Screamernet tutorials

hey

i was wondering if anyone has had luck with setting up Xgrid in LightWave... is there a plugin that i need to hunt down or is it some special ninja trick?

thanks in advance for any help :)

~dinky

ps

i will be checking out the tutorials so if i am being redundant to something that has already been posted i apologize
 
Ok I did finally get it all working and I will be working with someone to install it on a beowulf cluster in the next week or two and will have a decent linux tutorial then.


BTW it was just a simple mispointing of the configuration file and once that was solved everything worked straight up.
 
I've just released DLI_SNUB-Launcher 1.0. It's an Aqua GUI front end for ScreamerNet UB that enables you to interactively build the command lines and launch ScreamerNet UB for standalone, batch or network rendering in a Mac friendly error-free manner including simple drag and drop standalone rendering.

Download the FREE LITE Version today! :thumbsup:

I've also updated Mastering LightWave ScreamerNet for Mac OS X to include configuring LightWave 9.3.1 ScreamerNet UB manually using shell scripts in Terminal as well as interactively using DLI_SNUB-Launcher.

Enjoy! :D
 
BeeVee said:
Hi all,
For Linux?
In my opinion, it's not worth using the Linux Screamernet. It will only work with the small number of plug-in that exist in the package. I think it's better to set up WINE and use the Windows render node under Linux. That way you have access to all the plug-ins that exist for Windows. In addition, I have received reports that it still doesn't lose the speed advantage given by the low overhead of Linux. I'm not sure how that can be the case since it is running Windows under emulation, but there you go...
Click to expand...

The very name "WINE" stands for "Wine Is Not an Emulator"

WINE is a re-implementation of the windows API, NOT an emulator. And since most people run Linux on an x86 machine, the code of the program (under Wine) itself is running natively on x86. All WINE does is satisfy windows calls and fool the software into thinking it's on a Windoze machine.
 
Several bronken links. Where do I find updated information?
Do I need to install any Lightwave software on the farm? or will the server work with one lightwave licence only?

Silvio Toledo


BeeVee said:
Hi all,

Here's a thread dedicated to all those tutorials out there that teach people how to configure Screamernet. If I've missed any, please reply to this post with new links and I'll edit...

PC:
Matt Gorner's world-renowned PDF tutorial:
http://www.newtek-europe.com/uk/community/lightwave/gorner/3.html (bottom of the page)

Matt's video tutorial:
http://vbulletin.newtek.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24065

Fabio's:
http://www.firedragon.com/~fabio/screamer/screamer.htm

Ours:
http://www.newtek-europe.com/uk/support/download.html

Kevin Phillips':
http://forums.newtek.com/discus/messages/2/13419.html

Mac:
Worms of Art:
http://www.the-worms-of-art.com/tutorials/lightwavetutes_221.html#

Mike Scaramozzino's:
http://dreamlight.com/insights/10/welcome.html

Non-planar's:
http://homepage.mac.com/nonplanar/ (click on the Scream! link)

Ours:
http://www.newtek-europe.com/uk/support/download.html


For Linux?
In my opinion, it's not worth using the Linux Screamernet. It will only work with the small number of plug-in that exist in the package. I think it's better to set up WINE and use the Windows render node under Linux. That way you have access to all the plug-ins that exist for Windows. In addition, I have received reports that it still doesn't lose the speed advantage given by the low overhead of Linux. I'm not sure how that can be the case since it is running Windows under emulation, but there you go...

Third party controllers
Amleto: (Win)
http://www.nodalideas.com/amleto/index.html

ButterflyNetRender: (Win)
http://www.butterflynetrender.com/

Mule: (win)
[urlhttp://www.epicsoft.net/products/mule/[/url]

LightNet: (Win)
http://www.joejustice.org/lightwave/lightnet/

Renderfarm Commander: (Mac OSX)
http://www.brucerayne.com

ScreamerNet Controller: (Mac OSX)
http://www.catalystproductions.cc/screamernet/

Spider: (Win)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SXSpider/

TequilaScream: (Win)
http://www.digitaltoons.tv/shop/

Misc
A really good optimiser for rendering, whether through a single machine, or in preparation for distributed rendering, is Kevin Phillips' LCSM (Lean Clean Scene Machine), available for PC and Mac from the NewTek Europe website in our interview with him:
http://www.newtek-europe.com/uk/community/lightwave/phillips/1.html


Phew, think that's all. Let me know if I've missed any! :)

B
Click to expand...
 
Crikey, that's an old post :D I'm not surprised most of the links are now dead. Matt's tutorial was used in the LightWave 10 documentation that you should have, and for a very simple way to use Screamernet I can thoroughly recommend Amleto for a Windows renderfarm. It will copy your whole LightWave installation to each rendernode, but it's also practically automatic to use. I have done tests with it on Amazon's cloud computing with success and I know of at least one Hollywood studio doing the same.

B
 
How can screamernet render scenes with its own custom content directory without having to hardcode the -d line

example

---------------------------------
-d\\Mattxp\screamernet\
This command tells ‘LWSN.exe’ where the content directory is on the network, the ‘-d’ is the ‘switch’ that says the following text is the
path to the content directory.
---------------------------------

There's no autodetect for screamernet?
 
After several days I figured it out. You can have custom content directory with screamernet. I don't know if its in the manual but this is how to do it.
First read through Matts screamernet setup tutorial or you will go INSANE setting up screamernet
Skip putting in -d switch on the node bat files indicated in red

Example
LWSN -2 -c\\CORE3770B-PC\Screamernet\bin\Config_SN -dR:\Project\Screamernettest \\CORE3770B-PC\Screamernet\screamer_command\job1 \\CORE3770B-PC\Screamernet\screamer_command\ack1

Make it like this for example
LWSN -2 -c\\CORE3770B-PC\Screamernet\bin\Config_SN \\CORE3770B-PC\Screamernet\screamer_command\job1 \\CORE3770B-PC\Screamernet\screamer_command\ack1

To enable custom content directory do steps for projects that have custom content directory
Launch the special screamernet lightwave icon created from Matts tutorial.
Load your scene inside layout
Press o to bring up preference
Go to Paths tab and make sure its the correct content directory
Close the preference. This will send out the config to the nodes
Launch the nodes.bat on all computers and it will detect the custom directory
Click Network Render tab in layout and press Screamer Init
Render away


Its a big hassle but this is the only way to autodetect custom content directory for Screamernet after googling for days.
 
BeeVee said:
...for a very simple way to use Screamernet I can thoroughly recommend Amleto for a Windows renderfarm. It will copy your whole LightWave installation to each rendernode, but it's also practically automatic to use...B
Click to expand...

My brain needs something very simple to setup. How do you get Ameleto to render? No docs/tuts I can find. Run server, add job... then what? Status indicates nothing happening.
Run client... it reads "batch finished"... then what?

Messages shows "Sending scene..." to my workstation. But I dont see anything happening. No CPU usage.

Twice I have tried to follow Screamernet setup tuts but its too complicated, and I cant get it to work.
 
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The Amleto worked really easily for me at home. (Not that this helps at all... sorry)

You have to make sure that the drive, where the work is, is visible to all of your other machines.
Also, make the top level folder a mapped drive. This just makes it easier.

The docs for amleto pretty much cover most of it I think. Firewalls are a nightmare to things like this, so make sure you have it (and all the ports it needs) allowed through your firewall.
I linked a Win 7 machine and a Win 8 one and Amleto worked flawlessly! (Apart from when Windows decided to update itself over night! Arrrrrgh... TWICE!!)

Docs for Amleto are here:
http://virtualcoder.co.uk/amleto/

There are a few things that don't work, and aren't documented (I don't think). One of them is, it doesn't accept arbitrary frame ranges. It simply ignores this completely.

As for the 'sending scene'. That's the bit where it's physically sending the files to the other node. No processor will be kicking in at this point... does it get further than that? For large scenes and things, this could take some time!
 
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Mr Rid said:
Twice I have tried to follow Screamernet setup tuts but its too complicated, and I cant get it to work.
Click to expand...

Matt has the shortest and no nonsense, easiest tutorial. Try that.
Just remove the -d switch and try the trick I posted to make screamernet project based as opposed to a fixed content directory which requires packaging files which is a big waste of time.
 
lardbros said:
...

You have to make sure that the drive, where the work is, is visible to all of your other machines.
Also, make the top level folder a mapped drive. This just makes it easier.

The docs for amleto pretty much cover most of it I think. Firewalls are a nightmare to things like this, so make sure you have it (and all the ports it needs) allowed through your firewall.
I linked a Win 7 machine and a Win 8 one and Amleto worked flawlessly! (Apart from when Windows decided to update itself over night! Arrrrrgh... TWICE!!)

Docs for Amleto are here:
http://virtualcoder.co.uk/amleto/

There are a few things that don't work, and aren't documented (I don't think). One of them is, it doesn't accept arbitrary frame ranges. It simply ignores this completely.

As for the 'sending scene'. That's the bit where it's physically sending the files to the other node. No processor will be kicking in at this point... does it get further than that? For large scenes and things, this could take some time!
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the info! I have been corresponding with Amleto support, but have not yet figured out why it wont render for me here. He sent me a new version that writes logs. I am trying a simple test scene with the server and client on the same machine. It just sits there.
 
Ah... after a Windows 7 update, my rendering nodes complained about a Windows Bluetooth driver or something... very weird, but it stopped my machine dead. In order to get it working, I think I updated Windows (again) and everything seemed to work after that.

Clutching at straws a bit, but a Windows update did this to our render farm at work too... stopped LW rendering, but with no errors.
Have you tried loading up LW on your node, and rendering just to check that it works?

Hope you get it sorted... renderfarms and networking are my BIGGEST pain in the *** at work! Hate it...
 
Can anyone tell me where to find tutorials for screamernet for linux? I just added three computers to my farm and want to see about using linux rather than buying windows.

I have tried amleto and it kind of worked but strangely enough I have had the most success with screamernet. I have also looked into other things like butterfly net render and I tried that on windows and had some success as well. I am not the most tech savvy and the tutorials for screamernet were amazing and walked me right through but I want to use linux for the farm if possible.

As you can tell I am not a linux guru so I may have to get help on this but I need a tutorial if there is one. Thanks
 
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