Maya Render Farm - Mental Ray Connection

Rendering from within Maya or batch render with Maya requires the necessary skills in order to achieve the desired result. However, the essence of mental ray in a Maya render farm cannot be overemphasized and if you want to render from within Maya, it is important to install mental ray standalone on all slave machines. However, if you want to render from the command line making use of the standalone renderer, endeavor to install mental ray standalone on all master or slave machines.

The master machine is the one that invokes the parallel network render demand interactively using batch or command line. On the other hand, a slave machine is the individual machine with mental ray standalone on the network that carries out fraction of a parallel network render and sends the notification back to the master. Any machine can be a master, slave or both at the same time once it has a mental ray standalone. The combination of any of the following machines can also be used as masters and slaves; IRIX machine, Windows machine, Linux machine and Mac OS X machine.

Moreover, the mental ray standalone renderer portrays images on multiple machines over a network and the process is called a parallel network rendering. This entails its rendering license and can be invoked even as when working with Maya and from the command line making use of the mental ray standalone renderer. In addition, mental ray for Maya makes use of a file called maya.rayhosts and it is ideal for parallel network rendering.

However, if you want to save time and energy in your rendering pursuit, it is advisable to make use of online render farms. This will ensure that you save cost and have more time to cover other jobs. In fact, 3D Maya graphics can best be rendered using any of these farms and if you are wondering how the output will be, sign up for a trial service. In today's world when technology has improved the way we live our lives, you don't need to set up a big expensive studio before you can get the best CG images. Once you can identify a reliable online rendering service provider, your artistic works will come out distinctly and you will be the envy of your competitors. More importantly, locating a Maya render farm will give you access to 3D graphics which will add value to your works.

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How to Select Hardware Components for Render Nodes

Selecting hardware components for render nodes is highly dependent on the size of your wallet and your desired goal. But if you take the right approach in this regard, the task will be an easy one for you. Here are a few tips for you.

When choosing a processor, a lower-cost dual-core Pentium can give you a very cheap render node with a minimum sacrifice of performance. A dual-core Pentium like the slightly faster Core 2 Duo or the low-end Core 2 Quad are all great options for constructing a node. The amount you are willing to spend matters because this is the single most costly component required for each node. Building a Core i7-based system is going to increase the price of the entire node out of proportion but will also increase its performance.

Moreover, a low-profile 1U heat sink is needed for an equivalent case which is exclusively made to draw air from the front to the back of the machine. The possibility of overlocking the nodes is limited because there is limit to the choice of processor. Since the local drive will only be used for the operating system and applications, you can get a small drive of 80GB. However, if you make use of a drive that has a digital audio workstation, endeavor to use a 320GB or even a 500GB drive.

Furthermore, if you are building many nodes, you will only need to purchase one DVD drive, even if you are building 10 systems. Build your first system, install the operating system with updated software and then use Sysprep to clear the registration number. Then, you can use Norton Ghost 14 or related drive-imaging software to clone the disk for other machines. In addition, each new system will need a unique network name and you will need to enter the Windows license key for every clone machine.

This will save you a lot of time you would have spent in installing the operating system, applications and updates on every machine. In the future if you build additional nodes using the same hardware, it is equally important to clone one extra drive and keep the original as a master drive. The operating system for your nodes should not be different to your operating system, but may not necessarily be identical. Do not consider putting Vista on your nodes so that you don't waste memory and processing power, instead, 64-bit Windows XP is ideal for optimum performance.