Version 1.0 RenderStorm Cloud Render (Powered by Squidnet Software): Getting started. RenderStorm Cloud Render is an easy to use standalone application providing remote access, job submission, rendering, and image retrieval of your scenes on the RenderStorm RenderFarm over the cloud/internet. Simply input your basic rendering information into one of the preconfigured templates, submit your job and the RenderStorm Cloud render application will take care of the rest including: project folder compression, encrypting for upload, uploading to farm, decrypting, rendering, compressing, encrypting for download and downloading and extraction of images to your local folder. So lets go! Step 1. Installation Install the Cloud render application from www.render-storm.com/downloads/ clouduiver233.exe and follow the installation instructions. MAC and Windows versions available. When the installation is completed you will see the screen below. Step 2. Register / Setup Setup a new customer account @ www.render-storm.com/newaccount.asp or contact admin@renderstorm.com
Step 3. Receive your Account login instructions by email. Step 4. Login to your Studio Account. Start the RenderStorm Cloud Render Application and then Connect to Farm. Fill in the connection information (website URL, account number and password) you received in the email. Step 5. Create a render account. (Render Account = Render Farm User). Create a render account for each user that will be accessing the farm. Studios can create up to 5 accounts. If you need more contact admin@render-storm.com. Step 6. Purchase Hours or Lease. On Demand: Render anytime and get charged by GHz hours. (1 CPU Core x 1 CPU GHz =1GHz hour.) Lease or Reserved: Request a time frame of when you want to render and get charged access per period.
Step 7. Activation Once we receive payment or credit terms are granted or if a lease time requested is approved the studio account is activated and an email sent. Step 8. Start Rendering! Now you can start submitting jobs to the farm. RenderStorm Cloud Render User Interface Lets take a look around the easy to use Cloud User Interface. Section 1. A. Connect to Farm: Connect to the Renderstorm Render Farm. (*Note. You must have registered an account before you can connect to the farm. Go to http://www.render-storm.com/newaccount.asp or contact admin@renderstorm.com to register. B. Create a Render Account: With the connection information (website URL, account number and password) you can create a render account for each user that will be accessing the render farm. Studios can create as many accounts as they want. (*Note. Only 1 render account can be created/registered per computer.)
C. Purchase GHz Hours or Lease Once the render account has been created, submit a lease request to the render farm service. In the request you specify the terms of the lease such as: 1. Lease type: On Demand (GHz Hours) or Reserved (Time frame) 2. On Demand: Request the amount of GHz hours you need and Queue Priority. 3. Reserved: Choose number of Render Nodes needed for your Job and Lease period. 4. Pricing: See pricelist here. RenderStorm. Pricelist 4/1/14.pdf D. Preferences: Here you can choose the location of your configuration folder and other preferences.
Section 2. Here you can create new projects and jobs and submit them to the farm. New Job Template :
Rendering Application: Each 3D Application has a unique job template. Choose the correct 3D application template for the scene that you would like to render. Frame Download Method: You can download your frames as each frame completes rendering by choosing On Frame Completion or you can download the completed output by choosing On Job Completion Num Frames per Render Node (0=auto): You can decide how many frames are sent to each render node at a time to render. If left on 0, the Render Manager software will automatically determine the most efficient number of frames to send to each render node based on the number of frames and slaves available. Video Output The Cloud Rendering application can create a Video file from Image sequences. Simple input the output location, format and resolution and framerate and a video will be generated and saved to the specified output directory. Only sync scene file against synced folder on server: Sync only your local scene file against the server. (Default is Sync project directory) How it works: Renderstorm automatically syncs your local project directories (or scene files) to our servers and whenever you resubmit a scene/ job to the RenderStorm farm, you local project directory is scanned for any changes and only the changes are uploaded again. Local Project Settings: Project Directory: This is where all your scene assets are. This directory is compressed and uploaded to the Renderstorm Servers for rendering. Scene File Name: The local path of the scene to be rendered. Output Directory: The local directory where you would like you finished frames stored. Render Frames: Choose from specific frames to ranges of frames. You can even skip over frames with step frames. Additional Settings: Additional settings are settings that allow you to override the render settings you have setup inside of your 3D application.
Section 3 Your Render Farm Queue In this section you will find your studios queued jobs, position and progress on the farm. By default, all jobs are displayed in the queue. If you check the Show only my jobs box at the bottom, then all other jobs on your studio account will not be listed and only your render account jobs will be displayed. Steps in the Render process. 1. Compression and encryption 2. Uploading to the farm (Secure OpenSSL AES-256 tunnels for all connections) 3. Job queued 4. Rendering 5. Compression and encryption 6. Download to your local directory 7. Decompression and decryption
Section 4 A description of the status section. Lease: Name of the lease you are currently logged into Farm GHz / Cores: Total farm online available GHz and cores. GHz hours used: If you have purchased GHz hours from Renderstorm, it will state how many you have used out of the amount you have purchased.
Reserved lease period: If you have purchased and reserved a lease period your status will look like this. More status information: Frames: Displays the status of the frames being rendered, processing time and GHz hours Activity: Displays all user activity like login and logout, job submissions and downloads. History: Shows the job history including name, frames rendered queue time processing time, Ghz hrs. Synced Folders: Shows the current synced folders of scenes submitted to the farm.