NetWarrior
From RandomControl Wiki
NetWarrior is a very intuitive network rendering system which automates distributed animation and co-operative still frame rendering for fryrender and Arion.
As for operating systems, right now all versions of MS Windows (from Windows XP onwards) are supported. A MacOS X version (master and slave) and a Linux version (slave only) are also planned.
You can download NetWarrior through its own web page
Contents |
System structure
NetWarrior is made of two pieces of software:
- netmonitor.exe - a UI-based manager application.
- netwarrior.exe - a very lightweight command-line (service-like) application.
From now on, the word NetWarrior will refer to the network rendering system as a whole, while netmonitor.exe will refer to the UI-based manager, and netwarrior.exe will refer to the service-like application running on the slaves.
Installing
The NetWarrior setup must be installed on all the computers that you intend to use for network rendering. That is, on all the rendering slaves, and also on the master station. Note that the master can be used as a slave too.
The setup will install both netmonitor.exe and netwarrior.exe, and will also create desktop icons and menu entries for both.
Before you use NetWarrior, you need for each rendering station to be running netwarrior.exe. You may want to add netwarrior.exe to the Start menu on Windows, so it is fired up automatically every time that you start the Operating System.
NetWarrior is designed to work with both fryrender and Arion. So you will also need to install fryrender (and/or Arion) on all the computers (on all the slaves and on the master). Make sure to install the license file (license.lic) on all the stations as well.
Summary:
- Install the NetWarrior setup on your master computer and on all the slaves.
- Install the fryrender (and/or Arion) setup on your master computer and on all the slaves.
- Install your license file on your master computer and on all the slaves.
Rendering a scene
- Make sure that netwarrior.exe is up and running on all the slave stations.
- Start netmonitor.exe on the master computer.
- Add the computers on your network to the Network Nodes (you may use the Detect button).
- On the left column, check/uncheck those nodes that you intend to use to render.
- Add a new job.
- Select that job and press Start (or use Start All directly).
These instructions are valid for still frames and animations, regardless of whether the renders will be produced by fryrender or Arion.
Note that netmonitor.exe will recall your configuration across sessions, so you will need to set up the list of nodes just once.
Troubleshooting
Despite NetWarrior has been designed with simplicity in mind, it won't help you from dealing with your LAN configuration. These are some common problems that you may come across:
- All the computers must be connected to the same LAN, and nothing must be blocking communications between them.
- Firewalls or antiviruses may be blocking communications.
- netwarrior.exe must be up and running on all the slave stations.
- The scenes that you intend to render must be placed on a network location.
- All the resources (ie. textures) must be placed on a network location too.
- All machines must be able to access those network locations, and they all must be able to access them using the same network path.
