frames or buckets??? Where is this in render settings?
protovu
Posts: 194
This below, from the Carrara webpage regarding network rendering, has me flummoxed. I have just gotten Network rendering working, and
would like to experiment with dialing it in. Anyone know where this setting is available?
•Pro - Network Render Optimizations - Enjoy greater control over your render farm as you easily add and remove nodes via your master machine. Render frames or buckets as you choose for greater safeguarding against lost render data
I see and understand tile size.
I could stand a little enlightenment regarding Field Rendering.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
That would pertain to interlaced images. Most things are rapidly moving towards progressive displays, but if you need it to play on tube based monitors or other interlaced displays then you may want to use it. I don't remember which is the dominant field for the US at the moment.
My screen shots show the page number in the Carrara Manual that came with Carrara. I know it's out of date in some areas, but 90% is still relevant.
I use C7.2 Pro. There were some changes to the network render settings to allow for more flexibility in C8, so my screen shots of the Network Render settings would look different than your interface.
Smaller buckets/tiles can help with network renders particularly if you are rendering an animation and you have older or slower computers on the network. The smaller tiles help to reduce the time a slower machine processes a calculation intensive portion of the image.
As to setting how Carrara handles sending frames to the network nodes, I can't speak to that as C7 is limited to having all the nodes work on the same frame as the host.
Thank you , Evil...for the info on field rendering.
But are you saying, or is Carrara indicating somewhere that "buckets" are large tiles? Still seems unclear. The Carrara 8 pro page specifically states, " Render frames or buckets ". To me, that means there is a selection to made somewhere regarding "buckets" or "frames".
Buckets and tiles are one in the same. The term is interchangeable. Frames would be the entire frame.
I have C7.2 Pro and not C8 or later. There were some changes to the network rendering options in C8 that users had asked for. Since I don't have it, I can't really help much, although if you can post a screenshot of the area in the render room with the network options, I may be able to help you puzzle it out. Better yet, someone that uses the network functions in C8.5 may be able to give some definitive instructions.
Going back to the tiles/buckets, the sizes indicated by the adjustment slider, such as 128, 96, etc. are (as I recall) pixels. So 128 is actually 128X128 pixels, and so on.
If you have a scene that has an area with transparency that uses all the shading bells and whistles (for example), such as refraction, absorption, Fresnel, etc. then when the tiles/buckets reach that area of the frame, it will take longer to render those tiles due to the more complicated light calculations. When rendering an animation (at least in C7.2 Pro), the render can only advance to the next frame when all the tiles have rendered in the current frame. This is where a smaller tile size can help, especially with a network render. If you have a large tile, such as 128x128, then only the host and one of its processors, or one network node and one of its processors can work on that particular area, but if you used a smaller tile, it breaks it up and allows multiple processors and render nodes work on it simultaneously, thus evening out the load and speeding up the over-all render.
Where the frames setting may come in, is to tell Carrara that every other (or more?) frames is handled by a node, instead of breaking it down by tiles. This is purely speculation on my part at the moment. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be able to give a better explanation.
Just re-read this post and figured I missed something you said. To find the options for the network rendering, look at my screen capture from the Render room in my first response, select that tab and scroll all the way to the bottom. That is where you should find the network options.
I suppose there may be options in the Preferences, under Render Room, but I think those are just to customize the IP stuff. Since mine works well with the defaults, I haven't messed with them.
Thanks, Evil.
But still, we are not seeing any reference to "frames or buckets". Seems really puzzling to me that the Carrara webpage would explicitly state an option, and then not have that option available. What am I missing here?
Hmmmm..... The options have improved for network rendering have improved in C8.x, but the UI should be very similar...
If you go to the Render room, and then on the top right side of the screen (assuming default layout) click the Rendering tab, then scroll w-a-a-y down to the bottom, under Miscellaneous you don't see the Network render options? It should be below the GI , Caustics and Motion Blur options.
Just spit-balling here, but are you using the Batch Queue to render? Network rendering only works in the Batch Queue, although you should be able to set up the options without the scene loaded into the batch renderer- it just won't use the nodes.
Just a couple screen shots to help.
Remember, I have Carrara 7.2 Pro and in Carrara 8, there were more options added for Network rendering, so your Carrara will look a little different, but the added options should be in the same general area as my more limited options.
The first screen shot is how the Render Room looks when I enter it. Notice I have the Batch Queue tab selected on the lower left side of the screen. The right side of the screen has the render parameters for the scene loaded into the Batch Queue.
The second screen capture is the exact same, except that I have scrolled down to the bottom of the Rendering tab on the right side f the screen to reveal the network rendering options. In my version of Carrara they are listed under Misc. but it is possible they could have changed the heading name. You should have more options than me.
If you can provide a screen shot of what you see, that would help. BTW, all these options are visible on the host machine and not the node, which has a stripped down interface.
Edited to add screen caps- heh! :red:
Hi Evil,
So, by the screen shot, you can see that we have the same render room options. There is nothing below field options. Now, it could be that my build.....the only 8 build that I could get to work with 2 monitors.......even though I paid for and tried to get the later build to work.....and submitted a ticket.....well, it could be that the later build has some option that I am not seeing?
I am going to get a new video card today. Perhaps it will allow me to use the latest build, which may have this option shown somewhere.
I will post results, if so.
Have you clicked the, Manage Rendering Nodes button, just below the Log Network Connections and right above the Field Rendering options? My guess is that will open a window or control panel that will give you access to the stuff you are looking for.
yes, I have. Nothing there regarding buckets or frames. Simply allows one to enable or disable available nodes.
The buckets are the tiles referenced in the slider below the button. The slider sets the bucket/tile size. I'm not sure about the frames thing. Is it possible to post a screen capture of the window that opens when you click the button?
Also, if anybody out there has C8.5 Pro and uses network rendering, we could use a little help here. ;-)
The buckets are the tiles referenced in the slider below the button. The slider sets the bucket/tile size. I'm not sure about the frames thing. Is it possible to post a screen capture of the window that opens when you click the button?
Also, if anybody out there has C8.5 Pro and uses network rendering, we could use a little help here. ;-)
Sorry, still working on the Renders bit, but if I can get a couple of my old computers working and rigged for a local network it is something I would like to do. Any one else who can pitch in please do so, there's more than one person watching with interest !!!!!!!
I don't or haven't tried network rendering but the settings are there in the render room for it including tile size..
Carrara 8.5Pro 64bit
If that helps out any :-(
Is there any mention about rendering frames, or is it just tiles? I want to see what the window looks like when the magic, blue, enticing, button-that-I-don't-have is pressed. ;-)
Okay, maybe that sounded a bit weird....
If I understand the questions, you're asking about buckets, tiles and fields ?
Well buckets and tiles are the same thing. You are basically breaking up your rendered image into bite-sized chunks. You do this if you want, for example, different processors or cores to all work together in parallel to render your image. That makes it go faster. Having a render network is one example, where you can have multiple computers and processors all work on a render together. In Carrara they call them tiles, other software calls them buckets.
Field rendering is a way to render images in the same way that interlaced TV images are designed. It's a way to reduce flicker. You render alternate lines of an image, and then go back and render the in-between lines. But to the human eye you don't see that it's only half an image, cuz your eyes fill in the missing data for that split second.
Frame rendering is to render the entire image at once, which is what you normally do with a Carrara render. You see the entire image, not just alternate lines.
Both settings are available in Carrara under Rendering/Miscellaneous