use the Load Values button to load the Render Settings quickly in the future when you resubmit that Scene. The Scene Description File is an xml file. Submission Name This is a user assigned name for your submission. Use Submission Name to find your job on a render farm. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. Previous button The button allows you to quickly resubmit a previous submission. It opens a file browser with your previous submission files, which are in the form <Submission Name>.run. When you select a file with a previous submission, EnFuzion3D fills out the submission form with values from the file. Note that the <Submission Name>.run files for previous submissions are stored in the directory /<EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/submissions. Account This field allows you to specify a name, which is used for reporting and accounting purposes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. This setting is used by the EnFuzion3D activity report generator. Notes 156

157 The Notes field is a scratchpad for users to keep any submission notes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D leaves the field undefined. The value is recorded in the submission file and the log file. F.2 Rendering Settings This section provides the complete reference information for the settings in the Rendering section of the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Window for Maya, as seen in Figure F-1. Frames The Frames setting specifies the range of Frames to be rendered. This is a required field. Value for this field can be a single Frame number, or a range of Frames in the form of Note that frame range can have negative numbers. Please note the syntax below: o Frame range (minus mimus with no space between) will result in 9 frames being rendered, frames -10, -9, -8, -7, -6, -5, -4, -3, -2. o Frame range -2-2 will result in 5 frames being rendered, frames -2, -1, 0, 1, 2. o Frame range is invalid, as the frame range should be expressed in an ascending order Step The Step setting specifies your step size. A value of 1 renders every frame between the start frame and the end frame; a value of 5 renders only every 5 th frame, such as 1, 6, 11, 16 etc. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Step can be a floating-point number. Frames Per Job The Frames Per Job setting specifies how many frames are combined into a single job. If multiple short frames are combined together, then the initialization time per frame is reduced. This setting can make a significant difference in the total rendering time for short frames, where the rendering of a single frame takes less than a minute to complete. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Project Directory The Project Directory setting specifies the location of the Maya Project Directory for your Scene. This is a required setting. Layers EnFuzion3D allows Layers to be submitted as different Runs. Each Layer can specify its own renderer of choice and different Submission Parameters. The EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface shows the Submission Parameters for each Layer as they were defined in Maya. When a Run is submitted from Maya, the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface is opened with the Layers information displayed. When you manually open the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Interface, you can use the Extract Values button to obtain information about the Scene and display the Layers. 157

158 The following options are available in the Layers field when choosing Layers to submit: Click on a Layer name to select that Layer for submission Ctrl-Click on multiple Layers to select more than one Layer for submission o Render Separately Check this box to have each layer rendered in its own Run. o Allow Select Unrenderable Layers can be marked Renderable or Not Renderable in Maya. Check this box to override the Maya setting stored in the scene in order to force render a Not Renderable scene. o Select All Check the Select All checkbox if you want to render all Layers. o Reset button The Reset button recalls layers settings from the scene as they were set in Maya. o Add button The Add button opens a dialogue box and allows you to add a Layer to the list in the Layers field. o Layer Settings button The Layer Settings button opens a dialogue box and allows you to specify layer specific settings, as shown in Figure F-2. Figure F-2: Layer Settings Dialogue The values in this dialogue are extracted from the scene. By checking the box, you can enter values to override those settings stored in the scene. o o Image Name The Image Name is the name you give to this layer. Camera The Camera settings is setting is the name of the camera(s). 158

159 o X Resolution The X Resolution setting is the horizontal resolution in pixels. o Y Resolution The Y Resolution setting is the vertical resolution in pixels. o Add button The Add button displays an edit box in which you can enter a camera name. o Checkboxes Checking the Checkboxes marks the associated option to be used. o Apply button The Apply button applies the settings to a specific layer name in the Image Name field. o Clear button The Clear button clears the fields of values and unchecks the checkboxes. Renderer The Renderer menu specifies the renderer to be used for rendering output images. Supported Renderer options are: o o o o o o o o o Maya software Maya hardware Maya2RIB Maya vector 3Delight Arnold mental ray VRay Renderman Version The Version settings lets you choose the version of the rendering software you want to use. You must make sure that the version of software you choose is installed on all the render nodes. EnFuzion3D support multiple versions of your rendering software to coexist; there is nothing you need to configure EnFuzion3D for this. 159

160 Command Line Options The Command Line Options setting allows you to specify additional command line options, which are passed by EnFuzion3D to the Maya rendering command, Render.exe. Consult the documentation for Render.exe for supported command line options. The next group of parameters enables the automatic generation, submission and rendering of.mi Files. These settings are used only when you are working with the mental ray Standalone renderer. These parameters appear in the Standalone Section as seen in Figure F-1. File Per Frame When this checkbox is checked, one.mi file is generated per frame. Otherwise, a single.mi file is generated for all the frames in a Scene. For new users, it is recommended that this checkbox is checked. Render When this checkbox is checked, EnFuzion3D will automatically submit for rendering the.mi Files which have been generated automatically. When this checkbox is unchecked,.mi Files will be generated but not submitted for rendering. Delete.mi Files When this checkbox is checked, EnFuzion3D will automatically delete all the interim.mi Files after they have been rendered. If the rendering fails, the.mi Files are not deleted, even if this box is checked. Use Standalone When the Use Standalone checkbox is checked, EnFuzion3D will generate, submit and render.mi Files for Scenes or Layers that specify the mental ray renderer. For Scenes or Layers that specify a different renderer, the Use Standalone checkboxes ignored. Intermediate File Location This is a mandatory field. It specifies the directory for automatically generated.mi Files. Intermediate File Name This is a mandatory field. It specifies the name of the automatically generated.mi Files. The.mi file name must be in the form of <name> or <name>.mi. Standalone Options This field is used to provide command line options for the mental ray Standalone renderer. Render Settings..=>Image Directory This is a mandatory field when you are using the mental ray Standalone renderer, and the EnFuzion3Dautomatic.mi generation, submission and rendering feature. It must provide the absolute path of the directory for output images. Your Scene will not render properly without an absolute path for the Image Directory. 160

161 Render Settings button This button opens the Render Settings Dialog. See the Render Settings Dialog section below for more information. Advanced button This button opens the Advanced Submit Options Dialog. The Advanced Settings are the same for all the applications plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. Please refer to Appendix L for information on the Advanced Settings. F.3 Render Settings Dialog This section provides the complete reference information for the Render Settings Dialog for Maya, as seen in Figure F-3. Figure F-3: Submission Parameters Render Settings This dialog provides fields for the most common Maya Render Settings. To specify a setting, you must turn on its checkbox and provide its value. If a setting is specified, the values from the dialog replace the values that are stored in the Scene. All fields in this dialog are optional. Image Directory The Image Directory setting provides the directory for output image files. Often the Image Directory setting is stored in the _enf.xml file and loaded automatically when the Scene is specified. All Compute Nodes must have write access to this location. This is a mandatory field when you are using the mental ray Standalone renderer, and the EnFuzion3D automatic.mi generation, submission and rendering feature. It must provide the absolute path of the directory for output images. Your Scene will not render properly without an absolute path for the Image Directory. Browse button The button opens a directory browser, which allows you to select the image directory. Image Name The Image Name setting provides the name for output image files. Often the Image Name setting is stored in the _enf.xml file and loaded automatically when the Scene is specified. 161

162 The Image Name must be in the form of <name>, where <name> is the name of the output image files Camera The Camera list specifies the names of the cameras that are available for image rendering. Often the Camera names are stored in the _enf.xml file and loaded automatically when the Scene is specified. Select the camera that you want to use for rendering. Add button The Add button opens a dialog, which allows you to add a name to the list of available cameras. This is useful when the _enf.xml file does not exist or the camera list is not loaded automatically. Clear button This button clears the fields in the Render Settings dialog. Apply button The Apply button closes the Render Setting dialog and causes the settings to take effects. Cancel button The Cancel button closes the Render Setting dialog. The settings are ignored. The settings X Resolution, Y Resolution, Tiles in X, Tiles in Y, and Tile Overlap allow you to change the resolution of output images or to split the rendering of large images into smaller tiles. Figure F-4 illustrates the settings. Tiles in X = 3, Tiles in Y = 2 Y Resolution Tile Overlap X Resolution One Tile Figure F-4: Render in Tiles X Resolution 162

163 Set the X Resolution of output images. Y Resolution Set the Y Resolution of output images. Tiles in X When you wish to split one large frame into multiple smaller tiles and render them on different machines, the Tiles in X specifies how many horizontal tiles the frame is split into. Tiles in Y When you wish to split one large frame into multiple smaller tiles and render them on different machines, the Tiles in Y specifies how many vertical tiles the frame is split into. Tile Overlap Tile Overlap specifies the overlap between adjacent tiles. For the example in Figure F-4, EnFuzion3D generates 6 Jobs, as shown in Figure F-5. The Job Names have the form of Frame#_X-Coordinate_Y-Coordinate. Figure F-5: Render in Tiles Figure F-6 shows the corresponding Job Name and the Tile it represents in the Frame for our example _001_ _002_ _003_ _001_ _002_ _003_ 001 Figure F-6: Job Names and Corresponding Tiles 163

164 F.4 Other Buttons This section provides information on additional buttons on the submission dialog. Clear button This button clears the submission form and sets the values to default. Submit button This button opens the submission dialog. Close button This button closes the dialog. F.5 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips This section provides the information on any known limitations of the LightWave Plug-in for EnFuzion3D and any renderer-specific troubleshooting tips. F.5.1 Tiles Are Not Supported in the Thumbnail Browser The View Thumbnail feature does not work for frames rendered in tiles. F.5.2 Rendering in Heterogeneous Render Farms Your render farm is heterogeneous if one or more Compute Nodes run a different operating system than your Submit Computer. All external texture and other file references in the Scene must be relative to the Maya project. EnFuzion3D automatically adjusts path values between different platforms when it calls the renderer from a command line. EnFuzion3D will not change any paths that are specified in the Scene itself. If you want to use file paths that are not relative to the project and have a heterogeneous render farm, please contact Axceleon at info@axceleon.com. 164

165 Appendix G Appendix G mental ray Standalone for Maya Job Submission Parameters This appendix provides the reference information for all the settings and options of the mental ray Standalone from Autodesk, which, for the rest of this Appendix, will be referred to as the mental ray Standalone Plug-in. It describes Scene Information Settings, Rendering Settings, Advanced Settings, configuration files, known limitations and troubleshooting tips. G.1 Job Submission Parameters This section provides the complete reference information for the settings in the Scene Information section of the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Window for mental ray Standalone, as seen in Figure G-1. Figure G-1: Submission Parameters Scene The Scene specifies the list of.mi Files that you want to render. This is a required field. Its value can be typed directly in the field, selected with the Browse button, or dragged and dropped from the desktop. 165

166 When you browse to locate the first.mi file in a scene, for example app.1.mi, EnFuzion3D will automatically change the name to the form apple${frame}.mi, so that all the related.mi Files can be submitted at once. EnFuzion3D also searches the current directory for all the.mi Files and updates the Frames and Steps fields on the form. File Per Frame The File Per Frame checkbox selects whether one.mi file is provided for each frame or whether there is only one.mi file for all frames in the Scene. Layers checkbox The Layers box, when checked, will cause all the layers of the scene to be displayed, and each layer to be rendered separately. Browse button The button opens a file browser, which allows you to select a Scene file. Load Values button The Load Values button forces EnFuzion3D to find all the.mi Files that correspond to the Scene field and update the Frame and Steps fields. Extract Values button The Extract Values button forces EnFuzion3D to extract the Output Directory setting from the first.mi file to be rendered. The time for this operation depends on the speed of your computer and the size of your Scene. It may take a few seconds to a several minutes. Submission Name This is a user assigned name for your submission. Use Submission Name to find your job on a render farm. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. Previous button The button allows you to quickly resubmit a previous submission. It opens a file browser with your previous submission files, which are in the form <Submission Name>.run. When you select a file with a previous submission, EnFuzion3D fills out the submission form with values from the file. Note that the <Submission Name>.run files for previous submissions are stored in the directory /<EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/submissions. Account This field allows you to specify a name, which is used for reporting and accounting purposes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. 166

167 This setting is used by the EnFuzion3D activity report generator. Notes The Notes field is a scratchpad for users to keep any submission notes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D leaves the field undefined. The value is recorded in the submission file and the log file. Frames The Frames setting specifies the range of Frames to be rendered. This is a required field. Value for this field can be a single Frame number, or a range of Frames in the form of Step The Step setting specifies your step size. A value of 1 renders every frame between the start frame and the end frame; a value of 5 renders only every 5 th frame, such as 1, 6, 11, 16 etc. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Frame Per Job The Frames Per Job setting specifies how many frames are combined into a single job. If multiple short frames are combined together, then the initialization time per frame is reduced. This setting can make a significant difference in the total rendering time for short frames, where the rendering of a single frame takes less than a minute to complete. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Layers field The Layers field shows all the layers in the scene. Output Directory The Output Directory setting provides the directory for output image files. This is a required field. All Compute Nodes must have write access to this location. Browse Button The button opens a directory browser, which allows you to select the Output Directory. Command Line Options The Command Line Options setting allows you to specify additional command line options, which are passed by EnFuzion3D to the mental ray rendering command, ray*[.exe]. Consult the documentation for ray*[.exe] for supported command line options. Advanced button This button opens the Advanced Submit Options Dialog. The Advanced Settings are the same for all the applications plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. Please refer to Appendix L for information on the Advanced Settings. 167

168 G.2 Other Buttons This section provides information on additional buttons on the submission dialog. Clear button This button clears the submission form and sets the values to default. Submit button This button opens the submission dialog. Close button This button closes the dialog. G.3 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips This section provides the information on any known limitations of the mental ray Standalone Plug-in for EnFuzion3D and any renderer-specific troubleshooting tips. G.3.1 Scene Name When you browse to locate the first.mi file in a scene, for example app.1.mi, EnFuzion3D will automatically change the name to the form apple${frame}.mi, so that all the related.mi Files can be submitted at once. In release 15.0, if you resubmit this scene, when the Job Submission Windows opens, the scene name will show as apple#.mi, not apple${frame}.mi. This does not affect rendering. You can just ignore it. 168

169 Appendix H Appendix H Nuke Job Submission Parameters This appendix provides the reference information for all the settings and options of the Nuke plug-in. It describes Scene Information Settings, Rendering Settings, Advanced Settings, configuration files, known limitations and troubleshooting tips. H.1 Job Submission Parameters This section provides the complete reference information for the settings in the Scene Information section of the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Window for Nuke, as seen in Figure H-1. Figure H-0-1: Submission Parameters Script File: The Script File setting specifies the name of the Nuke Comp File that you want to render. This is a required field. Its value can be typed directly in the field, selected with the Browse button, or dragged and dropped from the desktop. Browse button The button opens a file browser, which allows you to select a Script File. Submission Name 169

170 This is a user assigned name for your submission. Use Submission Name to find your job on a render farm. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. Previous button The button allows you to quickly resubmit a previous submission. It opens a file browser with your previous submission files, which are in the form <Submission Name>.run. When you select a file with a previous submission, EnFuzion3D fills out the submission form with values from the file. Note that the <Submission Name>.run files for previous submissions are stored in the directory /<EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/submissions. Account This field allows you to specify a name, which is used for reporting and accounting purposes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Comp name as a default. This setting is used by the EnFuzion3D activity report generator. Notes The Notes field is a scratchpad for users to keep any submission notes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D leaves the field undefined. The value is recorded in the submission file and the log file. Frames The Frames setting specifies the range of Frames to be rendered. This is a required field. Value for this field can be a single Frame number, or a range of Frames in the form of Step The Step setting specifies your step size. A value of 1 renders every frame between the start frame and the end frame; a value of 5 renders only every 5 th frame, such as 1, 6, 11, 16 etc. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Frames Per Job The Frames Per Job setting specifies how many frames are combined into a single job. If multiple short frames are combined together, then the initialization time per frame is reduced. This setting can make a significant difference in the total rendering time for short frames, where the rendering of a single frame takes less than a minute to complete. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Browse button The button opens a directory browser, which allows you to select the output directory. Command Line Options 170

171 The Command Line Options setting allows you to specify additional command line parameters, which are passed by EnFuzion3D to the Nuke rendering command, Nuke<version>.exe. Consult the documentation for Nuke<version>exe for supported parameters. Advanced button This button opens the Advanced Submit Options Dialog. The Advanced Settings are the same for all the applications plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. Please refer to Appendix L for information on the Advanced Settings. H.2 Other Buttons This section provides information on additional buttons on the submission dialog. Clear button This button clears the submission form and sets the values to default. Submit button This button opens the submission dialog. Close button This button closes the dialog. H.3 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips This section provides the information on any known limitations of the Nuke Plug-in for EnFuzion3D and any renderer-specific troubleshooting tips. If you are using the GUI version of Nuke to render then the Nuke template file (C:\EnFuzion\Config\Templates\nuke-template.run) needs to be modified in two of its lines (about lines 47 and 49): Note: first make a backup copy of nuke-template.run in case you need to revert to using it again. Change from the default for headless render node: node:execute echo ""%NUKE${version}PATH%" -x node:execute ""%NUKE${version}PATH%" -x to the following for GUI render: node:execute echo ""%NUKE${version}PATH%" -xi node:execute ""%NUKE${version}PATH%" -xi. 171

172 Appendix I Appendix I RealFlow Job Submission Parameters This appendix provides the reference information for all the settings and options of the RealFlow plug-in. It describes Scene Information Settings, Rendering Settings, and Advanced Settings, configuration files, known limitations and troubleshooting tips. I.1 Job Submission Parameters This section provides the complete reference information for the settings in the Scene Information section of the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Window for RealFlow, as seen in Figure I-1. Figure I-1: Submission Parameters Scene Information RealFlow File: The RealFlow File setting specifies the name of the.flw file that you want to render. This is a required field. Its value can be typed directly in the field, selected with the Browse button, or dragged and dropped from the desktop. Browse button The button opens a file browser, which allows you to select a Scene file. Submission Name This is a user assigned name for your submission. Use Submission Name to find your job on a render farm. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. 172

173 Previous button The button allows you to quickly resubmit a previous submission. It opens a file browser with your previous submission files, which are in the form <Submission Name>.run. When you select a file with a previous submission, EnFuzion3D fills out the submission form with values from the file. Note that the <Submission Name>.run files for previous submissions are stored in the directory /<EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/submissions. Account This field allows you to specify a name, which is used for reporting and accounting purposes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. This setting is used by the EnFuzion3D activity report generator. Notes The Notes field is a scratchpad for users to keep any submission notes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D leaves the field undefined. Frames The Frames setting specifies the range of Frames to be rendered. This is a required field. Value for this field can be a single Frame number, or a range of Frames in the form of No of Threads Command Line Options The Command Line Options setting allows you to specify additional command line options, which are passed by EnFuzion3D to the RealFlow rendering command, RealFlowNode.exe. Consult the documentation for RealFlowNode.exe for supported command line options. Advanced button This button opens the Advanced Submit Options Dialog. The Advanced Settings are the same for all the applications plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. Please refer to Appendix L for information on the Advanced Settings. Clear button This button clears the submission form and sets the values to default. Submit button This button opens the submission dialog. Close button This button closes the dialog. 173

174 I.2 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips This section provides the information on any known limitations of the RealFlow Plug-in for EnFuzion3D and any renderer-specific troubleshooting tips. I.2.1 Install Application Scripts not implemented for RealFlow In the 15.0 release, the EnFuzon3D Desktop ToolsInstall Application Scripts has not been implemented for RealFlow. This means that you will not be able to submit jobs from inside of RealFlow to an EnFuzion3D managed render farm. We expect this will be corrected soon. Please for updates. 174

175 Appendix J Appendix J Softimage Job Submission Parameters This appendix provides the reference information for all the settings and options of the Softimage plug-in. It describes Scene Information Settings, Rendering Settings, Advanced Settings, configuration files, known limitations and troubleshooting tips. J.1 Job Submission Parameters This section provides the complete reference information for the settings in the Scene Information section of the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Window for Softimage, as seen in Figure J-1. Figure J-1: Submission Parameters Scene 175

176 The Scene setting specifies the name of the Scene.scn file that you want to render. This is a required field. Its value can be typed directly in the field, selected with the Browse button, or dragged and dropped from the desktop. When a new Scene is specified and its corresponding.scntoc file exists, EnFuzion3D automatically fills out other fields in the submission form. Browse button The button opens a file browser, which allows you to select a Scene file. Load Values button The Load Values button loads the Job Submission form with values found from the Scene Description File. This button is useful for quickly resubmitting a Scene from outside of Softimage. This button will work only after a Scene Description File has been generated by EnFuzion3D, after one of the following events: A direct Submission from within Softimage, or You have extracted Render Settings by using the Extract Values button. Extract Values button The Extract Values button extracts Render Settings stored in a Scene and then fills out the Job Submission form with the extracted values. This button is useful for submitting Scenes from outside of Softimage. The time it takes for this operation to complete depends on the speed of your computer and the size of your Scene. It may take a few seconds to several minutes. The Extract Values action generates a Scene Description File that contains the extracted Render Settings. Once a Scene Description File has been created for a Scene, you can use the Load Values button to load the Render Settings quickly in the future when you resubmit that Scene. The Scene Description File is an xml file. Submission Name This is a user assigned name for your submission. Use Submission Name to find your job on a render farm. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. Previous button The button allows you to quickly resubmit a previous submission. It opens a file browser with your previous submission files, which are in the form <Submission Name>.run. When you select a file with a previous submission, EnFuzion3D fills out the submission form with values from the file. Note that the <Submission Name>.run files for previous submissions are stored in the directory /<EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/submissions. Account 176

177 This field allows you to specify a name, which is used for reporting and accounting purposes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. This setting is used by the EnFuzion3D activity report generator. Notes The Notes field is a scratchpad for users to keep any submission notes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D leaves the field undefined. The value is recorded in the submission file and the log file. Start Frame The Start Frame setting specifies the first frame to be rendered. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. End Frame The End Frame setting specifies the last frame to be rendered. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. The Frames setting specifies the range of Frames to be rendered. This is a required field. Value for this field can be a single Frame number, or a range of Frames in the form of Step The Step setting specifies your step size. A value of 1 renders every frame between the start frame and the end frame; a value of 5 renders only every 5 th frame, such as 1, 6, 11, 16 etc. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Frames Per Job The Frames Per Job setting specifies how many frames are combined into a single job. If multiple short frames are combined together, then the initialization time per frame is reduced. This setting can make a significant difference in the total rendering time for short frames, where the rendering of a single frame takes less than a minute to complete. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Passes The Passes list specifies the names of the passes that are available for image rendering. The list is loaded from the.scntoc file, extracted from the Scene or added manually by the user. Select one or more passes for rendering. The following mouse operations are supported on different operating systems. On Windows and Linux, click to select an item, <ctrl> click to toggle an item, click and drag to select multiple items, <ctrl> click and drag to select multiple sections. On OS X, click to select an item, click and drag to select multiple items, <apple> click and drag to select multiple sections. Choose All checkbox The Choose All checkbox selects all the passes for rendering. 177

178 Add button The Add button opens a dialog, which allows you to add a name to the list of available passes. This is useful when the.scntoc file does not exist or the pass list is not extracted from the Scene. Output Directory The Output Directory setting provides the directory for output image files. This is an optional field. If it is not specified, the value is left empty. Often the Output Directory setting is stored in the.scntoc file and loaded automatically when the Scene is specified or when the Scene information is extracted. Output File Name The Output File Name setting provides the name for output image files. This is an optional field. If it is not specified, the value is left empty. The Output File Name should be in the form of <name>.#, where <name> is the name of output images and # denotes the position of the frame number. Command Line Options The Command Line Options setting allows you to specify additional command line options, which are passed by EnFuzion3D to the Softimage rendering command, xsibatch. Consult the documentation for xsibatch for supported command line options. Use Service The Use Service checkbox, when checked, enables Softimage to run in the Service Mode. In the Service Mode, the Softimage program which runs on each Compute Node caches a Scene, and will not exit until all the frames of the Scene have been rendered on the render farm. This option ensures that a Scene is copied to each Compute Node only once. This option is currently implemented only for Windows based Compute Nodes. Contact info@axceleon.com for the status of the option on Linux based Compute Nodes. The next group of parameters enables the automatic generation, submission and rendering of.mi Files. mental ray Standalone These settings are used only when you are working with the mental ray Standalone renderer. Render When this checkbox is checked, EnFuzion3D will automatically submit for rendering the.mi Files that have been generated automatically. When this checkbox is unchecked,.mi Files will be generated but not submitted for rendering. Delete.mi Files When this checkbox is checked, EnFuzion3D will automatically delete all the interim.mi Files after they have been rendered. If the rendering fails, the.mi Files are not deleted, even if this box is checked. 178

179 Use Standalone This checkbox, when checked, causes EnFuzion3D to call the mental ray Standalone renderer to render the current Scene. This checkbox also causes EnFuzion3D to automatically generate the required.mi Files needed by the mental ray Standalone renderer..mi Directory This is a mandatory field. It specifies the directory for automatically generated.mi Files..mi File Name This is a mandatory field. It specifies the name of the automatically generated.mi Files. The.mi file name must be in the form of <name> or <name>.mi2. mental ray Options This field is used to provide command line options for the mental ray Standalone renderer. If you are working with a Scene that uses texture files, you must set the -T <path> here. A Scene with textures will not render properly without this option. The <path> specifies an absolute path for texture files on Compute Nodes. Furthermore, this value must be an absolute path as seen by a Compute Node. EnFuzion3D will not translate the value of this option as seen by the User Submit Computer to its equivalent, as seen by a Compute Node. Advanced button This button opens the Advanced Submit Options Dialog. The Advanced Settings are the same for all the applications plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. Please refer to Appendix L for information on the Advanced Settings. Clear button This button clears the submission form and sets the values to default. Submit button This button opens the submission dialog. Close button This button closes the dialog. J.2 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips This section provides the information on any known limitations of the Softimage plug-in for EnFuzion3D and any renderer-specific troubleshooting tips. Please note that this plug-in is not supported by EnFuzion3D J.2.1 Image Viewer Flip.exe fails on Windows When you try to use Softimage flip.exe to view images, the program might fail with the following message: 179

180 flip.exe - Unable to Locate DLL The dynamic link library ilcor10.dll cannot be found... In this case, find ilcor10.dll on your system and add the directory it is located in to the PATH environment variable on your system or copy ilcor10.dll to the directory with flip.exe. J.2.2 Figure When EnFuzion3D tries to use Softimage imgconv.exe to convert images to thumbnail JPEGs, the program might fail to work. In this case, make sure that the SI_IMAGE_PATH environment variable is set to <Softimage _installation directory>\application\bin\sil. Default value for Softimage is C:\Softimage\Softimage<version>\Application\bin\sil. 180

181 Appendix K Appendix K mental ray from Softimage Job Submission Parameters This appendix provides the reference information for all the settings and options of the mental ray for Softimage plug-in. It describes Scene Information Settings, Rendering Settings, Advanced Settings, configuration files, known limitations and troubleshooting tips. K.1 Job Submission Parameters This section provides the reference information for the settings in the Scene Information section of the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Window for mental ray for Softimage, as seen in Figure K-1. Figure K-1: Submission Parameters Scene Information Scene The Scene specifies the list of.mi2 files that you want to render. This is a required field. Its value can be typed directly in the field, selected with the Browse button, or dragged and dropped from the desktop. If the file is selected or dropped, then EnFuzion3D replaces the frame number with the character #. The file is taken to be the first in the sequence to be rendered. If the value is typed directly in the field, 181

182 then you need to substitute the frame number with # manually. This allows you to submit all the related.mi2 files with one submission. EnFuzion3D also searches the current directory for all the.mi2 files and updates the Frames and Step fields on the form. Browse button The button opens a file browser, which allows you to select a Scene file. Load Values button The Load Values button forces EnFuzion3D to find all the.mi2 files that correspond to the Scene field and update the Frames and Step fields. Extract Values button The Extract Values button forces EnFuzion3D to extract the Output Directory setting from the first.mi2 file to be rendered. The time for this operation depends on the speed of your computer and the size of your Scene. It may take a few seconds to a several minutes. Submission Name This is a user assigned name for your submission. Use Submission Name to find your job on a render farm. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. Previous button The button allows you to quickly resubmit a previous submission. It opens a file browser with your previous submission files, which are in the form <Submission Name>.run. When you select a file with a previous submission, EnFuzion3D fills out the submission form with values from the file. Note that the <Submission Name>.run files for previous submissions are stored in the directory /<EnFuzion3D_Installation_Dir>/submissions. Account This field allows you to specify a name, which is used for reporting and accounting purposes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D uses the Scene name as a default. This setting is used by the EnFuzion3D activity report generator. Notes The Notes field is a scratchpad for users to keep any submission notes. This is not a required field. If you do not provide a value, EnFuzion3D leaves the field undefined. The value is recorded in the submission file and the log file. 182

183 K.2 Rendering Settings This section provides the complete reference information for the settings in the Rendering section of the EnFuzion3D Job Submission Window for mental for Softimage, as seen in Figure K-2. Figure K-2: Submission Parameters - Rendering Start Frame The Start Frame setting specifies the first frame to be rendered. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. End Frame The End Frame setting specifies the last frame to be rendered. This is a required field. By default, its value is set to 1. Output Directory The Output Directory setting provides the directory for output image files. This is a required field. All Compute Nodes must have write access to this location. Output File Name The Output File Name setting provides the name for output image files. This is an optional field. If it is not specified, the value is left empty. The Output File Name should be in the form of <name>.#.<ext>, where <name> is the name of output images, # denotes the position of the frame number and <ext> is the image type extension. Command Line Options The Command Line Options setting allows you to specify additional command line parameters, which are passed by EnFuzion3D to the mental ray rendering command, ray*[.exe]. Consult the documentation for ray*[.exe] for supported parameters. Advanced button 183

184 This button opens the Advanced Submit Options Dialog. The Advanced Settings are the same for all the applications plug-ins for EnFuzion3D. Please refer to Appendix L for information on the Advanced Settings. K.3 Other Buttons This section provides information on additional buttons on the submission dialog. Clear button This button clears the submission form and sets the values to default. Submit button This button opens the submission dialog. Close button This button closes the dialog. K.4 Known Limitations and Troubleshooting Tips Please note that this plug-in is not supported by EnFuzion3D

185 Appendix L Appendix L Job Submission Advanced Settings This appendix provides the reference information for the common Advanced settings for all the applications plug-ins for EnFuzion3D, shown in Figure L-1. The settings and how to use them are as follows. Figure L-1: Advanced Submit Options L.1 Job Submission Parameters, Advanced Settings Approval Frames EnFuzion3D provides an approval option for users to render and preview a few frames before all the Frames in a Scene are rendered. This option helps users to spot problems early and correct them before committing valuable compute time to render all the frames. You can set an arbitrary number of Approval Frames separated by commas, e.g. 1, 3, 99. The Approval Frames are rendered first at the priority of the Scene to which they belong. After the approval frames are rendered, the remaining frames are assigned a low priority of 10 and an optional message is sent to the user. When an approval is received from the user, the initial priority is restored for the remaining frames. An Approval can be provided in several ways: o o From the EnFuzion3D User Interface, select a Run, right click to display a menu and select the Approve entry; From the EnFuzion3D Web Interface, select the Runs link, select the Run ID and then click on the Approve button; 185