[fuso]

Hi all!

I was asked to set up a little network to use with maxwell render. For now it will be buildt out of 3 workstations connected via our 1GB LAN network. They will all have different specs. Now, the fastest one (2xQuad core), 4GBRAM is supposed to sit in the server room because of noise, heat and value. But the thing is: I still want to use the 3d applications as Maya and VIZ as well as maxwell Studio on this remote box from my current desk, where the other 2 machines are. Has anyone of you experiences with remote desktop and what's the best way of setting it up?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Jost

[Fernando Tella]

I have tryed remote desktop to help my mother with... some computer issues (you know what I mean), but I don't know if it would be good enough to use it with 3D apps. Maybe with LAN it works faster but through internet it is too slow to work with.

There is another way of doing it: through a KVM switch (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) which is a piece of hardware that let's you control several PCs through one keyboard, mouse and monitor; it has buttons to select which PC you are using.

Take a look at this links, maybe you find what you are looking for:

http://www.levelone.eu/products2.php?serie=7014

http://www.aten.com/products/productLis ... age=5&pg=1

[iker]

...not sure if this is what you mean ---> http://www.anyplace-control.com/demo-co ... ktop.shtml

I use to do it time ago with PCAnywhere, but there's a lot of aplications today to do this kind of works (like the one showed in the link).

...and if you are running Windows 2003/XP or later, you can go to start -> run -> type: mstsc
This is free and is part of the OS. Other options could be VNC or VisionApp
Also make sure that your computers/servers are remote desktop enabled: go to 'my computer' properties and select the 'remote' tab and select 'allow users to remote access this computer...'

[zoppo]

i use tightVNC. it's free and works perfect.
but i don't use it for modeling or something like that.

[andrebaros]

Control over the LAN using the built in windows Remote Desktop is just like working on the remote station with no lag time... except for graphics. Most 3d apps rely on OpenGL or DirectX which doesn't work thought the Remote Desktop. You may get slow video performance or you may black boxes in the viewports depending on the app. If you really need to do this HP has some software which is supposed to give you full hardware accelerated video to a remote terminal (even over VPN) they claim. I'll try to find the name of that.

[Leonardo]

I have tryed remote desktop to help my mother with... some computer issues (you know what I mean),

oh yes... I do know what you mean very well

[fuso]

Thank you all very much for your replies so far! I'm getting a much better picture of how it all might work one day.
We're currently running tests with Windows Remote desktop and it seems to work ok. I have opened files in VIZ already
to send them off to render and yes, the graphics acceleration isn't too impressive!

What I need to figure out now is how to get Maxwell to continue rendering after you've closed a remote session
and want to log out. I guess I will make this machine the manager since it'll be permanently on. Once the render network is
up and running, it should hopefully work out.

Cheers,

Jost