Rendering 3ds Max
3ds Max is Autodesk's widely-used 3D graphics application. 3ds Max's 3D animation capabilities make it an excellent choice for architectural visualization, as well as video game animation and movie effects.
Before proceeding, make sure you've created input and output folders for yourself in \\arch-render\renderfarm as described here. Once you've done so, you're ready to render.
Copy file to arch-render
Begin by copying your 3ds Max scene file and any related custom textures, maps and shaders to your input folder on arch-render, then open your file in 3ds Max.
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Once you've copied the the scene file over to arch-render, open the file on arch-render in 3ds Max. If you get any warning messages regarding missing files, you’ll need to resolve this in the next step; if the message references a file you’re no longer using, you can check the box to ignore this warning at render time. It’s important that any warnings you get when opening the file are dealt with, as the render farm will also get these warnings and fail to render.
If you're using custom textures or maps, you'll need to change the path to these files, so that the render farm machines can locate the files on arch-render; failing to change this will result in the render farm machines searching for these files in their original location on your local machine, which they can't access, and erroring out.
Under the File menu in 3ds Max, choose Asset Tracking. The Asset Tracking window will show you all the referenced files in your scene; verify that the status of these files is “Found” or “Network Path” (you can disregard the “unknown status” message).
If you got a message that a file was missing when opening the scene in 3ds Max, you can fix that issue here by right-clicking on the missing file and choosing “Set Path.” Enter the path to the file in the format, making sure to use a UNC path name such as \\arch-render\renderfarm\output and NOT a drive path such as R:\output.
Once you've verified that all your reference files are found by 3ds Max, you can close the Asset Tracking window.
Enter the Render Settings
From the Rendering menu on the toolbar, choose Render Setup. In the Render Setup window, click on the Common tab, where you can enter the following:
Under Common Parameters:
Under Assign Render:
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The other options in the Render Scene window can be left at the default settings. If you wish, you can save this as a preset in the Preset menu at the bottom of the window.
Once you're done, close the Render Setup window, save your scene in 3ds Max, and close 3ds Max.
Once you've modified the render settings and saved the scene in 3ds Max, open the Deadline Monitor application to submit and monitor your render job. If Deadline Monitor is already installed on your workstation, you'll find it in Start > Programs > Frantic Films > Deadline Client > Deadline Monitor or Start > Programs > Rendering > Deadline > Deadline Monitor, depending on whether you're on your own workstation or a lab machine. If not, you can install it by clicking on the 
Ghost icon on the task bar and choosing "Install Deadline."
When you first launch Deadline Monitor, you'll be asked to choose a user account to use, or to create your own. If you wish to create your own account so that you can be notified by email regarding your renders, use your net ID as the user name and enter your email address. Otherwise, use the generic students account.
Job Name: enter a name for your job Group: select "3dsmax" Priority: 50. Jobs found with a higher priority than 50 will be deleted 3ds Max File: enter the path to your .max file in your \\arch-render\renderfarm\input directory, making sure that file path is in the \\arch-render\renderfarm format Frames List: enter the frames you want rendered (eg. "1-50," "101-200"). For a single frame job, enter 1. For multiple frames not in sequence, enter the frame numbers separated by commas A note about frame ranges:Deadline and 3ds Max handle frame ranges differently, in that Deadline calls the first frame number 1, while 3ds Max calls the first frame number 0. So, when rendering a 300 frame animation, 3ds Max numbers the frames as 0-299, while Deadline numbers them as1-300. Frames Per Task: enter "1" Version: select "2011" Use Design Edition: CHECKED Build To Force: select "None" |
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The other options can be left at the default values. Once you're done, click Submit.
The Submission Results window that opens will display whether your render submission was successful, or if not, why the submission failed.
If you see "Result=Success," your job submission was successful. Otherwise, note the error that's given.
Click OK to close the window, then click Close in the Submit 3dsmax Job to Deadline window to return to the Deadline Monitor screen.
Once your job has been submitted successfully, you can monitor the job in Deadline Monitor.
More information on submitting 3ds Max jobs to Deadline can be found here.
Instructions on how to install the integrated 3ds Max submission script to submit jobs to Deadline directly from the 3ds Max application can be found here.