DreamLight Constellation Node Queue - DreamLight.com

The Node Queue is the top pane in the main DreamLight Constellation window. Some of the Node Queue table header columns are user resizable by clicking and dragging the column dividers in the Node Queue table header to the left or right. Hovering over the Node Queue table header column names will show the associated tooltips for the corresponding Node Queue column below. Each of the numbered rows in the table displays information about the corresponding render node. The currently selected node row, if any, will be highlighted in yellow.

Node Queue ON/OFF Switch with Node Scanner Heartbeat

Click this checkmark button to turn the Node Queue ON/OFF. When the Node Queue is off it stops scanning for responses from the LWSN render nodes. When on it continuously scans the Command Folder for ack files from the LWSN render nodes and sends commands in the corresponding job files. The round indicator light toggles bright or dim each time the Command Folder is scanned for ack files and the DreamLight Constellation 3D icon/logo in the upper right corner of the header will slowly spin as well.

[NOTE: When Windows nodes are activated the Node Queue scanner currently slows down with a 30 second delay to avoid a problem where LWSN reads incorrect old commands out of the Windows SMB Network cache rather than the actual new commands from the job files. If a node gets stuck reporting that it’s ignoring a previous command, it means that it’s reading commands out of the Windows SMB cache rather than the job files. In that case just reinitialize the stuck node to re-sync the node. Further optimizations will be made in future updates.]

Node Buttons

When a node row is selected and highlighted yellow the Reinitialize Node button becomes enabled. Clicking this button will send an init command to reinitialize the selected render node only. If the node is currently rendering than an abort command will be sent first. If the node was launched using the -t Time Check interval setting then it will check for and respond to the abort command based on the -t setting. Otherwise it will respond once it finishes rendering the current frame. Clicking Reintitialize All Nodes will send an init command to reinitialize all the render nodes. Clicking Shutdown All Nodes will send a Quit command to all render nodes causing the LWSN instances to quit. This will not close the Terminal/Command windows though, which will remain open on each computer and will need to be manually closed if desired. Once LWSN nodes are shutdown issuing a subsequent reinitialize will not start them up again, they would need to be relaunched with DLI_SNUB-Launcher on each computer to begin receiving commands again.

DreamLight Constellation Node Queue Table Header

Some of the Node Queue table header columns are user resizable by clicking and dragging the column dividers in the Node Queue table header to the left or right. Hovering over the Node Queue table header column names will show the associated tooltips for the corresponding Node Queue column below.

Node ON/OFF Switches

Each LWSN render node row begins with an ON/OFF Switch that may be used to temporarily enable or disable individual nodes as desired. New commands are only processed by render nodes that are currently enabled. Disabled nodes will finish whatever they are currently doing but DreamLight Constellation will not send further commands to disabled nodes until they are re-enabled.

Node Numbers

The # column contains the node number for each LWSN instance currently running and being controlled by DreamLight Constellation. The corresponding node numbers are appended to the end of the job and ack files in the Command Folder that are used to send commands to the LWSN instances and to read the responses from the LWSN instance.

Node Names

The Node Name column consists of editable node names for each LWSN render node. Double-click on any node name to type in a custom name for the node. The Node Queue will temporarily stop updating while a Node Name is being edited. Custom node names can be useful to keep track of which node is running on which networked computer. Node names default to Node # where # is the same as the node’s number in the previous column.

Custom changed names are saved in the preferences and reloaded on relaunch for registered license versions of DreamLight Constellation. The FREE LITE version resets these names to defaults on relaunch.

Node Remote Checkmark Buttons

The Remote Node checkmark button column only appears if the Remap to Remote Path setting is enabled on the Preferences Panel. When this Remote checkmark is OFF for a render node DreamLight Constellation will use the local Remap Folder path when communicating with the node. When this Remote checkmark is ON for a render node DreamLight Constellation will remap the Remap Folder to the Remap to Remote Path setting in the Preferences Panel for the Content Folder path and the RGB Render Folder when adding scenes to the Scene Queue. The Remap to Remote Path must be set correctly for same-platform remote nodes to work properly if the Content Folder path or the RGB Render Folder path is different on those remote nodes. See Preferences Settings for more information about setting the Remap Folder remote remapping settings.

This only affects nodes running on the same operating system as DreamLight Constellation. This Remote checkmark button will be disabled for any cross-platform nodes (ie. Windows nodes when Constellation is running on Mac, or Mac nodes when Constellation is running on Windows) and will have no effect on those nodes because those nodes are all remote and use the second Remap to Cross-platform Path setting on the Preferences panel instead.

These Remote settings are saved in the preferences and reloaded on relaunch for registered license versions of DreamLight Constellation. The FREE LITE version resets these settings to defaults on relaunch.

Node Type Column

The Node Type column reports which operating system the LWSN node is running on, Mac or Windows. This is set based on the response received from the LWSN render node in the corresponding ack file after being initialized with an init command in the corresponding job file. This node type also determines which Content Directory path is used, the local path or the cross-platform remapped path that’s set in the second Remap Remote Path option in the Preferences Panel. The second Remap Remote Path must be set correctly for cross-platform nodes to work properly. See Preferences Settings for more information about setting the Content Folder remote remapping settings.

Node Scene Name Column

The Node Scene Name column displays the name of the currently rendering scene for this node, if any. The name may vary slightly from the file name of the original scene submitted for rendering if changes were made at the time the scene was added to the scene queue. In such cases a new hidden temp scene is created in the Content Folder‘s Scenes folder and that temp scene is sent to the nodes to render. Such temp files are deleted when the scenes are removed from the Scene Queue or when DreamLight Constellation is quit. The width of this column may be adjusted by dragging the separator to the right of Scene Name in the Node Queue table header.

Node Status Column

The Node Status column displays the current status of each LWSN render node. This will reflect the commands being sent to the node in the job files as well as the status reported by the node in the ack files.

The text of each node row is also color coded for additional at-a-glance information about the node’s status as follows: