Hello All, 
I use several computers (PCs) on my network  and have been curious for a while on how a Render Farm works and how I go about setting it up. 

I’m starting from scratch and I need to know all the basics – does the Vue app have to exist on each machine? Do the models, textures/materials have to be loaded on each machine?  As you tell, I have no idea where to start...

 Could someone point me toward some tutorials or information on how Render Farms work and how to go about setting it up?

 Any info would be greatly appreciated!

 Thanks for your time,

 John

Attached Link: http://renderfred.free.fr/articles.html

Ok, basics.

#1 have more than one computer (not necessary but helpful)

#2 have a network

#3 know all the network names and/or the local ip addresses of the computers. The structure is something like that (in my case) 192.168.1.xx (where xx is the number of the individual computer

#4 have Vue

#5 have the application installed on one machine - this is called host

#6 install the application RenderCow on all computers you have, including the host one. If you want to use it for rendering in the farm as well. Best is to allow the option that the Cows are automatically started when the computer is started. The machines with the Cows are called clients.

#7a you have generation 5. Go to Vue render options and click on the thing about HyperVue. Start rendering and a new (for you) window will appear called HyperVue manager. There you first have to add your other computers (clients). Try it by name but be prepared that this does not work (especially on Mac) and then use the ip addresses you have. Don't forget the host computer, the name for this cow is "localhost". You have to do this only once, next time Vue will remember your farm.

#7b you have generation 6. Go to Vue render options and select the thing called standalone renderer. There you have two options - (real) standalone and HyperVue. Select there HyperVue (BIG surprise), there. You will get the HyperVue manager and add there all your cows. As described in #7a. Then select where the rendered image is saved to and what the name is. HyperVue/Standalone rendering in generation 6 ONLY renders to file, not to screen as in generation 5 anymore.

#8 render

Some remarks.

#1 as said, you have to do that only once - as long as the situation does not change. But you will see when a cow is missing and then simply add it (if available)

#2 be aware that some options that are preset in the default settings do not work in network rendering. Especially 2.5 Hybrid motion blur. So don't be surprised that when this is on HyperVue is grayed out.

#3 If you update your Vue the cows will be updated automatically - when they are on and when you do HyperVue rendering the next time. No need to do it manually

#4 leave the "channel" as it is. Default is i think 5002. This is ok. You must change that to another value only when you have two farms running in parallel. So that for example the Vue 5 cows do not confuse and mix up with the Vue 6 cows.

Ok for now, ask more questions when they appear. And good luck!

Peggy  - Thank you for the link!

Walther - Thank you for  all this great information!   

This really gives me somewhere to start.  Right now I'm working with two desktop pcs on the network (one dual core, one pentium 4), I may be adding another next year. I'd like to give this a try,  because my images are getting more complex and  some of them are taking days to complete the render.  

Thanks again, 
John

OK - I set up my little Render Farm - right now I only have two "Cows" on the farm, and it seems to be working fine.  One PC is faster than the other, so it processes more of the tiles then the other, but I assumed that would happen.  I plan to add a third machine in the next few months, but I have a question...  As I add more Cows, which are really just other CPUs, if they don't have monitors hooked up to them, how can I tell what they're doing??  That's probably a dumb question but  after I boot these machines, other then the status monitor inside the Vue render window I can't see the what these machines are doing. Does that make any sense??

One other thing,  when I click "SHOW" for the Render Cow status, it always says "Waiting for new job", even when I'm rendering and can see that machine is being used.  Not sure what that means.

Anyway, thanks for any additional info you can share on this!

John

To be able to see what the other computers are doing, you can add a KVM switch which allows you to use one monitor keyboard and mouse for several computers. You can typicaslly buy them to control 2,4,and 8 computers with the price increasing based on the number of computers you want to control. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kvm_switch

Thanks for that info -  I found this one, that I  think is perfect for what I want : 

http://www.buyextras.com/bsmvi4aukvms.html

Take a look at this one, it is a little different style, but it comes with cables which could set you back another $20-30 for 4 computers. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=580953&CatId=598 Regards Vince

WoW - that is great price with the cables. Great info - thanks Vince!

Glad it will work for you. Please keep us up to speed on your farm as it develops, I also want to set up a farm to render my Rhino models. I work on mostly architecture for driving animations, which is why I have been looking at Vue because it has a great render engine, and network rendering out of the box. The only problem is, I do not know how to use the product as of yet. From discussions with others, I will be UVMapping the OBJ models with UVMapper from Rhino, then inserting them into my Vue scenes, and render away. So I am very interested in how this performs. By the time I get through the tutorials, get the money for my farm, you should have yours all up and running, making me turn a little green. :-))

The real reason I need to set up this farm  is, I use other apps like - photoshop, painter, etc  - but when my one powerful pc gets locked up for (many) hours during a render, I can't get anything else done.  And now that I'm rendering in my actual print size, the files are getting pretty large.   I think my little farm  is gonna work fine with just 3 dual core machines, I don't think (for now) I'll need anything bigger - also I can't afford anything else - lol 
Oh well,  a little at a time. 

Incase anyone is interested, this was a pretty good article, just for it's general information on render farms - I'm not going to have a farm like he's showing, but it was interesting reading :

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1847365,00.asp

Wow, dual core machines are nice. My budget will not allow it, so I am looking into solid Pentium 4's or Athlon 64's which fit my wallet a little better. I have been watching machines go at auction which are dual cpu capable with only one supplied, a few I looked at could even be upgraded to the dual core. My problem is the number of frames needed for an animation. The last 30 second animation took 4 weeks total on a single cpu machine. I saw that article also when searching for information. That is a real nice setup to say the least. (drool)