[seurban]

I'm using the Network Manager to queue renders on one computer (no network) so that I can be sure certain images are going to finish first, or at least have a couple finished renders after a weekend rather than a bunch of half baked renders. It is also my impression that two renders run back to back will run in less total time than the same two simultaneously, but if I'm wrong about that please correct me.

I had set up 4 renders in my queue, added as separate jobs (did not use batch since I didn't have control over which was first). The first was just a extremely brief test scene to make sure everything worked before I left, and it completed just fine. I'm not sure if it completed before I added the next scene or not. The second scene (first real one) started up and rendered perfectly as expected. Then it appears as if the process of starting the next scene was begun, then it just stalled. The next scene said it was running, but it was clearly not. I checked the temp folder and all the previous scene's files were still there. No error messages, it just stopped.

I then did a test of three smaller renders that took about 3 min each and it ran through the queue just fine. So could the size of the scene make a difference? The render that completed was 3600x3600, the MXS file was 37mb plus textures, and the resulting mxi was 1.7gb. The next one (which didn't continue) was the same scene, but different camera and 2100x2100. But my computer can handle at least two of these simultaneously and still run other things just fine (4core, 12GB ram), and I am using 64.

This was before the update, which I am downloading now, but I am a bit nervous about leaving for the weekend and just hoping the update fixed this.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

The end of the Manager Log:

Render node: HPZ800 Job ID: 1 sl: 16.9953
Render node: HPZ800 Job ID: 1 sl: 17
Render process finished in node: HPZ800 Job ID: 1
Starting MXI transference..
[25/July/2010 02:34:13] ##### Job finished. id: 1 #####
[25/July/2010 02:34:13] ##### Getting next pending job #####
[25/July/2010 02:34:13] ##### Processing next pending job #####
Processing single job. Job ID:2
[25/July/2010 02:34:13] MXI output file is not a network path and will be saved in a local path of the manager computer
[25/July/2010 02:34:13] MXI output saved in: C:\Users\Designer\Documents\Company\Priority-1(SLIDE1)-Rev1\SLIDE#1_rev1-B1-D-Main.mxi
Display request from monitor: 192.168.1.67
Requesting display of job 2

The end of the Node Log:

Render node: HPZ800 Job ID: 1 sl: 16.9953
Render node: HPZ800 Job ID: 1 sl: 17
Render process finished in node: HPZ800 Job ID: 1
Starting MXI transference..
[25/July/2010 02:34:13] ##### Job finished. id: 1 #####
[25/July/2010 02:34:13] ##### Getting next pending job #####
[25/July/2010 02:34:13] ##### Processing next pending job #####
Processing single job. Job ID:2
[25/July/2010 02:34:13] MXI output file is not a network path and will be saved in a local path of the manager computer
[25/July/2010 02:34:13] MXI output saved in: C:\Users\Designer\Documents\Company\Priority-1(SLIDE1)-Rev1\SLIDE#1_rev1-B1-D-Main.mxi
Display request from monitor: 192.168.1.67
Requesting display of job 2

[dmeyer]

Not sure what the issue is, but in the mean time you could also use the script that ships with Maxwell to do this directly in Maxwell.exe

[seurban]

Thanks for the tip. I haven't used scripts before, but I'll do a few trials before the end of the day to see if I can get it working. Looking at "batch_render.ms" I think I get it, and it looks like I just change:

input (folder)
output (folder)
SL
resX
resY

My renders will be multiple sizes though, so can I just delete the lines where it sets resX&Y?

Also, if one of the mxs files has already started, can I resume it with this script as one of the batch? I assume I'd just have to make sure the input and output matched what the original file was. I just know there's a choice when you do so manually, so I don't know how I'd make sure the script chose the right one.

Thanks again.

[dmeyer]

Thanks for the tip. I haven't used scripts before, but I'll do a few trials before the end of the day to see if I can get it working. Looking at "batch_render.ms" I think I get it, and it looks like I just change:

input (folder)
output (folder)
SL
resX
resY

My renders will be multiple sizes though, so can I just delete the lines where it sets resX&Y?

Correct. Easiest way to do it is just make sure each MXS has the right SL and resolution set within it. If you do it in the script its going to set all of them to a particular SL and res. I would set it in the file and then delete those lines from the script before running it.

Also, if one of the mxs files has already started, can I resume it with this script as one of the batch? I assume I'd just have to make sure the input and output matched what the original file was. I just know there's a choice when you do so manually, so I don't know how I'd make sure the script chose the right one.

I don't know. Probably best to test it. Make sure you make a copy of the existing MXI before testing though or it may overwrite it.

[seurban]

Thanks again for your help

[Mihai]

Have you tried it with the latest update? There were a lot of improvements in Network in 2.1, especially about transfer of MXI files and memory usage of Manager.