Network rendering
Hi I actually converted to blender recently as an architect from 3ds max , Blender is a blast in everything compared to 3ds max , but I was shocked that there is no convenient network rendering also incompatibility with remote desktop was the icing on the cake , total shock 😗 but I actually found a way around it , you may check the video demonstrating this here youtube.com/watch using command line was the way out for me for animation rendering , but I still have problem with large static images , I can just render one image per PC , unlike backburner in 3ds max , you can render huge resolution images easily using strips , it saves memory and very convenient to manage render jobs for small and private render farms
I saw an old tutorial mentioned blender network rendering , but from what I see it is no longer there.
Can't we add a solution for network rendering using command line ? like a manager and servers that renders in background , many Pc's are just powerful CPU encased in a rack that doesn't have a nice display adapter
it is important to watch the video I hope we may have a nice networking rendering solution , that will save my neck actually for static renders
Regards
11 Comments
Blender can't do distributed rendering yet (although it is in the code- it just doesn't work so it's turned off by default), but it's possible to have each machine do a ~256 sample render and then use the command line Cycles to combine them and denoise. If I recall, this is how the Blender Animation Studio manages this. They use Flamenco to manage the render jobs.
* @Josephbburg * I see it is very crucial , even suggested solution like flamenco and such , it is a bit confusing , I tried crowdrender which is almost making sense but its problem is you have to launch blender , and blender doesn't launch through remote desktop , teamviewer is making troubles sometimes , so it is inconvenient
Sure it's inconvenient and confusing,, but anything involving servers and command lines always is. How could you do it in a more convenient way? Also, did you use Flamenco through Blender Cloud or did you try to set it up yourself?
* @Josephbburg * I don't mean cloud solution , I mean the personal setup Flamenco seems to be using browser but nobody said how to render using multiple computers in house in a convenient and clear way take backburner as an example in 3ds max , all you need to do is to run manager computer and run server for rendering computers , all done without involving 3rd party software , it manages your renders if failed and retries automatically
* @bassemsamehyasser * Sure it involves thrid party software. You just don't know what's actually on there. Autodesk install a whole bunch of mysterious crap. Flamenco isn't third-party software. It's developed in-house at the Blender Institute with Blender specifically in mind. And you know exactly what's in it and what it's doing.
Anyways, if you have access to the cloud, you should try setting up Flamenco that way. If it works, then look into setting it up yourself. You can ask for help on devtalk or here on blender.chat .
The reason I'm insisting on Flamenco is because that's the solution to your proposal; I don't think they're going to make another render manager if they have one that works. Any development in this area will be towards making Flamenco easier to set up and use --something that could benefit from feedback.
I think you can check the new version of BlendNet v0.3 for Blender >= 2.80 - it's exactly a simple network rendering in cloud or on your own resources:
youtube.com/watch
For Blender 2.79 a smart guy programmed the 2.79 pigeon build. With that blender build it was possible to start on each network machine a cycles server and get distibuted bucket rendering with realtime preview on the workstation - same as with Backburner for 3DS MAX. That was awesome. Hope someone thinks about that. That would be the best way for distributed network rendering. See blenderartists.org/t/custom-build-blender-pigeon-v2-79-october-24th/641555 .
Blender is great, but with 2.8 i have to use a powerful graphic card to get fast renderings. My network machines remain unused.
I once wrote something alike it to tile verry large images and render them. I created a batch file and from there i could spread it over multiple PC's. I no longer work at where i created that script (and sadly didnt copy). But its do-able might not be that advanced although overall running from console might be just that 1% spead gain as compared to runninng from GUI
this should be possible but you need a render manager, right? Such as Royal Render, Open Cue, Flamenco or Deadline
Just watch the video but don't understand where the hack is
* @pipeliner * the hack is to let all computers render the frames of an animation without the need of of a render manager or any external programs or add-ons and yes as you say I prefer an internal network rendering solution