Generate .ifd files

To use Mantra Standalone, you need to generate .ifd files first.

You can create them yourself or let Royal Render create the .ifd files.


Generate .ifd files manually from within Houdini




Please follow these steps:

  • Open your Mantra Render output operator.
  • Enable "Disk File".
  • Render the node, it will create the sequence of .ifd files. 

  • To render the ifd files via RR:
    Start the rrSubmitter and load one if the .ifd files.
    The rrSubmitter recognizes the frame range of your sequence and output name.
    You can also start the rrSubmitter with the file as commandline parameter.




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Generate .ifd files via RR.

The generation job can be handled by RR.

Just apply the settings as shown above and submit the Houdini file.


The scene parser for Houdini creates 2 jobs:

  1. A Houdini generate .ifd job
  2. A Mantra render .ifd job.




Use .ifd.sc instead of .ifd !

.ifd.sc files are smaller than .ifd files.

Therefore we recommend to use them.

You just need to set the .ifd.sc file extension instead  of .ifd in your mantra node.

If you generate and render them via RR, then there is no difference at all.


If you have generated them manually without RR:

Then you have the issue that the rrSubmitter cannot read the contents of the .ifd.sc file. 

Therefore the workaround is to generate them manually, then submit your scene from within houdini and uncheck the generation job.





Errors


Freezed


Mantra requires to run the hserver.

If the hserver is not started before the rrClient starts to render, then mantra starts the hserver. 
hserver continues to run after Mantra finished. 
And as long as a child process (hserver) is running, the render script will not finish.


Workaround: Please start hserver with the system.
Please see https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/ref/utils/sesinetd.html


No render output


There is one issue with Mantra and RRender on some OS.

If you start the rrClient manually, then you can NOT render .ifd files.

You have to start the rrClientconsole or install the client as service.