MoRen

J. Baker · Post by **J. Baker** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 4:52 am

You are probably wondering what MoRen is. It's an app that includes all of the command line features making it easier to render your Moho files without opening Moho itself. Currently it's for windows only. I don't have access to linux or a mac at the moment. Also, plan on adding a previous saved option.

EDIT: I would like to add MoRen is just a test version of what is to come. The whole idea is to build a render farm app. Setting up all your pc's from one app. And just one more pointless piece of info. MoRen is pronounced Moe-Rin. It's short for Moho Renderer. It's all I could come up with.

Download from my sig.

Fazek · Post by **Fazek** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 7:26 am

Nice work! Unfortunately I can't try it because I don't use Moho under Windows. How do you think to include the locations and executing of Moho on the remote computers? Under Linux, you can run an application on a remote computer if you log in to the remote computer with the rsh (or ssh) command. Because Mac is a kind of Unix now, I think the solution is the same. On Windows XP and 2000, there is an rsh command, but it is used only to run commands on Unix systems (Windows is not an rsh server, only a client). So I don't know how can be invoked a Windows execution from a Unix computer. And I absolutely don't know what about the older types of Windows. It would be great if you can write an application for all of the systems, with the possibility to execute Moho on all of the systems, over mixed networks, and I am really interested about the technical details.

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 8:49 am

Thanks for sharing!

J. Baker · Post by **J. Baker** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 3:38 pm

Fazek,

I don't have all the details now as I don't have a mac or linux. But under windows, running an app on another networked pc isn't hard at all. Just have to have access to it's location.

Also, MoRen doesn't have to type anything into the command line so to speak. It it runs the executable and sends the parameters to it. That's why it makes it so easy to just run an executable on another networked pc and just send the parameters.

J. Baker · Post by **J. Baker** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 3:40 pm

jahnocli wrote:Thanks for sharing!

No problem!

Post by **Lost Marble** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 6:30 pm

Nice. Looking forward to the render-farm version too!

J. Baker · Post by **J. Baker** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 7:10 pm

Lost Marble wrote:Nice. Looking forward to the render-farm version too!

Thanks LM!

Also, I have a question for you. Since "verbose" mode doesn't work at the moment. Can you make a command line function that would be similar to verbose. Such as a command that would create a text file in the Moho directory that writes the progress time to it like every ten seconds? That way I could grab the text from it and display it in MoRen. Also, when the render is complete, could you put "complete" on the second line of the text file? Just so MoRen would definitly know when the job is done.

Rhoel · Post by **Rhoel** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 7:11 pm

MoRen looks good.

There is one development which might be welcomed - a batch render ... it might be more useful than the render farm - it would then be possible to set up an overnight batch render, hit the Render button and go to bed knowing all the days graft would be ready in the morning. With HiDef increasing render times x5, this will save many man-hours.

Key input information.

1: Source of Moho (as you have now).
2: Add moho scenes until endlist.
3: The output/destination directory.
4: The kind of options for the render you have now.
5: Render button.
6: Windows Fanfare when finished (okay a beep will do).

The rendered media should be the simple mohofilename.avi as in PMsc001.moho would become PMsc001.avi

This would be a very useful tool.

Keep up the fab work.
Regards

Rhoel

J. Baker · Post by **J. Baker** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 7:22 pm

Rhoel,

Batch rendering is a great idea and would be a possibility.

Fazek · Post by **Fazek** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 9:20 am

J. Baker wrote:Fazek,
But under windows, running an app on another networked pc isn't hard at all. Just have to have access to it's location.

It is great if so, but I'm not so sure about it. It is a difference "accessing a program file on a remote computer" and "running the program on the remote computer's hardware." If you just execute a program //remote/path/program.exe, it will run on YOUR computer and not on the other. And if the remote computer has a different operating system it is even more difficult.

J. Baker · Post by **J. Baker** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 4:14 pm

Fazek wrote:It is great if so, but I'm not so sure about it. It is a difference "accessing a program file on a remote computer" and "running the program on the remote computer's hardware." If you just execute a program //remote/path/program.exe, it will run on YOUR computer and not on the other. And if the remote computer has a different operating system it is even more difficult.

Actually, there will be a "master" app that's installed on the pc you work on and "slave" app(s) on the pc(s) that you plan to use as render slaves. The master will send messages to the slaves and then the slaves actually get the program running/rendering. So it will render on the slave pc and not the master.

So this also means I only need access to your network folder that you share and not your whole pc. This will keep your security of your network the same as it was before adding render slaves.

J. Baker · Post by **J. Baker** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 10:04 pm

Just wanted to give an update of the plans for Moren.

I'm going to make a batch version first. I think most of you might have more use for this then a render farm. But a render farm version will come after. I'm now waiting on a response from LM to see if he can add a feature similar to verbose. As it would be nice to see the render times and so forth. Cheers and hope to have something new for you soon.

rylleman · Post by **rylleman** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:59 pm

Great work!
Right now I can't see the advantage of using your render instead of Mohos but when you get a working renderfarm version I'll be using it all the time!

Some wishes for your farm version;
*Frame based render (projects are distributed frame by frame to the render nodes, not just scene 1 goes to that machine and scene 2 goes to that other one)
*verification of rendered frames (render crashes do occur)
*render report per frame; rendertime, started/finished, done (not sure if you could do that but it would be swell)
*A dancing paperclip.

J. Baker · Post by **J. Baker** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 2:53 am

rylleman wrote: Right now I can't see the advantage of using your render instead of Mohos...

It isn't alot but less resources being used means faster renders. Opening Moho itself takes up more resources then MoRen. And running Moho through the command line should be less as well.

*Frame based render (projects are distributed frame by frame to the render nodes, not just scene 1 goes to that machine and scene 2 goes to that other one)

It'll actually take a "*.moho" file and divide it by the number of your rendering machines (AKA, render slaves).

*verification of rendered frames (render crashes do occur)

This would have to be a feature request from LM. The error message would have to be sent from Moho to MoRen.

*render report per frame; rendertime, started/finished, done (not sure if you could do that but it would be swell)

I've already been talking to LM about this request.

*A dancing paperclip.

Maybe a animated MoRen guy while rendering. As long as it doesn't take much resources. That would kill the point of getting the job done fast. But I can't see an animated gif taking up much.

rylleman · Post by **rylleman** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 10:13 am

the paperclip request wasn't serious, I'm not to fond of paperclips dancing or dogs doing searches for you...

Another wish for the list though;'
*background rendering, so you can set the importance of the render. Rendering only if there is no other work on the station or using all resources of the rendering machine for rendering leaving nothing for other tasks.
*Prio rating of frames, so you can set a high prio on frames you want rendered before frames with low prio (or different prio for different scenes).

Sorry for making requests but I just get excited when someone like you jump at a thing I've wished for so long but haven't been able to do myself.