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Mastering LW ScreamerNet
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Utilizing LightWave’s Mac Command Line Parameters,
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LightWave uses command line parameters which in Windows are specified in a DOS window or a shortcut icon. For LightWave PPC, NewTek has added a simple mechanism for specifying command line parameters on the Macintosh as well. Plain text files called cmdLine files are used to store any command line parameters that you wish to pass to a LightWave PPC application when it is launched. The PPC versions of LightWave, Modeler, Hub and LWSN can all use their own cmdLine files. ScreamerNet UB is now a Unix executable that runs in the Mac OS X Terminal and as such can use its own real command line parameters. We’ve also created an Aqua GUI front end for ScreamerNet UB named DreamLight SNUB-Launcher that you may use to interactively build command lines in a Mac friendly error-free manner.
LightWave PPC uses cmdLine files which are plain text files that are named exactly the same as their associated application (which must be one word), followed by a single space and the word "cmdLine". They do not (and can not) have a file extension added (not even ".txt"), or LightWave PPC will not recognize them. Only LightWave PPC uses cmdLine files, LightWave UB does not use cmdLine files. The LightWave PPC cmdLine file name format is as follows:
The default names of major applications and cmdLine files
(not all Programs files are shown) in the
When setting up multiple instances of LWSN PPC to use in batch or network rendering, you’d make multiple copies of the LWSN application and its associated cmdLine file and rename each pair to match, typically using an incrementing number as in the above right example. Note: The icons for the cmdLine files may change to text document icons once you edit them. The icons for different versions of LightWave may also be different. These cmdLine files must be located in the same directory as
the applications that they are associated with. Typically: LightWave UB doesn’t need cmdLine text files since the command line parameters may be entered directly within the Mac OS X terminal when launching ScreamerNet UB.
The command line syntax is as follows, all on one line with a space separating each parameter. Do not separate a parameter from its value with a space. All parameter letters must be in lowercase. Enclose all paths with double quotes, especially if the path contains spaces. This syntax is used in a cmdLine text file for the PPC versions of LightWave or directly in the Mac OS X terminal command line for ScreamerNet UB.
The following general command line parameters may be used in most of the cmdLine files:
This parameter may be included in the PPC LightWave and/or Modeler cmdLine files if you wish to disable the hub. If you are experiencing problems with LightWave and/or Modeler, try disabling the hub, which is often a source of problems on the Mac. Otherwise, launching either LightWave or Modeler will also launch the Hub. The easiest way to disable the UB hub is to simply rename the UB Hub application to something like Disabled-Hub in which case it won’t automatically launch.
When specifying command line path parameters, the following rules of thumb will help avoid problems:
~'
character preceding a forward slash, as ~/ to
represent "/Users/username/" where username is
the current user. However ScreamerNet UB itself doesn’t
currently understand this convention, so the tilde won’t
work if it’s embedded in a parameter that’s passed
to LightWave, for instance enclosed in double quotes, or following
a parameter switch such as -c or -d,
etc. It will work in a few instances if used BEFORE
the first double quote for the rest of the path, in a parameter
that doesn’t start with any switch, such as when passing
a job, ack, or scene file path, such as: ~/"Documents/LWContent/MyScene.lws" which is expanded to: "/Users/username/Documents/LWContent/MyScene.lws" by the terminal BEFORE being passed to ScreamerNet. So unless you really know what you’re doing I’d recommend just avoiding the ~/ shortcut altogether.
Config Path The LightWave PPC default config path is as follows: The LightWave UB default config path is as follows: If not specified, the config directory defaults to the current user’s Preferences directory for PPC or the LightWave3D folder in the current user’s Preferences dilectory for UB, which is normally as specified above, where YourHD should be replaced with the name of your hard drive that holds your home directory and username should be replaced with your user name. Therefore, if you leave your config files in their default locations, you do not need to specify this option in your command line parameters and each individual user could have their own configs. This parameter may be used in LightWave, Modeler, Hub and/or LWSN cmdLine files or the ScreamerNet UB command line to specify a different directory for the config files. Plug-in Database Path The LightWave PPC default plugin path is as follows: The LightWave UB default plugin path is as follows: If not specified, the config directory will be used. This parameter may be used in LightWave, Modeler, Hub and/or LWSN cmdLine files or the ScreamerNet UB command line to specify a different directory for the plugin database file.
There are a few common command line parameters that are used to tell LWSN PPC or ScreamerNet UB what to do. The following general command line parameters may be used when running LWSN PPC or ScreamerNet UB in any mode. Additional mode specific command line parameters are discussed later. The general common command line syntax is as follows, all on one line.
The LWSN PPC default config path is as follows: The ScreamerNet UB default config path is as follows: This parameter is explained in more detail above under Command Line Path Parameters.
An LWSN PPC sample content path could be as follows:
A ScreamerNet UB sample content path could be as follows:
Where YourHD should be replaced with the name of your hard drive that holds your home directory and username should be replaced with your user name. This example would be to use a directory named LWContent in your Documents directory as your content directory. If this option is not specified, the content directory defaults to the content directory specified in the config file through LightWave. Therefore, if you set your content directory properly in LightWave itself, and you have LWSN PPC or ScreamerNet UB on the same machine using the same config file as LightWave (which it does by default), you do not need to specify this option in the LWSN PPC command line file or the ScreamerNet UB terminal command line, unless you wish to use a content directory that is different than the one currently set in LightWave. You would also need to specify this path if you were running LWSN PPC or ScreamerNet UB on a different machine than you are running LightWave. Please review Config Files: Content Directory, for important information about using LightWave’s content directory properly.
An LWSN PPC sample log file path could be as follows:
A ScreamerNet UB sample log file path could be as follows:
Where YourHD should be replaced with the name of your hard drive that holds your home directory and username should be replaced with your user name. This example would use a log file named ScreamerNetLog.txt in a LWContent directory in your Documents directory. If this option is not specified then the text messages generated as output would appear in the LWSN PPC window or the Mac OS X terminal running ScreamerNet UB.
Normally while LWSN is busy rendering it outputs quite a bit
of text information to the terminal interface. This can be useful
for monitoring progress and problems such as missing plug-ins,
etc. Once everything is up and running however, all this text
writing to the terminal may be unnecessary and may slightly slow
down the rendering. The Here’s what the output for one frame looks like normally,
without the
Here’s what the output looks like with the
The standalone mode (-3) specific command line syntax is as follows, all on one line.
The first five parameters are explained above under General ScreamerNet Command Line Syntax.
Full paths specify the entire path to the scene file. An LWSN PPC sample full scene path could be as follows:
A ScreamerNet UB sample full scene path could be as follows:
Relative paths are relative to the current Content directory specified in the command line itself, or from within LightWave’s config file. Relative paths must start with a leading file separator. An LWSN PPC sample relative scene path could be as follows:
At this time LW 9.3 ScreamerNet UB does not appear to work with content relative paths.
This specifies which frames to render between the first and last frame. When set to 1, ScreamerNet would render every frame from the first frame, up to the last frame. When set to 2, ScreamerNet would render every other frame from the first frame up to the last frame. If set to -1, ScreamerNet would render every frame from the first frame, down to the last frame and in this case the first frame should be higher than the last frame to render in reverse order.
The batch & network mode (-2) specific cmdLine syntax is as follows, all on one line.
The first five parameters are explained above under General ScreamerNet Command Line Syntax.
LWSN PPC job file sample paths could be as follows:
Reads the A ScreamerNet UB job file sample path could be as follows:
Reads
the At this time ScreamerNet UB doesn’t appear to work with content folder relative paths, use full paths. The number should immediately follow the word "job" without any spaces and there must be no file extension added to the end of the path. Make sure that both your For example: Application name: cmdLine Name: cmdLine Contents: For additional information please review Config Files: Command Directory.
LWSN PPC ack file sample paths could be as follows:
Writes the A ScreamerNet UB job file sample path could be as follows:
Reads the At this time ScreamerNet UB doesn’t appear to work with content folder relative paths, use full paths. For additional information please review Job File Path & Config Files: Command Directory above.
This would have ScreamerNet attempt to check the job file every 60 seconds during rendering for status or abort commands. Other commands are ignored. Normally, once ScreamerNet begins rendering a frame, it does not check the job file for any further instructions until the frame finishes rendering. During the initial setup and testing of your render farm or when testing a new scene, it may be useful to allow ScreamerNet to check the job file for abort commands. Particularly if individual frames take a long time to render. This way, if you notice a problem right off the bat (a missing plug-in for instance), you can abort the rendering without having to wait for all your nodes to finish rendering an entire frame each or force quitting each node. For instance, if your frames use ray tracing, area lights, radiosity,
caustics, high antialiasing levels, motion blur and/or depth
of field, they may take a long time to render. In this case you
could set Unfortunately, the
In addition to running LWSN PPC with a cmdLine file, you can also run it using the default command line dialog interface. If you launch LWSN without a cmdLine file, it will open an input dialog which allows you to type in the command line arguments.
On Mac OS X you can’t paste any text into the dialog the way you used to be able to on Mac OS 9, so this method is rather obsolete. It’s sometimes useful for quick tests though. To use the command line dialog simply follow these steps.
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