I'm trying to use 2 Mac computers apart from the main one (also a Mac) for network rendering. So far, no success... In the render room preferences, it lists3 ports. Port 1, Port 2, Port 3. "Note that port 1 needs to be changed on all rendering nodes." Ok! Does that mean to match it in the application pref, of each rendernode, or the opposite? I tried both and it didn't work, Firewalls are off and the information reaches the other computer because I can see the activity in the router and the render node app. starts up but dies down after a few minutes without rendering anything. I render through the network all the time with Electric Image 5.5 all the time without any problem so I feel the problem is not my network but some setting I'm not getting here Any clues would be appreciated. Thanks

I render across the network in Windows. No problems here. I do use the same port an all my machines though. The comment that all ports needs to be changed is very confusing. I've left them alone and it works fine. The next thing I can think of is if your render node machine is considerably slower than your serving machine. The reason being is that the node may take a long time to do precalculations for lighting before it can start to render (it could be several minutes). The network traffic stops because the render computer doesn't need any more information to get the ball rolling. Just guessing here but the first thing that happens is the source file and any textures gets copied over to the render node. Then, the render node does all the same precalucaletd lighting stuff as the server machine, then it sends out a signal to the server machine saying its ready. The server machine assigns the render node a square to render. When the render node is done with that square, it ships it to the server and the server tells the render node which square to do next. The network traffic after the initial file transfer is essentially zero except when a square gets passed back to the server. I wouldn't take a lack of network traffic to be a sign of a problem. If you want to know if the machines are talking for sure, there should a directory generated on your render node which will have the Carrara source file in it that you're trying to render. If that's the case, I'm going to guess you're not having a communication issue. The second thing I'd try is a super simple scene (no GI or indirect lighting). Something that would render in a minute or two normally. This should allow all your render nodes to kick in and help even if they're slower machines. That's a whole lot of guessing on my part but it's all I can think of considering what you've said. Good luck and let us know. If you still can't get this working, email Eovia. -Kix

Hi Kix, I tried the super simple scene and it works. I'll experiment with more complex scenes gradually. Thank you so much and have a happy new year Jean-Luc