Setup

You have two options to use Blender with RR

1) Local install

You need to install Blender on each client.

2) As a shared executable 

You can copy all Blender versions you need into the RR folder and all Clients can use it.

1) Local Install. Blender Installation Folder

Blender 2.x:
By default the Blender 2.x installer creates the blender executable in c:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\blender.exe.

And the version of your blender installation is a subfolder named e.g. 2.78.

We highly recommend to change the installation folder that it contains the version as well:

C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender_2.78\blender.exe.

Otherwise it is not possible to use different Blender versions for different scenes/projects.
The rrClient would not be able to switch Blender to the right version.

2) Shared executable 

Recommended.

Copy the file RR\render_apps\_config\additional\3D19__Blender__inhouse.inc

into the folder RR\render_apps\_config\

Please see file 3D19__Blender__inhouse.inc for further installation instructions.

Submission

The submission plugin will be installed by running the rrWorkstationInstaller.

Please use the "Submit Scene" button as shown on this screenshot:

Variables

Blender might does not support variables like <camera> or <scene> in the output name.

But you can use the following variables instead inside Blender. The submitter will convert them on load.

Just use this placeholder including brackets [] as part of the filename.

• [Layer]
• [Camera]
• [User]
• [LocalHost]
• [CompanyProject]
• [Scene]
• [SceneFolder]
• [SceneState]
• [Database]
• [DatabaseName] 

Render Log

RR removes all log output that is printed while Cycles initializes the scene with its geometry and loads textures.
You may show these log messages again in your render log if you change the rrJob Setting "Verbose Level" to "Debug".

Custom Addons

Install Addons:

Copy all your custom addon folders into 

RR\render_apps\renderer_prefs\blender\win_x64\<Blender Version>\scripts\addons\...

This folder is copied into the user preferences used by the rrClient.

It does not interfere with the user prefs of the artist.

If you have installed the plugins on your local machine, then you can copy them from your local machine.
On Windows please open a Windows Explorer and enter the path  %AppData%\Blender Foundation\Blender.

There you will see subfolders of each <Blender Version>.

Create the corresponding version folder in RR\render_apps\renderer_prefs\blender\win_x64\

and create the subfolders \scripts\addons.

Open the local folder %AppData%\Blender Foundation\Blender\<Blender Version>\scripts\addons\
Now copy the plugin folder from the local addon folder to RRs addon folder.

Load Addons:

Blender does not load addons automatically if the scene requires them.

Please open the Text Editor in Blender via the tab "Scripting".

You have to change the name from "Text" to e.g. LoadPlugins.py (it requires a .py extension).

The script does not require to be saved, Blender keeps this script with the Blender scene.

Add these lines to the script and change "MyNiceAddon" to the name of your addon.
(you can add multiple lines for different addons)

import addon_utils

addon_utils.enable("MyNiceAddon")
print("*** Loaded custom addon ***")

Note: 
RR has already implemented this script for Redshift and LuxCore.

Redshift

Please follow the steps above "Install Addons" to install the Redshift addon.
("Load Addons" is not required, this is already implemented into RR)

Optional: Farm-wide Install

It is possible to enable a farm-wide shared Redshift folder for Royal Render.
This way you are not required to install Redshift on each machine and ensure that all clients use the same Redshift version.
And you can use different Redshift versions for different jobs.

• Edit [RR]\render_apps\_setenv\all\blender__inhouse.rrEnv with the baEnvFile_Editor (or any text editor).
  Search for RR_REDSHIFT_NETWORK  and set it to = 1
  
  
  
• Submit a render and check the render log file in rrControl. 
  Search for the line "RedShift source path is set to".
  Create this folder.
  
  
  
• Copy files and subfolder from your local Redshift installation C:\ProgramData\Redshift\ into that folder.

LuxCore

Please follow the steps above "Install Addons" to install the Redshift addon.
("Load Addons" is not required, this is already implemented into RR)

Cycles GPU rendering

There are three rrJob settings that control the GPU render of Cycles.