Hi -
I’m working on a project that is being rendered with Vray, but I am using KT collision operators in my Particle Flows. If I do though, I can’t render with Vray’s distributed render system unless KT is installed on all the machines. Is it possible to do this, or would I need node licenses for my DR machines in order to use the KT pflow tools?
Thanks /b
A LICENSE is needed for each machine that will render Krakatoa, or use the features that require a license.
The Evaluation mode has all features enabled except for the watermarked output AND the disabled Collision and Geometry Test operators. So when we sell a floating license, the network machines pull from the pool of network licenses (one workstation seat comes with two additional network licenses, the Pro package has two workstation and 10 network licenses). We also sell additional network licenses.
That being said, I am not quite sure whether the VRay distributed rendering runs Max in network mode or workstation mode (I assume the former, but I have never done that). If that is the case, and you had enough Krakatoa network licenses, then the setup would work.
We might have to rethink this policy - if there is ONE valid floating workstation license installed, even if it is used up, the PFlow operators should probably get enabled in network mode - similar to how VRay checks if there is a license installed but does not pull licenses when network rendering.
EDIT: After a quick internal discussion, it was decided to change the policy for v1.6.0 and enable the PFlow operators if there is a floating license without checking out a license (the same way VRay network rendering works). This will affect both network and workstation mode - if a studio has one workstation license of Krakatoa, all machines in the studio will have the Krakatoa PFlow operators enabled. But a node-locked license won’t work because the other machines won’t see it.
Thanks Bobo -
Just to make sure I’m clear: what you are calling a “node-locked” license would be a render node license? I have the basic package of 1 workstation and 2 nodes but I don’ t remember any options about floating or node-locked, so I’m guessing the workstation license is always a floating one?
b
No.
When you buy the basic package, you basically get to install FlexLM service and that distributes licenses to one workstation and up to two network nodes. ANY workstation on the network can pull a license, so it is the floating kind.
We sometimes cut a node-locked license that does NOT run a FlexLM service but has a license file on the machine and the license is valid ONLY on that machine. No network rendering is provided. That’s for example what I run at home since I don’t have a render farm there and don’t need the hassle of dealine with a FlexLM service. No other machine can use that license, only the one with the MAC address specified in the license file. (So I need a separate node-locked license for my wife’s laptop, for example). It is possible to request a 15 days trial in node-locked form, but I don’t think we sell node-locked licenses.
So I am quite sure you have a floating license, otherwise you wouldn’t have the two network licenses in the package.
Ok - thanks. Appreciate the clarification
b