Lightnet ain't too shabby!

[DMack]

Good to hear it's working for you. :)

Are you using LW8.5 or 9? Can you switch between the two easily? I'm assuming you're working in a server based set-up? Does it do auto content directory detection? I thought Lightnet hadn't been updated in a long while but maybe I'm wrong??

[PixelInfected]

for me work fine, i use lightnet in my small lan, 4 computer, and i use lw 9.

[CaptRuss]

DMack: Using LW 9 here. Yep, its server based, with heavy heavy security to boot. (Air Force Base) I don't know if its auto selecting content directories, as there is currently only one. I'm a one man department here, so I've had to make things up as I go along.

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be getting some boxes from a department that got upgrades, once drop them all into a rack and KVM them together, we'll see if I can keep this network together.

[cgeveryday]

Lightnet does not auto detect content directories. It is well due for an update, I have a few features in mind, but that all depends on the programmer aye! It works well, and is easy to setup. There are some really good resorces around for it too, like Matt Gorner -
http://www.newtek-europe.com/uk/community/lightwave/gorner/3.html

This dude rocks!

[DMack]

Thanks cgeveryday and CaptRuss,

Good to hear that it is working on a server based set-up. My issue at present with TS is that it's firing up two nodes per cpu/core instead of one. Fine at the start of a render where you can just kill the additional ones but a pain when you want to add nodes half way through a render! So, you've not had anything like that with Lightnet?

cgeveryday - are you involved with the development of Lightnet?

I notice from Joe's site it doesn't state 9 - given that you're using it CapRuss, I am assuming that you can manually add the correct name for the config file?

[cgeveryday]

No probs at all like that with lightnet. We are running the lw9 throughout the farm as well, as yes you just change the config number to 9. That does seem odd starting 2 nodes. The only way lightnet will startup 2 nodes, would be to physically have 2 links with different job/ack numbers. Easy to do but not by accident. what is TS? - Tequila Scream?

[CaptRuss]

Nope, so far nothing runs that I don't want to run.

The one thing that needs to be remembered though, is that you need to kill all the engines assosiated with a node before you shut it down. Not a catastrophe if you don't tho, you just tag those engines as having crashed, and it gets cleaned up. Then you can restart them cleanly.

Adding a node halfway through a render went really smoothly. No problems.

Like CG indicated, there's a box on the options screen for config number. Just put a 9 in there, and now its looking for the LW 9 configs. Easy.


Good Luck!

[DMack]

Thanks, both of you. It sounds like a good system, especially given that it's free! I was considering Mule but there is just that feeling that if LW let's you have unlimited free nodes then paying for them just doesn't seem right! I still think this is an area that Newtek should address as a matter of urgency.

TS, yep, sorry, that's Tequila Scream. It seems weird to me aswell - It just controls screamernet at the end of the day, just like all the other controllers and that requires jobs to be sent as you say. Why two nodes per core are fired up on all the client (nodes started on the server don't seem to do it) machines I just can't grasp.

[CtrlAltDel]

A Post Production owner that i know, he go to NAB regularly.

He was told a story about somekind of US government institution bought these truck-loads of brand new(video, post) equipments, and have someone drive it to the middle of a LasVegas desert, and the driver was instructed to leave the truck there. And they do it every year.

Is it similar to your joint? Do you have to play with all the newest and all the software you need? :)

Sorry about the OOT, just wondering if the story is true
(why would the want these equipments anyway... hmmm... i hope they can use it to enhance the skin tone of those little green guys in area 51)

[VirtualFM]

Hello All!

Is Lightnet still usefull for L9.2? I still used it with L9.0, but with L9.2 it seems to not detect the new cameras. It only works with Classic camera. Is this correct or am I missing something? Thanks!

[cgeveryday]

We just rendered a big job all with the perspective camera and it seemed to run sweet. We simply changed from classic to perspective (so the FOV stayed the same) in order to then make use of the new motion blur. (BTW Thanks for that u guys at Newtek!!) We have never used the settings in the render globals, so your prob could be there maybe?? we just use the classic camera panel. Oh yeah and we are using lightnet v4 as the render manager for that as well as 9.2

Also remember you can edit the files manually, ie you add a new .lws scene and lightnet creates a duplicate but calls it .lns. Take this into a text editor like wordpad or textpad! and search for 'camera' until you find the cameras setting near the bottom. You could save out a couple of diff cam settings scenes and compare the differences so you get the idea of what each of the texted settings do.

I don't know how many times I have needed to do this!

Oh yeah this maybe helpful to someone - I HAD A COUPLE A HUNDRED SCENES AND LIGHTNET WASN'T RENDERING THEM AFTER WE WENT TO 9 OR 9.2 (I can't remember which one, 9.2 I think) SO IN TEXT PAD I COMMENTED OUT THE 'saveanimationname' LINE ie '//saveanimationname' AND THAT WORKED. The way I found that out is when I opened one of these scenes LW would pop up with a requester saying 'the path doesn't exist' and was asking for a new one, so essentially, the same thing would have been happening with the render nodes, except of course we can't see it asking, so they just hung there indefinately.

Anyway i hope that helps someone.

Cheers

CGEveryday

[uncommongrafx]

DMack,
Someone, somewhere set up your TS client to start up two nodes per system. It's easy to fix, though: go into the client and change its number to one. And I forget what the 'old' one looked like as I've been using the newer one Chepe has released in his quest to upgrade TS.
If this is a problem that persists, join his forum, http://www.tequilascream/forum and ask the question. As well, since it sounds like you are using the upgraded one, you might look at joining his beta.

Yes, Lightnet just rocks. For that matter, all of the controllers rock. But the ones that give you node access for all the nodes you have rock the hardest. ;)

Thanks, both of you. It sounds like a good system, especially given that it's free! I was considering Mule but there is just that feeling that if LW let's you have unlimited free nodes then paying for them just doesn't seem right! I still think this is an area that Newtek should address as a matter of urgency.

TS, yep, sorry, that's Tequila Scream. It seems weird to me aswell - It just controls screamernet at the end of the day, just like all the other controllers and that requires jobs to be sent as you say. Why two nodes per core are fired up on all the client (nodes started on the server don't seem to do it) machines I just can't grasp.

[VirtualFM]

(sorry for the late reply, I've been very busy!)

Well, I just checked now with a small scene: just saved two versions, one with classic camera and another with perpective.

The problem that arised was that when rendering the perspective camera I got a bunch (filling the sceeen and going down to the down-right corner) of "Integer Overflow" messages (it kept rendering though).

It seems radom, as sometimes I get several of those messages in a row and then there may be 1-4 seconds without messages, then 4 in a row, etc...

Any ideas?!

[philnolan3d]

Granted you have to pay for it, but I am a big fan of Butterfly Net Render. When I was in school we were using Lightnet, then switched to Butterfly just in time for my class to start network rendering and I ended up buying it to use at home after I graduated.

http://www.liquiddreamsolutions.com/

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