I've been trying to get Bryce's network renderer working for the last week, all to no avail. My network was originally setup to run both TCP/IP and NETBUI protocols,....ok, that didn't work so I reconfigured it to run just TCP/IP which is what the Bryce manual calls for, still no luck. I have followed the instructions to the letter, and tried evry little trick I know of and still, no Bryce lightning. Has anybody actually seen Bryce Lightning work ? Is there some trick to get it to work ? Or should I just throw in the towel and give up ? Thanks for your attention, TOM(sackrat).

me too!! me too.. sitting patiently down waiting for some gurus to explain

Yeah it works fine, you can't be on the net at the same time though, unless you are trying to render using a "over the net render box", use your slowest machine as the server, don't have it connected to the internet, just to your LAN, as it will just send out the packets, also on that machine have the bryce file open and in the render settings have it render to host, that way as its sending packets out to the other machines, it will render a tile while the others are busy. It works fantastic, Just gotta make a seperate TC/IP config for just network rendering is all.

I know it works since I've done it before. I haven't tried it in a long time so I can't give you any pointers. I'll test it again tonight and get back to you.

Clay, "you can't be on the net at the same time though", does this mean I have to disconnect my DSL modem from the network hub ? I have the DSL modem running into a Linksys router, then a line from my router to a Linksys network hub,..........do I just disconnect the router from the network hub ? Thanks for your attention,TOM(sackrat).

I just tried BryceLightning on 2 computers other than the host and couldn't get the host to see either one of them. I had my cable modem disconnected so I was only using the router/switch. Weird since the last time I tried it came right up and worked without problem. Don't have any time to troubleshoot this tonight.

BookMarked...

there was a update for bryce lighting and byrce5 ive used it works well make sure net work is set up the same work groups and all that other stuff

Aye, I've never had a problem with Bryce Lightning, either being onlnie with dial-up, cable, or whatever. It's never been an issuearound here, most of my renders are done with it these days. I have anywhere from two to five machines running here at home, makes things go more fluidly and also I can leave a few to render, and still work on a new scene while another one is rendering. I disagree with Clay about using the slowest machine as host, unless you want your host to NOT render alongside the others. If there is a large variance between processor speeds, what you'll end up with is a discrepancy in time, where the whole image will be done EXCEPT one little pane, stuck rendering away on your slowest computer, a pane that might have taken a faster one seconds, for example... I use WIn 98 most of the time for the network, sometimes we use XP but I've not had much luck with XP and networking, yet. I'm not sure what you're doign wrong, sackrat? Have you entered the IP's of the other comptuers into the network manager? Stupid question, I know, had to ask though...

shadowdragonlord; yeah, I've done that,......I'm running Win2000 Pro,.......maybe that's part of the problem. I dunno. I've got to do a regularly scheduled reformat of all my machines(eliminates bit rot), so I'll do that tonight or tomorrow and start all over again. Thanks everyone for your attention and suggestions. TOM(sackrat).

Thanks majister, I had forgotten all about the update. I recently installed a new raid system so I didn't install the update. I updated both Bryce and BryceLightning and everything worked fine. I did have to setup my Linksys router to start local ip addresses at 2 instead of 100. Don't know why but it worked.

Perhaps it's because I'm on a hub at home, not a router or a switch? hadn't thought of the Network itself as a possibility. What kind of network are you using, Sackrat?

I'm running a LAN or Local area connection.

I found lightning surprisingly easy to use, installed it on two machines, went to third machine started Bryce, went to the configure box under render animation, added and then refreshed the two IPs in the configuration anhd bingo it worked. no probs with surfing at the same time either. 2 lightning machines on win 2k and the bryce machine is on win 98.