--- title: "Distributed Rendering" canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/VSKETCHUP/109794676/Distributed%20Rendering" format: markdown --- This page provides details on the Distributed Rendering rollout in the V-Ray Asset Editor. Overview Distributed rendering is a technique that utilizes multiple computers to render a single scene or image. This approach can significantly accelerate the rendering process, particularly for intricate scenes with high-quality textures. UI Path ||V-Ray Asset Editor|| > Settings > Distributed Rendering   Distributed Rendering Distributed rendering is a technique that utilizes multiple computers to render a single scene or image. This approach can significantly accelerate the rendering process, particularly for intricate scenes with high-quality textures. Enabled – Turns Distributed Rendering on and off. Mode – Selects between Classic DR and Swarm Mode. Swarm The new V-Ray Swarm is a web-based distributed rendering system. It’s a simple, yet powerful way to split your rendering across multiple computers. All Swarm instances in the cluster should use the same Swarm version. Download the latest V-Ray Swarm version. V-Ray SWARM ( ) – Opens up the V-Ray Swarm web interface of the current machine. Alternatively, it can be accessed by typing in the IP address of the current machine on the default port 1113. This allows you to see the swarm render node machines available for rendering jobs in your network. You can see which of the render node machines are connecting to the particular machine that is casting out the render to the Swarm by the IP address next to its status. This interface also allows you to configure the render node machines, tag them, or monitor their resource utilization while rendering. Each machine participating in the render job, including the workstation initiating the rendering process, requires a V-Ray Render Node license. It is important to prepare the network of nodes that take part in the render job before beginning the rendering process. To set up your origin node , follow the steps on the How To Set Up Swarm Clusters page. If there are multiple origins, remove the redundant ones by closing the Origin script command lines on all machines except for one. Then, make sure to restart the Swarm service on the non-Origin machines. Tags Tags allow you to tag this node with a descriptor that defines something about the machine, which we can later use to selectively control from inside SketchUp. For example, tags can denote whether this machine is one of a few with a powerful GPU or if it is not a workstation or a node on a render farm. For information on how to use Tags, see the Swarm Configuration page.   Once the render process is initiated, machines marked with the selected tags load the scene and assist with the rendering. Classic DR The new Classic DR feature allows you to configure their Distributed Rendering setup manually. To use this mode, you have to set the V-Ray running machines in server mode as render nodes, and to configure the client UI with the Host names and ports of those nodes. + – Adds a new host to the host list. – Enables or disables hosts for rendering. This checkbox allows the host to be kept in the list without participating in the DR process. IP/Name – Displays the host IP or name. Port – Specifies the host port. As of V-Ray 7.30.00, the default port is 20209 (older versions default to 20207). x – Deletes the host from the host list. Host information is stored at system level and made available across projects of the same installation, so it does not have to be configured for every project. Render Node Setup To use the Classic DR mode, all render nodes need to have the same V-Ray version installed. Here is how to enable this. Installing V-Ray Standalone Run the V-Ray Installer. On the Host App Version screen, uncheck all versions. Click the Advanced button to continue. Additional Components On the Additional Components screen, select V-Ray Standalone and complete the installation.  Running V-Ray Standalone as Server This installation provides a Windows shortcut that can be used to run V-Ray directly as a server.  Obtaining Server Port Start the V-Ray Server and locate the port displayed in the command output. Obtaining Server IP The IP can be obtained by executing the ipconfig command in a separate Command Prompt. There might be multiple IP addresses depending on the configuration of the machine. Which one to use depends on how the server is accessed (wireless, Ethernet, etc). Don't Use Local Machine When enabled, the local machine is not used for rendering, while the other Swarm nodes are rendering the image.  Second Generation Distributed Rendering Distributed Rendering (DR2), introduced in V-Ray 7.30.00, improves on the first-generation DR in a number of ways: Limitless scaling with bucket rendering. The more machines are added to the rendering job, the faster the rendering. The first generation of DR (DR1) reaches a practical limit of how many machines can effectively participate in rendering. Improved progressive rendering. Bucket rendering still offers better scalability in DR, because of the more efficient way of splitting the work between many servers. Improved caching mechanism. Repeating the same frame that uses the same assets on the same Render Servers is instantaneous. DR2 uses bucket splitting. This avoids long wait times or stopping at the final bucket. Footnotes Overall Bucket image sampler is recommended for production distributed rendering jobs.