Dyre Straits

My son has LW 7 (as well as 6) and is trying to use the network rendering app. He's solicited my aid and I've read through and gotten several points corrected in how it should be done.

He has a VERY large custom graphic he's trying to render.

What's happening (or NOT happening) is that once the process is started on the networked computers, the process is failing to find the correct Plugins. He's put everything into one location on the host computer and has -- at least 'thinks' he has -- pointed everything to the correct locations.

The LW 7 version he has is an Educational Version, if that matters.

Anyone here familiar with this process?

Thx

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Dyre Straits

Anyone at all familiar with Lightwave? I'm surprised if there isn't someone here.

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Logla

A guy at work does a lot of 3D modelling at home but I'm not sure if he uses Lightwave, I know that he has a rather large home network (about 1pc per room I think). I'll check in with him tomorrow and see if he can shed any light on this - watch this space.

The only thing that I can think of is how the network is setup. Are you using a cabled or wireless LAN? what protocols are being used and how is lightwave setup on the 2 machines, like do you have to have it installed on both machines running at the same time. If yes, could it be that the 2 pc's have the same copy of the software installed and should have two separate licenses installed.

Dyre Straits

The network is setup on a router with CAT-5 cables. The network is working fine in all respects.

According to the Help Menu for Network Rendering, the only file that need be present on the client machines is the LWSN.exe file. However, we have installed the same exact program on each machine in an effort to avoid conflicts.

Lightwave 7, that we have, is licensed for Educational Purposes and runs fine as a standalone on each computer.

The Network Rendering tool (ScreamerII, I believe) is activated by entering a long line of text in the Run box command line.

What's happening is that we ARE getting the rendering program to run....but, it fails to recognize or find the appropriate Plug-ins in order to actually Render the objects. We even get activity on the screen showing that it's going through each line and every pass, but, we're getting zilch upon completion of this process.

One other matter that's developed: On my 98SE machine, it actually created some very large (68-70 MB) .FLX files on the Desktop.

Finally, this image that he's working on is a stationary image....not an animation, if that helps.

Thanks for the reply. I hope we can get some success with this.

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Logla

Just got back from work and it looks like I can't help. The guy I spoke to pretty much mentioned what you said from the help file. He did mention though that his network is setup using a Cisco switch, not a router although this shouldn't really cause a problem. The only thing he can think of after that is if the router uses some kind of hardware firewall and might just be screwing something up along the way.

If I/we think of anything else I'll post it straight up.

Dyre Straits

Thanks, Logla,

I've passed this along to my son. The network actually seems to be working just fine. He told me that, even doing a render alone on the host machine without using ScreamerII it's failing to render somethings properly.

I'm wondering if it's something to do with the 'Educational Version' having some limitations. I know there are 2 selections we can't check when installing this version. That might be the things it needs and can't find. If so, it really should give some kind of message that the feature we're attempting to use isn't available in this version. It should say that instead of simply saying it can't find the plugins.

Well, back to the drawing board.....

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