01. Blender Multicomputer rendering

Some scenes with many frames can greatly benefit from rendering on multiple computers. This is simply set by making the Scene output path something like a cache folder, enabling Placeholders and disabling Overwrite, all of which are automatically set by “Render on multiple computers” button in V-tools-2.

!!! Note that the cache must be deleted each time before a new render is ran, otherwise all the frames will just get skipped. !!!

! Note that if you cancel the render (close the console window), it is very likely a cache image has already been created. It is likely you will need to remove this image from the cache folder, and re-run the render to have this image output as well. !

It is convenient to put the .blend file our shared disk, and render from there, as then multiple computers can see which frames have been "assigned", and pick the right ones to render for themselves.

“Render on single computer” button in V-tools-2 will reverse these settings, notably setting the Scene file output to “//OUTPUT\x\x_” which we use most of the time.

It is best to render via .bat commands with .py scripts (even if super simple ones). One of the big benefits is that you can then easily run multiple render commands at the same time, letting the computer use its "synchronizing" and "rendering" stages more effectively.

You can find these commands scattered around the 01-Blender folders, but I will try to push some typical in a repository folder here, too.