Any changes to the batch renderer in AS 6?

mkelley · Post by **mkelley** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 1:39 pm

Mike,

Since my biggest gripe with AS 6 is the inability to batch output to directories other than those that contain the scenes, I thought I'd get off my big butt (see avatar) and do something about it rather than complain (this was motivated mostly by seeing the OS X batch renderer released here).

So my question is simple: does the batch renderer still work in AS 6 as documented here?

viewtopic.php?t=1318

If so I'll just load up VB again (it's been a long time since I've had ANY programming languages installed on my machine, but I think I still have a copy of it laying around somewhere) and write my own for Windows.

Post by **Lost Marble** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 9:50 am

The command-line renderer still works exactly as that post describes. No changes in v6.

If someone wanted to get even more ambitious, you could even make a network renderer. You'd need to coordinate multiple machines, and sync up the source files and stuff, but using the command-line renderer it should be possible.

mkelley · Post by **mkelley** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 11:24 am

Cool! Thanks.

J. Baker · Post by **J. Baker** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 1:00 pm

Lost Marble wrote:The command-line renderer still works exactly as that post describes. No changes in v6.

If someone wanted to get even more ambitious, you could even make a network renderer. You'd need to coordinate multiple machines, and sync up the source files and stuff, but using the command-line renderer it should be possible.

A copy of AS would have to be on every machine though. As you can't send information to another networked pc as it has no commands on what to do with the information sent.

A stripped down (slave) version of AS that can be only used when a master AS sends information, would be best.

rylleman · Post by **rylleman** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 1:14 pm

J. Baker wrote: A stripped down (slave) version of AS that can be only used when a master AS sends information, would be best.

This would be really useful! Add my vote for this.

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 5:03 pm

What about the usage of multi-cpu workstations? I have a quadcore and it would be cool to be able to use the four cores at the same time when use the command line render.
-G

The400th · Post by **The400th** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 6:15 am

Genete wrote:What about the usage of multi-cpu workstations? I have a quadcore and it would be cool to be able to use the four cores at the same time when use the command line render.
-G

Could you use virtual machines and have them as nodes on the network?

mkelley · Post by **mkelley** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 8:30 am

Can anyone get batch rendering to work in Windows XP?

I can't -- I tried in both the AA 5.6 directory and the AS 6.0 directory, using both CMD and Command in in neither case does it appear anything happens.

Admittedly it's a little tricky to debug since the Windows verbose command doesn't work, but rather than spin my wheels I just want to know if ANYONE has gotten this to work.

(I already have the interface done for batch processing if I can make it work, but nothing I try makes anything happen).

Manu · Post by **Manu** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 9:37 am

Genete wrote:What about the usage of multi-cpu workstations? I have a quadcore and it would be cool to be able to use the four cores at the same time when use the command line render.
-G

Well, I have been able to multiply the render speed on my quad core machine by almost factor 4 simply by running multiple versions of my batch render app. It's not elegant, you really want one app to do the distributing for you. But it's a good proof of concept exercise.

It makes sense to first use all the local processing power before you go off down the network to find more CPU power with all the delays that networks impose.