Cloud rendering

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

In case you're interested in what I'm working on right now.  This is a new engine running on the Microsoft Azure cloud.  Took two hours using a total of 64 cores. (8 x 8-core machines).  Costs about $11.00.

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

Let me know if you decide to try out Azure Batch-- I'll test and make sure my stuff is working and up to date.

[Brandon Eckhart]

nXt isn't on Azure Batch's list of supported applications. Do I need to go through the process of creating a custom pool of virtual machines with nXt installed on them? This is all very new to me, compared to simply clicking the cloud render button in 3ds. Is there a tutorial on how to set this up?

EDIT: haha, you beat me to it. Yes, I was going to try, but I'm not completely sure where to start, as you can tell by my above comment.

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

This only works with the new product "AccuRender Studio" which is available as a WIP.

All you need is an Azure Batch account (which will involve creating an Azure Storage Account as well.)   The last time I went through this exercise it was also necessary to manually ask for more cores then they give you by default (something like 16). 

AccuRender Studio will handle the rest-- it will ask you how many machines of which type you want and will set up the nodes automatically.  You can monitor the progress of a cloud rendering using either the tools provided by me or by Microsoft.  I will test this in the next day or so to make sure it's actually still working-- it's been a few months.  I'll let you know.

No documentation yet-- you'll be the first outside of McNeel to try it if you decide to. 

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

Download link to the new software is here.

EDIT:  Found at least one problem with the azure stuff-- will require an update from me.  Maybe as early as today.

[Brandon Eckhart]

I'm definitely interested in getting this working on my end. We've invested a lot of time into this software and I really don't want to transition to something like REVIT/3ds just for cloud rendering as I consider your software superior in every other way for what we do. We've looked into setting up a render farm, but cloud rendering seems to be a much better solution for us. I really appreciate your help.

Looking through Accurender Studio, at the moment. Trying to figure out how to open what I've done in Accurender/AutoCAD as a scene...

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

Type "netload"-- navigate to Program Files / AccuRender Studio -- and grab the appropriate plugin version-- ArStudioAcadPlugin## for your version of AutoCAD.

Type "arscene" to create the scene file and load AccuRender Studio.  Start with something simple...

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I've got the cloud stuff working again.  Some changes Microsoft made in the previous 6 months were the problem.  I will post an update to AccuRender Studio probably later this afternoon.  The program will notify you of the update when you run it.

More here

[Brandon Eckhart]

Great, thank you! I've got the export working now. I was hoping it would export more of what I'd already set up in nXt. It converted most of my materials to Studio equivalents, which aren't as sophisticated (metals are more reflective, bitmaps are shifted on materials, etc). Was this a failure of the export on my end or just where Studio is currently at as far as development? I really like where Studio is heading and I want to make sure I'm doing things correctly.

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

You're definitely not doing anything wrong.  Make a note of any problems and we'll deal with each of them individually .  There is a new material model and new rendering engine so there may be some differences that will be difficult to reconcile, but we can try.