STAGE 1
(creating the network drive)
STAGE 2
(Installing lightwave on network drive)
STAGE 3
(Creating renderfarm machines)
STAGE 4
(Adding scenes to personal renderfarm)
Have you ever been in the situation where you want to render your lightwave scenes and you just don't have enough time to render on one computer? This tutorial will teach you how to set up your own private renderfarm.
This tutorial will give instructions on how to set up a renderfarm (network of computers that render lightwave scenes) that you can use on at least two machines or more. If you have the right equipment, the personal renderfarm can be taken with you anywhere you go. This tutorial is for users who feel comfortable using a computer, and who have access to a network. (Periodically, you will see a SMSU hint or tip which applies to SMSU students. If you do not attend SMSU they may not apply to you. )
How this tutorial works:
- I will color all the important files that we name green. I will refer back to these files that will also be colored green
- Some images will have numbers that correspond with numbers in the text that will we surrounded with parenthesis.
- Menu options to select will be italic.
If you are not sure want a renderfarm is then read this:
When you render your scenes in lightwave, you are given a choice between movie files or an image sequence. Most of the time when you render, it is done on one machine, which is usually your computer. Imagine if you had a friend's computer or roommates computer that was on a network with yours (Dorm rooms, computer labs, personal home networks) and you could use there computer to render when they are not. A renderfarm is a way of using lightwave to render images in an image sequence on multiple computers on a network. The host machine (your machine) will send information about the scene to the other computers. The other computers will render the image and send it back to the host. After all the images are rendered, you will have your image sequence animation.
Now that you know what a renderfarm is, here is what you will need to complete this tutorial.
- You will need your personal computer with network capability. (two computers on a network would be a big plus for this tutorial)
- This tutorial is based on Windows XP operating system.
- You will need a copy of lightwave (Version 8 is preferred for the tutorial)
It is best if you have a laptop, so that it is mobile and you can take it with you anywhere. Desktops will work but they are less mobile which gives you less options. Before beginning the tutorial, it is best if you uninstall lightwave from your computer because this tutorial requires lightwave to be installed in a specific location.
With lightwave uninstalled, you can now follow this tutorial step by step to create your own private renderfarm.
SMSU Tip
To use this personal renderfarm on the SMSU network, you need to create a profile on your computer that is the same as your user ID and password. This makes it easier for sharing folders later.
Stage 1: Creating the Network Drive
Step 1: First, pick a location on your computer where you have a lot of hard drive space. (It is preferred to not use the C: drive, but if you only have a C: drive, it will work.)
Once you found a good location, create a folder, and call it Renderfarm.
Right Click on the folder and select Sharing and Security.
(If you are using simple file sharing, you may want to switch off simple file sharing which is located in the control panel > Folder options > View tab , at the bottom of the list.)
SMSU Tip
If you want to set permissions so that only you can access the folders, you can now set permissions to only your user ID. Make sure it is the same as you SMSU user ID or else you will not be able to connect from a different machine.
Step 2: Share the Renderfarm folder (1).
click on permissions (2).
Make sure that in the group and users box, everyone is highlighted (3).
(If you want to add a specific user instead of everyone, press add (4) and specify which user). If you choose to set permissions to specific people you can, you just need to remember who. For this tutorial I will assume that you have given full rights to everyone.
Click on the box below to give everyone full control (5).
Press apply on both boxes on the screen to confirm the sharing options.
Step 3: Go to My Network Places and locate your computer on the network. When you have found it, you should see the folder that you just shared.
When you find the Renderfarm folder, right click on it and choose Map Network Drive.
SMSU Tip
You should not use drives X, Y, Z because these are drives already used by the SMSU Renderfarm.
Step 4: A new box appears that has a pulldown with a list of drive letters. Pull this menu down and select the drive letter you wish to be used for your network drive. For this tutorial I will select R: for Renderfarm.
Once you have your drive letter selected, press finish.
After you press finish, the box will close and a new one will open. This new box is the contents of your new network drive. It should be empty because we have not put anything into it yet.
This will be the drive that will be used to hold all the files that we will need for the personal renderfarm. You must be connected to a network to see this drive. If you are not connected to a network, you can view the content of this drive by going to the location of the Renderfarm folder you created in step 1.
Step 5 (optional): This step is optional, I will show you how to test your network drive to make sure that it is working properly over a network. If you feel comfortable that you set your permissions correctly, then you can skip this step.
First, make sure your computer is hooked in to a network. Then go to a different computer and log on to it using whatever permission you set for your Renderfarm folder. If you gave everyone full control, then you can log in as whatever you want as long as you can see the same network.
Goto My Network Places and search for your host computer the same way you did in step 3.
when you find your host computer, open it and open the Renderfarm folder. If you can not access the computer or folder, then you did not set the permissions correctly. If you can access the folder then your permissions are set correctly and you can now move in to Stage 2.