This is the home page for the renderfarm software for Art of Illusion. This software is currently alpha, please test and report back.
This software was written in the first half of 2009 by green circle productions to manage renders across a mixed platform renderfarm. Early versions where known as renderfarm, and references to that name still exist.
0.3
(some) of the issues surrounding large/complex files have been adressed
significantly smaller download size, new install instructions
supports a wider range of plugins, easily update to new plugin versions
0.2
can now render from any camera
fixed problems with rendering 1 too many frames in some instances
added support for relative pathnames
smaller download size
0.1 first release
limited features but it runs
to file a bug or make a suggustion, please email renderfarm at unicornschool dot org. There is still lingering issues with line endings on Linux and Mac platforms, try converting line endings with a text editor. Please report your results to allow us to quash this bug.
Welcome to Workparty, written by Edward Cannon
feel free to use, change and improve but please give credit where credit is due
this software is very much alpha, please do make backups of everything and run behind a (good)
firewall. You have been warned.
Despite the above, this works pretty well for me, and I encourage everyone to try it out.
To use requires editing several files, but no real programing experence. The renderfarm
is designed to render animations--not single frames. All files are saved as png at the moment.
Setting up a server
You will need a server machine with python 2.5 or later installed. Start the webserver.py script found
in the master directory. This serves on port 80, so that should not be blocked or otherwise
in use (Linux users may need to run the script with elevated permissions). The user running the script
should have sufficient privlege to write to the subdirectory upload, as well as the directory
from which you are running the script. a file log.txt will contain a list of files uploaded, and
the directory upload will contain these files.
Setting up a render node
Each node needs java (obviously) and python 2.5 or later installed. Copy your Art of Illusion install
directory into the node directory, renaming it as AOI (note the capitilazation). Edit the config file
for each node and copy the whole node directory to the node machine. Run the node.py script on
each node. After rendering, the script uploads all files in the render subdirectory to the master.
The master is specified as a url (including the http://) in the top of the node.py file. Files are
uploaded by http, so that should be allowed on your node and network.
As a backup against network errors, no rendered files are deleted from the render directory. Because the
node attemps to upload all files from the render directory to the server, this directory should be
manually emptied between each render.
Users are encouraged to make suggustions and (helpfull) comments.
renderfarm (at) unicornschool (dot) org or find me on the friendlyskies aoi forum.
a test aoi file is included as an example.