Mastering LW ScreamerNet

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ScreamerNet lwsn may be used in standalone mode (-3) to render scenes independent of LightWave itself. This method may be used to render a scene in the background while you work on another scene in LightWave, which is especially useful on multi core/processor machines. It may also be used to render a scene on another Mac that doesn’t have LightWave installed, as long as you can access the LightWave Mac with your configs, programs and content over your network via file sharing, or copy the files all to the other Mac before rendering.

The following step-by-step example shows how to render DLI_SuperBalls, the sample scene that is included with the FREE Lite version of DLI_SNUB-Launcher, using ScreamerNet lwsn in standalone mode (-3) on the Macintosh. After downloading and unzipping DLI_SNUB-Launcher, copy or move the DLI_SuperBalls content folder to the current user’s Documents folder.

• Setting up the ScreamerNet lwsn Config File
• Setting up the Scene for ScreamerNet lwsn Rendering
• Drag-and-drop Rendering using the FREE Lite Version
  of DreamLight SNUB-Launcher as a Droplet
• Manually Rendering the Scene with ScreamerNet lwsn using Terminal

Setting up the ScreamerNet lwsn Config File

There are a few settings that are stored in the LightWave Layout config file that are used by ScreamerNet lwsn for standalone mode -3 rendering. Two of them are the Segment Memory Limit and the Multithreading settings. The defaults for these should be fine, Segment Memory Limit: 1024 and Multithreading: Automatic. The third setting that we’ll be using is the Content Directory. You may set these settings as outlined below.

In this example we will use the default Mac OS X config file location of: /Users/username/Library/Application Support/Newtek/LightWave/11.0/
For more information see Managing LightWave’s All Important Config Files.

1. Launch /Applications/NewTek/LightWave3D11.0/Layout.
2. Set the Content Directory with Edit->Set Content Directory...
   Navigate to and select: /Users/username/Documents/DLI_SuperBalls/
This assumes you have placed the DLI_SuperBalls folder in your user’s Documents folder .
   See Content Directory for more information.
3. Open Render->Options->Render Globals and set the Segment Memory Limit to at least 32.
   See Default Segment Memory for more information.
   
4. Click yes when asked if this should be the new default setting, or it won’t be saved.
5. Click the Render tab and set Multithreading to the number of cores/threads that you would like to use up to the maximum number of threads on your Mac or simply set it to Automatic to have it use the maximum available threads.
   
6. Quit LightWave to save the config file to disk.

Setting up the Scene for ScreamerNet lwsn Rendering

The output render destination is stored as an absolute path in the scene file, even if the destination is inside the content directory, therefore you need to set the output render destination any time you move a scene to a new Mac.

For more information see Successful Scene File Preparation for ScreamerNet.

1. Launch /Applications/NewTek/LightWave3D11.0/Layout.
2. Use File->Load->Load Scene... to load:
DLI_Superballs/Scenes/DLI_LW11-SuperBalls-Anim.lws
   from the current user’s Documents folder.
3. Click Yes if asked if you’d like to change the Content Directory when loading the scene.
4. Open Render->Options->Render Globals.
5. Click the Output tab.
6. Click the RGB Files button.
   
7. Verify that DLI_LW11-SuperBalls-Anim is set in the Save As: field.
8. Navigate to the DLI_SuperBalls/Renders folder.
9. Click the Save button to dismiss the dialog and accept the changes.
10. Set the RGB Type pop-up menu to LW_TGA32(.tga)
11. The RGB readout should now read DLI_LW11-SuperBalls-Anim_0001.tg...
12. Save the scene.
13. Quit LightWave Layout.

Drag-and-drop Rendering using the FREE Lite Version of DreamLight SNUB-Launcher as a Droplet

Rather than typing ScreamerNet lwsn command lines manually by hand, you may use the Aqua GUI utility, DreamLight SNUB-Launcher, to interactively build the command lines and launch ScreamerNet lwsn with a Mac friendly drag-and-drop-dead-easy™ interface.

DreamLight Interactive ScreamerNet UB Launcher Update

DLI_SNUB-Launcher™ is an XCode Aqua GUI front end to interactively configure and launch LightWave 9, 10 & 11+ ScreamerNet UB lwsn instances for standalone, batch and network rendering. Download your copy today!

Created by the author of Creating a 3D Animated CGI Short
& Mastering LightWave ScreamerNet (lwsn) for Mac OS X
Michael Scaramozzino - LightWave 3D Artist Profile.

1. If you haven’t already, download the FREE Lite version of DLI_SNUB-Launcher to your host Mac and unzip it, but don’t launch it yet. It defaults to look for bin/lwsn in the same folder it’s located in, the first time DLI_SNUB-Launcher is run. If you do run it before placing it in the proper folder, then you can launch it and just click on the lwsn Path button to choose the correct path to the bin/lwsn application.
2. Drag DLI_SNUB-Launcher to the /Applications/NewTek/LightWave3D11.0/ folder.
3. Drag the scene file DLI_SuperBalls/Scenes/DLI_LW11-SuperBalls-Anim.lws onto the DLI_SNUB-Launcher application icon that is in the /Applications/NewTek/LightWave3D11.0/ folder.

4. If asked to change Content Directory to scene’s Content Directory click the Yes button.
5. Verify that the Scene File and Output Path are set correctly in the Scene Settings panel.

6. Set the Render Frame Range to: First Frame 1, Last Frame 10, Frame Step 1 and click OK.
7. DLI_SNUB-Launcher will then launch ScreamerNet lwsn in Terminal and render frames 1-10 of DLI_LW11-SuperBalls-Anim.lws and place them in DLI_SuperBalls/Renders/.

Manually Rendering the Scene with ScreamerNet lwsn using Terminal

Another way to configure and launch ScreamerNet lwsn is to manually type the command line to launch it in Terminal. For a much easier and far less error prone method to configure and launch ScreamerNet lwsn, just use the previous interactive method - Drag-and-drop Rendering using the FREE Lite Version of DreamLight SNUB-Launcher as a Droplet.

For an in-depth discussion and explanation of each of LightWave’s available command line parameters, please review Utilizing LightWave’s Mac Command Line Parameters.

1. Launch /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.
2. Type or paste the following into the terminal command line, all on one iine, substituting your actual username. Then press the return key.
   "/Applications/NewTek/LightWave3D11.0/bin/lwsn" -3 -c"/Users/username/Library/Application Support/NewTek/LightWave/11.0/" -d"/Users/username/Documents/DLI_SuperBalls/" "/Users/username/Documents/DLI_SuperBalls/Scenes/DLI_LW11-SuperBalls-Anim.lws" 1 10 1
3. ScreamerNet lwsn will then render frames 1-10 of DLI_LW11-SuperBalls-Anim.lws and place them in DLI_SuperBalls/Renders/.

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