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174 Chapter 17: Rendering
the rendering of each job while you’re away from
the computer. Commonly, jobs are assigned
submittedjustbeforeyouleavetheoffice.when
you arrive the next morning, all your rendering are
waiting for you to review.
Network rendering is designed to render whatever
issetupinyourscene;thatis,itwillrenderthe
view port, part of a viewport, camera view, and so
on, as sa ved in the scene file. You can also pass
batch-rendering tasks to Backburner from the
Batch Render tool (page 3–203).Youcanqueueup
tasks from any number of cameras in a scene. Each
task can load a save scene state or use a particular
rendering preset.
The requirements and procedures presented here
assume 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 pur poses, but if conflicts arise,
you might need to cancel those uses. The easiest
network to set up, operate, and maintain is one
dedicated to rendering.
Note: For specific information about setting
up network rendering on a single system, refer
to Basic Procedure 1: Single-System Network
Render ing (page 3–175) .
If you’re a system administrator for a more
complex network, you can use the information in
this file as a guideline. The b asic approach is the
same for any network.
Impor tant: It is strongly recommended that you follow
these procedures for setting up and running network
rendering. Do not attempt network rendering without
reading the instructions that follow.
The links on this page are ordered like chapters in
a manual: a sequence of major topics containing
more specific nested topics. Links marked Next
Step indicate the next topic in the sequence.
Mo ving from one topic to the next takes you
through the necessary steps to set up your network
for rendering.
Note: Network rendering functions are also
available f rom M AXScript. See “Network Render
Interface ” and “Interface: NetRender” in the
MAXScript Reference.
About B ack burner
Network rendering is performed by software
named Backburner. Functionality is primarily the
same as in previous versions of 3ds Max with the
addition of the following:
•TheBatch Render tool (page 3–203) can pass
a queue of rendering tasks to the Network
Job Assignment dialog. When submitted,
Backburner manages the rendering of a ll the
active tasks and
• You can now assign various servers to groups in
Backburner. From the Network Job Assignment
dialog you can choose a group as the current
set of servers.
Backburn er Do cumentation
All of the general information about Backburner is
described in B
ackburner Reference.Information
that is specific to using Backburner with 3ds Max
appearsinthisNetworkRenderingsection.
About Mental R ay
Network rendering with the m ental ray
Renderer
The mental ray renderer supports network
rendering via Backburner and the command
line. The steps for setting up and submitting jobs
areexactlythesameasthoseyou’duseforthe
scanline renderer. No additional licensing or fees
are necessary.
Nex t St ep
How Network Rendering Works (page 3–180)