How to set up a renderfarm with Indigo
Posted on 27. Apr, 2009 by Andrew Price in Tutorials
Let’s face it – rendering is tedious. Your machine is unusable for hours on end, leaving you with nothing to do but twiddle your thumbs, watch TV and generally get distracted. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could harness the power of those idle computer’s lying around the house, and shave this boring task down to a fraction of the time? In a few easy steps you can!
For this tutorial we will be using Blender v2.48a, Indigo v1.1.18 and Blendigo v1.1.14 and Windows XP.
Let’s start with the basics:
The computer that starts a render is called the ‘Master’.
The computers that connect to the master are called ‘Slaves’.
A computer that is both managing the farm and chipping in it’s own CPU power is called a ‘Working Master’.
Step 1 – Installing Indigo
Download Indigo v1.1.18 and extract it to your C:\Program Files folder. It should look like this:
The exact location isn’t important, just make sure you alter the path in the next step if you decide to change it.
Step 2 – Creating the BAT file
BAT files are simply a set of written instructions for windows to follow. It produces the exact same result as typing into command prompt, but making a BAT file saves you having to retype it each time you use it.
You can quickly create a BAT file using notepad. Open it up and type the following:
cd C:\Program Files\indigo_v1.1.18
indigo.exe -n s
This is telling Windows to go to C:\Program Files\indigo_v1.1.18 and run indigo.exe in network (-n) slave (s) mode.
Save the file as ‘indigo_network_slave.bat’, change the type to ‘All Files’, and save it to your desktop:
Step 3 – Running the .BAT
Double-click the newly created icon on your desktop that looks like this:
This will open Indigo in ‘Slave mode’. The panel should say that it is ‘Listening on port XXXX’:
The slave is now ready! It will continue to wait until the master sends it some work.
Step 4 – Starting the Master
Go to your Master computer and open the scene you want rendered:
In the System Tab of Blendigo, turn ‘Working Master’ on and hit ‘EXPORT Scene’:
You are now rendering!
Step 5 – Check Slave and Master
Your slave machine should now be receiving instructions from the master machine and starting to render:
Your Master machine should display a message similar to this:
Receiving frame from 192.168.0.111:1105 :
num_samples: 1400000.000000
width: 1204
height: 904
Frame received. (lock wait time: 0.00 s, transfer time: 2.29 s)
You can kill the render on the Master machine whenever you like. When you export it again, the slaves will automatically reconnect.
That’s it! You are now part of the elite nerdy crew who can say “I value my rendertimes, more than my electrical bill”. Feels good doesn’t it?
Was this tutorial useful to you? If you got stuck at any step on the way, drop a comment below and I’ll be happy to help!
27 Responses to “How to set up a renderfarm with Indigo”
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B_QAL
28. Apr, 2009
Does this setup requires 2 PC?
ROUBAL
28. Apr, 2009
At least 2 PC, of course : it is network rendering !
shakalu
28. Apr, 2009
great tut, thanks!
But is this applicable to Vista?
Lalo
28. Apr, 2009
could this method be used with ubuntu???
Andrew Price
01. May, 2009
I’m not sure about Ubuntu but I’m pretty sure Vista would use the same method…
Not that it matters now anyway, with Indigo going commercial on us. :(
http://bit.ly/WGTkn
Kit
07. May, 2009
do the master and slave work together? or does the slave do all the work?
Andrew Price
07. May, 2009
Hi Kit,
Pressing the ‘Working Master’ button makes both the Master and the Slave work together.
If you wanted only the slave to work, then you would need to start the master from the console similar to how you started the slave, but type an -m instead of an -s.
Hope this helps!
Arn Sweatman
19. May, 2009
Do you need a hub or some sort of router? Or can you do a simple “Add Network Place”?
Thanks for putting this together, Big Tiny!
w I Got a Free iPhone With Free iPhone Apps
23. May, 2009
I was just now googling around about this when I stumbled on your post. I’m only stopping by to say that I really liked reading this post, it is really well written. Are you planning topost more about this? It looks like there is more fodder here for future posts.
Florian Biester
31. May, 2009
When is the rendering done?? How long you rendered this picture in the Post?? Sorry for this stupid question, I make this rendering for the first time and my English is not the best to understand. I make an picture and it is rendering 10 hours and it is terrible, not so good as the picture in this post.
Andrew Price
31. May, 2009
Hi Florian,
That depends on two things: the scene you are rendering and the speed of your computer. My computer is about 6 months old and it rendered for about 1 hour (I think). I would recommend checking out the indigo forums (http://www.indigorenderer.com/) for tips on lowering your render times.
Florian Biester
03. Jun, 2009
Okay… i have rendered with my brother my PC : 2.6 GHZ core to duo, Nvidia 8800 GTX the PC from my Brother : 2.4 GHZ dual core Nvidia 9500 GT. At the end of the rendered picture is there shown an Infomation?? And I have another question: I have the problem Indigo rendered not the textures of blender can you help me ? soory again i´m a beginner
lechtitseb
07. Jun, 2009
Hi,
Thanks for the tutorial ;-)
BK
13. Jul, 2009
Thanks for the post!
Is it possible to use VPN to make a rendercommunity via internet….?
Tim
23. Sep, 2009
Thank you so much i was trying to build a cluster “supercomputer” and had no luck with os(s). your explaination is great easy to follow and best of all uses xp.
Not Important
18. Nov, 2009
hi, I have a question, can the farm use a PC that “DOES’NT” have a graphics card, or a broken one…….
my situation
saty9
19. Jan, 2010
will this work with vista
and how do the computers conect
Tim
28. Feb, 2010
one more question this should work on two separate os(s)
xp master, ubuntu slaves. I hope
Garrett Minley
16. Mar, 2010
Awesome article man, really! I was wondering how to set up a renderfarm, period, for Blender or Max or Maya, whatever. Then you come along and save the day!
I should snag Indigo before I have to pay :P
Also: if there is a Mac OS X version of Indigo, I would be able to pull this off on one yes/no? Eyeing one and wanted to see if it was doable.
You rock dude, thanks so much! Keep up the awesome work!
Etienne
26. Apr, 2010
Is it possible to run Indigo on a MacIntel (booted on the PC platform)??
Great post!
renderbender
01. May, 2010
can you distribute baking across a render farm?
Gungnir
17. May, 2010
@ Etienne:
I don’t see why not; it shouldn’t be any different than running on a Windows-based comp (except that it would be better :P).
@ Andrew Price:
How would one set up a renderfarm using Blender 2.5, without Indigo?
Viator
31. May, 2010
I have a maybe stupid question. I`m a pc technician and I understand all of this mostly. I am needing a high end renderfarm solution that I am building myself however, I have heard rumor that your systems all have to have the same components. Is this true? Basically if you have one system with an intel and a quadro, another with a amd and ati, and another old Pentium 4 or Pentium 3 system, does it just use what resources it can from each node? or does it all have to be the exact same build for each node? I know the exact same would be faster obviously I am just wondering if you HAVE to have the same system for each node?
Jack
09. Jun, 2010
would it work on mac or any linux
Addison
18. Jul, 2010
What programs do you have to install on the slave computer compared to the master computer? Do you need Blender installed on the slave, or just Indigo? Do I need to install Blendigo on the slave computer? Thanks, great tutorials!
SomanoxingCox
05. Sep, 2010
SELENA KANDI distort its intended meaning so ZAIDA
SomanoxingCox
10. Sep, 2010
ASHLIE KEELY questions, the single executive Pru