Using The Mental Ray Submit Script

To use the MentalRay submit script, you should first make a copy of the script to a network drive accessible by all machines on your network. (Since this script calls itself as a render script, it must be accessible by all machines via the same path)

  1. Install the submit-mray.pl script on a network drive.

    This should have already been setup for you by the person who installed the rush software.

    In place of the following example, use an absolute path that can be accessed by your entire network:

    	   UNIX: cp /usr/local/rush/examples/submit-mray.pl /server/jobs/rush
    	WINDOWS: copy c:\rush\examples\submit-mray.pl \\server\jobs\rush
    	    

  2. Invoke the script from the network drive.

    Use the full pathname to the script, eg:

    	    /server/jobs/rush/submit-mray.pl
    	    
    The interface should pop up. If it doesn't, verify the first line in the script's path points to the correct location of your perl binary.

    Click the help button (buttons with '?') for any field you want to know more about.

    When the GUI pops up, note there are various 'Advanced Options' available if you scroll the window down.

  3. Enter the full path to your pre-written .mi files.

    This should be an absolute path to one of the .mi files, with either %d or %04d in place of the frame number.

    Under Windows, you should use UNC absolute pathnames, such as //server/jobs/HONDA/SC4A/mi-files/foo.%04d.mi

  4. Enter the pathname for the output images.

    This should be an absolute path to the output image directory, with either %d or %04d in place of the frame number.

    Under Windows, you should use UNC absolute pathnames, such as //server/jobs/HONDA/SC4A/images/foo.%04d.rgb

  5. Enter the frame range to render.

    This is the range of frames you want to render; normally two values separated by a dash, eg. '1-100'.

    You can also specify individual frames, multiple ranges, or cobinations of both, eg. '1 10 20-30 400-900', which would render frames 1, 10, 20 through 30, and 400 through 900.

  6. Enter the cpus to use.

    In our case, lets use any 5 available cpus at the lowest priority:

      
    	    +any=5@1
    	    

  7. Advanced Options.

    Advanced Options are optional. To see them, use the scroll bar to scroll down to check their settings.

    Click the help button (buttons with '?') for any field you want to know more about.

  8. Hit 'Submit'.

    This should submit your job, and a window indicating the jobid should pop up, followed by an irush interface with the jobid already set to the new job.

    The next time you bring up the submit form, it will have all the values set from the last execution. Note that you can save and load you data entries for easy retrieval.

    For more info on the irush interface, see the irush tutorial.

  9. Monitor the job.

    Hit 'Frames' in irush to watch the progress of your job.
    If some frames are running, or got done already, click on some, and hit 'Logs' to see the output of the perl commands you entered.

  10. Dump the job when you're done.

    When you're finished with the job, hit 'Dump' in irush.