A Question about Node Rendering in Carrara
Turk_WLF
Posts: 177
I have a simple question I’m trying to do a node render with 2 desktops. I understand that my Node Render Computer is older & therefore slower than my main desktop. My question is why does the Node Render Computer (stops about 48.5%) loading the file. The only real difference is my Main Computer has 32 GB of Ram & my Node Render Computer has 8 GB of Ram, the rest of the specs for both are Intel I7 with Windows 7 64 bits.
Thanks,
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Comments
How long does it remain stopped?
With Windows, is there a way to check your network traffic to see if the main computer is still communicating with the node?
Do you enable the option to generate a log file? If so, what does it say?
Do you use any plugins in your scene that are not installed on the node?
I network render a lot with my Macs. This is what I observe during the process:
First the host machine loads the scene, then the host starts sending the scene data to the node machines. There may be a slight lag. If I look at my network activity monitor, I can see that it is sending quite a bit of data, especially if there are a lot of high geometry figures or objects in the scene.
Once that data is sent, the node will start to display a progress bar for loading the scene. I have observed on my systems, that it will load the internally stored stuff, such as model geometry and stuff before it loads the image maps used in the scene. When it hits that point, usually around the 47% to 49% complete range, I will see a spike in my network traffic as the node calls for the image maps which are located on the host machine. It can take awhile for these maps to transfer over, especially if there is a large amount of them, or if they are high resolution images. Once the transfer is complete, there is a slight lag as the node loads them into the program, and then the rest of the scene load zips by really fast. Perhaps what you are experiencing is the delay as the image maps are copied over from the host to the node? How long do you give it before interrupting the process?
There's a Carrara option to SAVE ALL INTERNALLY that copies all figures, textures and props into a single file. Try that Saved file at a render job... see if helps.
- Don
Sorry, but I am going to disagree with Don on this. Saving internally will make the file much larger than all the component image maps combined, which if the problem is due to memory usage will make it much worse.
I don't know how the scene is saved, but if you left the option at the default, which is locally, then that should not be the problem, as that is the only way I save a scene for network rendering. It could be some other issue.
When a scene is saved in Carrara, no matter the option- inernally, externally or locally, there are some things saved in that no matter what, such as model geometry, locations of models, etc. What is different about those options really pertains to image maps.
When a scene is saved locally for instance, any image maps used in the scene are referenced by Carrara when the scene is loaded. If you move the image map out of its original location, the next time you open the scene, Carrara will tell you it cannot find it, and ask you to locate it. A scene saved locally uses much less memory because of this. For a network render, the node will ask the host to send the maps, which will then be stored in the DAZ scratch disk on the node computer as well as the scene file that was sent over.
When a scene is saved internally, any image maps used for the scene will be stored in the scene file. Sounds great, but in practice it is not so great, especially for complex scenes that use a lot image maps. When Carrara saves an image internally it does so in a loss-less format (32 bit tiff if I recall correctly). Again, sounds great but really isn't, because for DAZ figures, the image maps are large .jpg files which, when compared to a .tiff file of the same resolution are much smaller file size. Carrara up-converts those large .jpg files to even larger .tiff files internally, and you don't get the benefit of a better image because anything lost in the original .jpg compression remains lost. Even if you used .gif image maps, they also would be up-converted and the lower file size would be lost. It's not bad for one figure, but what if you have a couple figures and then add in a Stonemason set? Your file size can jump to massive sizes pretty quickly, which means longer load times and other potential problems.
Now remember, that model geometries, deformers, primitives, clouds, etc. are all stored internally no matter what option you used to save your scene. However, there is also another aspect as well. If you use an hdri or some other image in your scene's background or backdrop, including movies and image sequences, they will also be saved internally if that is the option you chose. If you chose locally, then they will be referenced and have less scene overhead.
I don't wish to give the impression that saving internally is bad all the time. It's not. There are times when it is advantageous, but those are usually for smaller scene files, or shaders that use smaller image maps, such as ones that are designed to tile.
I've had some issues where remote nodes hung on a popup window displayed on that particular PC, asking where to find such and such. Don't remember the exact details... might have been Howie Farkes scenes requiring external libraries or something, but anyway that's the issue behind my suggestion. Hope this helps.
- Don
Howie uses custom leaves, which are stored (I think) in Carrara's data files. It is possible that an internally saved scene would contain the leaves, but I have never tried it. I just install the leaves on the node machine, just as I would on the host.
Other environmental sets with custom plants and leaves will work the same way, not just Howie's stuff.