Houdini FX + additional Mantra render license on the same machine

[Akabane]

Hey guys, we're in deadline atm and we're having problems rendering with the farm...basically some jobs go through, others do not.

We're in contact with SideFX on this one but we're also setting up backup plans in case we can't solve the problem in time.

What I wanted to ask is: I have on my machine 1 Houdini FX license. I can, say, load a scene and start rendering locally.

If I load another one and try to render while the other one is still going, it tells me (logically) that I'm out of licenses to do what I want to do.

Now if I put one of our Mantra render nodes on the same machine, would I be able to start 2 renders at the same time? 1 using Houdini FX and 1 using HoudiniFX instance + Mantra render node? I mean it *should* work as it calls the mantra command when rendering but I'd like to know for sure before I get our IT tech on this wasting time that could be saved doing something else (i.e: setting up another machine just for that purpose)

Thank you guys!

[melazoma]

Hi Akabane,

Provided you have more than 1 mantra token (license that reads Render-12.0), you can render on another machine on the same network.

Mantra render licenses work on a per-process basis. In other words, if you run 2 instances (processes) of mantra, that takes 2 mantra licenses for the duration of the renders.

If you do not have enough mantra licenses to cover the number of machines you need to render, you can request for more from SideFX.

However, this only applies to .ifd scene description files generated from a mantra ROP, with the render executed in this fashion:

mantra -f myScene.0001.ifd

Renders executed like this do not need a Houdini license. Run mantra -h to see all the options.

If you already have Houdini open on your machine and try to open Houdini on another, that needs a 2nd Houdini license. This can be any 1 of: Houdini FX, Houdini, or Houdini Batch (CLI only)

Edited March 12, 2013 by melazoma

[melazoma]

To elaborate a little,

Houdini (FX) renders a .hip scene by generating ifds on-the-fly and invokes mantra to render.

mantra, on the other hand, only accepts ifds. So in order to use only mantra licenses to render on the network, you need to export your scene to ifd files to a shared location then render them on the command line or with a shell/batch script.

As far as I know, file references (textures, delayed load geometry, etc) in ifds are absolute paths, so make sure this type of files can be seen by all the machines that need to render the scene.

[Akabane]

Hi David, thanks for the reply.

Actually we are already rendering using mantra cmd and IFDs on our farm - problem was that we have issues with our render queue manager and some of the renders do not go through (now I'm logging remotely to 1 rendernode and send off manually mantra cmds), so I was wondering, since on my machine I have

1 Houdini FX license

1 Mantra (associated with the FX)

This allows me to render locally since the FX license spits out the temp IFDs that get picked up by mantra.

What I was wondering if that, by opening a second houdini fx instance on my local machine (I can do that - so using the same HoudiniFX lic) and adding another mantra render license (so the setup would become 1 Houdini FX lic + 2 Mantra on the same machine), if I would be able to set off another render STILL on the same machine.

Basically having 2 renders at the same time on the same machine. You would argue about the usefulness of something like that but that's more out of curiosity than actual productivity (as I wrote earlier I'm using separate IFDs to render off a slave on the farm).

I'm already aware that rendering out separate IFD on my local machine, and having an additional Mantra license on the same machine, I could use HoudiniFX to execute Render1, and mantra -f myfile.ifd on cmd to execute Render2; but I wanted to know if having another Mantra license coudl actually allow me to open up 2 houdini fx instances on the SAME machine and set off 2 separate renders from within the application.

[melazoma]

1 Houdini FX license

1 Mantra (associated with the FX)

Just double-checking, your License Administrator (hkey) only shows 1 Mantra (Render 12.0), but you can add more. Is that correct?

What I was wondering if that, by opening a second houdini fx instance on my local machine (I can do that - so using the same HoudiniFX lic) and adding another mantra render license (so the setup would become 1 Houdini FX lic + 2 Mantra on the same machine), if I would be able to set off another render STILL on the same machine.

I'm already aware that rendering out separate IFD on my local machine, and having an additional Mantra license on the same machine, I could use HoudiniFX to execute Render1, and mantra -f myfile.ifd on cmd to execute Render2; but I wanted to know if having another Mantra license coudl actually allow me to open up 2 houdini fx instances on the SAME machine and set off 2 separate renders from within the application.

Yes, you can open 2 instances of Houdini on the same machine and consume only 1 Houdini licenses. You can render with both, in which case you need 2 Mantra licenses on the same machine--1 for each mantra process.

[Oddball]

You can in fact run several Houdinifx-instances off a single Houdinifx-license on the same machine, or, which might be more useful, Hbatch instances (which is basically Houdinifx just without the GUI).

The number is not limited.

This is useful for example if you have only one license, and whatever you are cooking into the ifds is single threaded.. you can then set off like 4 or 8 Hbatch processes on the machine to get more out of your multicore/multiprocessor setup (as long as the RAM does not run out, of course, and the i/o amount does not choke your machine).