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Installation On Render Nodes

Overview

  • Krakatoa for 3ds Max currently ships in two packages:
    • Standard - one workstation license plus two network licenses
    • Professional - two workstation licenses plus ten network licenses
  • The Krakatoa Installer can be used to install the plugin on a Workstation.
  • In order to use Krakatoa for network rendering, you have to
  1. Copy the plugin files to the network or each network machine
  2. Add the Krakatoa plugin path to the plugin.ini file of each 3ds Max copy on the network to be used with Krakatoa.
  3. Copy the TBB.DLL to the root folder of each 3ds Max copy on the network to be used with Krakatoa.
  4. Set up the Registry to get a network rendering license.

How Does Krakatoa Startup Work?

Let's first take a look at how the typical workstation installation of Krakatoa launches its components on 3ds Max startup.

  • On a 64 bit Windows OS, Krakatoa will be installed by default in C:\Program Files (x86)\Prime Focus\Krakatoa\
  • This root folder contains several sub-folders that host the plugins for various versions of 3ds Max, the Scripts, Icons, Bitmaps etc.
    • For example, the plugin folder for 3ds Max 2010/2011 is located under C:\Program Files (x86)\Prime Focus\Krakatoa\3dsMax2010\x64.
    • Inside this plugin folder, there is
      • a MaxKrakatoa.DLR file compiled for the specific build of 3ds Max,
      • a file called KrakatoaStartup.ms which is a MAXScript file that triggers the loading of the scripted components of the system,
      • the TBB.DLL file which corresponds to the build of 3ds Max (32/64 bit)
      • and a sub-folder called "Helium" containing the respective build of the Helium schematic control extension by Lumonix.net.
  • When the "Add Krakatoa to 3ds Max" Wizard is run,
    • It adds the path to the plugin folder matching the selected version of 3ds Max to the plugin.ini file of 3ds Max;
    • It also adds the path to the Helium plugin located one folder deep in the plugin folder of Krakatoa to the plugin.ini;
    • And it makes sure the root folder of the selected 3ds Max version contain the file TBB.DLL used by Krakatoa for multi-threading (Max 2011 ships with its own version of the TBB.DLL file).
  • When 3ds Max is launched, the plugin.ini file causes it to load the MaxKrakatoa.DLR and the Helium.DLX files.
  • When MaxKrakatoa.DLR is loaded, it resolves its current location, removes the last two sub-folders and stores the result in a property called .KrakatoaHome. In the above case, the KrakatoaHome property will point at C:\Program Files (x86)\Prime Focus\Krakatoa\
  • 3ds Max has the feature to launch any script file found in a path listed in the plugin.ini file or in a sub-folder of such path.
    • Since the file KrakatoaStartup.ms is located in such a plugin path, it will be evaluated by 3ds Max when the loading of startup script files is performed.
    • The KrakatoaStartup.ms will make sure all icon and bitmap files are up to date and will force the loading of the various scripted components of the Krakatoa system. 
 As you can see from the above description, as long as the plugin folder containing 
 the MaxKrakatoa.DLR file is two folders deeper than the root containing the \Scripts
 folder and the TBB.DLL is copied into the root of 3ds Max, the startup can be performed
 regardless of the actual location of the Krakatoa installation folder!

Copying Krakatoa Installations

  • Because of the above startup procedure, it is possible to take an existing installation of Krakatoa from one computer and copy the relevant files to ANY other location (both other computers or a network drive) as long as the relative order of all sub-folders located in the Krakatoa installation folder is preserved.
  • To copy Krakatoa to a different location without running the installer again,
  1. Locate the existing installation of Krakatoa on the source computer (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Prime Focus\Krakatoa\)
  2. Copy the \Krakatoa folder with all its sub-folders to the target location.

Possible Pitfalls

  • Some users might decide to copy the Krakatoa root folder directly into the \Plugins\ folder of 3ds Max, or inside another path listed in the plugin.ini file - this is a BAD IDEA.
    • When 3ds Max starts, it scans all folders listed in the plugin.ini including a recursive scan of all sub-folders thereof and loads every MAXScript file it can find there.
    • Thus, if the Krakatoa folder structure was duplicated inside ANY plugin.ini-listed path, ALL scripts located in the Krakatoa\Scripts folder will also be run automatically on startup and since they are not supposed to be run that way, will cause startup script errors and general headache.
    • Instead, either copy Krakatoa directly as a sub-folder of the 3dsMax root directory, or create a new sub-folder of 3dsMax root (e.g. \PrimeFocus or \PFSoftware or something like that) without including it in the plugin.ini and then copy Krakatoa into it.

Network Deployment Options

  • Depending on the existing structure of your render network, you might decide to deploy Krakatoa in one of the following ways:

Installing on each network machine

  • Krakatoa could be added to each network machine you intend to render on.
  • While it is possible to run the installer on each machine as described in the topic Installing Krakatoa On A Workstation, this might not be feasible on large networks with 100+ nodes.
  • Instead of running the Installer on each render node, you can simply copy an existing installation from a workstation or one render node to all render nodes while following the guidelines for copying Krakatoa listed above.
  • The most straight-forward way would be to
  1. copy the complete installation path, thus ending up with a Krakatoa installation under C:\Program Files (x86)\Prime Focus\Krakatoa,
  2. then copy the Helium and Krakatoa entries from the plugin.ini file of the existing installation into the plugin.ini file of the target machine
  3. and finally copy the TBB.DLL (if it doesn't exist yet) from the source machine's 3ds Max root folder into the 3ds Max root folder on the target machine.
  • Alternatively, if you want to include Krakatoa into the sub-folder structure of 3ds Max, you can do so by copying the Krakatoa folder as a sub-folder of the 3ds Max root and pointing the plugin.ini file at that location.
    • NEVER copy the MaxKrakatoa.DLR into the \Plugins folder because that would break the KrakatoaHome scripts loading mechanism described earlier on this page.

Installing on a network drive

  • Using the same approach for copying an existing Krakatoa to a new location, you can create a central Krakatoa repository on a network drive and let all machines on the network (network render nodes, workstations or both) load from the same location by changing the plugin.ini file of 3ds Max to point there.
  • For example, if you have copied the installation of Krakatoa from C:\Program Files (x86)\Prime Focus\Krakatoa\ to M:\plugins\Krakatoa where M: is a mapped drive pointing at a network share, and you want to add this new path to 3ds Max 2010 64 bit, all you have to do is add the entries 
 Krakatoa=M:\plugins\Krakatoa\3dsMax2010\x64
 Helium=M:\plugins\Krakatoa\3dsMax2010\x64\Helium

to the plugin.ini of the 3ds Max 2010 64 bit installation and ensure the TBB.DLL is in the root folder of 3ds Max.

  • For the other builds of 3ds Max (9/2008,2009, 32 or 64 bit), just use the respective plugin sub-folder matching the build and version.

Network Licensing Installation

  • Once you have set up your 3ds Max installations to access the Krakatoa plugin, you have to make sure the renderer will be able to acquire a valid floating license.
    • Note that network rendering is not supported in Evaluation mode or with Node-Locked Licensing and requires a valid commercial package with a floating license to function.
  • Please see the sub-topic Configuring Licensing On Render Nodes for the necessary steps to set up the licensing on render nodes by modifying the Windows Registry.