Render from Command-line / IFD / whaaaaaaa...?

[cwalrus]

Hi! we've read the docs and even went down the long ugly road of trying Cygwin mentioned in the docs here

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini12.1/rendering/commandline

 

But we still can't get any renders to take place except for from within Houdini on the local box.

 

All I want to do is command-line render from one of our render engines. That way I can work in Houdini while the renderfarm node renders a different project.

 

I can't find anything on the Mantra node that renders IFD files, in order to subsequently render them with the command line, either - I assume that is mandatory?

 

thank you for any help

 

 

 

[bluciensky]

How do you mean you can't find anything on the Mantra node that renders IFD files...?

If you are talking about from the parameter, it's under Driver(check Disk file, then press render button). Is that what you are looking for? or you want do do this from terminal?

 

Sorry if I misunderstood you

[lukeiamyourfather]

The IFD files can be written out from the Mantra node, just click the check box for Disk File.

 

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini14.0/nodes/out/ifd#idm140203752442112

 

You can also call renders directly on other machines with the hosts option for Mantra, even from the Mantra node if you want. Change the Command parameter from "mantra" to "mantra -H remotehost1,remotehost2,localhost" and give it whatever machines you want to do the rendering. This will interactively render tiles. If you want to render animations I suggest using HQueue.

[cwalrus]

Once you've pre-rendered the IFD's, how do you import them back in for rendering on H Queue?  (the documentation doesn't seem to mention it)

[bluciensky]

Using mantra on the command line

Once you have an IFD file you can use mantra to render it on the command line, for example:

mantra -f frame0001.ifd rendered_frame0001.pic

(If you don’t specify the -f option, mantra will read the IFD from stdin.)

mantra -h will print a summary of the available options.

Most command-line options are overrides for properties. This means you can set these properties on the scene camera, and then override them on the command line if necessary.

 

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini14.0/render/batch

Edited October 6, 2015 by bluciensky

[cwalrus]

Thanks as usual J Son - 

 

I know the process of command-line rendering the IFD - i was wondering more specifically how to get the sequence of IFD's to the HQueue server, and I assumed that involved importing them to some node in the Output section....

 

Maybe I just type that exact command line into the "command" section on the Mantra node, and then submit it to the HQ render?

[lukeiamyourfather]

Once you've pre-rendered the IFD's, how do you import them back in for rendering on H Queue?  (the documentation doesn't seem to mention it)

 

Use this node and change the Output Driver parameter to Existing IFD and point it to the IFD files already created.

 

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini14.0/nodes/out/hq_render

 

Also change stuff like where the HQueue server is if it's not the defaults.

[cwalrus]

Thanks guys - that was exactly it.

[the3dstig]

Hi all,

This is an old topic but seems to be along the same lines of what I'm dealing with.

Our network is a nightmare- proxys, firewalls, and bears!  I can generate ifds from within Houdini just fine- even got them referencing external geo for quick n' light weight files.  The problem is that my workstation won't connect to the hqueue server when it's anything other than localhost- even using the workstation's own IP address won't work!

I can see it and the other machines from the Hqueue interface, but whenever I try to submit a job Houdini freezes for a few seconds the the Hqueue ROP throws the error "cannot connect to ###.##.###.###" which is really frustrating because I can assign which machines will be doing the rendering and/or ifd generation.

So, I'd like to use Hqueue to process the ifds without having to go through the Houdini interface.  Is there a command line for this?  I know I can have multiple nodes work on a single frame but is there a way to get it working on a series of ifds?

[lukeiamyourfather]

18 hours ago, the3dstig said:

Our network is a nightmare- proxys, firewalls, and bears!

This doesn't sound at all like what this thread was about. Starting a new thread would be better. I would resolve the network issues before doing anything else. Even if you can kludge your way around one issue it's going to be a problem down the road for something else until you eventually fix it so just do it now. My guess is either the firewall is blocking the traffic or the proxy settings are incorrect and it's trying to resolve the HQueue host via the proxy rather than the local network.

[the3dstig]

Yup, you're right- my initial issue is totally different- however I think we were after similar goals (rendering a series of ifds via Hqueue)

However, I figured it out- or at least some solution!

Using an NAS, a switch, and directly plugging the render nodes into said switch I can jump "off-network" and start a render using just a network between my workstation and render nodes that doesn't have access to the outside world and is therefore governed by less restrictive rules.  One of the nodes is running HQserver so once the job has been submitted I can switch the adapter settings on my workstation and let the render nodes hum along.  When they're done I can just grab the frames from the NAS.

The nodes have all been setup with a mantra token so they don't need internet access that often.