The files necessary for network rendering are copied to the Backburner root directory when you install 3ds Max. Two of these files, manager.exe and server.exe, require initialization before they can be run. Set up the Manager program first, then the Server. When you're finished, you can start network rendering. After setup, you can run both Manager and Server as services by installing managersvc.exe and serversvc.exe, respectively.
You need to initialize only one machine as network Manager. This can be any machine on the network, and can be used on a machine running the Server, 3ds Max, or both.
You need to initialize every machine used as a rendering Server. This is done once to establish the connection between the rendering Server and the network Manager.
The Manager and Server programs can be run in application mode as explained in the procedures that follow, or as Windows 2000 or XP services, in which case they run in the background and provide less feedback on the progression of the rendering job. To learn more about installing these programs as services, see Installing Network Services.
Initialization is done only once for each service. Each initialization process creates or updates the following:
To initialize the Manager program:
The first time you launch the Manager, it creates the backburner.xml file, which stores the manager configuration settings.
The Backburner Manager General Properties dialog also appears the first time you run Manager. In most cases, you can safely proceed by accepting the default settings and clicking OK. Thereafter, you can modify the configuration settings by choosing Edit menu General Settings to open the General Properties dialog. For the new settings to take effect, you need to close the manager and restart it.
The settings in the General Properties dialog are described in depth in Backburner Manager General Properties Dialog.
To initialize the Server program:
The first time you run Server, its General Properties dialog appears.
At this point, do not make any other changes in the Backburner Server General Properties dialog. Settings in the this dialog are described in detail in Backburner Server General Properties Dialog.
This updates the The backburner.xml File file, which now stores the Server configuration settings. The next time the Server is run, the application is launched and the configuration settings are used.