Network Rendering Almost Works

szablyasj wrote on 12/20/2004, 10:18 AM

Thanks to the forum and the instructions in Vegas, I have now set up one host computer and two renderers. They appear to recognize each other through the render service and all files and folders are cleared for each other to share.

My question: Now what? I went into Sony Vegas, started to render checking the network rendering box for distributed rendering. It leads me to the second dialog box, then I get started. I "show" the Vegas rendering service and find that both renderers are "ready" and the log shows that the Host (and hence stitch) computer is rendering and has broken the render into 91 clips. I check both renderers and I find they are also showing ready, but nothing is in their logs.

Second Question: I'm pretty sure that the renderers are NOT doing anything. What am I doing wrong? When they are rendering, will the box show that?

Your help is much apppreciated!

Comments

stevengotts wrote on 12/20/2004, 11:35 AM

I get the same thing. only it worked correctly a few days ago, and man did it speed up rendering considerably. now the satalights report ready/quede/failed in that order. Ive restarted all three macines reset the networks up and relisted the render machines again. still nothin. great concept but I can no longer repeat my success.
thanks
steven

szablyasj wrote on 12/20/2004, 11:46 AM

Steven,
I'm sure we're missing something simple - I just can't figure out what.
Thanks for letting me know what i should see "ready/quede/failed"
Steve

stevengotts wrote on 12/20/2004, 12:29 PM

steve
When it works that status will change from ready/queded/rendering/compltte, then the main computer spends a couple minutes stitching it all together. I was only able to render avi's successfully. anything else Mpg, wmv, etc failed on the satalites. now even avi fails. my guess, is that its something wrong in software, if it were a network problem the main computer couldnt comunicate with th satilites. but, then again I dont know much about that sort of thing. another clue is first all 3 worked in step for a few videos. then just two machines. now only the stich machine will render. when you figure it out, let me know, cause it dramatically sped up rendering.
thanks
Steven

GaryKleiner wrote on 12/20/2004, 2:48 PM

Make sure that there is nothing in the project's media pool that is not available on a shared directory.

Gary

stevengotts wrote on 12/20/2004, 3:22 PM

thanks Gary Ill try that.
Steven

Feral_Films wrote on 12/20/2004, 5:09 PM

Personally i have never had network rendering work.
what ports do the rendering engines use?
i would like to try to set up driect rules of neteworking if i need to.
someone said in another post about having both copies of vegas installed and registered to the same person
also i heard something about a host and client INSTALL of vegas?
i dont remember the vegas install asking if i wanted a client or server or anything like that
much appreciation would be given if someone can help me work this out.

looking to make renders take less than 12 hours.

i make complex stuff.

than you in advance

szablyasj wrote on 12/20/2004, 7:27 PM

Steven,
You're close on this (that the software has a problem). I found in the help files for the render service the following:
"You can render segments as MPEG-2 only in the following cases:

*If you're running multiple instances of the render service on your editing computer and no other instances of the render service are running with the same serial number.

*Vegas software is installed with a unique serial number on each computer (editing computer and renderers).

*Vegas software is installed with a site license serial number on each computer."

Unfortunately this makes the distributed option not very practical because you'd have to purchase multiple licenses. However, note that the first bullet point means that if your machine has "Hyperthreading" then you can take advantage of the little known second physical processor on some P4 chips. (IMHO Vegas should automatically detect that and configure it accordingly - maybe V6).

***Editorial***
My beef: Most professionals ultimately provide a product in the form of DVD. All of my deliverables are in DVD format, so not being able to do this sucks. Why did they do it? Because they have to pay a license fee for the Codec, you can't install it (mpeg2 Codec) on multiple computers. The truth is I have paid at least three times for the encoding Codec through other software programs that I've purchased (Pinnacle, Ulead, etc). Another option would be for Sony to offer to allow users to pay extra for the codec so that this functionality will work.
**************

Here's where I stand: I've tried everything in both Distributed and Non-distributed with both mp-2 and AVI and still only the host computer will render. The host can't effectively delegate to the renderer computers.

I hope there is someone who reads this who can suggest a solution.
Steve