Network rendering is a means of mass processing multiple rendering tasks or jobs and plays an important role in creating 3D configurators. To facilitate network rendering, Autodesk Backburner TM is installed with 3ds Max. The Backburner software is responsible for coordinating order processing.
You can perform network rendering with both the standard Scanline and Mental Ray renderers. In its most efficient form, network rendering uses multiple computers connected over a network to perform rendering tasks. Typically, rendering animations with hundreds or thousands of images. Even a small network of three or four PCs can significantly save rendering time and help them meet deadlines.
Network rendering can also be useful if you have a single PC and need to render a series of images. You can assign these jobs to render and Backburner can manage the rendering of each job while you are away from the computer. Usually jobs are assigned when you are about to leave the office. When you arrive the next morning, all your renderings are waiting for you to check them out.
Network rendering is designed to render what is set up in your scene, i.e. it renders the viewport, part of a viewport, camera view, etc. as saved in the scene file. You can also pass batch rendering tasks to Backburner using the batch rendering tool. You can create tasks from any number of cameras in a scene. Each task can load a saved scene state that uses a specific rendering preset.
The requirements and procedures presented here assume that you are the administrator of a closed network set up exclusively for network rendering. In practice, you can use the network for file sharing and other purposes, but if there are conflicts, you may need to stop using it. The easiest network to set up, operate, and maintain is one dedicated to rendering.
If you are a system administrator for a complex network, you can use the information in this file as a guideline. The basic approach is the same for every network.
Caution: It is strongly recommended that you follow these procedures to set up and run network rendering. Do not attempt to perform network rendering without reading the following instructions.
About Backburner.
Network rendering is performed by the Backburner software. The functionality is essentially the same as in previous versions of 3ds Max with the following additions:
About Mental Ray.
The Mental Ray renderer supports network rendering via backburner and command line. The steps for setting up and submitting jobs are exactly the same as for the scanline renderer. No additional licenses or fees are required.
In this article, we first wanted to give you a brief introduction to network rendering. There will be some more in-depth articles on Network Rendering to follow.
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