A 3Delight Collective allows you to render a single image, including with IPR, faster by using several computers from your network. It is selected through the 3Delight Preferences (in the sidebar of 3Delight Display) or, when rendering using renderdl, though a command line option. For the 3Delight Collective option to be available, it must be defined first. This is done by providing a list of computers/servers and giving it a name. In this same manner, you can define several distinct collectives. Here is an example of 5 collectives that can be defined in a hypothetical production facility:
Rack-1 — The servers located in rack number 1.
Rack-2 — The servers located in rack number 2.
Lighter-A — A group of servers you want to dedicate to lighter A.
Lighter-B — A group of servers you want to dedicate fo lighter B.
All-servers — All the servers.
Collectives are defined through a simple JSON file. Assuming a facility with 10 servers, named server01 to server10, here is how to build such a file for the above 5 collectives example:
{"Rack-1" : [ "server01", "server02", "server03", "server04", "server05" ],"Rack-2" : [ "server06", "server07", "server08", "server09", "server10" ],"Lighter-A" : [ "server01,16", "server02,16", "server03,16" ],"Lighter-B" : [ "server04,16", "server05,16", "server06,16" ],"All-servers" : [ "server01", "server02", "server03", "server04", "server05", "server06", "server07", "server08", "server09", "server10" ]} |
Equipped with this file, which can be named and saved wherever you choose among your installation, all you have to do is point to it in the 3delight.config configuration file by adding this line:
collective ~/projects/MyCollective.json
With this information, the 3Delight Collective option will be available among the 3Delight Preferences with a menu accompanied with a menu to select which collective to use:
Additional Notes
A server/computer can be part of one or more collectives. As is the case in the example above ("server01" is part of 3 of the 5 collectives).
With each server/computer name, you can specify a number of cores, eg. "server01,16". This limits the number of cores that will be used when rendering using this computer by invoking the collective it is part of. If the number is not specified, eg. "server01", then all the cores will be used.