Are you renders taking too long? Do they tie up your PC for hours on end? Do you wish you could offload all of that onto another machine? Well, now you can.
Please take a moment to read this small FAQ, with more detailed instructions below. My contact details are at the bottom of this page.
There is TOS section at the bottom now which covers a lot of the use cases that have come up since the servers first inception. The TOS supercedes any info in the FAQ, but please contact me if you have any questions
How does it work?
You connect to the server from within Daz Studio and submit your renders to the queue (each render is referred to as a 'job'). The server then works through the queue. The advantages of this is two-fold. Firstly, as soon as the job has uploaded to the server (the time taken is dependant on the scene and your own upload speeds. etc) you are then free to continue to use Daz Studio, or you can close your PC down altogether. For detailed usage instructions, please see below.
If you resubmit a job (i.e change the render size, quality or iteration value) or add another image to the queue that is simply a change of camera position etc, the data is already cached on the server so upload times are greatly reduced.
For security, the uploaded data is stored in way that is not accessible directly to anything but the server software. So pre-release items are safe from unauthorized access/use from anyone (even myself as admin). This also addresses any copyright concerns, you're not actively distributing the files.
The jobs are rendered on a first come first serve basis, with the priority of each job being determined by your account type (see below for details)
Monitoring of your job is done via the Iray server web interface. You will be issued with your own username (numerical only for privacy reasons). Please note your job titles are public, so if you wish to preserve confidentiality, please name them accordingly. You can then watch the progress in real-time, as well as view details such as render time, iterations, quality etc.
You can copy jobs once completed and edit the resolution/iteration count/quality settings as well. Ideal for having quick low-res tests and then simply setting a final render version and letting it render away.
The server does not need to have the content on it prior to you submitting a job. The scene data is sent from your own machine, so it can be any content (store released or your own creation). Once the job is removed from the server, so is any data. The servers are connected to a symmetrical gigabit fibre line.
What are the specs?
Main (9090) | Backup (7070) | Animation/Dedicated (4040) |
---|---|---|
AMD Threadripper 2990WX |
AMD Threadripper 2950X |
AMD Threadripper 3970X |
How much does it cost?
The pricing is on a per-30 days flat rate (with different priority tiers). Since the server works on a first-come-first-served basis, the tiers used to assign a priority to the jobs are as follows:
Standard tier - $60 (for 30 days unlimited* use access)
Fast tier - $85 (for 30 days unlimited* use access)
VIP tier - $120 a month (for 30 days unlimited* use access)
Animations will be quoted individually on estimation of length etc
*All accounts are 'unlimited' in terms of how many renders you can submit in that period, however this is bound by a fair-use policy. This is protect the server from being abused and gives me the right to either cancel a job or bump it down the queue. For example, rendering 10's of images at super high resolution (say 5000 x 5000 or larger) - is politely prohobited unless it's without prior consent. If the server is quiet - then it's fine, but if it's busy please try to give everyone a fair go.
Standard have the default priority. The Fast tier is a higher priority, so any jobs on this tier will be rendered above any of the Standard jobs. VIP tier sits at the top, so any jobs in this tier go to the front of the queue. If there are is nothing in the queue, the priorities are irrelevant... whatever comes in gets rendered first. Remember, you can view the queue on the server before you submit a job (see the detailed instructions below).
If common-sense is used, then I won't have to intervene, so hopefully everyone can just use it as they normally would and everything will be fine. If I see what I feel is abnormal use/abuse of the server I will contact you to discuss a way forward.
Payments will be via handled via Paypal and a invoice sent each month Payment is due up front. Pay as you go accounts are billed monthly (around the first few days of the following month). Any refunds, either in full or in part will be at my discretion and not guarateed. By purchasing an account you agree to these terms. I don't guarantee specific amounts of up time - the machine is available 24/7, but if it is offline for any unforseen circumstances I will credit the time lost (but again at my discretion).
Can I try it?
Yes.. please contact me for a trial account. This is on the understanding of a single image is sent to the server, and small enough to be completed in 10-15 minutes. It's there to purely check your upload speed, the server, etc.
Does it render animations?
Iray server can, but due to the nature of the way it works, it needs to be on a dedicated server (not shared). I do offer animation rendering services outside of the standard access. Please refer to the pricing section for details and contact me for availability, details and quotes.
How do I sign up?
Email me at jack@jacktomalin.com for details.
I have a question and it's not on here!
Please feel free to contact me. If it's something obvious, I'll add it to this FAQ.
Server is not responding/displaying a error message
Please report the issue at http://www.jacktomalin.com/iray/support
I don't wish to use the server any more
Please just email me and let me know. It's becoming increasingly normal for people to just stop paying without any sort of communication (even after reminders are sent out). It's incredibly frustrating, and to be honest I'm getting tired of sending reminders. If the invoice is outstanding after a few weeks, I'll just delete the account. Please bear that in mind if you then ask to sign up again.
If you continue to use the server while ignoring any payment reminders, I will delete the account and then look to recover the oustanding usage at cost of $0.50 per minute.
Known Issues
- Smoothing occassionally has rendering issues, resulting in some poke-through (which is not visible in local views/renders). There seems to be a bug between Daz Studio and the Iray Server, results are usually easily corrected but still be aware of this potential problem.
- Wifi connections/Slow upload speed can cause issues transferring data to the server. It appears in a few instances wifi connections are problematic, for best results please use a wired connection to your home network and ensure you have a relatively decent bandwidth. The severs themselves are on a business, 1Gb up/down line, so it's as good as it will get here.
- If you have issues rendering with alpha maps, re-submit (Circular icon next to the stop button) and edit the job. Change the bit-depth (Under Buffers) to RGB only and it will render it 'flat'
- If you get job rejected, ensure you are not using and special characters in the job title. If the problem persists please let me know, the server will probably need a reboot.
Guidelines and Fair Use
Please note there are now two servers, port 9090 and 7070.
Please use one or the other, but if you use one, don't also submit your other jobs to the second server. Ideally if one goes down, one will stay up until I can reboot it.
Please set a reasonable time limit on your jobs. Should the server drop to CPU, it wll ensure the render doesn't jam the server up. 3600 seconds should be fine for most jobs, and if you need to resubmit (if it's grainy) then a maximum of 7200
Please try to limit the number of jobs submitted concurrently. If they are rendering in less than 10 minutes per frame, then you may upload in small batches (no more than 10 please) but do bear in mind that I might have to clear the cache - which means the queue will then also have to be cleared. So adding a lot of jobs risks losing all of those in the queue
Some people upload a lot of small images which render quickly, some just upload single images that take a while, please respect other users.
If you have used the server for a prolonged period and see other jobs stacking behind it, feel free to adjust the priority to 101+ so other jobs render first.
Privacy
The data is stored in a single cache file that is encrypted, so I or others can't access the data inside of it. I clear the cache regularly too, so it's never stored on the server for more than week at most.
Managing Expectations
Most people understand, but I've had a couple of people recently who think that their monthly subscription comes with a 100% job completion/uptime guarantee and I wanted to address this.
The server it prone to crashing when it encounters 'weird' jobs (heavy scenes, high sub-d settings) and that is out of my control. All I can do is reboot the machine, but if this is during the night, then it won't be until the next day. If you happen to upload a job which kills the server, and then upload the same job to the other server it will also take that offline and there is nothing I can do to stop that.
So please bear in mind, that there might be times where one or both servers are offline for a few hours. I make no guarantees, and they may be times where you upload a job which is too 'big' for the server and all I can is delete it.
Ensure you are using the latest version or newer of Daz Studio (currently 4.20). BETA versions are also supported.
Set up your scene as usual and save it, or, load the scene you wish to render
Check the render settings, ensure you have the max iterations/time/quality set approoriately.
Click on the Bridge tab.You will find the Bridge tab under Render Settings > Advanced > Bridge [BETA].
Enter the following details:
Server: irayrenderserver.com
Untick Secure Protocol
Your username and password
Click Add to Queue and enter a job name when prompted. Note this name (not image however) is viewable by anyone in the queue, so feel free to keep it as anonymous as you wish. No special characters in the job name either please (- / _ * etc). Please be patient while the scene is uploaded to the server. It may appear within Studio that it has frozen, but it is working. When the progress bar completes, the dialog boxes will disappear and you will then see the job on the server.
The main server port is 9090, but if you need to use the backup server, please change any instance of 9090 to 7070 and you will be on that server instead.
To monitor your job/queue open your web browser and enter http://irayrenderserver.com:9090 and log in with the same username and password above.
The Queue section is where you will see the current and queued jobs on the server. Each job has shows the owner, priority, title and progress. If it's your own job, you have the option to stop or copy the job also. Stopping the job will cancel the render and lose all progress that it has made. Note that this time taken will be included in your usage to be sure to only cancel if it's really necessary. If you wish to copy the job, you can do so and at the same time change any render parameters you wish.
Job priority is by defualt set to 100 for each user. Lower priorities will allow the job to jump the queue, but this won't be enabled unless it's critical to do so. On the whole, the server will operate on a first come first serve. If you see jobs on there with higher priorities, they will wait their turn.
The server does allow job orders to be changed by clicking the icon on the left of the row (3 dashes). While you are allowed to reorder your own jobs, please refrain from simply jumping above all the other jobs in the queue. Persistent offfenders will have their accounts immediately without warning. Again, this only works if everyone plays nice and fair.
Clicking on the job title will display the job details:
Once a job is complete, it moves to the Done section. From here, you can copy the job to re-render if you need to adjust any image settings (resolution, iterations etc). The names need to be unique:
Please remove your job from the server once you have downloaded it. I will periodically clear the cache and results folders to free up space, so leave renders on teh server at your own risk.
Cicking on the Results tab will allow you to see you're completed renders, along with a download link:
Once you have your completed render(s), you can then clear completed jobs using the Clear button in the Done section of the Queue tab:
I'm available either via email at jack@jacktomalin.com or Skype jack.tomalin
You can easily report an issue or see planned maintenance at https://www.jacktomalin.com/iray/support
Use of the server(s) means you agree with the following terms of service:
Please note that this is not my full time job. I offer this more as a community-driven endevour and any money made is invested back into the server (licensing, maintanence, upkeep etc). That said, I have had some issues recently with people using the server and then not paying, so my attitude of good will has worn a little thin.
As we can't use the honor system any more I have been forced to adopt the following:
1. There is no guaranteed uptime. While I endevour to ensure they are up as much as possible, I make no guarantees they will be always be up 24/7. I provide access to two servers - the goal that if one is down, hopefully the other is up. However if somone uploads a job that kills one (or one goes offline for an issue/maintenance), and then the other one has an issue - they will be down until I am either notified/check myself and fix the issue. Note that if this is outside of my waking hours, it may be 8 hours or more before they will be rebooted. While I will obviously not charge if it down for extended period, there might be periods where the servers are not accessible.
2. I reserve the right to cancel your account at any time and only offer refunds at my discretion. If you abuse the fair use policy, I will contact and ask that you adjust your usage. If you ignore that, then I will either limit your priority or cancel your account with no refund.
3. Late payments. I ask that inovices are paid promptly, please. Paypal sends out reminders 3 days before it's due, and 7 days after (weekly, 3 times). So if you wish to cancel please just email me.
If I'm aware that you will pay on a set date after the invoice, that is fine - but PLEASE LET ME KNOW. If there is no sign of payment after I have emailed to chase it up, I will just simply disable the account until payment is made. I hate doing this, but there have been a lot of people taking advantage of this and it needs to stop. If you're consistentlt late, again I will just cancel the account. I don't have time to chase these payments up, but at the same time I am not going to let people abuse the servers.
4. It is your responsibilty to email me to cancel your subscription. While payment is never automatically taken, it is frustrating that users just simply stop paying as notice of termination. Given point #3, people then just continue to use the service and then vanish as soon as the account is deativacted. This needs to stop.
5. Use of the server outside of a paid subscription will be charged at a rate of $0.50 a minute. It is your repsonsibility to check you have an active, paid subscription. A working login does not imply this is paid. I sadly can't automate this just yet, so please ensure your account payment is up to date before you use the server
6. Do not share you account details. You are repsonsible for your account and the access granted with it, regardless of who uses it. If it's used and you don't know and don't pay, you are responsible for covering the cost regardless.
7. In the event that the server is used without a paid subscrption, I will be in touch to arrange settlement as set out in #5. If the email requests for payment are ignored, I will be handing over these invoices to a debt recovery company.