Mental Ray Satellite 3.7.1.27 Questions

[nightshifter]

Hello, new to the the forum! Hope I could find some answers here because I'm out of ideas.

I'm currently using Maya 2009 Sp1 on the master, and Mental Ray Satellite on the Slave.
Both running Windows 7 x64. Okay, here's the thing.

I'm using a render that takes about 56 secs without using the slave. When I use the slave it takes 52 secs (oh boy ). Now, when I watch the cpu usage on the slave, the rendering don't kick in until 1/3 through the render. Then when it does, it only uses 4 cpus (core i7 920) without the threads. So only 4 cpu banks are pegging near 100% which is only using 50% cpu usage.
So why does MRS kick in so late and why only 4 instead of 4X2 threads, all 8 cpus! :/

Another question: also, Batch render, is there suppose to be some info in the output window, because nothing happens there when i run a Batch Render. I wish Batch Render would use the cpus more. It seems, Batch render uses less than Frame Render.

I also get that error in the beginning...

mental ray for Maya 10.0
mental ray: version 3.7.1.27, Jan 26 2009, revision 30548
mental ray: got 8 satellite CPUs.
MEM 0.0 info : heap size limit set to 5910 MB
MSG 0.0 info : adding new host 1 (192.168.0.65:7109)
MSG 0.0 error 011329: mi-ray/tcp: not a service (check %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\services)
MSG 0.0 warn 012219: using fallback inet service 7003
JOB 0.0 info : started threads 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 on 192.168.0.65:7109 now known as host 1
API 0.0 warn 302018: type conflict: "color" is type color, "maya_color_to_vector" returns type vector
API 0.0 warn 302042: while defining material "lambert2SG": displace shader "hotOcean" in material "lambert2SG" returns a struct, expected color or scalar
PHEN 0.3 info : -----------------------------------------------
PHEN 0.3 info : mayabase version 10.8, compiled on Apr 8 2009.

I don't know, there's something not right because people posts their times and they are nearly 40% less, when mine are only 5%... firewalls are off, anti-virus programs all off... I didn't foward any ports in the router, but i don't think i have to since it's a LAN. port 7109 is for 2009.
What can I do to fix the error and increase the response and speed it all up so it's worth using ?

thanks for the help

[steve]

I guess this post really belongs into the Maya section. Anyway.

Originally Posted by nightshifter

So why does MRS kick in so late and why only 4 instead of 4X2 threads, all 8 cpus! :/

Most probably because your (quick) render has almost finished on the master before the data has even been transported to the slave. Satellite rendering pays off most in case of looong lasting renders of reasonably small scenes. The limited CPU usage on the satellite may be caused by your Maya license model (Complete vs. Unlimited).

Originally Posted by nightshifter

Batch render, is there suppose to be some info in the output window, because nothing happens there when i run a Batch Render. I wish Batch Render would use the cpus more. It seems, Batch render uses less than Frame Render.

Maya batch render can be launched from within Maya UI, or outside using the Render command. When started inside Maya it actually runs in a separate process but reports some progress back into Maya's Script Editor, and writes the full log to a file I think. Using the Render command you can set a verbosity level to see the messages you want.

Originally Posted by nightshifter

I also get that error in the beginning...

MSG 0.0 error 011329: mi-ray/tcp: not a service (check %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\services)
MSG 0.0 warn 012219: using fallback inet service 7003

Looks like incomplete installation and registration of the Satellite on the master host. If you attach slave machines by IP address in x.x.x.x form you are fine I think. If you use host names instead to attach a slave machine then this error indicates some trouble, and may result in a wrong machine to be used, or none at all. I guess thats a good question to Autodesk Support.

Hope this help, Steve.