Mastering LW ScreamerNet

1 2 3 4 5 6 [7] 8 9

Basic network rendering with ScreamerNet enables you to harness your entire network of powerful Macintosh computers to render your LightWave scenes much faster than would be possible on a single machine. Network rendering with ScreamerNet is almost exactly the same as batch rendering, described previously, which you should review before proceeding with the following network tutorial. The only difference between network and batch rendering is that some of the ScreamerNet nodes run on additional Macs on your network, rather than all on a single machine.

• Setting up the Mac OS X Network for Rendering
  • Preparing the Hard Drives for Basic Network Rendering
  • Sharing the Host Machine on the Network
  • Mounting the Host Machine from the Render Machines
• Step-by-step Mac LWSN PPC Basic Network Rendering Example
  • Setting up the Host PPC Config File
  • Setting up the Scenes for LWSN PPC Batch/Network Rendering
  • Setting up the LWSN PPC Nodes and cmdLine Files
  • Launching the LWSN PPC Nodes on the Remote Rendering Machines
  • Rendering the Network Batch with LightWave PPC’s Built-in Controller
• Step-by-step Mac ScreamerNet UB Basic Network Rendering Example
  • Setting up the Host UB Config File
  • Setting up the Scenes for ScreamerNet UB Batch/Network Rendering
  • Mounting the Host Machine from the Remote Rendering Machines
  • Interactively Launching the ScreamerNet UB Nodes with
    DreamLight SNUB-Launcher
  • Manually Launching the ScreamerNet UB Nodes on the Remote Machines
  • Rendering the Network Batch with LightWave UB’s Built-in Controller

Setting up the Mac OS X Network for Rendering

In order to perform network rendering, you’ll obviously need a functioning network. This tutorial assumes that you have at least a basic peer-to-peer Mac OS X network already up and running which allows you to connect from one Mac to another to share files. You don’t need Mac OS X Server (unless you need to network more than ten Macs), any version of Mac OS X is capable of peer-to-peer networking. If you don’t already have a physical network, you’ll first need to set one up. You can find information about setting up a Mac OS X network with this Google search.

This tutorial was written using Mac OS X.4.9 running on a 100 Base-T Ethernet network and LightWave 9.3. Other versions of Mac OS X and/or LightWave may be slightly different, but the basic concepts will remain the same...

There was a bug in Mac OS X.2.6 that sometimes prevented more than four LWSN instances from sharing the same dynamic loading libraries and/or plug-ins successfully over the network. The symptoms were that the fifth and higher LWSN nodes sometimes crashed on launch (warning about missing various libraries that weren’t really missing), or crashed when loading a scene. This bug appears to be partially fixed in Mac OS X.2.8, though I have still seen nodes higher than four sometimes crash on loading scenes, fail to save frames and fail to load textures. This bug appears to have been fixed in Mac OS X.3.3 and later. However, for best results with more than four LWSN nodes, I still prefer to install separate copies of ScreamerNet, shared libraries and all plug-ins on each remote rendering machine as outlined later in Advanced Network Rendering with LWSN Mac.

Preparing the Hard Drives for Basic Network Rendering

The simplest way to set up network rendering on Mac OS X entails logging into the host machine (the Mac with the LightWave applications and possibly the Content Directory) as the same administrative user from each remote network machine. Then running the ScreamerNet nodes on the remote rendering machines, from the host machine across the network. This way there is only one set of configs, programs, shared libraries and plug-ins. As the host machine’s administrator you then have full read/write access to everything you need on the host machine. You’ll be logging into the host machine from each remote rendering machine and mounting the host machine’s main hard drive on the desktop of each render machine. This means that all your hard drives must have unique names, or LightWave won’t know which hard drive to access, the local drive or the remote drive.

Therefore, the first step to set up your network for rendering is to simply give a unique name to each hard drive on each machine you wish to use as either a host or render machine. If they don’t already have unique names that is. For example you could name the main hard drives for each machine as follows: HostHD, Render01HD, Render02HD, Render03HD or anything else that keeps each hard drive name unique.

Sharing the Host Machine on the Network

The next step in setting up your network rendering is to make sure the host machine, which contains your LightWave applications and Content Directory, is available on the network for the other remote rendering machines to log into.

Simply follow these steps to verify that your host machine is available:

1. Launch System Preferences from the Apple menu or the Dock.
2. Click the Sharing icon under Internet & Network.
3. Click the Services tab.
4. Select Personal File Sharing and click the Start button, if it’s not already on.
   
5. Click the Firewall tab and click Start if the firewall was not already on. This helps keep your Mac secure.
   
6. In some cases, such as if you’re running any older Mac OS 9 systems as render nodes (with LWSN 7.5), it may also be necessary to activate AppleTalk.
   1. Click the Network icon at the top or under Internet & Network.
   2. Select Built-in Ethernet on the Show: pop-up menu.
   3. Click the AppleTalk tab.
   4. Turn on the Make AppleTalk Active checkmark.

Mounting the Host Machine from the Render Machines

Now you need to mount the host machine’s main hard drive onto the desktop of each of the remote render machines. Simply follow these steps on each remote rendering machine:

1. In any Finder window, click the Network icon.
2. Locate and select the host machine on the network, it may show up directly or you may need to open a subgroup depending upon how your network is configured.
3. Once the host machine is selected, click the Connect button.
   
4. When the log-in screen appears click the Registered User button. Guest access won’t work in this instance since you wouldn’t have sufficient read/write privileges.
5. Enter the username and password of the main administrative user of the host machine, not necessarily the remote rendering machine, unless they are the same. You must log into the host as the host administrator to mount the host machine’s main hard drive. Click the Connect button when ready.
6. You’ll now get a dialog box showing all available home directories as well as all hard drives connected to the host computer. Select the main hard drive of the host computer where your LightWave applications and Content Directory are located. Click OK and the hard drive will be mounted on the desktop of the remote rending node.

Step-by-step Mac LWSN PPC Basic Network Rendering Example

Here’s a step-by-step example of how to perform basic network rendering of included LightWave sample scenes using LWSN PPC in network render mode (-2) on the host Macintosh with the built-in Network Rendering controller. This example uses four LWSN instances running on two Dual Core or Dual Processor remote Macs. One instance of LWSN is run for each available CPU. A third Macintosh host machine is left free to handle the network controller. For best results with more than four ScreamerNet nodes, I prefer to use the Advanced Network Rendering with Mac ScreamerNet setup described later.

Setting up the Host PPC Config File

In this example we will use the default Mac OS X LWSN PPC config file location of: HostHD:Users:adminUserName:Library:Preferences
For more information see Managing LightWave’s All Important Config Files.

1. On the host Mac launch Applications:NewTek:LightWave 3D 9.3:Layout.
2. Set the Content Directory with Edit->Set Content Directory...
   Navigate to and select: HostHD:Users:adminUsername:Documents:LW9Content
This assumes you have installed the LightWave 9 included content directory to your user’s Documents folder and have named it LW9Content. See Content Directory for more info.
3. Open the Render->Utilities->Network Render panel.
4. Click the Command Directory button.
   See Command Directory for more information.
   
5. Navigate to the same Content directory you set in step #2.
6. Click New Folder to create a new folder in the Content directory and name it Commands.
7. While inside the Commands folder, click the Choose button to close the dialog and accept the new command directory.
8. When asked to initialize ScreamerNet, click No. (We just want to save a new config.)
9. Set the Maximum CPU Number to 4. This tells the controller how many nodes to look for.
10. Open Render->Options->Render Globals and set the Segment Memory Limit to 32.
    See Default Segment Memory for more information.
    
11. Click yes when asked if this should be the new default setting, or it won’t be saved.
12. Click the Render tab and set Multithreading to 1 Thread. We want each node to only use one thread each. See Multithreading for more information.
    
13. Quit LightWave to save the config file.

Setting up the Scenes for LWSN PPC Batch/Network Rendering

For more information see Successful Scene File Preparation for ScreamerNet.

NOTE: As of LW9.3, Mac UB output paths saved in a scene file are not compatible with LWSN 9.3 PPC. This means you must set the output path using LightWave 9.3 PPC rather than Layout 9.3 UB.

1. Launch Applications:NewTek:LightWave 3D 9.3:Layout.
2. Use File->Load->Load Scene... to load: :Scenes:Cel_Shade:Drunk_Zombie.lws
   1. Open Render->Options->Render Globals.
   2. Set the following render range fields:
      • Render First Frame: 100
      • Render Last Frame: 200
      • Render Frame Step: 10
   3. Click the Output tab.
   4. Click the RGB Files button.
      
   5. Type Drunk_Zombie in the Save As: field.
   6. Navigate to the top level of the Content Directory, LW9Content.
   7. Navigate to the Renders folder if it already exists, otherwise create a New Folder in the top level of the Content Directory named Renders.
   8. Create a New Folder named Drunk_Zombie_Renders.
   9. Click the Save button to dismiss the dialog and accept the changes.
   10. Set the RGB Type pop-up menu to LW_TGA24(.tga)
   11. The RGB readout should now read Drunk_Zombie0001.tga, ...
   12. Save the scene.
3. Use File->Load->Load Scene... to load: :Scenes:Expressions:BigWheel.lws
   1. Open Render->Options->Render Globals
   2. Set the following render range fields:
      • Render First Frame: 30
      • Render Last Frame: 60
      • Render Frame Step: 2
   3. Click the Output tab.
   4. Click the RGB Files button.
   5. Type BigWheel in the Save As: field.
   6. Navigate to the Renders folder inside the Content Directory.
   7. Create a New Folder named BigWheelRenders.
   8. Click the Save button to dismiss the dialog and accept the changes.
   9. Set the RGB Type pop-up menu to LW_TGA24(.tga)
   10. The RGB readout should now read BigWheel0001.tga, ...
   11. Save the scene.
4. Quit LightWave

Setting up the LWSN PPC Nodes and cmdLine Files

For more information see Utilizing LightWave’s Mac Command Line Parameters.

1. Open the directory
HostHD:Applications:NewTek:LightWave 3D 9.3:Layout:Programs
   and locate the LWSN application.
2. Make four copies of LWSN and name them LWSN-01 throughLWSN-04, with no file extension.
   
3. Make one copy of the file LWSN cmdLine and name it LWSN-01 cmdLine, with no file extension.
4. Edit the LWSN-01 cmdLine file’s contents to read, all on one line:
   -2 -c"HostHD:Users:adminUserName:Library:Preferences" ":Commands:job1" ":Commands:ack1"
Note: you need to specify the path to the config directory on the Host machine, since each remote LWSN node will be using the same config file over the network.
5. Save the cmdLine file, making sure no file extension is added to the filename.
6. Duplicate the LWSN-01 cmdLine file three times and name them LWSN-02 cmdLine, LWSN-03 cmdLine, and LWSN-04 cmdLine.
7. Edit each of the the LWSN cmdLine file’s contents by changing the job and ack number to match the file name’s number, as follows:
   
   LWSN-02 cmdLine contents:
-2 -c"HostHD:Users:adminUserName:Library:Preferences" ":Commands:job2" ":Commands:ack2"

LWSN-03 cmdLine contents:
-2 -c"HostHD:Users:adminUserName:Library:Preferences" ":Commands:job3" ":Commands:ack3"

LWSN-04 cmdLine contents:
-2 -c"HostHD:Users:adminUserName:Library:Preferences" ":Commands:job4" ":Commands:ack4"

8. Save each cmdLine file, making sure no file extension is added to the filename.

Launching the LWSN PPC Nodes on the Remote Rendering Machines

For additional information review Sharing the Host Machine & Mounting the Host Machine from the Render Machines.

1. On each of the remote Macs, in any Finder window, click the Network icon.
   
2. Select and Connect to the host machine on the network.
3. Log into the host machine as the main administrative user of the host machine.
4. Select the host machine’s main hard drive to mount it on the remote desktop.
5. Open the host machine’s folder:
HostHD:Applications:NewTek:LightWave 3D 9.3:Layout:Programs
6. Launch the next two available LWSN-0# nodes, one at a time, on each dual processor remote machine as follows.
   • Remote Render Machine 01: LWSN-01 & LWSN-02
   • Remote Render Machine 02: LWSN-03 & LWSN-04

Rendering the Network Batch with LightWave PPC’s Built-in Controller

For more information see Using LightWave’s Built-in Network Rendering Controller.

1. On the host Mac, launch Applications:NewTek:LightWave 3D 9.3:Layout
2. Open the Render->Utilities->Network Render panel.
3. Verify that the Maximum CPU Number is set to 4.
4. Click the Screamer Init button.
5. Click OK when the dialog appears stating: 4 available ScreamerNet CPUs were detected. You should now see all LWSN nodes repeatedly writing LightWave command: wait. and sendack: Ready to the console. You’ll also see four CPU’s of type PowerMac listed in the Network Rendering panel with a status of Ready.
6. Click the Add Scene to List button and add the scene: :Scenes:Cel_Shade:Drunk_Zombie.lws
7. Click the Add Scene to List button again and add the scene: :Scenes:Expressions:BigWheel.lws

8. Hit the Screamer Render button and the LWSN nodes will begin rendering frames.
9. As each frame is finished, it will be written to the output directory that was set in each scene. :Renders:Drunk_Zombie_Renders & :Renders:BigWheelRenders
10. If you wish to stop the rendering before it is finished, press the Escape key while the Network Rendering panel is in the foreground, then hit the Screamer Shutdown button. This will stop rendering new frames and will quit the LWSN nodes once they finish rendering their current frame. If a LWSN node crashes during loading a scene, the Network Rendering panel may remain waiting for the scene to load and may not recover. In such an instance you can force Quit LightWave with Command-Option-Esc. To quit a LWSN node before it finishes rendering a frame, bring it to the foreground and press command-period. If you try to quit LWSN 7.5 using the menu LWSN->Quit or by typing command-q, it will crash. This bug has been fixed in LWSN 8.0 and beyond.

Step-by-step Mac ScreamerNet UB Basic Network Rendering Example

Here’s a step-by-step example of how to perform basic network rendering of included LightWave sample scenes using ScreamerNet UB in network render mode (-2) on the host Macintosh with the built-in Network Rendering controller. This example uses four ScreamerNet instances running on two Dual Core or Dual Processor remote Macs. One instance of ScreamerNet is run for each available core/CPU. A third Macintosh host machine is left free to handle the network controller. For best results with more than four ScreamerNet nodes, I prefer to use the Advanced Network Rendering with Mac ScreamerNet UB setup described later.

Setting up the Host UB Config File

In this example we will use the default Mac OS X ScreamerNet UB config file location of: /Users/adminUserName/Library/Preferences/LightWave3D
All our render nodes will access the same programs and config files via the network.

For more information about the config files see Managing LightWave’s All Important Config Files.

1. On the host Mac launch /Applications/LightWave3D 9/Layout.
2. Set the Content Directory with Edit->Set Content Directory...
   Navigate to and select: /Users/adminUsername/Documents/LW9Content
[Prior to this you must install the LightWave 9 included content directory to your user’s Documents folder and have named it LW9Content.] See Content Directory for more info.
3. Open the Render->Utilities->Network Render panel.
4. Click the Command Directory button.
   See Command Directory for more information.
   
5. Navigate to the same Content directory you set in step #2.
6. Click New Folder to create a new folder in the Content directory and name it Commands.
7. While inside the Commands folder, click the Choose button to close the dialog and accept the new command directory.
8. When asked to initialize ScreamerNet, click No. (We just want to save a new config.)
9. Set the Maximum CPU Number to 4. This tells the controller how many nodes to look for.
10. Open Render->Options->Render Globals and set the Segment Memory Limit to 32.
    See Default Segment Memory for more information.
    
11. Click yes when asked if this should be the new default setting, or it won’t be saved in the config.
12. Click the Render tab and set Multithreading to 1 Thread. We want each render node to only use one thread each. See Multithreading for more information.
    
13. Quit LightWave to save the config file.

Setting up the Scenes for ScreamerNet UB Batch/Network Rendering

For more information see Successful Scene File Preparation for ScreamerNet.

NOTE: As of LW9.3, Mac PPC output paths saved in a scene file are not compatible with ScreamerNet 9.3 UB. Also, LW9.3 UB fails to record the volume information in the output path if the output directory is on the host Mac's internal system drive. This means you must manually edit the output path in the scene file if you wish to have the output directory on the main system drive of the host machine. If the output path is on an external hard drive, then the proper volume information will be recorded in the output path. This is another reason that I prefer to use the Advanced Network Rendering with Mac ScreamerNet UB setup described later since the third party controllers can remap the output paths correctly.

1. Launch /Applications/LightWave3D 9/Layout.
2. Use File->Load->Load Scene... to load: Scenes/Cel_Shade/Drunk_Zombie.lws
   1. Open Render->Options->Render Globals.
   2. Set the following render range fields:
      • Render First Frame: 100
      • Render Last Frame: 200
      • Render Frame Step: 10
   3. Click the Output tab.
   4. Click the RGB Files button.
      
   5. Type Drunk_Zombie in the Save As: field.
   6. Navigate to the top level of the Content Directory, LW9Content.
   7. Navigate to the Renders folder if it already exists, otherwise create a New Folder in the top level of the Content Directory named Renders.
   8. Create a New Folder named Drunk_Zombie.
   9. Click the Save button to dismiss the dialog and accept the changes.
   10. Set the RGB Type pop-up menu to LW_TGA24(.tga)
   11. The RGB readout should now read Drunk_Zombie0001.tga, ...
   12. Save the scene.
   13. Open the Drunk_Zombie.lws scene file with /Applications/TextEdit.
   14. Type Command-F to open the find dialog.
   15. Type or paste SaveRGBImagesPrefix into the find field and click on the Next button.
   16. This will bring you to a line in the scene file that looks like this (all on one line):
       SaveRGBImagesPrefix /Users/adminUserName/Documents/
LW9Content/Renders/Drunk_Zombie/Drunk_Zombie
   17. Click immediately in front of the first forward slash /Users, after the space.
   18. Type or paste the following (replacing HostHD with the real name of your host Mac's HD) onto the front of the path immediately before /Users:
       /Volumes/HostHD
   19. Save the scene file.
3. Use File->Load->Load Scene... to load: Scenes/Expressions/BigWheel.lws
   1. Open Render->Options->Render Globals
   2. Set the following render range fields:
      • Render First Frame: 30
      • Render Last Frame: 60
      • Render Frame Step: 2
   3. Click the Output tab.
   4. Click the RGB Files button.
   5. Type BigWheel in the Save As: field.
   6. Navigate to the Renders folder inside the Content Directory.
   7. Create a New Folder named BigWheel.
   8. Click the Save button to dismiss the dialog and accept the changes.
   9. Set the RGB Type pop-up menu to LW_TGA24(.tga)
   10. The RGB readout should now read BigWheel0001.tga, ...
   11. Save the scene.
   12. Open the BigWheel.lws scene file with /Applications/TextEdit.
   13. Type Command-F to open the find dialog.
   14. Type or paste SaveRGBImagesPrefix into the find field and click on the Next button.
   15. This will bring you to a line in the scene file that looks like this (all on one line):
       SaveRGBImagesPrefix /Users/adminUserName/Documents/
LW9Content/Renders/BigWheel/BigWheel
   16. Click immediately in front of the first forward slash /Users, after the space.
   17. Type or paste the following (replacing HostHD with the real name of your host Mac's HD) onto the front of the path immediately before /Users:
       /Volumes/HostHD
   18. Save the scene file.
4. Quit LightWave

Mounting the Host Machine from the Remote Rendering Machines

For additional information review Sharing the Host Machine & Mounting the Host Machine from the Render Machines.

1. On each remote Mac, in any Finder window, click the Network icon.
   
2. Select and Connect to the host machine on the network.
3. Log into the host machine as the main administrative user of the host machine.
4. Select the host machine’s main hard drive to mount it on the remote desktop.

Interactively Launching the ScreamerNet UB Nodes with DreamLight SNUB-Launcher

After going through the tedious process of manually launching the individual ScreamerNet UB nodes, I decided there should be a better way, so I made one. I wrote an XCode Aqua GUI front end to configure and launch ScreamerNet UB nodes in a much easier and far less error prone manner. This utility is called DLI_SNUB-Launcher. The following steps will show you how to use DLI_SNUB-Launcher to more easily set up and launch your ScreamerNet UB nodes. You may use the FREE LITE Version. of DLI_SNUB-Launcher for this tutorial. If you find DLI_SNUB-Launcher as useful as I do, you may register for a FULL or PRO serial number later.

1. Download your free lite version of DLI_SNUB-Launcher to your host Mac by right clicking on the link below and selecting Save Linked File from the pop-up menu.

DLI_SNUB-Launcher.zip

2. After downloading the DLI_SNUB-Launcher.zip file, unzip the file by double-clicking it.
3. Drag the expanded DLI_SNUB-Launcher to the /Applications/LightWave3D 9 folder on the host Mac.

You may run the DLI_SNUB-Launcher application from any location you wish, but if you place it in your LightWave3D folder, it will be able to find ScreamerNet by itself. DLI_SNUB-Launcher defaults to look for ScreamerNet in the same folder as the DLI_SNUB-Launcher application. If you ever wish to uninstall it, simply drag DLI_SNUB-Launcher to the trash.

1. On each dual processor remote rendering Mac access and run /Volumes/HostHD/Applications/LightWave3D 9/DLI_SNUB-Launcher, across the network from the host Mac and configure it to use all host paths as follows:

• Click the ScreamerNet Path button and choose the Host Mac’s ScreamerNet Path: /Volumes/HostHD/Applications/LightWave3D 9/ScreamerNet
• Click the -c Config Folder button and choose the following host config folder: /Volumes/HostHD/Users/userx/Library/Preferences/LightWave3D
• Activate (using the check mark at the left) then click the -d Content Folder button and choose the /Volumes/HostHD/Users/userx/Documents/LW9Content folder.
• On the bottom Batch Render Settings drawer click the Command Folder button and choose the /Volumes/HostHD/Users/userx/Documents/LW9Content/Commands folder. (Use the New Folder button to create a Commands folder inside the LW9Content volume/folder if you haven’t already.)
• On each of the two dual processor remote Macs set the node numbers as follows:
• Remote Render Machine 01: First Node # 1 Through Last Node # 2
• Remote Render Machine 02: First Node # 3 Through Last Node # 4
• Click the Launch ScreamerNetUB Nodes button on each remote Mac.

2. Now that all your ScreamerNet nodes are up and running skip ahead to the Rendering the Network Batch with LightWave UB’s Built-in Controller.

Manually Launching the ScreamerNet UB Nodes on the Remote Machines

Another way to configure and launch the ScreamerNet UB nodes is to manually build the command lines necessary to launch it in Terminal. For a much easier and far less error prone method to configure and launch the ScreamerNet UB nodes, just use the previous interactive method - Interactively Launching the ScreamerNet UB Nodes with DLI_SNUB-Launcher.

1. On the remote machines, launch /Applications/Utilities/Terminal from the Host Machine.
2. Type or copy/paste the following into the terminal command line, all on one line, substituting your actual hard drive name and username. Then press the return key.
   "/Volumes/HostHD/Applications/LightWave3D 9/ScreamerNet" -2
-c"/Volumes/HostHD/Users/adminUserName/Library/Preferences/
LightWave3D" -d"/Volumes/HostHD/Users/adminUserName/Documents/
LW9Content" "/Volumes/HostHD/Users/adminUserName/Documents/
LW9Content/Commands/job1" "/Volumes/HostHD/Users/adminUserName/
Documents/LW9Content/Commands/ack1"
NOTE: In the Advanced Network Rendering UB setup I'll show how to create shell scripts to facilitate launching your ScreamerNet nodes with the correct information.
3. It should identify itself as CPU number: 1 in the terminal window.
   
4. Open a new window in Terminal.
5. Type or copy/paste the following (which uses '2' for the job/ack number) into the terminal command line, all on one line, substituting your actual hard drive name and username. Then press the return key.
   "/Volumes/HostHD/Applications/LightWave3D 9/ScreamerNet" -2
-c"/Volumes/HostHD/Users/adminUserName/Library/Preferences/
LightWave3D" -d"/Volumes/HostHD/Users/adminUserName/Documents
/LW9Content" "/Volumes/HostHD/Users/adminUserName/Documents/
LW9Content/Commands/job2" "/Volumes/HostHD/Users/adminUserName/
Documents/LW9Content/Commands/ack2"
6. It should identify itself as CPU number: 2 in the console.
7. They may say:
Can’t access job file "/Volumes/HostHD/Users/adminUserName/Documents/
LW9Content/Commands/job#"
   This is normal until LightWave creates the job files.
8. Then go to the second remote rendering Mac and repeat the above steps except use job3/ack3 and job4/ack4 in the command line parameters to launch nodes 3 and 4.

Rendering the Network Batch with LightWave UB’s Built-in Controller

For more information see Using LightWave’s Built-in Network Rendering Controller.

1. On the host Mac, launch /Applications/LightWave3D 9/Layout.
2. Open the Render->Utilities->Network Render panel.
3. Verify that the Maximum CPU Number is set to 4.
4. Click the Screamer Init button.
5. Click OK when the dialog appears stating: 4 available ScreamerNet CPUs were detected. You should now see all ScreamerNet nodes repeatedly writing LightWave command: wait. and sendack: Ready to the console. You’ll also see four CPU’s of type MachOMac listed in the Network Rendering panel with a status of Ready.
6. Click the Add Scene to List button and add the scene: Scenes/Cel_Shade/Drunk_Zombie.lws
7. Click the Add Scene to List button again and add the scene: Scenes/Expressions/BigWheel.lws

8. Hit the Screamer Render button and the ScreamerNet UB nodes will begin rendering frames.
9. As each frame is finished, it will be written to the output directory that was set in each scene. Renders/Drunk_Zombie_Renders & Renders/BigWheelRenders
10. If you wish to stop the rendering before it is finished, press the Escape key while the Network Rendering panel is in the foreground, then hit the Screamer Shutdown button. This will stop rendering new frames and will quit the ScreamerNet nodes once they finish rendering their current frame. If a ScreamerNet node crashes during loading a scene, the Network Rendering panel may remain waiting for the scene to load and may not recover. In such an instance you can force Quit LightWave with Command-Option-Esc. To quit a ScreamerNet UB node before it finishes rendering a frame, bring its terminal window to the foreground and press command-period.

1 2 3 4 5 6 [7] 8 9