Misc Resources

Deborah R. Fowler

Renderfarm Tips

Posted on March 14 2015
Updated March 9 2023

Consider an image:
1920 X 1080 = 2,073,600 pixels
1280 X 721 = 921,600 pixels
720 x 405 = 291,600 pixels

These are all the same aspect ratio (1.77) but going from bottom comparing to middle is 3.16x and going from bottom to top is 7.1x ... so at end of quarter for my classes when the renderfarm is at its peak usage render at 720 x 405 resolution only for submission. You will have the break to render at a higher resolution for your demo reels/quarterlies. (You'll want to re-render anyway based on critique!)

Troubleshooting:

Cannot submit a job because it cannot find your files? Do not have spaces in your folder name

Seeing pink? You are missing textures. Check that you have your textures in your job folder. Check that the paths are relative not absolute!

In houdini it would look something like:

$HIP/tex/kermit.jpg
NOT /home/kermit/mount/projectfolder/tex/kermit.jpg
OR C:/Users/Yourname/projectfolder/tex/kermit.jpg

HIP is a variable that houdini stores your hipnc file location, thus when your retrieve it with $HIP and make your paths relative it does not matter where your project is, it will still be able to find the components such as your subfolder of textures

Using non-standard Font? If you are using Font to generate geometry, you will need to cache it out if you are using a font that is not defined on the farm (linux image)

log file errors? 99.9% of the time, renderfarm problems are the result of user error. First check that your file is rendering without errors via command line render - test a frame. There are instructions on how to do this on the Command Line Rendering section. Ideally you are in your RenderFarm folder on linux and test there, but even testing on Windows will help ensure your file is sound before you render. This is even more important when the farm is in heavy use and you have to wait in queue

Using sidefx labs nodes? They are not on the renderfarm - write out your geo mch like you would with font nodes

Best Practices:

Clean project folders only upload files that are needed. This means only one hipnc for houdini, clean up any files that are not necessary including, textures, versions of geo caches, and in particular backup folders. No extra files as this puts a load on the network in terms of extra copying. Differs for dedicated nodes, but that puts bloat on the shared space. Either way clean!
Optimize your textures! You do not need 4K or even 2K or 1K for an object that is small on your screen. That is going to slow down your processing time (accessing large texture maps cost) as well as impact your memory footprint. Downsize your textures to 512x512 and only for hero objects use higher res. If you are rendering in mantra, rat (random access texture is optimal). Note that Redshift does not understand rat file format
Ensure you use relative paths! Yes I said that above - worth repeating (do a command line test to ensure you have all the pieces in place)
Do not upload multiple versions of geo caches - again worth repeating
Delete unnecessary attributes when filecaching so that your geo folders contain the smallest files possible
Use bgeo.sc and the filecache node for simulations to behave consistently on the renderfarm
Cull to camera - explained on my page on complex scenes
Take advantage of packed geo and/or instancing