Mastering LW ScreamerNet

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Foreword

DreamLight Interactive Releases New ScreamerNet UB Launcher

DLI_SNUB-Launcher™ is an XCode Aqua GUI front end to interactively configure and launch multiple LightWave 9.3-9.6 ScreamerNet UB instances for standalone, batch and network rendering. Download your copy today!

Created by the author of Mastering LightWave ScreamerNet Rendering for Mac OS X, Michael Scaramozzino - LightWave 3D Artist Profile.

I’m very pleased that NewTek has included most of this DreamLight Insight: Mastering LightWave ScreamerNet for Mac OS X, in the LightWave 9 manual in chapter 26. They have included pretty much everything up to the basic network rendering using the built-in Screamernet panel. They didn’t include the section on advanced network rendering using third party controllers though, which you can still read here on DreamLight.com.

I used a Mac LightWave ScreamerNet render farm set up as outlined in this DreamLight Insight to render my award-winning LightWave 3D animated short film: BlastOff! as well as my upcoming short film – The Autiton Archives, pilot webisode 000 – Fault Effect.

LightWave’s LWSN (LightWave ScreamerNet) allows standalone, batch and network rendering across multiple platforms including Mac OS X. Successfully using LWSN on the Macintosh has typically proven rather difficult due to a number of serious issues.

• ScreamerNet relies on arcane command line and config files that can prove rather tricky.
• The supplied documentation was for Windows, with very little Macintosh information.
  (Though this white paper has been included in the LightWave 9 manual as the Mac Screamernet documentation.)
• The Mac OS X implementation varies from Windows and was largely undocumented.
  (LW9 includes an earlier version of this DreamLight Insight as the Macintosh LWSN documentation but LW9.3-9.6’s ScreamerNet UB remains largely undocumented and adds a whole new set of wrinkles to the process so I've updated this online version accordingly.)
• There were a few bugs and pitfalls in ScreamerNet for the Mac.
  (Most of the bugs have been fixed in LW8 and beyond however.)
• The built-in network rendering controller is rather limited.
  (This online version of the document covers using more advanced third-party controllers.)

I originally wrote Mastering LightWave ScreamerNet for Mac OS X from my many notes that I took as I encountered, isolated and worked through all these issues when setting up our own DreamLight Interactive in-house render farm back on LightWave 7.5. I decided to publish this tutorial to help other Macintosh LightWave users avoid some of the frustration that I encountered. After all, ScreamerNet was named for the speed of network rendering, not for what you do when struggling to set it up... ;-)

Mastering LightWave ScreamerNet for Mac OS X will take you through setting up and using ScreamerNet for standalone rendering, batch rendering, basic network rendering with the built-in controller and advanced network rendering with much more robust third party controllers including RenderFarm Commander and ScreamerNet Controller for Mac OS X. These are the controllers that we use to run our DreamLight Interactive in-house render farm. I also cover advanced topics such as using SharePoints to publish your Content Directory from an external hard drive with limited user access and even harnessing render nodes across the Internet.

Each section builds upon the knowledge learned in the previous sections, so for best results you should work your way through this entire tutorial from the beginning, rather than skipping right ahead to the network rendering sections. This DreamLight Insight is not intended to be a simple quick-start tutorial. It’s intended as a very in-depth, detailed discussion of all aspects of ScreamerNet rendering on Mac OS X to allow you to really master it by fully understaning what’s going on under the hood. By really understanding what’s going on, it’s far easier to troubleshoot and keep your render farm rendering.

If you find this DreamLight Insight: Mastering LightWave ScreamerNet for Mac OS X helpful, please consider supporting our continuing efforts by purchasing a registered DLI_SNUB-Launcher license, Award-winning BlastOff! Special Edition DVD, or DreamLight Merchandise.

Thanks for your support!

Enjoy,

Michael Scaramozzino
President and Creative Director

Read Michael Scaramozzino’s LightWave 3D Interview/Profile on NewTek.com

Contents

Foreword Managing LightWave’s All Important Config Files Updating LightWave’s Config Files LightWave’s Config File Path on Mac OS X Creating a New Set of Config Files Config Settings for ScreamerNet Content Directory Command Directory Default Segment Memory Multithreading Utilizing LightWave’s Mac Command Line Parameters PPC cmdLine File Names Interactively Building ScreamerNet UB Command Lines with DreamLight SNUB-Launcher General Command Line Syntax Hub Switch Command Line Path Parameters Config Path Plug-in Database Path General ScreamerNet Command Line Syntax Rendering Mode Config Path -c Content Path -d Log File Path -l Quiet Mode -q Standalone Mode (-3) Command Line Syntax Scene File Path Frames to Render Batch/Network Mode (-2) Command Line Syntax Job File Path Acknowledgement File Path Time Check Interval LWSN PPC Mac Command Line Dialog Interface Successful Scene File Preparation for ScreamerNet Setting a Scene’s Render Globals Frame Range to Render PPC & UB Render Output Destinations LWSN Spreadsheet Bug Standalone Rendering with ScreamerNet Mac Standalone Mode (-3) Command Line Syntax LWSN PPC Standalone cmdLine Examples ScreamerNet UB Standalone Command Line Examples Step-by-step Mac LWSN PPC Standalone Rendering Example Setting up the PPC Config File Setting up the Scene for LWSN PPC Rendering Setting up the LWSN PPC cmdLine File Rendering the Scene with LWSN PPC Step-by-step Mac ScreamerNet UB Standalone Rendering Example Setting up the UB Config File Setting up the Scene for ScreamerNet UB Rendering Interactively Rendering the Scene with ScreamerNet UB using the Free Lite Version of the DreamLight SNUB-Launcher Droplet Manually Rendering the Scene with ScreamerNet UB using Terminal Batch Rendering with ScreamerNet Mac Batch Mode (-2) Command Line Syntax LWSN PPC Batch cmdLine Examples ScreamerNet UB Batch Command Line Examples LightWave’s Built-in Network Render Controller Running the Network Rendering Control Panel Render Node Controls Scene List Controls Step-by-step Mac LWSN PPC Batch Rendering Example Setting up the PPC Config File Setting up the Scenes for LWSN PPC Batch Rendering Setting up the LWSN PPC Nodes and cmdLine Files Launching the LWSN PPC Render Nodes Rendering the Batch with LightWave PPC’s Built-in Controller Step-by-step Mac ScreamerNet UB Batch Rendering Example Setting up the UB Config File Setting up the Scenes for ScreamerNet UB Batch Rendering Interactively Launching the ScreamerNet UB Nodes with DreamLight SNUB-Launcher Manually Launching the ScreamerNet UB Render Nodes in Terminal Rendering the Batch with LightWave UB’s Built-in Controller Basic Network Rendering with LWSN Mac Setting up the Mac OS X Network for Rendering Preparing the Hard Drives for Network Rendering Sharing the Host Machine Mounting the Host Machine from the Render Machines Step-by-step Mac LWSN PPC Basic Network Rendering Example Setting up the Host PPC Config File Setting up the Scenes for LWSN PPC Batch/Network Rendering Setting up the LWSN PPC Nodes and cmdLine Files Launching the LWSN PPC Nodes on the Remote Rendering Machines Rendering the Network Batch with LightWave PPC’s Built-in Controller Step-by-step Mac ScreamerNet UB Basic Network Rendering Example Setting up the Host UB Config File Setting up the Scenes for ScreamerNet UB Batch/Network Rendering Mounting the Host Machine from the Remote Rendering Machines Interactively Launching the ScreamerNet UB Nodes with DreamLight SNUB-Launcher Manually Launching the ScreamerNet UB Nodes on the Remote Machines Rendering the Network Batch with LightWave UB’s Built-in Controller Advanced Network Rendering with Mac ScreamerNet Setting up the Mac OS X Network for Rendering Sharing the Host Machine on the Network Sharing the Content Folder with SharePoints Mounting the Content Folder from the Render Machines Step-by-step Mac LWSN PPC OS X Advanced Network Rendering Example Creating a New set of Config Files for ScreamerNet Setting up the Host Config File Setting up the Config Files on the First Remote Render Node Setting up LWSN and the cmdLine Files on the First Remote Node Setting up LWSN on the Remaining Render Nodes Setting up the Scenes for Batch/Network Rendering Launching the LWSN Nodes on the Rendering Machines Rendering the Network Batch with ScreamerNet Controller. Rendering the Network Batch with RenderFarm Commander. Advanced Network Rendering with Mac ScreamerNet UB Step-by-step ScreamerNet UB Mac OS X Advanced Network Rendering Example Setting up the Config Files for ScreamerNet UB Setting up the Host UB Config File Creating a New set of UB Config Files for ScreamerNet Configuring & Launching ScreamerNet UB Interactively with DreamLight’s SNUB-Launcher Downloading & Installing DreamLight’s SNUB-Launcher Copying LightWave 3D Applications to the Remote Rendering Macs Configuring & Launching ScreamerNet UB with DLI_SNUB-Launcher Configuring & Launching ScreamerNet UB Manually with Terminal Shell Scripts Setting up ScreamerNet UB Shell Scripts for the Remote Macs Setting up ScreamerNet UB Shell Scripts for the Host Mac Making the ScreamerNet UB Shell Scripts Executable Launching the ScreamerNet UB Nodes on the Rendering Machines Advanced Network Rendering with the Third-party Universal Binary - ScreamerNet Controller for OS X Setting up ScreamerNet Controller for OS X. Adding Scenes to ScreamerNet Controller for OS X Rendering Scenes with ScreamerNet Controller for OS X Please Support Our Continuing Independent Film Making Efforts! Order your Award-winning BlastOff! Special Edition DVD today! [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9