There may be a thread about this somewhere but i couldn't find it either on Rosity or google =P

I have a decent development laptop now so I'd like to take advantage of network rendering (poser pro 2012) but don't know where to start and the manual has a very short paragraph that doesn't tell me much of anything.

Do all networked PCs need to have the same version of poser running?  i guess i don't even know where to start with this.  Anyone have some basic guidelines or a link perhaps?

Thanks!

same version of the network queue software on each machine and access to the network. I'm not sure what ports you need to open on your firewall, but 127.0.0.1 will need to be allowed for certain.

you mean Queue Manager?  does poser need to be running on the networked PCs, or just the main one?

I did install both on my machines, but, I only needed to run Queue on each to get rendering.

You might be interested in THIS thread: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=3911143&ebot_calc_page#message_3911143

This fish has already been fried there.

Quote - You might be interested in THIS thread: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=3911143&ebot_calc_page#message_3911143

This fish has already been fried there.

Saw that one, but looks like it's for people who are already pro.  I'm just trying to get the basics- overclocking my network render time will come later =P

No problem. You didn't say if you wanted it for single frames or animations... wanted you to be aware that it only helps if you are doing animation. 

Good point, and I would definitely be using it for animations.  At this point I'm assuming that if both machines can see each other, and QM running on both, you get a network speed boost?

Exactly.

actually you can use QM for still renders. lets you pack jobs off to other machines. you just set the frames to like range 1 to 2.

Awesome thanks !

hoping I can just reinstall and don't need to buy another QM key or something..

Don't install PoserPro on the 'slave' machines, they only need Queue Manager. The assets required to produce the render are fed to the remote PCs by the copy of QM on your master PC - so for large complex scenes this can take a while.

Note that single frame renders don't get carved up and shared around, though you can configure QM on your master PC to send your renders to the slaves (Queue > deactivate 'Process Jobs Locally' and activate 'Send Jobs to Network'. On the remote PCs make sure that 'Accept jobs from Network' is active).

You should install the version of QM that corresponds to your version of PoserPro. If you've recently upgraded to SR3, you need to completely uninstall the previous version of QM from your remote PCs, and - to be on the safe side - delete the application's folder too, before installing the most recent version. And don't forget that the serial number for QM on remote machines is not the same as your main PoserPro SN.

Before you do all of that, make sure your PCs can all see each other on your network and resolve any problems with that first - mainly so you don't blame Poser or Queue Manager if things don't work.

EDIT: wow, it took me forever to type all that - I see others have pointed you in the right direction.

I don't close the PZ3 until the render is finished... have had to reload 'way too many of them getting in a hurry to go to the next scene. So, Queue manager is pretty useless to me because it doesn't actually speed anything up. It all depends on your workflow.

Since the OP has indicated he plans to use it for animations, I can see its value to him.

Hmm, well so far QM does huge batches of renders perfectly for me, and I usually close Poser as soon as I start a queue.

So I need a diff serial for the slave copy of QM?  Do I have to buy another?

No need to buy any additional licenses.  Same one serves all.

You can have more render boxes running Queue manager than most networks will support. Most home networks are limited to 255 connections. You need a much more complex (and expensive) router/switch setup to go above that number.

The second set of numbers in the Poser Serial numbers is the process limit number.

9999 for Queue Manager.

0001 (or more) depending on license for the Poser Program.

All of them have to appear to be within the same ip range and on the same subnet as well.