RenderNodes 8.5 Pro & Yosemite question
deadspeak
Posts: 28
Question, any OS 10.10 users having problems getting 8.5 render nodes to connect via network? Both my macs connect through (connect to server) no issues, but in RN manager I cannot see the client CU. I had nodes setup before with current client CU & older G4, everything worked. Got newer Intel CU running 10.10, updated OS on client to 10.10 not able to connect. Contacted DAZ help desk their exact words were:
"The Render node system is currently broken in the 10.10 version of OSX. Because of the security changes to Mac User Account Control render node cannot make connection. We are aware of the issue and there could be a fix in the future.
Sorry for the inconvenience”.
So just trying to find out if anyone has been able to get working nodes.
Thanks!
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I hope you get an answer. Do you know what the security changes were? Is there something turned on or off in the latest version of OS X?
I hope so too. I've been going through system prefs, but I can't find anything about Mac User Account control. Will do a web search & see what comes up. Thanks
I have render nodes working wirelessly (WiFi) under 10.10. I have not tried a wired connection in a long time; last time I did it didn't work if I recall.
10.9 (Mavericks) actually broke render nodes. I contacted help and they took forever to reply / update my case and nothing happened; honestly I almost lost all patience with them. Then Apple released 10.10 (Yosemite) and the node started working again. (I was so eager that I signed up for the beta primarily just to test this, and to see how bad the new design had become). I hate Yosemite but I upgraded all my machines to it just to have render nodes work.
Have you tried wifi?
Have both machines on, with Carrara not launched.
On B, launch render node.
On A, launch Carrara (main).
In Render Room, load your file into the batch list. Select Enable Network Rendering. Stop!
I often get an error message on Machine B that needs clicking to proceed. Click that and then continue on machine A. If you don't click it you have to start over.
Hi thanks for the reply, yes there is connection over WIFI but, it is slow! I might as well use a single computer to do all the rendering, I don't get it. If Carrara & nodes can connect through wifi, why not over a CAT 5 cable?
Thanks
I don't know about cables... maybe somebody else can help.
About being slow: depending on the file you are rendering, it can seem slow at first; I thought it wasn't working. After letting it do its thing for a while and having now run quite a few renders, I can say this: The main computer starts thinking, then rendering; then everything gets sent to the node machine, which again has to think and then start rendering. Once the initial thinking is complete, things speed up considerably.
By "thinking" I mean the machine is calculating lighting and such; depending on your machines and scene, this could take a while. Personally, I don't go for realistic lighting and tend to have rather simple scenes, just long animations, so the initial thinking step is usually not that long. I have, however, rendered a Howie Fawkes scene or two with realistic lighting turned on and they can take a long time get going. But they are worth the wait!
If you watch the Activity monitor, the "thinking" is actually Carrara loading the scene. The geometry is all stored in the scene file, even for locally saved scenes and externally saved scenes. A couple DAZ characters can really increase a scene's size, even excluding image maps.
Also, if you watch the network, once the scene begin to load on the node, it will, at some point during the load process, call for any image maps you may have used, and then those will be transferred from the host. I have confirmed this by watching the network and watching the temp folder in node become populated with image maps.
The main machine may have a delay in sending the data to the nodes once it has loaded the scene, but in my experience it is sending data even when it is calculating the lighting (if GI is used).
Ok I'll try wifi one more time. I'am not expecting a lot though, using M4 characters, realistic lights & particle emitters in one scene. Will let you know how this works out.
Thanks.
Give it some time to think.
Once it starts rendering, check occasionally to see if things are getting hot. My Mac mini whirs pretty loudly after only about ten minutes or so of rendering. The iMac and Mac Pro are silent for hours.
Good luck. I hope it works.
Just a note, you might want to test a smaller, or shorter scene as opposed to going all out on the first go.
Hi this is where I'am right now. I have set all nodes & Carrara on main CU Prefs to auto in Render room. The interesting thing is, with this setup before I could not see the nodes connected via CAT5 cable. Now I can. In manage render nodes window I can see everything wifi & hardwire great, but when I launch only Local Host renders, it does not use the network!? I have tried this with short renders with not a lot going on, to really intense & always the same results only local host renders. Everything says available but nothing happens across the network. I don't get it, is there some way I can configure Carrara to use only the network? I guess that would mean setting everything back to manual, but that doesn't work either... I would contact DAZ help but.....
I'am giving up here, there is only so much time I can waist on this
I wish I could help test this with you, but my other Macs are to old to run the latest version of Carrara or its nodes.
Is there anything on an OS level that you've tried, such as futzing around with the security settings or network port settings?
Quick question: are you by chance using target display mode or screen sharing to control your sub machine? I have found that those don't work too well with render node.
I will be able to try things out a bit later.
I just updated to the latest version of Carrara using DIM. Also Mac OS is up to date.
I'm going to walk through this again as this is what I just did on my machines and it works. It was the result of a lot of frustrating trial and error.
Make sure Carrara/Render node are not running on your machines; if they are, quit them. I have sometimes had Carrara running and then started the render node only to have things not work. It took me a bit of trial and error to get a functioning, consistent work-flow.
2nd machine: launch render node (make sure you are using 64-bit)
Main machine:
> launch Carrara app (64-bit)
> go to Render Room
> Batch Queue
> Add File and load your file
> Click Enable Network Rendering
> Click Manage Rendering Nodes
An alert pops up on both of my machines: click OK to allow incoming messages. Click on the 2nd machine first, then the main; the other way around can cause things to fail.
You should see the machines listed.
Now click LAUNCH to start the render. Are you clicking Launch? Just Cmd-R will not engage the nodes.
Does this work?
Okay this is where I'm at right now, I have downloaded the latest update of Carrara through DIM. Yes I am launching nodes first then I open Carrera on main computer and I go through the steps as you have them listed but I do not get any incoming messages on either computer. I do click (Launch), in progress/stats tab, it shows client & local host working.
It renders but only on Wi-Fi, hardwire still does not work.
I also have a node on the master computer that I'm trying to get it to use but no go with that node. It is still using local host on the master computer to render. I am fine with this set up as it is right now it's better than nothing, I still think I got faster renders using the hardwire, I hope this is something that DAZ fixes in the future.
Evil, yes i'am going to try going through Sharing in SYS Prefs & make some changes just to see what happens. I think there might be something in there that is blocking communication.
Persona, Evil thanks, I will post what ever happens next.
The nodes only work on client machines. The host machine runs the main Carrara application. You may have both open at once, but it won't see the node.