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What is a Render Server and when should I use one?

Sue
  • Updated

New from Winner 12.2 is the possibility to do your rendering on a render server, so that less powerful computers can do photorealistic renderings. 

Benefits

  • Reduce costs by reducing time wasted waiting for slow computers to complete renders. Therefore users can work through design variations more quickly.
  • You can save costs on implementing new computers and hardware investment, due to centralising resources on a render server or servers.
  • For virtual environments, there is the ability to load balance render workload, particularly in remote desktop environments that are usually low powered for graphics. Deliver fast high quality renders without upgrading the whole environment.
  • Using dedicated render server(s) users are not left waiting for shared resources, and are not impacted if 1 user is rendering, by having to wait.
  • Using a cluster of render servers can provide much higher performance than can be achieved locally because multiple CPUs can be used across machines.
  • For Winner Flex users - rendering jobs can be sent through the Flex cloud, from any device. For example, if working from home office, a user can send a job to their office render server, and see the result back on their local computer.

 

To make this new feature financially viable for you, you would need to have two or more computers that are unable to produce good quality renders.  This is because to enable the feature you would need to invest in:

  • a Render Server (unless you already have one machine that is powerful enough) - see system specification for this by clicking here.
  • a Render Server license which will then enable an extension to be added to your Compusoft account. For more information, please contact your local Compusoft Sales or Support team via our website.

Render Server system requirements

To get the most out of a Render Server computer, it should have a fast CPU (central processing unit) and a moderate GPU (graphic card). 

  Minimum Recommended
CPU 4/8 core

16/32

(with good single thread performance)
Graphic card 2GB 4GB NVIDIA 20X0
RAM 16GB 32GB
HD

System disk: min 10GB free space +

Separate render disk: 256GB

 Min 100GB free space
OS Windows 10 64 Windows 10 64
.NET runtime 5 5

 

Using a Render Server for rendering

To be able to use the functionality described below, the system administrator must have made sure that a Render Server is running. More information about how to run a Render Server can be read in the article Installation of a Render Server or Render Server Cluster.

 

Using a Render Server with Winner vs Winner Flex

When using a Render Server with Winner legacy (non-Flex), the communication between Winner and the Render Server is done by specifying a Render jobs folder. 

When a Render Server is used by Winner Flex, all communication between Winner Flex and the Render Server is done via the Flex cloud platform and the Winner Flex user does not have to set anything  up.

More information about how to set up a Render Server can be read in the article Installation of a Render Server or Render Server Cluster.

 

Enabling the usage of a Render Server

At Project level:

  1. Click on Project on the menu bar then select Photorealistic manager.
    Or within an Alternative click Alternative on the menu bar then select Photorealistic manager.
  2. Open Render Server settings by clicking on the icon shown below:

    2021-12-03_08h41_15.png

  3. This opens the RenderServer settings.  Depending on the type of Winner used, the RenderServer settings dialogue has a slightly different appearance; because when Winner Flex is used, there is no Render jobs folder to specify.

    Winner Legacy RenderServer settings:

    RenderServerSettings1.png

    Winner Flex RenderServer settings:

    RenderServerSettings2.png

  4. To enable the usage of a Render Server, the Use RenderServer check box must be must be ticked.  Doing this will make the Render Server take care of all file and printing renders. On-screen renders will still be done locally.
    Note: to disable the Render Server untick the Use RenderServer check box

  5. If you also wish to do on-screen renders on the RenderServer, the Use RenderServer for on-screen renderings check box must be ticked.  See On-screen Renders section for more information.

NOTE: Using the Render Server for on-screen renders will introduce a noticeable delay when adjusting the Tonemapper settings (brightness, contrast etc.), so this should only be enabled when the local computer is not capable of doing on-screen renders.

 

On-screen Renders

There is only a limited number of on-screen renderings that can be simultaneously done by the Render Server (the exact number is dependent on the Render Server), so there may be no available Render Servers when the on-screen rendering job is started. Winner can deal with this situation in three different ways:

  • Abort the rendering.
  • Render locally (without asking).
  • Popup a confirmation dialogue before starting to render locally.

In the lower half of the RenderServer settings window, one of these three ways can be selected.

 

Render Server status symbols for on-screen rendering

We have implemented new icons in the perspective view that tells you the status of the Render Server.

  • Green LED
    This means that the render server is available, and the user can do tone mapping changes:

    GreenLED.png
  • Yellow LED
    This means that the render server is working because of a change in the tone mapper settings.

    YellowLED.png
  • Grey LED
    This means that the render server has timed out and that the user can no longer do any changes in the Tonemapper settings (that will affect the current on-screen rendering).

    GreyLED.png

 

The new photorealistic manager window

Once the Use RenderServer is checked, the Photorealistic manager dialogue changes appearance:

 

PhotoRealisticManager.png

 

Current Queue Time

The Render Server works on renders in the order which they are received. This means that if the Render Server already has  a long queue of renders to deal with, any newly added job may take a while before it is started.

The Current queue time on the top of the dialogue will show the estimated time before any new render job starts.

Note: the queue time does not include on-screen render jobs.

Show photo jobs for all users

When this check box is ticked, all render jobs on the Render Server are shown. This can be useful to see the progress and nature of the render jobs of other users in your company. There is a separate User column where the owner of the  job is displayed.

RenderServer information

In this field, the number of active/idle can be seen. Queued (file/printing) and on-screen servers are counted separately. The load (CPU usage) is also shown here.

Note: that when in RenderServer mode, the Priority arrows, that are normally present in the Photorealistic manager, are removed from the dialogue. The reason for this is that render jobs are always handled in the order in which they are received by the  RenderServer. This cannot be changed.

 

The render job list

The list of render jobs appearance has changed when using a Render Server:

RenderJobList.png

  1. Position
    This is the position of the job in the Render Server job queue and will decrease as earlier jobs are finished. If Show photo jobs for all users is not checked, this number can be higher than 1, even if the job is at the top of the list. This is because other (hidden) jobs can be higher on the actual Render Server jobs queue.

  2. Output
    The text in the Output column varies with the type of render job:

    Type of render job Displayed text
    To printer PRINT
    Panorama 360°
    On-screen SCREEN
    Save to file The file name


  3. Status

    This column shows the status and the progress (in %) of the job. The status is either Scheduled (not started yet), Ray tracing (computing the image), Tone mapping (adjusting brightness etc.), Assembling (assembling image parts into one) or Error.

    If the Render Server decides to split the job into parts, the status field will display like the example below:

    [Ray tracing](1/3)

    This indicates that the job is split into 3 smaller jobs and that 1 of 3 sub-jobs is completed.

  4. Time to Start

    Will show the estimated time before the job is started.  This field has not been implemented yet.

  5. Time Left

    Shows the estimated time before this job is finished.

  6. Job size

    Shows the size of the job (both in resolution and in render quality). It gives the user a good  indication on how large a job is (in render time).

  7. View point name

    This is only used for panoramic renderings and shows the name of the viewpoint being rendered.

  8. User
    Shows the name of the user that has started the job.

  9. Server

    Shows the name of the render server that has started the job.

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Installation of a Render Server or Render Server Cluster

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