Setting up Max to A render farm

[ben.oconnorA5W9K]

I'm wanting to setup a small render farm at the college I work for. We have academic licenses of 3ds max 2018/2019 and want to find out what I have to do to set this up using the Arnold renderer.

I could have easily set this up with MR but have hit a bit of a block in regards to finding the necessary information about how to do this for Arnold. Here are some of them:

• Can anyone clarify for me if I need to install 3ds max on all slaves and if this is the correct procedure or do I need to obtain specific Arnold render nodes?
• Do I still use Backburner to deploy and manage the render? If so can someone outline the process or provide a link to the steps involved.
• If Backburner is no longer used what is the method for managing the render and having the slaves communicate/connect to the manager.

Thanks for any help.

[Stephen.Blair]

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@ben.oconnorA5W9K wrote:

I'm wanting to setup a small render farm at the college I work for. We have academic licenses of 3ds max 2018/2019 and want to find out what I have to do to set this up using the Arnold renderer.

I could have easily set this up with MR but have hit a bit of a block in regards to finding the necessary information about how to do this for Arnold. Here are some of them:

• Can anyone clarify for me if I need to install 3ds max on all slaves and if this is the correct procedure or do I need to obtain specific Arnold render nodes?
• Do I still use Backburner to deploy and manage the render? If so can someone outline the process or provide a link to the steps involved.
• If Backburner is no longer used what is the method for managing the render and having the slaves communicate/connect to the manager.

Thanks for any help.

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You need to install 3ds Max and Maxtoa on the render nodes.

You can use Backburner, or you can use any render manager that supports 3ds Max.

[sdeters]

do I need to obtain specific Arnold render nodes?

Yes you will need render nodes, the images will still render across the render farm, but there will be a water mark on your images if you do not get the proper Render nodes licenses.

[ben.oconnorA5W9K]

Hey thanks for that info.

I did contact Autodesk EDU support who first sent me to a Google webpage (with part of my inquiry entered in the search bar) and then sent me to this forum because they only answer questions about accessing the EDU software, which is what I was asking about in the first place.

Can anyone tell me how I go about getting these Arnold render nodes? I was of the understanding that Autodesk are providing these free of charge to academic institutions. Can anyone point me in the right direction of who to contact at Autodesk about this?

Thanks for the help.

[ben.oconnorA5W9K]

Good to know Steven.

Can you provide a link to the documentation that outlines the steps to send a Arnold render sequence to Backburner. I have searched the Arnold documentation and the internet and have not been able to find any instructions.

Cheers

[ben.oconnorA5W9K]

Hi Stephen

In regards to the Arnold Nodes - do they not come with academic licenses or is this something my school has to pay extra for or something I need to contact the reseller? Also if we do need to purchase nodes is their academic pricing available?

The work the students produce is obviously not for sale and this obviously would be a fantastic asset for them to utilise and provide excellent experience for them.

Update.

Also worked out how to get the job to Backburner.

[ben.oconnorA5W9K]

Sorry Stephen not Steven.

[Stephen.Blair]

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@ben.oconnorA5W9K wrote:

Hi Stephen

In regards to the Arnold Nodes - do they not come with academic licenses or is this something my school has to pay extra for or something I need to contact the reseller? Also if we do need to purchase nodes is their academic pricing available?

The work the students produce is obviously not for sale and this obviously would be a fantastic asset for them to utilise and provide excellent experience for them.

Update.

Also worked out how to get the job to Backburner.

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You get educational licenses for Arnold at the Autodesk Education Portal: https://docs.arnoldrenderer.com/x/VQffB