Optional: If you have monitors connected to your satellites, you could run the Task Manager to check the CPU usage. Each processor will be represented as a new 'bucket' (square) Only the highlighted Satellites will be used.ġ0. Make sure they are all highlighted in blue. Hit Add, type in the IP address of your first Satellite and click OK. Scroll down to Distributed Bucket Rendering and expand the menu.Ĩ. Expand the Translator Options menu and tick the Use Placeholder ObjectsĦ. Hit F10 (Render Settings), make sure you have NVIDIA mental ray selected as your renderer and navigate to the Processingĥ. Repeat this step on all SATs.Ģ. Obtain IP addresses of your Satellites.Ĥ. Go to Start Menu - Run (or Windows Logo + R on your keyboard) and type in services.msc, find the service called mental ray Satellite, right-click on it and click Start.

Start the Mental Ray Satellite Service on all your Satellites. Let's say you have your workstation and a couple of PCs connected to the same network: A host (HOST) and two Satellites (SAT1 and SAT2).īefore we begin, make sure you have a fully licensed version of Autodesk 3ds Max on you HOST, and a working copy of 3ds Max on your Satellites (they do not require an active license).ġ.

This results in a speed increase which is directly proportional to the amount of PCs connected (Assuming all PCs are identical).

Now there are a couple of ways of speeding your workflow up: Upgrading you PC, Cloud Rendering, and using something that is called a 'Render Farm'.Ī Render Farm is a cluster of interconnected computers that all work on the same render simultaneously. Rendering in Autodesk 3ds Max using Mental Ray can become quite time consuming, especially if you are dealing with big scenes, detailed objects or dark environments.

3ds max render farm