setting up renderfarm with hython

[borisb2]

Hi.

 

at the moment I'm testing on how to setup batch-rendering to the farm. Because all my renders and sims (not only houdini) run over a renderManager (using RenderPal), I'd like to use hbatch or rather hython to submit my renders. Submission starts to work already but now I'm stuck on how to split frame ranges.

 

So the windows command is something like:

hython Z:\_rnd\houdini\hython.cmd

calling this cmd-file:

hou.hipFile.load("Z:/_rnd/houdini/batchRender01.hip")
rnode = hou.node("/obj/OUT")
rnode.render(frame_range=(1,10))
quit()

so far so good - it renders in a shell.

 

But I have no idea on how to pass external variables to set the frame-ranges in the cmd-file - in order to split the render on multiple machines. Is that something trivial with the hython-command? Didn't find the solution so far...

 

Thanks for any help!

[Artem Smirnov]

You can pass frame ranges in the arguments to python script  and then get them with sys.argv. It will  look like -

    hython Z:\_rnd\houdini\renderscript.py -1 - 100

Then in python file you will get them by sys.argv[1] and sys.argv[2]

Edited August 1, 2014 by Artem Smirnov

[borisb2]

Thanks.. got in the meantime several submission commands working collected in a customized top-menu .. works all great in houdini!

 

Another question: I was reading that with the houdini engine I could use hbatch on slave machines. Is that also true for hython? Meaning, if I have engine installed on all slaves machines and one workstation with Houdini FX, can I still submit all render- and sim-jobs to the farm over the rendermanager?

 

thanks

[old school]

Yep.

 

Engine license enables you to run engine plug-ins in other apps as well as run hbatch and hython processes.