[Delineator]

So I am trying to do a simple shadow study, but I'm somewhat at a loss as how I should send the jobs to our local farm (we have 5 nodes). I'm using the "pack and go" method that appends frame names right now (and then batch add a job via the Monitor and select all MXS files). However, this doesn't allow for progressive SL updates (ie all frames reach SL5, then start again and reach SL10, etc)

Is there an easier or more comprehensive method? Ideally I would like to export a single MXS from 3ds Max, file with frames embedded, that I can easily send to the network for progressive rendering.

Thanks

[hatts]

Sorry, it can't embed frames in one file. I share in your pain as it's not really fun having hundreds of .mxs files sitting around.

However there are methods to mitigate the pain. Check the documentation for mxs references and make sure you have send dependencies checked in your network render.

Your net render setup should be:
- Add job in Monitor
- Choose Animation
- Only pick the first file in your MXS sequence

By selecting "send dependencies" it actually knows not to re-send dependencies to nodes that already have them.

I know there's a SL updates field on the wizard for an Animation job but I'm not sure if it works. If not, you can just switch to a Batch job, select ALL .mxs files, and use the progressive rendering function there.

[Delineator]

Thanks for the tip.

The quirky thing was that for the batch job, the cameras were not saved with the scenes, so i couldn't select which view IF I unchecked "use scene settings"

After I wrote the post I found a workaround (somehow). Basically, I exported all MXS scenes using the pack and go script. I then submitted an animation job the network (a single MXS) but changed the frames to correspond to my scene AND this allowed me to render progressive SL updates.

Don't know why that worked, but I just used it on a 100 frame animation and was able to render to SL 5 in the first pass and SL10 in the second.