---
title: "Distributed Rendering"
canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/VBLD/381288513/Distributed%20Rendering"
format: markdown
---
Setting up a host and dispatcher to start rendering your scenes on multiple machines.


## **Overview**

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Distributed Rendering is a technique intended to speed up rendering by dividing the rendered image into individual regions (buckets). Each machine on the network is then given a number of regions to render, and the machine that started the process gets the results and combines them into the final image.

In contrast to a regular Render Farm, where the rendering process is sped up by utilizing multiple render nodes to render multiple animation frames in parallel, Distributed Rendering is used to speed up the rendering of a single frame.

V-Ray uses the following convention to refer to the render nodes on the network:

- **Render Client** – The machine from which the rendering is started. It divides the frame into rendering regions and spreads it across the network. It distributes data for processing and collects the results.
- **Render Server** – One of the nodes on the network that does the rendering work. A Render Server requests render data from the Render Client, processes it, and sends the result back. If any of the servers fail, you will get a notification, and the Render Client will try to reassign the buckets to another server.
- **Render Dispatcher** – This can be the Render Client or another machine. The Render Dispatcher distributes the render regions to the Render Servers.


> ⚠️ Distributed Rendering is unavailable in the **V-Ray for Blender** **Community Edition**.


## **Steps to Set Up**

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**For macOS**

- Enter the following command in Terminal. Replace the xxxx with your Blender version:

```
/Library/Application Support/Blender/xxxx/scripts/addons/vray_blender/bin/VRayZmqServer/appsdk/vray.bin
```

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**3 **

**Optionally**, you can set up a Render Dispatcher to distribute the render job instead of the Render Client. This speeds up the process even further, but it is not necessary in most cases. To set up a separate machine as a Dispatcher, open that machine’s Command Prompt/Terminal and use the following command:


**For Windows:**

```
"%appdata%\Blender Foundation\Blender\xxxx\scripts\addons\vray_blender\bin\VRayZmqServer\appsdk\bin\vray.exe" -run-dispatcher=2
```

**For macOS:**

```none
/Applications/Chaos/V-Ray/Maya2026/vray/VRay.app/Contents/MacOS/vray.bin -run=dispatcher=2
```


Setting a value of 1 starts the machine in server mode with the ability to act as a DR Dispatcher. A value of 2 uses the Dispatcher to also help with the actual rendering. The Render Client, however, cannot be used as a Render Server with someone else's Dispatcher.

If you want the Render Client to act as both the Dispatcher and the Render Client, you don’t need to do any extra steps. Everything can be done on the Client side. 

> ⚠️ The Dispatcher cannot be changed during rendering.

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