network rendering...

[ajk48n]

You don't need Lightwave on all the machines. You do need the program LWSN and any drivers it needs. (they're all in the Lightwave Program directory) There are two ways to run LWSN, 1 is through Lightwave in which case one machine has to have Lightwave, and you go to rendering, network rendering. You then start LWSN on the other computer on your network, and from the computer where you have Lightwave running, it should find them all. This also lets you have mutliple scenes batch rendered, with the program distributing frames to whatever computer is available.

The other way to run LWSN is running it on each computer, and you don't need Lightwave to run on any computer. The only thing you do need, is to make sure all the files and any plug-ins you use are able to be seen by all the computers. Read the directions very carefully in the manual to set everything up, it never works the first time.

One bit of advice, is when it says the line with the job and ack files in it that you need to type, you should make sure the folders exist beforehand. For example, it says to type "c:\screamernet\common\job1, c:\screamernet\common\ack1", you must make sure the "common" folder exists before you start. Also, if it doesn't work the first time, and you are running the screamernet through lightwave, try having the command directory be the "common" folder.

The machines can be different speeds, and I'm pretty sure they can be different processors, although I've never tried it.

It's pretty much always going to be worth using it if you already have the computers. That is, once you get Screamernet to work. Don't get frustrated if it takes a couple times to get the processors all to be found.

The manual's way of doing never seems to work the first time, so looking up tutorials on it may help as well. Feel free to ask any more questions.

I hope this made sense.

[rich novak]

that made a lot of sense actually. thanks!

[Sinkywinky]

Could come in handy:
http://www.firedragon.com/~fabio/screamer/screamer.htm

[DarkLight]

Also check out Amleto here Amleto (http://www.rayserver.com) .

Makes the process easier still. Just install the client on the render machines, run the server on your lightwave pc and the clients will download all the LWSN files needed to render automatically. No need for setting up shared drives on your render clients.

[rich novak]

:eek:

right on!!!

thanks!

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