The information displayed by Status Display depends on what you select in the Job Queue list.
If you select the Render Queue text, Status Display shows two tabbed panels:
Manager Status and Manager Configuration: Provide information based on the current setup of the machine that is running the network manager, including job and server statistics, and the manager’s system configuration.
If you select a job in the Job Queue, four alternate panels become available:
Job Summary: Provides the most commonly referenced information, including estimated time to completion, output image size, and the number of frames processed.
Advanced: Displays rendering parameters that were set in the Render Scene dialog, scene statistics, and the gamma settings.
Server Statistics: Displays all servers that participated in the given project, plus their average time, in seconds, spent rendering frames. In addition, a percentage value offers information on the relative speed of the listed servers. The fastest machine is rated at 100 percent, while the other servers are rated as percentages of the fastest. Each machine is rated by measuring the time it takes to complete each frame, and the accumulated time is divided by the number of frames, resulting in the average time per frame, in seconds. The machine with the shortest time receives the 100 percent rating. A machine whose average was twice as long would receive a 50 percent rating.
Note: There are several factors that affect a machine's performance. CPU power isn't necessarily a concern when large file transfers are involved. For example, if a certain job uses several map files from a centralized server, the performance of the network throughput will play a much larger part than CPU performance as most machines will spend the majority of the time reading maps. On the other hand, if the machine has all maps locally it will have a huge advantage (local access versus network access) regardless of which CPU it is using. The Server Statistics panel provides you with information regarding your servers’ rendering performance to help analyze your network rendering setup and better distribute the work load.
Log File: Displays the job log file including the history of each frame assignment, completion by server, and any errors 3DS MAX encountered while attempting to render a job.
If you select a server in the Job Queue, three alternate panels become available:
Server Status: Displays the current staus of the selected server for a specific job.
System: Displays the system configuration for the selected server, including processor and memory status.
Log File: Shows the history of frames completed by the selected server for a specific job and any error encountered by the server.
Note: If a server has failed to render a job, this is the first place you should look to determine the reason for the failure. When a server is highlighted, the Log File panel displays the errors encountered by a server during rendering, including missing maps, missing texture coordinates, invalid output directories, etc.
Activating and Deactivating Jobs in the Queue
Activating and Deactivating Servers in the Queue
Scheduling Hours of Activity for the Servers