LightWave 3D ScreamerNet Network Render Tutorials

DreamLight Constellation Manual | Download & Installation | Tutorials | Settings | Node Queue | Scene Queue

Render Tutorials with DLI_SuperBalls Prebuilt Content Folder & Benchmark

Successfully rendering with LightWave 3D ScreamerNet requires that all your content is packaged in a properly structured content directory or Content Folder. The most common source of problems rendering with ScreamerNet is an improperly structured or shared Content Folder. So we’ve provided a pre-built content folder for these LightWave 3D ScreamerNet Network Render Tutorials.

In order to provide a sample scene with a prebuilt Content Folder that could be used to configure and test ScreamerNet with known content in DreamLight Constellation and DLI SNUB Launcher, I created the DLI_SuperBalls Benchmark Scene and included it with the DreamLight Constellation and DLI SNUB Launcher downloads. I also used this scene to benchmark the speed of our computers and to test LightWave’s nodal textures for SSS subsurface scattering and built-in instancing with randomly colored translucent balls. You may use this scene to test setting up DreamLight Constellation and DLI SNUB Launcher, with a known, tested, prebuilt Content Folder, as well as to benchmark the rendering speed of your own computers.

The download package contains three different versions of the scene as follows:

DLI_SuperBalls-LowRes.lws – Renders in about 4.5 minutes on a first generation 12-core Mac Pro.
25% resolution with lower AA, DOF and Radiosity settings. Exports a JPG image.

DLI_SuperBalls-HighRes.lws – Renders in about 2 hours on a first generation 12-core Mac Pro.
100% resolution with full AA, DOF and Radiosity settings. Exports a linear HDR EXR image (and optional HDR depth buffer) ready for HDR post-processing in HDR compositing software like Shake, Fusion or After Effects.

DLI_SuperBalls-Anim.lws – Renders frames in about 1.5 minutes on a 2010 4-core MacBook Pro
25% resolution with much lower AA, DOF and Radiosity settings. Exports as JPG images.

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A Properly Structured Content Folder for Successful ScreamerNet Rendering

The content directory or Content Folder is a folder that contains all the asset files needed for a project in a specific organization for LightWave 3D ScreamerNet. It usually contains a full compliment of special sub folders for the various types of files contained in the project, such as Images, Objects, Scenes, etc. If you wish to use ScreamerNet (lwsn) successfully you must learn to properly use LightWave’s Content Folder structure to package your projects correctly or you will run into problems attempting to render them in ScreamerNet. Common symptoms of Content Folder problems are LWSN render nodes reporting missing objects and/or images when loading scenes and rendering blank black frames.

A Content Folder in LightWave 3D is very similar to a Web site’s root folder. When used properly, all necessary file paths are specified relative to that root folder, and all files are located in sub folders of this root folder. This means the project’s root folder is a self contained unit that may be moved as desired, including to other machines, without breaking all the dependent file/folder links to the objects, images and other assets.

In LightWave, the Content Folder itself may be named whatever you like, but there are some specific sub folders that LightWave expects to find inside the Content Folder that you should not rename or move. The most common of these special sub folders are named Images, Scenes & Objects. For a list of other possible sub folders look at LightWave Layout’s Paths tab on the Preferences panel. These sub folders are where you should store all your image, scene and object files respectively, for a project. You may name your files anything you wish (being sure to use proper file extensions), as long as you place them inside the proper sub folders.

In addition to ScreamerNet‘s normal uses of the Content Folder, DreamLight Constellation also uses a Shared Folder (which may be the same as the Content Folder, or higher up the folder path) for local/remote and cross-platform path remapping. So for best results you should also put the Command Folder (Commands), RGB Output Folder (Renders) and Log Folder (Logs) inside the Shared Folder so that all render nodes can locate all the necessary folders across your network.

There are two approaches to effectively organize the Content Folder. Using a separate Content Folder for each project, or using a single master Content Folder for all your projects.

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Using a Separate Content Folder for Each Project

If you generally only need to render one project at a time, your projects don’t typically share assets and you don’t mind resetting the Content Folder in DreamLight Constellation and DLI_SNUB-Launcher for each project you render, then you can keep each project in its own self-contained Content Folder. In this case simply put all of the project’s objects in an Objects folder, all the project’s images in an Images folder and all the project’s scenes in a Scenes folder within the project’s Content Folder. The included DLI_SuperBalls sample content is structured as such a prebuilt Content Folder ready for use in the following tutorials.

NOTE: You can easily create such a self-contained Content Folder from any LightWave scene in Layout, even if it is not already properly structured and it accesses objects and images from far-flung folders. Simply open the scene in LightWave Layout, select File->Package Scene, select a destination folder and click the OK button. This will copy the scene and all associated asset files into a new properly structured Content Folder that may then be successfully rendered with ScreamerNet lwsn.

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Using a Single Common Content Folder for Multiple Projects

If you often need to render multiple projects at the same time, your projects typically share assets or resetting the Content Folder often would be inconvenient, then you can organize a single common Content Folder for all your projects to share. If all projects use the same common Content Folder then you may leave ScreamerNet running and rendering while adding new scenes to DreamLight Constellation‘s Scene Queue to render as needed, without having to keep changing the Content Folder for each project.

The trick to organizing a common Content Folder is to make separate folders for each project inside each of the Images, Objects and Scenes folders. Those project specific sub folders may be named anything you like, but the enclosing folders at the top level of the Content Folder must be named Images, Objects and Scenes, unless you explicitly changed those names in LightWave’s path preferences panel.

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 Step-by-step LightWave 3D ScreamerNet Network Render Tutorials

The following DLI_SuperBalls Quick-start Tutorials will walk you through how to set up DreamLight Constellation and LWSN with DLI_SNUB-Launcher for batch rendering on a single computer. It then shows you how to add a remote render node on the same platform for network rendering. And finally it details how to add a cross-platform render node on the other platform from the one DreamLight Constellation is running on (Mac OS X or Windows) for cross-platform network rendering. You should proceed through the following tutorials with the DLI_SuperBalls sample prebuilt Content Folder to learn how to use DreamLight Constellation & DLI_SNUB-Launcher before attempting to use them with your own custom content. For best results go through all three tutorials in order because each step-by-step tutorial builds upon what you’ve learned in the previous tutorial.

• Batch Render Quick Tutorial
• Network Render Quick Tutorial
• Cross-platform Network Render Quick Tutorial

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Batch Render Quick Tutorial

This first batch render step by step tutorial outlines configuring and launching LWSN ScreamerNet nodes with DLI_SNUB-Launcher as well as adding and managing scenes to render with DreamLight Constellation. This is initially done all on one machine to focus exclusively on getting DLI_SNUB-Launcher and DreamLight Constellation up and running with a known prebuilt Content Folder without complicating things with any custom content or network issues. The FREE Lite version of DLI_SNUB-Launcher is limited to only one LWSN render node (computer).

• If you haven’t already, move the DLI_SNUB-Launcher and DreamLight Constellation apps into the LightWave folder. Also, move the DLI_SuperBalls prebuilt Content Folder into your Documents folder.

•  Double-click the DLI_SuperBalls/Scenes/DLI_SuperBalls-Anim.lws scene file to load it into LightWave Layout. Click yes if it asks you if you’d like to change the content path, otherwise it’s already properly set to the DLI_SuperBalls folder.

• OPTIONAL: Set the Render Globals->Render: Multithreading to half of the threads available on your computer because for this batch render test we’ll be rendering on the same computer that we may want to use for other work. For example on a 12-core/24-thread Mac Pro set it to 12 Threads or on a 4-core/8-thread MacBook Pro set it to 4 Threads. Don’t forget to set the multithreading setting back to automatic when done with this test.
  [NOTE: For more information please see the multithreading entry and the default segment memory entry in our white paper – Mastering LightWave 3D ScreamerNet LWSN]
• Quit Layout (save the scene if asked). When Layout quits it saves the multithreading setting to the Layout config file so that it may be used by lwsn.
  [NOTE: If you will be rendering on multiple computers, the multithreading and default segment memory may be set differently in Layout on each render node (computer) to reflect the threads and memory capabilities of each render node (computer).]

• Launch DLI_SNUB-Launcher. If this is the first time it is run it should locate lwsn and LightWave’s config folder by default, indicated by the lwsn Path field and Config Folder field both  highlighted in green. If not, and either is highlighted in red, just drag LightWave’s bin folder, or lwsn file to the lwsn Path button or field on the DLI_SNUB-Launcher window and drag the config folder to the Config Folder button or field.

• Click the Content Folder checkmark button to activate the custom Contabtent Folder button & field. It should default to the DLI_SuperBalls folder that was set in Layout and be highlighted green. If not, simply drag the DLI_SuperBalls folder from inside your Documents folder and drop it onto the Content Folder button or field.
  [NOTE: LightWave 3D ScreamerNet requires content to be in a properly structured Content Folder according to very specific rules. If you are having problems getting your own scenes to render across the network or all that renders are blank black frames, then please first verify that you have a properly structured Content Folder. Otherwise ScreamerNet will be unable to properly render your scenes.]
• Click the Open Batch Render Settings (-2) button to open the Batch Settings drawer. Set the First ScreamerNet Node # to 1, Turn off the Through Last Node # check mark button because we only need one lwsn render node for batch rendering on one computer.
• The Command Folder field should default to the DLI_SuperBalls/Commands folder that was set in Layout and should be highlighted green. If not, simply drag the DLI_SuperBalls/Commands folder to the Command Folder button or field to set it.
  [NOTE: For best results when network rendering the Command Folder should be located within the Content Folder and/or Shared Folder so all nodes have access to it and it gets remapped properly if you wish to use any of the Shared Folder remapping features for remote or cross-platform render nodes.]

• Click the Launch ScreamerNet lwsn Nodes button. This will launch Terminal/Command Prompt and run an instance of LWSN. It will report “Can’t access job file…” this is normal because there are no job files yet.
• Launch DreamLight Constellation and open the Preferences panel. The Command Folder and Content Folder fields should be highlighted green and defaulted to the DLI_SuperBalls/Commands folder and DLI_SuperBalls folder respectively because the Content Folder was set to DLI_SuperBalls in LightWave Layout. If not, turn on the Content Folder checkmark. Then simply drag the DLI_SuperBalls folder to the Content Folder button or field and drag the DLI_SuperBalls/Commands folder to the Command Folder button or field. Then click OK.

• This will initialize the render node which should show up in the Node Queue.

• Drag the DLI_SuperBalls-Anim.lws scene file onto the Add Scene button or the Scene Queue to open the Scene Panel. Then drag the DLI_SuperBalls/Renders folder to the RGB Output Folder button or field and click OK.
  [NOTE: For best results when network rendering the RGB Output Folder should be located within the Content Folder or Shared Folder so all nodes have access to it and it gets remapped properly if you wish to use any of the Shared Folder remapping features for remote or cross-platform render nodes.]

• This will add the scene to the Scene Queue and begin rendering. You may add as many scenes as you like to render and they will all render in order. You may move scenes up/down in the Scene Queue to change the render order and disable/enable scenes as needed.

The difference between batch rendering as outlined in this tutorial and network rendering is only that the LWSN render nodes are running on different computers rather than on the same computer as DreamLight Constellation. The setup is pretty much the same except the LWSN render nodes access the Content Folder, Command Folder and RGB Output Folder over the network. All computers must have read access to the same Content Folder and they must all have read/write access to the same Commands Folder and RGB Output Folder.

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Network Render Quick Tutorial

There are many different ways to set up a network rendering system. This is an easy basic setup in order to learn and test DLI_SNUB-Launcher and DreamLight Constellation with a known simple setup. As such, this setup is also useful for troubleshooting. Once you are successful with this easy basic setup feel free to experiment with other custom or more advanced network rendering setups.

In this tutorial we’ll be using two computers, one local and one remote, both Mac OS X Macs or both Windows PCs. In order to run multiple render nodes at once we’ll be using the STD 5-Node version of DreamLight Constellation. The FREE Lite version of DreamLight Constellation is limited to one node at a time, so if using the FREE Lite version you could test each type of node, local and remote, one at a time instead. LightWave’s built-in network controller does not remap Mac/Win paths so all computers must be the same platform when using LightWave’s built-in network controller but since we’ll be using the new DreamLight Constellation network controller, which does remap Mac/Win paths, we’ll be adding cross-platform render nodes in a subsequent tutorial.

In this example tutorial. The first computer will serve as the host computer which will have the Content Folder located on it. It will run the DreamLight Constellation network rendering controller and it will also run one LWSN rendering node with DLI_SNUB-Launcher. The second computer will be a remote rendering computer that will run a second LWSN rendering node with a second copy of DLI_SNUB-Launcher and access the host computer remotely. Before beginning be sure that LightWave 3D is installed and tested on both computers so that each has the LWSN rendering component available and once LightWave 3D Layout is run on each computer it will create a valid config file on each computer.

[NOTE: Technically you could run LWSN over the network and also access the config file over the network without installing LightWave on each machine, but that requires additional networking steps. It also adds additional networking complexity that could introduce additional networking problems. So, in order to keep this first networking tutorial simple we’ll just install LightWave on each machine first.]

• Install LightWave 3D on both the host and remote computers if not already installed. Launch and quit Layout on both computers from an administrator user to create a valid config file on each computer.
• Place the DLI_SuperBalls content folder in the Documents folder on the host computer.
• Place a copy of the DLI_SNUB-Launcher 2 and DreamLight Constellation applications in the Lightwave 3D folder on each computer as outlined in the Batch Render Quick Tutorial above.
• Set up sharing on the host computer. [NOTE: Be sure your local area network is behind a router with a firewall so it’s not directly exposed to the wider Internet.]

• Mount the host computer’s DLI_SuperBalls content folder on the remote rendering computer.

• Launch DLI_SNUB-Launcher on each computer. Check and set the lwsn Path field and Config Folder field if necessary, as outlined in the Batch Render Quick Tutorial above.
• In DLI_SNUB-Launcher on the host computer, turn on the Content Folder checkmark and drag the Documents/DLI_SuperBalls/ folder to the Content Folder button or field.
  [NOTE: LightWave 3D ScreamerNet requires content to be in a properly structured Content Folder according to very specific rules. If you are having problems getting your own scenes to render across the network please verify that you have a properly structured Content Folder.]
• Also Open Batch Render Settings and drag the Documents/DLI_SuperBalls/Commands/ folder to the Command Folder button or field. Set the First ScreamerNet Node # field to 1 and click the Launch ScreamerNet lwsn Nodes button to launch LWSN in Terminal/Command.
  [NOTE: For best results the Command Folder should be located within the Content Folder and/or the Remap Folder so all nodes have access to it and it gets remapped properly if you wish to use any of the Remap Folder remapping features for remote or cross-platform render nodes.]

• In DLI_SNUB-Launcher on the remote computer, turn on the Content Folder checkmark and drag the shared /Volumes/DLI_SuperBalls/ folder to the Content Folder button or field. Also Open Batch Render Settings and drag the shared /Volumes/DLI_SuperBalls/Commands/ folder to the Command Folder button or field. Set the First ScreamerNet Node # field to 2 and click the Launch ScreamerNet lwsn Nodes button to launch LWSN in Terminal/Command. The FREE Lite version now only allows one node. So test the local node and remote node individually one at a time instead.

• Back on the host computer launch DreamLight Constellation. Open the Preferences Panel. Set the LWSN Render Node Limit to 2 or higher. Drag the Documents/DLI_SuperBalls/Commands/ folder to the Command Folder button or field. Turn on the Content Folder checkmark and drag the Documents/DLI_SuperBalls/ folder to the Content Folder button or field. Turn on the Remap Folder checkmark and drag the same Documents/DLI_SuperBalls/ folder to the Remap Folder button or field. Turn on the Remap to Remote Path checkmark and type the remote path to the shared DLI_SuperBalls folder as seen in DLI_SNUB-Launcher on the remote rendering computer /Volumes/DLI_SuperBalls/ in this case. Click the OK button.

• This will initialize the nodes which should both show up in the Node Queue. Set Node 1 to Local by turning off the Remote checkmark and set Node 2 to Remote by turning on the Remote checkmark. This will reinitialize the nodes each to use the proper content folder path for each of the local and remote nodes. The FREE Lite version now only allows one node at a time, so you can test a local and remote node individually, one at a time by re-configuring each as node 1.
  

• Drag the DLI_SuperBalls-Anim.lws scene file and drop it onto the Add Scene button or the Scene Queue to open the Scene Panel. Then drag the DLI_SuperBalls/Renders/ folder to the RGB Output Folder button or field and click OK.
  [NOTE: For best results the RGB Output Folder should be located within the Content Folder so all nodes have access to it and it gets remapped properly if you wish to use any of the Content Folder remapping features for remote or cross-platform render nodes.]

• This will add the scene to the scene queue and begin rendering.

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Cross-platform Network Rendering Quick Tutorial

This tutorial is a continuation of the previous Network Rendering Quick Tutorial to show how to add a cross-platform network node. We’ll be adding a third node running on the opposite platform than the one DreamLight Constellation is running on. It details how to add a Windows render node to DreamLight Constellation running on Mac OS X and how to add a Mac OS X render node to DreamLight Constellation running on a Windows PC. Because we’ll be adding a third node to the previous tutorial we’ll be using the registered STD 5-Node license version of DreamLight Constellation. If running the FREE Lite version you may run one node at a time so you could just re-configure node 1 to be a cross-platform node instead of adding a new node.

• On the host computer make sure that the Content Folder DLI_SuperBalls is shared so that it can be accessed by the other platform.

• On the remote cross-platform render node mount the shared Content Folder DLI_SuperBalls.

• On the remote cross-platform render node launch DLI_SNUB-Launcher. Set the Content Folder and Command Folder.
  [NOTE: For best results the Command Folder should be located within the Content Folder so all nodes have access to it and it gets remapped properly if you wish to use any of the Content Folder remapping features for remote or cross-platform render nodes.]

• In DreamLight Constellation on the host computer open the Preferences Panel, activate and set the last set of remap settings for the opposite platform from the one that’s running DreamLight Constellation.
  [NOTE: Changes to any of the Folder Remapping settings will only affect scenes added to the scene queue after making the changes. They will not affect any scenes already in the scene queue. Any scenes already in the queue when these changes are made will need to be removed and re-added to the scene queue if you wish them to use the new settings.]

• This will initialize the nodes which should all show up in the Node Queue with new cross-platform node as node 3. Once all nodes are processing you may now add scenes to the scene queue (or remove and re-add the scenes if Content Folder Remapping changes were made after scenes were already in the scene queue) as described in the previous Network Rendering Tutorial above.

For additional step-by-step tutorials on how to use DLI_SNUB-Launcher for network rendering and even network rendering across the Internet please refer to our in-depth white paper Mastering LightWave 3D ScreamerNet LWSN.

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DLI_SuperBalls Render Benchmarks

DLI_SuperBalls-LowRes.lws

12-core 2.93GHz Mac Pro: 4m 36s (276.4 seconds)
(MacPro5,1: Mid 2010, Dual Six-core Intel Xeon X5670 Gulftown)

8-core 3GHz Mac Pro: 10m 9s (609.8 seconds)
(MacPro2,1: Mid 2007, Dual Quad-core Intel Xeon X5365 Clovertown)

4-core 2.2GHz 15″ MacBook Pro: 13m 6s (786.0 seconds)
(MacBookPro8,2: Mid 2011, 4-core Intel Core i7 2720QM Sandy Bridge)

DLI_SuperBalls-HighRes.lws

12-core 2.93GHz Mac Pro: 2h 9m 53s (7793.5 seconds)
(MacPro5,1: Mid 2010, 2x 6-core Intel Xeon X5670 Gulftown)

8-core 3GHz Mac Pro :6h 19m 43s (22783.9 seconds)
(MacPro2,1: Mid 2007, 2x 4-core Intel Xeon X5365 Clovertown)

4-core 2.2GHz 15″ MacBook Pro: 6h 34m 55s (23695.9 seconds)
(MacBookPro8,2: Mid 2011, 4-core Intel Core i7 2720QM Sandy Bridge)

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If you find DreamLight Constellation, DLI SNUB Launcher or our Mastering LightWave 3D ScreamerNet LWSN white paper and tutorials useful, please support our continuing efforts by registering DreamLight Constellation or registering DLI_SNUB-Launcher, by purchasing our Award-winning 3D CGI Short Film – BlastOff!™ Special Edition DVD, by purchasing some of our BlastOff! Merchandise or award-winning DLI SNUB Launcher logo merchandise or by buying our book: Creating a 3D Animated CGI Short. Thank you for your continuing support!

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