Setup


First of all: 
Commandline rendering is not the same as the Cinema4D "NetRender" or "Team Render".
RR can only use commandline rendering.
This requires either a defaut UI license or a Commandline Render license.



Cinema4D has different license types:


1) Licenses via MAXON account.

Starting with version R21, there is a new license type.

It requires you to enter your credentials for your MAXON web account to get the licenses and lock it to your machine.


2) OLD: Node licenses

If you are NOT using a floating license server for Cinema4D:

You can use Cinema4D only to number of node licenses that you have.

This means you need one node license for each machine that should be used for rendering or UI or both. (You can render and work within the UI on the same machine).


3) OLD: Floating licenses

With Cinema4D R17, you need to buy commandline render licenses. 




License render farm nodes

There are two ways to license render farm machines:

  1. You EITHER have to login on each farm machine with the RR service user you specified in rrWorkstationInstaller.
    Then open a command prompt and start the Commandline.exe in your MAXON C4D folder.
    Please enter your credentials there.
    Note: Cinema4D.exe and Commandline.exe have separated license config files.

  2. OR you can edit the file [RR]\render_apps\_setenv\all\cinema 4d__inhouse.rrEnv and specify your license settings there.
    There are two possible settings you have to change depending on your license type:
    1. EITHER uncomment the line LicenseFlags and set your local floating license server
    2. OR uncomment the lines g_licenseusername and g_licensepassword and set your MAXON login details.
    3. You might neeed to change the license release options in the rrEnv file as well.
      More information on these options:
      https://support.maxon.net/hc/en-us/articles/1500006334941-Can-I-make-Cinema-4D-Organizational-Floating-Volume-licenses-release


Note that this does not work if you have C4D UI and C4D Commandline licenses in the same your account.
But you can create a new account and transfer the Commandline licenses only.
For this you have to login at MAXON, then create a group for each license type and at last assign this license group to a new login that you have created.
Then use this new login for the render farm.



Submission



First you have to run the rrWorkstationInstaller install the submission plugin.


In Cinema4D, you have to run the script as shown in the screenshot.



Farm-wide  plugin  installation (requires C4D R20+)


You can define a folder for your Cinema4D plugins.

RR will cache the folder into the local drive to save network traffic and improve speed.

Please edit the file [RR]\render_apps\_setenv\all\cinema 4d__inhouse.rrEnv with a text editor or [RR]/bin/../baEnvEditor


Change the line 

C4D_rrPluginFolder =  

to any folder you like.


You should use the variable  <rrExeVersionMajor> in the path, this will be replaced with the C4D version.

This way you have different paths for different C4D versions.


To verify the path, send a C4D job and check the render log in rrControl for the line

C4D_rrPluginFolder source path is set to 




Farm-wide   Redshift   installation  (requires C4D R20+)



Farm-Wide installation:

  • Install Redshift on your workstation.

  • Edit the file [RR]\render_apps\_setenv\all\cinema 4d__inhouse.rrEnv
    Change RR_REDSHIFT_NETWORK 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.
    (Example RedShift source path: RR_ROOT\render_apps\renderer_exe\cinema 4d\win_x64\Redshift_2.6.41 )

  • Copy all files and subfolders from c:\ProgramData\Redshift\     into that folder  (RR_ROOT\render_apps\renderer_exe\cinema 4d\win_x64\Redshift_2.6.41)

  • Copy the folder C:\Program Files\Maxon\Cinema 4D R00\plugins\Redshift into the "Plugins" subfolder of your new RedShift source path

Hint: To minimize the folder size, you can remove all other software packages form the Plugins subfolder of Redshift




Farm-wide   Octane   installation  (requires C4D R20+)



Farm-Wide installation:

  • Install Octane on your workstation.

  • Edit the file [RR]\render_apps\_setenv\all\cinema 4d__inhouse.rrEnv
    Change RR_OCTANE_NETWORK to 1.

  • Submit a render and check the render log file in rrControl. 
    Search for the line "Octane source path is set to". 
    Create this folder.
    (Example Octane source path: RR_ROOT\render_apps\renderer_exe\cinema 4d\win_x64\Octane_1.0 )

  • Copy all files and subfolders from your local Octane installation into that folder



For Octane Licensing issues, please see Octane Standalone.



Errors


Language Selection


Cinema4D uses localized names for rendering.

E.g. if you render in Stereo, the files are rendered into "Channel Left" or "Kanal Left" or ...


If you experience differences between machines, then you need to login with the renderfarm user and change the language in the Cinema4D preferences.



You can could also copy the preference file from one machine to an other.

The file is located in:

c:\Users\%Username%\AppData\Roaming\MAXON\CINEMA 4D R14_4A9E4467\prefs\c4d_language.prf

Agent does not respond


The Quicktime 64bit to 32bit agent is responsible for this message.

The bug was reported to MAXON.


If you do not use Quicktime, then you can rename the file "C:\Program Files\MAXON\CINEMA 4D R12\resource\libs\win32\qtguiagent.exe" to something else.


Error rendering project


Cinema4D does not output any error message besides "Error rendering project" if you render via commandline.

(Perhaps if many users request it?)


So if you get this error, you have to open the scene manually on that machine and try to render an image.

It is usually a missing texture or a non-existing output folder.


Stereo Render


There is a bug in Cinema4D (at least in C14):

If you check the setting to render into sub-folders, then Cinema crashes.

It even does not work with their own build-in render queue.