Iray for 3ds Max has built in remote rendering. There are two methods used: Network Render which uses Iray Server for offline rendering and Remote Streaming which uses a live remote connection to give fast direct images within 3ds Max. Currently NVIDIA's Visual Computing Appliance (VCA) is fully supported. Autodesk® Backburner™ also works but is not yet officially supported.
An introduction to Iray Server
Network Render
Network render provides 'offline' rendering, enabling you to create rendering jobs to be submitted to Iray Server. Once submitted, you can close 3ds Max or continue working on your project and download your finished renders from the server on completion. Iray Server can be used to render on another machine you may own, and is perfect for teams to share the rendering power of other machines in the workplace.
Network Render can be found on the Network Render rollout under Render Setup > Settings. To launch the Queue Server click Submit to Queue.... You can also launch this directly from the 3ds Max toolbar under Iray > Network Render
The Queue Server dialog provides server connection details as well as information on your pending rendering job.
Server Settings
Address: The IP address of the remote server
VCA: If you are using an NVIDIA VCA, this will enable VCA-specific streaming settings
Username/Password: Your authentication details for the remote server
Create Job
Job Name: Provides a title to Iray Server to identify your job
Priority: Sets your jobs priority on a scale of 0 – 100, where 0 is the highest priority and 100 is the lowest.
File Name: Prepends each of your rendered frames with this name, this differs from the filename you may have chosen under Render Setup > Common > Common Parameters
Format: Iray Server supports PNG, EXR, HDR, PSD, TIF and JPG formats, this differs from what you may have set under Render Setup > Common > Common Parameters
Color: Choose between RGB or RGBA, RGBA contains an alpha channel in each of your frame
Render Settings: Provides details of compatible parameters that are applied to the pending job. This includes parameters such as Time Output, Frame Completion, Output Size etc.
Status: Shows submission progress, you will not be able to use the 3ds Max until submission is complete or you have cancelled submission
Open Server Manager: Opens your web browser and launches Iray Server to to see progress of your render and lets you download the completed job
Cancel: Cancels your job submission and closes the dialog
✱ Note: Iray Server only supports Iray+ renderer, any jobs sent with Iray+ Interactive as your production renderer will revert to Iray+
Remote Streaming
Remote Rendering can be found on the Resources rollout under Render Setup > Settings.
Current Resources
Local: Uses rendering resources set in the Local group described below. This will be selected by default when disconnected from a server. No remote resources will be used when this is selected
Remote: Uses remote resources set under Remote Settings dialog. This will become selected automatically when you connect to a remote server.
Local
Iray works on CPU but is massively improved using NVIDIA CUDA GPUs. You can choose to allocate all or only some of your GPUs to Iray.
Use CPUs: Allocates your CPUs to Iray rendering. You may want to keep them free for smoother operation of 3ds Max and other resource-intensive applications. If you do not have any GPUs available for Iray for 3ds Max, this option will be disabled
Use CUDA GPUs: Gives choice over which GPUs are allocated to Iray rendering. GPUs used by windows are clearly marked.
✱ Note: Using CPUs and GPUs in combination may not provide a speed advantage over using GPUs only. We recommend GPU-only rendering if you have older or less powerful CPUs.
Remote
Remote status allows you to connect to remote rendering devices such as VCAs. The Settings... button launches the Remote Settings dialog box.
Server
Status: The connection status of the server
Address: The IP address of the remote server
Username/Password: Your authentication details for the remote server
VCA: If you are using an NVIDIA VCA, this will enable VCA-specific streaming settings
Connect: Connects and disconnects from the server. This checks your connection, but on a VCA this does not actually reserve nodes for usage until you also press the Reserve Nodes button.
VCA Settings
Nodes: The number of Nodes available and the amount of nodes you have reserved
Reserve Nodes: Lets you reserve some or all rendering resources on the server.
✱ Note: We recommend that communication with VCAs uses the WebSocket Secure (WSS) protocol. If you connect to a VCA with an IP address and you don't specify a protocol at the beginning of the address, the Iray for 3ds Max plugin will assume the WSS protocol. You can also communicate with VCAs using the WebSocket (WS) protocol. Example 127.0.0.1 – This will be interpreted as wss://127.0.0.1:8080 by Iray for 3ds Max ws://127.0.0.1:8080/bridge – A specific address will override Iray for 3ds Max interpretation of the address.
Streaming Settings
Provides fine-grain control for image quality of remote streaming, this is useful for optimising workflows which use Iray+ Interactive on remote servers where speed of feedback may be prioritised over quality
Compression: Gives choice over image compression types, (Video, JPEG, PNG) or lossless (EXR).
Bitrate (Mbps/sec): the amount of information (Megabits) processed per second when Video is selected as the compression format, 5 Mbps is the default.
