This page provides information on setting up Distributed Rendering.
To use V-Ray distributed rendering you need to have both V-Ray for 3ds Max and Autodesk 3ds Max installed on both the render client and the server machines. When using the V-Ray GPU render engine, а V-Ray Standalone (or V-Ray for 3ds Max) installation is sufficient for each server machine. |
1. Set up the Render Servers by starting V-Ray Spawner on each server machine. It starts the 3dsmax.exe in server mode which appears as 3ds Max minimized down in the taskbar. It should have the title "vraydummy.max". (This step is not required if the server machine uses spawner as service)
2. Set up the Render Client. In the V-Ray for 3ds Max interface, enable Distributed rendering from Render Setup > System rollout > Settings tab. Use the Render Server button to add the IPs of all your Render Servers.
V-Ray GPU can run on multiple CUDA enabled graphics devices. The preferred set of devices on each server machine must be adjusted before initiating the distributed rendering. To specify which devices to use, go to Windows Start > Programs > Chaos Group > Select devices for V-Ray GPU rendering of each render server machine and pick.
By default, the render server machine uses all its appropriate GPU devices for V-Ray GPU distributed rendering, if nothing has been specified beforehand. |
1. Set up the Render Servers. You can do this in two different ways: (This step is not required if the server machine uses V-Ray GPU render server as service)
a. Start the render server on each server machine from C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\V-Ray 6 for 3ds Max ####\Distributed rendering\Launch V-Ray GPU render server for 3ds Max ####.
b. Start the V-Ray Standalone and enter the "vray -server" command in the command prompt.
2. Set up the Render Client. In the V-Ray for 3ds Max interface, bring forth the Render Settings and in the Performance tab under the Distributed Rendering rollout switch On. Use the Render Server button to add the IPs of all your Render Servers.
Distributed rendering works over TCP/IP and requires the following ports:
Renderer type | Port number | Port type |
---|---|---|
V-Ray | 20204 | TCP/IP |
V-Ray GPU | 20206 | TCP/IP |
Port 20205 is only used by render servers to broadcast a message that they are ready to join an ongoing DR rendering.
V-Ray Standalone when set as render server receives rendering requests on port 20207 by default.
You can add command line options to the VRaySpawner.
Numa options
You can specify Numa command line options to VRaySpawner.exe to better utilize processor nodes with Numa architecture:
Command | Description |
---|---|
-numa[=N] | Select the number of render server processes to start. If N is not given, N=0 or N>=M, one process per NUMA node is created. Here "M" is the number of selected nodes using "-node", or the number of all available NUMA nodes if no "-node" is used. |
-node=node1[,node2][,node3]... | Select NUMA nodes that will be used for the render server process(es). Default - use all available NUMA nodes. |
-port=port1[,port2][,port3]... | Select listening ports for the render server process(es). If the number of processes is greater than the number of ports given, the last port is auto incremented. The default listening port is 20204 for 3ds max. The render client should be set to use the corresponding port range. |
-Service | Register vrayspawner as a Windows service. |
-UnregServer | Unregister vrayspawner as a Windows service. |
-cmdparams="<parameters_string>" | Specifies a string to be provided directly as an argument to the spawned application. |
-tempdir="<temp_folder_path>" | Override path for vrayspawner's temporary files folder. Vrayspawner is using %temp% to write some files needed for spawning applications. |
-AppName="<excutable_file>" | Override spawned application file name. For example, for 3ds Max the default name is 3dsmax.exe. |
Example: Using 3ds max #### and a system with 8 NUMA nodes:
spawns eight 3dsmax.exe processes, every running on single NUMA node and using listening ports 20204-20211
spawns four 3dsmax.exe processes, every running on two NUMA nodes and using listening ports 20204-20207
spawns three 3dsmax.exe processes, running on NUMA nodes 3,5 & 6 and using listening ports 30000, 40000 & 40001
spawns three 3dsmax.exe processes, running on nodes (2,3) (4,5) & (6) and using listening ports 20204,20205 & 20206 #### is the 3ds Max version. |
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