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I am trying to do a cooperative rendering.
Everything seems to be OK, I can see that it is rendering in two machines as what I can read in the network console.
But, I cannot see the image... although I tried the DISPLAY button , nothing happens.
Any Idea on what could be wrong?

Ernesto

I have just realized that there was a special window for Cooperative Job and I could see the image being rendered.
Anyway I am having problems understanding the interface, and perhaps you can answer my questions:

1) All the info that should appear at the top of the Maxweell Render Interface, shows not info at all! Is it something wrong?
2) The RED Rendering button at the top right, made me think that it was NOT rendering anything, but in the NETWORK tab it says that It IS RENDERING.... Am I doing something wrong?
3) In the Coop Job Tab, I can see an image in case I press DISPLAY, but this image keepsstatic, and I cannot see any update. Is it ok, Am I doing something wrong?
4) in the Coop Job Tab, there is some info, regarding SL of the current image. This SL value is relative to the final merged images or it is just the individualSL of each machine working in the cooperative job?
5) In the Network Tab, I can see the targeted SL of 15 that I decided for the merged image. I can see he individual SL of each machine. Is there any known relationship between individual SL and final Merged SL? For instance If I have ttwo images of SL10, which would be the merged SL?
6) I cannot find the way to adjust exposure while rendering in Cooperative Mode. Is it possible?
7) I cannot find the Current Cooperative SL in the network tab. This is an important info that should be displayed in the Network Tab. I found that that same info is available in the coop job tab, at the left of the image but this is not being updated. unless you pres display button.
8) I can see the path for the MXI file as well as the PNG file, but I cannot see any of them in case I look into the flder. Where are the temporary files being saved during the rendering process? In case the systems CRASHES where I can find the files, to be merged manually, so that I can see if the rendered image can be used?

Thanks in advance!

Ernesto

I have just realized that there was a special window for Cooperative Job and I could see the image being rendered.
Anyway I am having problems understanding the interface, and perhaps you can answer my questions:

1) All the info that should appear at the top of the Maxweell Render Interface, shows not info at all! Is it something wrong?
huh? when networking, the network tab is only of value. the stuff you're talking about appears within the mxserver interface
2) The RED Rendering button at the top right, made me think that it was NOT rendering anything, but in the NETWORK tab it says that It IS RENDERING.... Am I doing something wrong?
no, that becomes obsolete when networking. your controls to stop jobs is down by your network queue interface underneath the network tab
3) In the Coop Job Tab, I can see an image in case I press DISPLAY, but this image keepsstatic, and I cannot see any update. Is it ok, Am I doing something wrong?
no. it grabs the state from server at the time you press display... unless your running through a gigabit switch, i would minimize such operations as much as possible
4) in the Coop Job Tab, there is some info, regarding SL of the current image. This SL value is relative to the final merged images or it is just the individualSL of each machine working in the cooperative job?
relative to the SL of the machine running mxserver.
5) In the Network Tab, I can see the targeted SL of 15 that I decided for the merged image. I can see he individual SL of each machine. Is there any known relationship between individual SL and final Merged SL? For instance If I have ttwo images of SL10, which would be the merged SL?
it doesn't work 2+2=4. no no. think of rendering something on one machine for 30hrs to get to SL="X"... take 3 machines of the same horsepower and run the same scene for 10hrs to get a merged value of SL="X"
6) I cannot find the way to adjust exposure while rendering in Cooperative Mode. Is it possible?
no, you adjust exposure in merged mxi once complete.... network rendering on several machines is a different process than rendering/fine tuning while your rendering on a single machine. it's main purpose is to accumulate horsepower once you've spent time fine tuning your mxs on single machine (think of it that way)
7) I cannot find the Current Cooperative SL in the network tab. This is an important info that should be displayed in the Network Tab. I found that that same info is available in the coop job tab, at the left of the image but this is not being updated. unless you pres display button.
huh? no, refer to question 4 & 5

oh, and by the way. every time i click on one of your posts my browser brings up an alert page that something isn't secure coming from 4somethingsomething.com.....

Thanks a lot rusteberg!!!
You were of GREAT HELP!!!!

Thanks again!!!

Regarding the relationship between the individual SL values and the final, I have just figured it out:

Two renders of SL10 = Final SL11
4 renders of SL10 = Final SL12
8 renders of SL10 = Final SL13
16 renders of SL10 = Final SL14
32 renders of SL10 = Final SL15
For a constant rendering time: Each Final SL that you need to ad, you need double amount of machines working.

Anyway if I need to know the final SL for the following individual images to be merged: SL20 SL 1 SL 12 , I am lost!!!!

Perhaps someone with mathematic knowledge can find the formula...

Ernesto

rusteberg wrote:oh, and by the way. every time i click on one of your posts my browser brings up an alert page that something isn't secure coming from 4somethingsomething.com.....

Oh Tanks!
It is not harmfull. http://www.4dempire.com is my web site, and it was attacked from someone in Russia, and Goggle found it as harmfull. I have fixed it but need to tell Google that it is ok now! I will do it right now.

By the way, I had a question number 8, that I probably added while you were answering the other 7.
In case you know it:
I can see the path for the MXI file as well as the PNG file, but I cannot see any of them in case I look into the flder. Where are the temporary files being saved during the rendering process? In case the systems CRASHES where I can find the files, to be merged manually, so that I can see if the rendered image can be used?

Tanks Again!!!

E

Ernesto wrote:Thanks a lot rusteberg!!!
You were of GREAT HELP!!!!

Thanks again!!!

Regarding the relationship between the individual SL values and the final, I have just figured it out:

Two renders of SL10 = Final SL11
4 renders of SL10 = Final SL12
8 renders of SL10 = Final SL13
16 renders of SL10 = Final SL14
32 renders of SL10 = Final SL15
For a constant rendering time: Each Final SL that you need to ad, you need double amount of machines working.

Anyway if I need to know the final SL for the following individual images to be merged: SL20 SL 1 SL 12 , I am lost!!!!

Perhaps someone with mathematic knowledge can find the formula...

Ernesto

perhaps that's correct for THAT scene, but merging SL's is completely relative to the MXS (maxwell scene)
make an mxs with a single sphere, just a sphere and skydome. use the same resolution you used for your experiment mentioned above and run it through the network and see what you get... a merged SL is relative to the amount of TIME it would take "X" number of machines to reach that SL by combining all their TIME relative to their processing power, not SL. the SL is just a reference number of time relative to the given mxs. it cannot be used as a constant variable in this case. the SL is only of value to a given mxs..... it's not rocket science, refer to response #5

I can see the path for the MXI file as well as the PNG file, but I cannot see any of them in case I look into the flder. Where are the temporary files being saved during the rendering process? In case the systems CRASHES where I can find the files, to be merged manually, so that I can see if the rendered image can be used?

you must not be looking in the right folder. there is a pdf manual that comes with maxwell render. when i first read through it (regarding network rendering), it answered 90% of my questions. it would probably help to look through that as well. hope this helps.

the simplest way to explain the benefit of network rendering:

if you're flying from los angeles to new york on a 747 with one engine, it's going to take 8 hours (let's say)

if you're flying from los angeles to new york on a 747 with four engines, it's going to take 4 hours

you are the pilot, the plane is maxwell render and the engines are your computers...

I am reading the PDF manuals over and over again, in spanish and in english...

But they seems to be written for people that knows it already.
I am learning, and find these manuals very tricky and unclear!
Your help was a thousand times clearaer thna the manual.

Ernesto

After testing the Cooperative rendering... An inteligent rendering network would give each machine a fraction of the work that should be proportional to each speed,. In this way all tthe machines would finish at the same time. It did it!

Ernesto

Well if you give the same mxs to each machine which you do in the case of coop render, then they will all have the same 'work' to do, there is no way to split up one mxs into difficult or easy parts. The point here is that you will get your render faster the more machines work on one render. When the network estimates the combined SLs will reach the final SL that you set in the options before starting the network render, it will stop and merge the MXI files.

I understand but cannot see the merged image...
I am looking at the path where it waas supposed to be saved, but it is empty.
There is NO mxi nor image at all!
I have the 3 machines that finished the process after 72 hours,but cannot find the image.
Is there any way to save it manually?

Here I am pasting the paths:

Input:
W:/Trabajos/en_curso/Rw/MaxwellScene/Camera02.mxs

Output:
W:/Trabajos/en_curso/Rw/MaxwellScene/Camera02/C02_1.mxi
W:/Trabajos/en_curso/Rw/MaxwellScene/Camera02/C02_1.png

But there is NOTHING there!!!!

(this is frustrating)




Ernesto

It won't be there till the process is finished and it's merged. Each machine saves its files in its temporal folder.

You also can click display in mxcl and after some time it will display the merged image in another tab; I think (not 100% sure right now) you can save it from there also.

Fernando Tella wrote:It won't be there till the process is finished and it's merged. Each machine saves its files in its temporal folder.

You also can click display in mxcl and after some time it will display the merged image in another tab; I think (not 100% sure right now) you can save it from there also.

The DISPLAY button works only meanwhile the process is running, but once it is finished it will not work anymore.
My 3 machines have finished, and I cannot use the DISPLAY button.
I searched inside the frogram folder in each machine and I cannot see the MXI file there....

I searched the full C drive so thatt I am sure it is not there, and I did in the Manager and in the Servers too just in case.
All the research was unsuccesfull up to now....

Please HELP!!!!!!

Ernesto