Rendering on QUBE

 

 

QUBE is a distributed render farm machine at DDA.  It consists of a special computer (in the lab management room) and special software.  It will take your rendering job and divide it up into portions, sending different portions to different machines in our lab.  It intelligently figures out which machines are available for rendering.  The result is that you can render frames much faster than you could otherwise.  Since QUBE is constantly reassessing which machines have the most availability, it is even faster than if you manually break up your rendering into several jobs and start your render jobs on several machines.  In short, use QUBE as much as you can!

 

To use QUBE, follow these steps.

 

  1. All the files used or referenced by your Maya scene file must be accessible to Qube.  The best way to do this is to use the folder structure Maya provides and place your textures and reference files in the appropriate folders.  Also, use Maya’s Render Settings window to select image size, file format, frame range, rendering software, etc. just as you normally do.    When everything is set up, make a copy of your project folder and then in the copy delete any unnecessary files from your project.  (This will be important later because you will  be copying your entire project folder to the QUBE drive later.)   From your cleaned-up project folder, re-open your scene and do a few test renders to make sure Maya is indeed finding all the files it needs to. 

 

  1. If your Maya scene contains any dynamics, the dynamics must be cached.  This is because the distributed rendering will be starting at various frames on various machines, rather than at frame 1.

 

  1. Sit at any of the classroom computers.  They all connect to Qube.  Double-click on the QUBE drive's icon on the desktop.  (If it opens up blank, be patient.  It may take about 5-10 seconds for this to connect to QUBE.)

 

  1. Copy your entire cleaned-up Maya project folder to the QUBE volume.   To repeat:  All the files Maya will need to render must be copied and reside on the QUBE volume.  This includes all your texture files and all referenced assets.  This is why you are copying your entire project.

 

  1. Now you will open QUBE from the classroom Mac you are using.  Do this by clicking on the house icon in the dock, then selecting >Renderfarm >qube

 

  1. Inside Qube, from the top menu bar, choose >Submit >Maya job....

 

  1. Make the following entries:  (If an entry is not listed below, you don't need to fill it out.)

 

a)     Name:  a name for your job – for example, ORourke1

b)     Priority: 9999 Leave this unchanged.  All jobs should have this same priority.

c)     CPUs:  5  is a good number.  This is the number of machines your job will attempt to use.  Too many causes problems; too few will not go as fast as it could.

d)     Range: Here you must type in the range of frames you want to render – even though you already specified it in Maya's Render Settings.  The range you set here will override the range you set in the Render Settings.

e)     Under Scenes and Directories:

                                                    i.     Scenefile:  Browse to select the scene file you want to render.  Make sure you select the scene file that you copied to the QUBE volume.   To do that, browse to the Desktop, then to Qube, etc.

                                                   ii.     Project dir:  Browse to select your Maya project, again on the QUBE volume.

 

f)       Under Renderer:

                                                    i.     Renderer: Choose from the pulldown menu -- Maya software, Mental Ray, etc.

                                                   ii.     Render Threads:  Change this to 1.  This is the number of “threads” within each machine that your job will attempt to use.  (Think of a thread as a part of a program that can run independently of another part of that program.)  If Threads is more than 1,  Qube may reject some machines, because more than 1 thread is not available.  This would slow down your job.

                                                  iii.     Maya Executable: Type or paste: /Applications/Autodesk/maya2009/Maya.app/Contents/bin/maya

 

g)     Under Image File Output:

                                                    i.     Render dir:  Browse to select the folder within your project on the QUBE volume that you want the frames to be stored in.  Usually this is your images folder.

h)     Groups:  Browse and select the room you want to use for rendering.  Select only one room  (so others can use other rooms).

i)       (Optionally, you can also change other settings inside Qube to override your Render Settings settings – for example, image size, renderer, etc.  Normally, you don’t.)

 

8.      Click Submit.  If QUBE is fully occupied with rendering other people’s jobs, your job will be put on the queue and it will list as "Pending"; it will start as soon as there are machines available.  If QUBE is not fully occupied with others’ jobs, your job will start immediately.

 

9.      To check on the status of your job, click on the line that contains your job ID, then at the top of the Qube window click Refresh.  If your job is finished it will say “Complete”.

 

10.   When your job is finished rendering:

 

a)     Go the the folder on the QUBE volume where you stored your frames.  Check a few frames to see if they look right.

b)     Copy your rendered frames from the QUBE volume to your own disk or storage.

c)     Delete your entire Maya project from the QUBE volume.