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Custom Shaders with Distributed Rendering
If you have a renderfarm set up and your scene uses custom shaders, it is
crucial that each machine in the renderfarm uses the same version of each
custom shader.
Although you can install custom shaders on every machine in your
renderfarm, it is quicker and easier to install them into a workgroup path to
which all render slaves are pointing.
The procedure for installing custom shader varies depending on what kind of
render slaves you’re using.
• In an XSI interactive setup, where all of the render slaves have XSI
installed, you can install your custom shaders as part of an add-on.
• Render slaves using the mental ray standalone do not recognize XSI add-
ons, so a few additional steps are required.
Installing Custom Shaders to Workgroups (XSI Interactive Render
Slave Installation)
The best way to ensure that all of your renderfarm machines are using the same
custom shaders is to copy the shaders to a shared workgroup location. The
advantage to using a workgroup location is that the ray3rc file loads workgroup
shaders last, so the render slaves will find and use the custom shaders.
For this approach to work, the following requirements must be met:
• Every render slave’s ray3xsi3_0server service must be logged in using the
same user name and password (see below). Because the workgroup path is
set for the user, every render slave will point to the same workgroup path.
The best thing to do is create a user account specifically for rendering.
This user must have administrative privileges and have access to the
shared workgroup directory.
• The custom shaders must be in a shared directory to which the render user
has access. A good approach is to use a shared directory on a server. XSI
does not have to be installed on the same machine as the shared directory.
To run ray3xsi3_0server as a specific user (Windows systems)
On each render slave where XSI is installed, do the following:
1. Edit the ray3xsi3_0server service’s properties from the Windows
Management Console.
To open the console, right-click the My Computer icon and choose
Manage from the menu. The management console opens, from which you
can select Services and Applications > Services to display a list of services
on your machine.
2. Right-click the ray3xsi3_0server service and choose Properties from
the menu.
3. From the Log On tab, specify that the service should log on using a
particular account.
4. Enter the user name and password for the rendering user account.
5. Close the management console. Log off the render slave and log back on
using the render account’s username and password.
6. Open an XSI command prompt and set the workgroup path using the
following command.
xsi -w workgrouppath
Now, whenever the ray3xsi3_0server is called, it will render under the
specified user and use the workgroup path set for that user.
Make sure to start and exit XSI on each renderfarm machine. This
allows XSI to detect that a new shader has been installed and needs
to be registered. The easiest way is to create an empty “dummy”
scene which you can load from the command line using:
xsibatch -r -scene "dummy.scn".
Alternatively, you can start an XSI interactive session to register the
shader. XSI will prompt you to restart, which indicates that the
shader was registered properly.ഊSetting Up For Distributed Rendering
Setup & Licensing • 81
To Maintain a Custom Shader Workgroup
To keep your distributed rendering setup working smoothly, try using the
following process to test, upload, and update your custom shaders.
1. Create the custom shader locally.
2. Install the shader locally under “user” and test that it works.
3. If the shader works correctly, copy it to the workgroup directory using the
following command:
xsi -i myshader -dest workgroup
4. Start and exit XSI on each renderfarm machine.
This allows XSI to detect that a new shader has been installed and needs to
be registered. The easiest way is to create an empty “dummy” scene which
you can load from the command line using:
xsibatch -r -scene "dummy.scn".
Alternatively, you can start an XSI interactive session to register the
shader. XSI will prompt you to restart, which indicates that the shader was
registered properly.
To Update Shaders in a Custom Shader Workgroup
If you need to update your custom shaders, you can test the updates locally,
backup the shader in the workgroup directory on the server, and promote the
updated shader to the server.
Then restart all machines that use the shared workgroup path twice:
• The first restart registers the shaders.
• The second restart allows the machines to continue to work.
Important: If you are updating shaders in the workgroup directory, make sure
that all of the render slaves have stopped rendering. Otherwise, the shaders
may be locked by one of the slaves and the copy process will fail.
Window systems allow you to run commands according to a
schedule using the “at” command. Using this command with the
“net start” and “net stop” commands lets you specify when the
Ray3xsi3_0 Server service stops and restarts on each render slave.
This makes it easy to create a window of time during which you can
upload and register updated shaders.ഊ82 • SOFTIMAGE|XSI
Chapter 6 • Setting Up For Distributed Rendering
Installing Custom Shaders to Workgroups (mental ray Standalone
Installation)
For render slaves that need to interoperate with the workgroup, the work is
fairly simple.
1. Edit the ray3xsi3_0.bat file and add the following line just before the last
line (the one that calls ray3.exe):
set XSI_WORKGROUP_SHADERPLUGINS=\\SERVER\share\addons
2. On each slave machine, make sure the ray3xsi3_0server .exe service runs
as a user that has access to \\SERVER\share\addons directory
To determine if the mental ray standalone can use a custom shader
correctly, do the following:
1. Open the shader .spdl file and copy the reference guid (bolded in
the example below) at the beginning of the file:
Reference = "{GUID}";
2. Open an XSI command prompt on each machine and do the
following:
-Type: ray3 -verbose on <enter>
This makes ray3 work in “stdin” mode, where you can type in
the mi2 file directly
-Type: $lookup "{GUID}" <enter>
- Press Ctrl + z and then press Enter.
If ray3 has loaded the shader’s .spdl and .dll properly, no errors or
warnings will be reported.
Note: to perform this test, you must have a ray3.exe license.ഊSetting Up For Distributed Rendering
Installing Custom Shaders to the Local Factory Path (XSI
Interactive)
If you want to install a custom shader locally, it is recommended that you use
add-ons.
1. Install your custom shader on a machine using the following command
from the XSI command prompt:
xsi -i blah.spdl
2. Repackage the shader as an add-on. For more information about creating
add-ons, see Chapter 24: Plug-ins and Add-ons in the Fundamentals guide.
3. Install the add-on on each of the machines in the distributed rendering
network using the following command from the XSI command prompt:
xsi -i blah.xsiaddon -dest factory
This installs the add-on in the machine’s Factory path instead of its User path.
4. Using a text editor, edit each machine’s ray3rc file to load factory shaders
last. Locate the following entry and move it to the end of the ray3rc file:
################ load Factory shader plugins registry "{SHADER_PLUGIN_HOME}" value "{XSI_HOME}" end registry $lookup "{SHADER_PLUGIN_HOME}" registry "{LOAD_FACTORY_PLUGINS}" echo "Loading Factory shader plugins" mi "{XSI_HOME}/Addons/shader_plugins.mi" end registry $lookup "{LOAD_FACTORY_PLUGINS}"
Custom Shaders with Distributed Rendering
If you have a renderfarm set up and your scene uses custom shaders, it is
crucial that each machine in the renderfarm uses the same version of each
custom shader.
Although you can install custom shaders on every machine in your
renderfarm, it is quicker and easier to install them into a workgroup path to
which all render slaves are pointing.
The procedure for installing custom shader varies depending on what kind of
render slaves you’re using.
• In an XSI interactive setup, where all of the render slaves have XSI
installed, you can install your custom shaders as part of an add-on.
• Render slaves using the mental ray standalone do not recognize XSI add-
ons, so a few additional steps are required.
Installing Custom Shaders to Workgroups (XSI Interactive Render
Slave Installation)
The best way to ensure that all of your renderfarm machines are using the same
custom shaders is to copy the shaders to a shared workgroup location. The
advantage to using a workgroup location is that the ray3rc file loads workgroup
shaders last, so the render slaves will find and use the custom shaders.
For this approach to work, the following requirements must be met:
• Every render slave’s ray3xsi3_0server service must be logged in using the
same user name and password (see below). Because the workgroup path is
set for the user, every render slave will point to the same workgroup path.
The best thing to do is create a user account specifically for rendering.
This user must have administrative privileges and have access to the
shared workgroup directory.
• The custom shaders must be in a shared directory to which the render user
has access. A good approach is to use a shared directory on a server. XSI
does not have to be installed on the same machine as the shared directory.
To run ray3xsi3_0server as a specific user (Windows systems)
On each render slave where XSI is installed, do the following:
1. Edit the ray3xsi3_0server service’s properties from the Windows
Management Console.
To open the console, right-click the My Computer icon and choose
Manage from the menu. The management console opens, from which you
can select Services and Applications > Services to display a list of services
on your machine.
2. Right-click the ray3xsi3_0server service and choose Properties from
the menu.
3. From the Log On tab, specify that the service should log on using a
particular account.
4. Enter the user name and password for the rendering user account.
5. Close the management console. Log off the render slave and log back on
using the render account’s username and password.
6. Open an XSI command prompt and set the workgroup path using the
following command.
xsi -w workgrouppath
Now, whenever the ray3xsi3_0server is called, it will render under the
specified user and use the workgroup path set for that user.
Make sure to start and exit XSI on each renderfarm machine. This
allows XSI to detect that a new shader has been installed and needs
to be registered. The easiest way is to create an empty “dummy”
scene which you can load from the command line using:
xsibatch -r -scene "dummy.scn".
Alternatively, you can start an XSI interactive session to register the
shader. XSI will prompt you to restart, which indicates that the
shader was registered properly.ഊSetting Up For Distributed Rendering
Setup & Licensing • 81
To Maintain a Custom Shader Workgroup
To keep your distributed rendering setup working smoothly, try using the
following process to test, upload, and update your custom shaders.
1. Create the custom shader locally.
2. Install the shader locally under “user” and test that it works.
3. If the shader works correctly, copy it to the workgroup directory using the
following command:
xsi -i myshader -dest workgroup
4. Start and exit XSI on each renderfarm machine.
This allows XSI to detect that a new shader has been installed and needs to
be registered. The easiest way is to create an empty “dummy” scene which
you can load from the command line using:
xsibatch -r -scene "dummy.scn".
Alternatively, you can start an XSI interactive session to register the
shader. XSI will prompt you to restart, which indicates that the shader was
registered properly.
To Update Shaders in a Custom Shader Workgroup
If you need to update your custom shaders, you can test the updates locally,
backup the shader in the workgroup directory on the server, and promote the
updated shader to the server.
Then restart all machines that use the shared workgroup path twice:
• The first restart registers the shaders.
• The second restart allows the machines to continue to work.
Important: If you are updating shaders in the workgroup directory, make sure
that all of the render slaves have stopped rendering. Otherwise, the shaders
may be locked by one of the slaves and the copy process will fail.
Window systems allow you to run commands according to a
schedule using the “at” command. Using this command with the
“net start” and “net stop” commands lets you specify when the
Ray3xsi3_0 Server service stops and restarts on each render slave.
This makes it easy to create a window of time during which you can
upload and register updated shaders.ഊ82 • SOFTIMAGE|XSI
Chapter 6 • Setting Up For Distributed Rendering
Installing Custom Shaders to Workgroups (mental ray Standalone
Installation)
For render slaves that need to interoperate with the workgroup, the work is
fairly simple.
1. Edit the ray3xsi3_0.bat file and add the following line just before the last
line (the one that calls ray3.exe):
set XSI_WORKGROUP_SHADERPLUGINS=\\SERVER\share\addons
2. On each slave machine, make sure the ray3xsi3_0server .exe service runs
as a user that has access to \\SERVER\share\addons directory
To determine if the mental ray standalone can use a custom shader
correctly, do the following:
1. Open the shader .spdl file and copy the reference guid (bolded in
the example below) at the beginning of the file:
Reference = "{GUID}";
2. Open an XSI command prompt on each machine and do the
following:
-Type: ray3 -verbose on <enter>
This makes ray3 work in “stdin” mode, where you can type in
the mi2 file directly
-Type: $lookup "{GUID}" <enter>
- Press Ctrl + z and then press Enter.
If ray3 has loaded the shader’s .spdl and .dll properly, no errors or
warnings will be reported.
Note: to perform this test, you must have a ray3.exe license.ഊSetting Up For Distributed Rendering
Installing Custom Shaders to the Local Factory Path (XSI
Interactive)
If you want to install a custom shader locally, it is recommended that you use
add-ons.
1. Install your custom shader on a machine using the following command
from the XSI command prompt:
xsi -i blah.spdl
2. Repackage the shader as an add-on. For more information about creating
add-ons, see Chapter 24: Plug-ins and Add-ons in the Fundamentals guide.
3. Install the add-on on each of the machines in the distributed rendering
network using the following command from the XSI command prompt:
xsi -i blah.xsiaddon -dest factory
This installs the add-on in the machine’s Factory path instead of its User path.
4. Using a text editor, edit each machine’s ray3rc file to load factory shaders
last. Locate the following entry and move it to the end of the ray3rc file:
################ load Factory shader plugins registry "{SHADER_PLUGIN_HOME}" value "{XSI_HOME}" end registry $lookup "{SHADER_PLUGIN_HOME}" registry "{LOAD_FACTORY_PLUGINS}" echo "Loading Factory shader plugins" mi "{XSI_HOME}/Addons/shader_plugins.mi" end registry $lookup "{LOAD_FACTORY_PLUGINS}"