Screamernet tutorials

[dballesg]

Linux render nodes can be done and I only have one issue left to solve before I know how to solve the rest of it. Currently I am getting .flx files as output from my linux render nodes. Does anyone know how to get linux to output something other than .flx files? If I can get this working I would be more than willing to put together a tutorial on how to create a linux render cluster with a windows master node.

Just in case anyone is wondering I am using wine to run my lwsn.exe and samba to mount a common network drive to a wine drive.

If I remember well, I read somewhere that the .flx problems was due that the nodes wouldnt find the file format plugins.

Best regards,
David

[Andruil]

Thanks that has helped me out greatly. I just found a thread that talked about that issue and when I get a moment to revisit my cluster i'm going to try and get my paths straightened out.

Sigh.... I hate finals.... I have no life during finals....

[dballesg]

Thanks that has helped me out greatly. I just found a thread that talked about that issue and when I get a moment to revisit my cluster i'm going to try and get my paths straightened out.

Sigh.... I hate finals.... I have no life during finals....

I am glad it helpes.

I would like to see that tutorial about mount the renderfarm with Linux, maybe I would do that on my renderfarm at the office too, but it would help me a lot have instructions on how to do that, cause in Linux I am totally nerd!

Best regards,
David

[Andruil]

lol sounds good. It may be a few weeks though as I am wrapping up finals and well..... sigh.

Anyhow it actually has proven to be a lot easier than I originally thought it was going to be and would be fairly simple for anyone. Only catch is you must have admin access on all the linux machines to install stuff. Everything else will be pretty straight forward and I can practically give you the commands.

[dballesg]

lol sounds good. It may be a few weeks though as I am wrapping up finals and well..... sigh.

Anyhow it actually has proven to be a lot easier than I originally thought it was going to be and would be fairly simple for anyone. Only catch is you must have admin access on all the linux machines to install stuff. Everything else will be pretty straight forward and I can practically give you the commands.

Ok thanks, I will wait for you tutorial I do not need to do it inmediatly!

Best regards,
David

[diddy_dinks]

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

[Andruil]

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.

[Scazzino]

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!

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!

[lordtangent]

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...

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.

[silviotoledo]

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

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/comm.../gorner/3.html (bottom of the page)

Matt's video tutorial:
http://vbulletin.newtek.com/showthre...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/tuto...utes_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/comm...hillips/1.html


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

B

[BeeVee]

Crikey, that's an old post 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

[silviotoledo]

Thanks!

[octopus2000]

can screamernet run on freeDOS?

[lightscape]

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?

[lightscape]

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.