5 Rendering takes a section of the timeline, \index{active region} performs all the editing,
6 effects and compositing, and creates a new media file. You can then
7 delete all the source assets, play the rendered file, or bring it
8 back into \CGG{} for more editing. All rendering operations are
9 based on a region of the timeline to be rendered. You need to
10 define this region on the timeline. The rendering functions define
11 the region based on a set of rules. When a region is highlighted or
12 in/out points are set, the affected region is rendered. When no
13 region is highlighted, everything after the insertion point is
14 rendered. By positioning the insertion point at the beginning of a
15 track and unsetting all in/out points, the entire track is rendered.
16 But you also have the choice to render \textit{one frame}.
18 \section{Single File Rendering}%
19 \label{sec:single_file_rendering}
20 \index{rendering!single file}
22 Use the \textit{File} pulldown and select Render to start the render dialog
23 (figure~\ref{fig:render}). Then choose the desired parameters.
25 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
26 \includegraphics[width=0.5\linewidth]{render.png}
27 \caption{Example of the Render menu}
32 \item[Select a file to render to:] enter the path and filename to
33 write the rendered file to in the textbox below.
34 \item[File Format:] \index{file format} use the down arrow to see file format options.
35 For ffmpeg, which has its own set of options, you will then have to
36 select an ffmpeg file type from the down arrow choices. The format
37 of the file determines whether you can render audio or video or
39 \item[Render audio tracks:] check this toggle to generate audio
41 \item[Render video tracks:] check this toggle to generate video
42 tracks. The Render window will sometimes automatically update the
43 Render Audio Tracks or Render Video Tracks checkbox as allowed by
44 the chosen file format, but you should always check
45 (figure~\ref{fig:render01}). For example, if the PNG file format is
46 selected, only the \textit{Render Video Tracks} will be checked. Or
47 if an ffmpeg format is chosen and the file format does not render
48 audio, the \textit{Render Audio Tracks} will be unchecked. The
49 invalid choices will be ghosted out.
52 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
53 \includegraphics[width=0.7\linewidth]{render01.png}
54 \caption{Audio and Video tracks automatically checked for Pro file
60 \item[Wrench:] \index{wrench} select the \textit{wrench} next to each toggle to set
61 compression parameters. If the file format can not store audio or
62 video the compression parameters will be blank. If \textit{Render
63 audio tracks} or \textit{Render video tracks} is selected and the
64 file format does not support it, trying to render will result in an
65 error message. More details in the section:
66 \nameref{sub:extra_cin_option_ffmpeg}
67 \item[Create new file at each label] the option causes a new file to
68 be created when every label in the timeline is encountered – a
69 separate file for each. This is useful for dividing long audio
70 recordings into individual tracks. When using the Render Farm
71 (described later), \textit{Create new file at each label} causes one
72 render farm job to be created at every label instead of using the
73 internal load balancing algorithm to space jobs. If the filename
74 given in the render dialog has a 2 digit number in it, the 2 digit
75 number is overwritten with a different incremental number for every
76 output file. If no 2 digit number is given, \CGG{} automatically
77 concatenates a number to the end of the given filename for every
78 output file. For example, in the filename
79 \texttt{/movies/track01.wav} the $01$ would be overwritten for every
80 output file. The filename \texttt{/movies/track.wav}; however,
81 eventually would become \texttt{/movies/track.wav001} and so on.
82 Filename regeneration is only used when either render farm mode is
83 active or creating new files for every label is active.
84 \item[Render range:] \index{active region} choices are \textit{Project} \index{project},
85 \textit{Selection}, \textit{In/Out points}, and \textit{One Frame}
86 for single images like Tiff. For these images, Render range will
87 have \textit{One Frame} automatically checked and all of the others
88 ghosted since nothing else makes sense (figure~\ref{fig:render02}).
89 This makes it easy to set the insertion point where you want the 1
90 frame to be rendered rather than having to precisely zoom in to set
91 the in/out pointers. Note that whichever Render range is checked,
92 remains checked so that if \textit{One Frame} gets automatically
93 checked, the next time you render it will still be checked and you
94 will have to select a different one if desired. That is why you
95 should always check the settings.
98 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
99 \includegraphics[width=0.7\linewidth]{render02.png}
100 \caption{Render menu displaying a PNG \textit{one frame} option}
105 \item[Beep on done:] as a convenience when a render is complete,
106 check this box. It gives you the chance to work on something else
107 while waiting and still be immediately notified when the render is
109 \item[Render Profile:] \index{rendering!profile} another convenience feature to take advantage
110 of if you use specific render formats frequently, is to save that
111 profile for future usage without having to set it up again.
112 \item[Save Profile:] after setting up your render preference
113 formats, do not forget to type in a format name and then use the save profile
114 button to save it. The named/saved Profiles will be saved in your
115 \$HOME/.bcast5/Cinelerra\_rc file where it can be carefully modified.
116 \item[Delete Profile:] if you want to delete a saved profile,
117 highlight the one you no longer want and delete.
118 \item[Insertion strategy:] \index{insertion strategy} select an insertion mode from the
119 available choices as seen when you click on the down arrow on the
120 right hand side of the option. The insertion modes are the same as
121 with loading files. In the case if you select “insert nothing” the
122 file will be written out to disk without changing the current
123 project. For other insertion strategies be sure to prepare the
124 timeline to have the output inserted at the right position before
125 the rendering operation is finished.
127 Even if you only have audio or only have video rendered, a paste
128 insertion strategy will behave like a normal paste operation,
129 erasing any selected region of the timeline and pasting just the
130 data that was rendered. If you render only audio and have some
131 video tracks armed, the video tracks will get truncated while the
132 audio output is pasted into the audio tracks.
136 \subsection{Extra “cin\_” Options for Render with FFmpeg}%
137 \label{sub:extra_cin_option_ffmpeg}
138 \index{rendering!ffmpeg options}
140 There are several special parameters that can be used in the ffmpeg
141 options file to pass values to the codecs that are not normally
142 available. They're called Global Options. These are explained
145 \paragraph{cin\_pix\_fmt} The Render menus allows you to choose the
146 codec input pixel format (figure~\ref{fig:yuv420}). The Pixels
147 selection provides the available pixel format options for the chosen
148 codec type; valid choices vary for the different file types. This
149 list represents the formats that the codec advertises. It is not
150 always complete, and it may include options that are not legal with
151 all parameter configurations.
153 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
154 \includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{yuv420.png}
155 \caption{Render \& Video Preset menus displaying Pixel choices}
160 \item The \textit{Bitrate}, \textit{Quality}, and \textit{Pixels}
161 fields are only updated when the Video Options are reloaded. This
162 occurs when you either change the ffmpeg file format, or video
163 presets compression fields.
164 \item If the video options preset has \textit{cin\_pix\_fmt}
165 defined, its value will be loaded as the default. If you override
166 the default, the value you specify will be used.
167 \item If the video options preset does not have
168 \textit{cin\_pix\_fmt}, the default pixel format will be computed by
169 ffmpeg (\textit{avcodec\_find\_best\_pix\_fmt\_of\_list}), using the
170 session format as the source choice. The \textit{best} is usually
171 the format which is most similar in color and depth.
172 \item If no choices are available, yuv420p for video will be used.
173 \item You can also specify ffmpeg pixel formats which are not in the
174 list. The list is provided by ffmpeg as input selection, but is
175 more like suggestions than fact. For example, the raw formats can
176 take almost any format, but the rawvideo codec actually specifies no
177 legal formats. Note that if you want a very specific Bitrate you must
178 make sure there is not conflicting parameter values set such as Quality
182 \noindent Some option files provide \textit{cin\_pix\_fmt} to
183 suggest a choice for good quality output or to prevent parameter
184 errors when the other provided parameters conflict with the
185 \textit{best} pixel format. This is the case in
186 \texttt{faststart\_h264.mp4} where the \textit{profile=high}
187 parameter dictates pixel format must be \texttt{yuv420p}.
189 \paragraph{cin\_bitrate} If you specify the bitrate, you can not
190 specify the quality or CRF.\\ Example: \textit{cin\_bitrate=2000000}
192 \paragraph{cin\_quality} If you specify the quality, you can not
193 specify the bitrate.\\ Example: \textit{cin\_quality=7}
195 \paragraph{cin\_stats\_filename} This parameter is useful for 2 pass
196 operations.\\ Example: \texttt{cin\_stats\_filename
197 /tmp/cin\_video\_vp9\_webm}
199 \paragraph{cin\_sample\_fmt} For audio the preset sample format
200 default is computed in a similar way as stated above for video or
201 can be set with the \textit{cin\_sample\_fmt} parameter
202 (figure~\ref{fig:audio}). If no choices are provided, s16 will be
203 used.\\ Example: \textit{cin\_sample\_fmt=s16}
205 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
206 \includegraphics[width=0.7\linewidth]{audio.png}
207 \caption{Render menu showing where Samples is}
211 \paragraph{Private Options} (muxers). In the window of the
212 \textit{wrench} in addition to the \textit{View} button, which
213 allows more global options and changes to the formats, there is an
214 additional \textit{Format} button that allows you to modify the
215 Private Options, i.e.\ relating to specific muxing formats. More
216 information on all these options can be found at
217 \href{https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-all.html#Format-Options}{ffmpeg.org}
218 sections 19 and 21. See also \nameref{sub:modifying_ffmpeg_cinelerra}.
220 Render presets in \CGG{} should work Out Of the Box. You can still configure the \textit{Global Options} and \textit{Private Options} manually. Finding the combination of parameters that best suits your needs, or simply finding working (\textit{legal}) combinations, requires studying each codec in depth. You can start by looking in Wikipedia until you get to download and study the \textit{white papers} of the codecs of interest. In any case, you must then start a long experimental phase, trying presets with different configurations or creating new ones, until you get satisfactory results. If you create new presets it is a good idea to make them known on the mailing list ({\small \url{https://lists.cinelerra-gg.org/mailman/listinfo/cin}}) or on the MantisBT Bug Tracker ({\small \url{https://www.cinelerra-gg.org/bugtracker/my_view_page.php}}) so that they can be integrated into subsequent versions of \CGG{}. For an introduction see \nameref{sec:overview_formats}.
222 \section{Some Specific Rendering}%
223 \label{sec:some_specific_rendering}
225 \noindent The next few pages relate to rendering for specific common
228 \subsection{FFmpeg Common H.264 Rendering}%
229 \label{sub:ffmpeg_h264_rendering}
231 Because H.264 is so widely used, the method in \CGG{} Infinity is
232 outlined below. These setup steps make it easy to just get started.
235 \item File $\rightarrow$ Render
236 \item File Format $\rightarrow$ FFMPEG + mp4
237 \item Video Wrench $\rightarrow$ Preset $\rightarrow$ h264.mp4 +
238 bitrate: 6000000 (or whatever) + OK
239 \item Audio Wrench $\rightarrow$ Preset $\rightarrow$ h265.mp4 +
240 bitrate: 224000 (or whatever) + OK
241 \item Set your target path in: Render $\rightarrow$ Select a file to
243 \item Set your timeline in: Render $\rightarrow$ Render range +
245 \item Set your insertion strategy: Replace project (or whatever)
246 \item Press OK to start rendering.
249 \subsection{Lossless Rendering}%
250 \label{sub:loseeless_rendering}
251 \index{rendering!lossless}
253 Lossless means that in the compression of a file, all of the
254 original data, every single bit, can be recovered when the file is
255 uncompressed. This is different than \textit{lossy compression}
256 where some data is permanently deleted so that when uncompressed,
257 all of the original data can not be exactly recovered. Lossy is
258 generally used for video and sound, where a certain amount of
259 information loss will not be detected by most users or the playback
260 hardware does not reproduce it anyway -- it is a trade-off between
261 file size and image/sound quality. The files created will be more
262 than 10 times larger than usual. Most players will not be able to
263 decode lossless as the bitrate will overwhelm the device.
265 For x264 lossless compression to work, the only color model allowed
266 here is yuv420p. Any other specification will be converted to
267 yuv420p and the data will be modified. Also, keep in mind that the
268 YUV color model has to be converted to RGB, which also modifies the
271 To use x264 lossless rendering -- choose File format of ffmpeg, m2ts
272 in the Render window. Click on the Video wrench, which brings up
273 the Video Preset window and scroll down in the Compression filebox
274 and choose \texttt{lossless.m2ts}. \textit{Preset=medium} is the
275 default, but can be varied from \textit{ultrafast} (least amount of
276 compression, but biggest file size) to \textit{veryslow} (most
277 amount of compression, but still HUGE) in the parameter box where
278 you see $qp=0$. This option is also available for bluray creation.
280 \subsection{Two-pass Encoding with FFmpeg}%
281 \label{sub:two_pass_encoding_ffmpeg}
282 \index{rendering!ffmpeg two-pass encoding}
284 In \CGG{} for two-pass, you need to run ffmpeg twice, with the same
285 settings, except for designating the options of pass~1 for the first
286 pass and then pass~2. In pass~1, a logfile that ffmpeg needs for
287 the second pass is created. In pass~1 the audio codec should be
288 specified that will be used in pass~2. For more information on
290 \href{https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/H.264}{ffmpeg.org}.
291 Different libraries may have different requirements and you will
292 probably have to determine this by looking online at ffmpeg or
293 looking directly at that code.
295 This 2 line ffmpeg 2-pass operation can be functionally duplicated
296 in \CGG{} in the steps below them:
298 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
299 ffmpeg -y -i $INPUT \
300 -c:v libx264 -b:v 2600k -pass 1 \
301 -c:a aac -b:a 128k -f mp4 /dev/null && \
303 -c:v libx264 -b:v 2600k -pass 2 \
304 -c:a aac -b:a 128k $OUTPUT.mp4
308 \item After you have completed your editing, do a Save Session with
309 \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Save as}\dots Before starting, be sure
310 your session is ready for batch render. That is, positioned at the
311 beginning and nothing selected.
312 \item Bring up \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Batch Render}\dots where
313 you will do the setup.
314 \item Click on the \textit{Delete} box to remove old jobs
315 highlighted in the bottom listbox.
317 \item For the \textit{File Format} choose ffmpeg and mp4 for the
319 \item Set \textit{Output path} to the path and filename for the
321 \item Click on \textit{Use Current EDL} to use the designated EDL
323 \item Click on \textit{New} and you will see a new highlighted job
324 show up in the listbox at the bottom.
325 \item Use the Audio wrench to set bitrate to $128000$ ($128k$ as
326 in ffmpeg example above).
327 \item Click checkmark OK\@. Open the video tools with the video
329 \item Set the Video Compression to \textit{h264.mp4} (as seen in
331 \item Set the bitrate to $2600000$ ($2600k$ as in ffmpeg example
333 \item Add the following 2 lines after the first line:
334 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
336 passlogfile /tmp/"{temporary log file name}.log"
337 \end{lstlisting} Click checkmark OK.
339 \item Click on \textit{New} to create the second pass job. You will
340 see this second job in the listbox below. Use the Video wrench and
341 change pass1 to pass2 as follows.
342 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
345 \item Click checkmark OK.
346 \item Click on the \textit{Start} box and watch it go!
347 \item You can now check the output file for results. At the time
348 this was documented, \textit{rc=2pass} will be in the output.
351 If you need to re-render this, the Batch Render will still be set up
352 but you have to click on the \textit{Enabled} column in the listbox
353 to re-enable the jobs to run which puts an X there. Click Start
354 again. You can reuse batch job using the \textit{save jobs} and
355 \textit{load jobs} buttons in the batch render dialog.
357 \paragraph{Render shortcuts for webm, h264, h265} are available by
358 using the option files that are already set up for this purpose.
359 Use the render menu as usual, with ffmpeg/mp4, choose h264 or h265
360 \textit{pass1of2\_h26x} for the video and
361 \textit{passes1and\-2\_h26x} for the audio; with ffmpeg/webm, choose
362 \textit{pass1of2\_vp9}. When that is finished, you will have to use
363 the render menu again and this time for video, choose
364 \textit{pass2of2\_h26x} or \textit{pass2of2\_vp9}. The logfile is
365 hard coded in the options file so will write over any currently
366 existing logfile if you do not change it before you start the
369 \paragraph{Requirements for some other libraries} (used instead
370 of \textit{flags +pass1} \& \textit{passlogfile}):
372 \item[x265:] add this line:
373 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
374 x265-params=pass=1:stats=/tmp/{temporary-log-file-name}.log
375 \end{lstlisting} at the time this document was written, you should
376 see in the output: \textit{stats-read=2}
377 \item[libvpx-vp9, xvid, and huffyuv:]~
378 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
379 cin_stats_filename /tmp/{temporary-log-file-name}.log
380 flags +pass1 (or flags +pass2 for the second pass)
384 \textit{NOTE:} for vp9, the best Pixels is \textit{gbrp}
386 \subsection{Use case: High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)}%
387 \label{sub:use_case_hevc}
389 An example of video profile based on CRF, a quality-controlled
390 variable bitrate, instead of fixed quality scale (ABR). HEVC
391 (H.265) was developed as a successor to AVC (H.264) to more
392 efficiently compress the future large amounts of data from 2/4/8k
393 videos. In comparison to AVC, an average saving of around 30
394 percent can be assumed for the same quality. Because HEVC is not
395 bound to any size format, it is suitable for virtually any image
398 The following example is HD and FullHD oriented and produces a
399 picture quality similar to the Blu-ray with some limitations. As
400 container Matroska (\texttt{.mkv}) is used, but also mp4 and others
403 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
406 # CRF 16 creates a balanced compromise
407 # between quality and file size.
410 # Preset changes encoding speed and generally
411 # degrades the overall result. Medium (default)
415 # Additional parameters that are passed on to the codec.
416 # me=star improves the search for very fast
417 # movements, but slows down the encoding.
420 # Keyint does FFmpeg automatically, otherwise
421 # the setting must match the frame rate.
424 # Profile does FFmpeg automatically.
427 # Source sRBG and retention of color space.
428 # 720/1080=bt709 if no profile set. Useful
429 # for formats smaller than 720 if no lossy
430 # conversion is desired.
433 color_primaries=bt709
435 # Output in 10 bit, prevents 8-bit step formation
439 \noindent \textit{NOTE:}
441 A CRF of 16 delivers satisfactory results in most cases. However, if
442 the video material is really \emph{grainy}, a CRF~16 can lead to
443 unwanted large files. In this case, a trial export of perhaps one
444 minute should be performed. The resulting bit rate can be used to
445 correct the CRF to 17,\,18,\,19\ldots -- remember, a CRF of $0$ (zero)
446 means lossless, the higher the number the stronger the lossy
447 compression. The approximate calculation of the final file size can
448 be extrapolated from the sample export.
450 The color space information must be used explicitly so that it can
451 be included in the video. \CGG{} or FFmpeg does not write it by
452 itself. Without this information the players (e.\,g.\
453 \href{https://mpv.io/}{mpv}) stick to the dimensions of the video
454 and take the assumed color model from a table. With videos in the
455 dimensions from 720 to 1080 this is bt709. For smaller dimensions,
456 e.\,g.\ DVD, bt601 is assumed and for 4k and above it is
457 bt2020. Normally this is not a problem, but if you want to export a
458 FullHD without color loss to a smaller size like 576 for example,
459 you have to inform the encoder as well as the decoder of the
460 player. This also applies if the videos are to be loaded on video
461 platforms, where they are then converted into videos of different
462 sizes. It is a security measure to prevent false colors, such as the
463 color profiles in digital photos and the copies made from them.
465 The HEVC tuning has not been considered here, because it is is
466 rarely used and requires background knowledge.
470 \item \href{http://x265.readthedocs.org/en/default/}{x265
472 \item \href{http://x265.readthedocs.org/en/latest/cli.html}{x265
473 Command Line Options}
474 \item \href{http://x265.readthedocs.org/en/latest/presets.html}{x265
479 \subsection{YouTube with \CGG{}}%
480 \label{sub:youtube_with_cinelerra}
481 \index{rendering!youtube preset}
483 To create a youtube or dailymotion video, you can easily follow the steps below. You will have to learn a lot more about \CGG{} to take full advantage of its capabilities and make some really special videos, but this is just to get a start and to see the possibilities.
486 \item Start \CGG{}; usually you can do this by clicking on \CGG{} icon or key in \texttt{{cin\_path}/bin/cin}.
487 \item In the Program window on the lower left side of your screen, left mouse click the \textit{File} pulldown.
488 \item You will see \textit{Load files} as the second choice so left mouse click this and find your video file to
489 load, highlight it, and check the green checkmark in the lower left hand corner to get it loaded.
490 \item Edit your video in the Program window using the basic commands of:
492 \item play and then stop using the space bar
493 \item move the mouse and then left click to move the insertion (location) pointer
494 \item cut a section out by holding down the left mouse and drag, then key in “x” to cut or “c” to copy
495 \item paste a copy or cut section by moving the insertion pointer, then key in “v”
497 \item Add a title by highlighting the \textit{Video Effects} in the right hand side Resources window; then
498 highlighting the \textit{Title} icon and dragging it to the Program window video track and dropping.
499 \item Click on the middle icon button (looks like a magnifying glass) on the brown colored Title bar to
500 bring up the Title window bottom text box and key in a title.
501 \item Use the \textit{File} pulldown to select \textit{Render} to create the desired video. In the \textit{Render} window just next to the empty box to the right of the \textit{ffmpeg} file format, click on the down arrow shown there
502 to see the choices and pick \textit{youtube}. Then move back up to key in the path and filename to render
503 to. It will pick all of the defaults automatically for you so then just click on the green checkmark to
504 have it start. There is a progress bar in the main window, very bottom of the right hand side.
505 \item Key in “q” in the main window to get out of \CGG{} and yes or no to save your edit session.
508 Youtube will allow the upload of the resulting rendered file as named. However, Dailymotion requires that the file be named with an acceptable extension so you must rename the output file to have the extension of .webm instead of .youtube
510 There are currently 6 specific variations within the ffmpeg (file format) / youtube (file type) for different video options. You see these when you click on the wrench to the right of the word Video and then the Compression down arrow in the Video Preset window. The first 3 are based on Webm/Vp9\protect\footnote{credit by Frederic Roenitz} and contain basic comments of usage and where to find more information.
512 The first 3 below, plus any of the VP9 files under the file type of \textit{webm} are the recommended options to use because they are freely usable in any circumstance.
515 \begin{tabular}{l p{8cm}}
516 sd.youtube & Standard Definition use with default audio/Opus stereo.youtube \\
517 hd.youtube & High Definition “ “ \\
518 uhd.youtube & Ultra High Definition “ “ \\
522 For more details and options on VP9, see: {\small\url{https://developers.google.com/media/vp9}}
524 Alternatives based on h264 and for non-commercial use are listed below. For Dailymotion, these must be renamed to have a different extension of .mp4 instead of .youtube before uploading.
527 \begin{tabular}{l p{8cm}}
528 sd\_h264.youtube & Standard Definition – must change to audio stereo\_with\_h264.youtube \\
529 hd\_h264.youtube & High Definition - “ “ \\
530 uhd\_u264.youtube & Ultra High Definition - “ “ \\
534 These same steps have been verified to work for creating Dailymotion videos -- however, the created files must be renamed before uploading to change the youtube extension to webm instead for Dailymotion.
536 \subsection{VP9 parameters}%
537 \label{sub:vp9_parameters}
538 \index{rendering!VP9 parameters}
540 \textsc{VP9}\protect\footnote{credit Frederic Roenitz} is a video codec licensed under the BSD license and is
541 considered open source,
542 % Sisvel Announces AV1 Patent Pool, March 10, 2020
543 % https://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=139636
544 % Webm / VP9 is a media file format which is free to use under the
545 % BSD license and is open-source; thus there are no licensing
546 % issues to be concerned about.
547 the \textsc{Webm} container is based on \textsc{Matroska} for video
548 and \textsc{Opus} for audio. There are some common \textsc{VP9} rendering
549 options files that support creation of video for YouTube,
550 Dailymotion, and other online video services.
552 YouTube easy startup steps are documented above.
554 Below is one of the \textsc{VP9} rendering options file with documentation for specifics:
556 \textbf{webm libvpx-vp9}
558 from {\small \url{https://developers.google.com/media/vp9/settings/vod/}}
560 1280x720 (24, 25 or 30 frames per second)
564 \textsc{VP9} supports several different bitrate modes:
568 \begin{tabular}{p{6cm} p{10cm}}
569 Constant Quantizer (Q) & Allows you to specify a fixed quantizer value; bitrate will vary \\
570 Constrained Quality (CQ) & Allows you to set a maximum quality level. Quality may vary within bitrate parameters\\
571 Variable Bitrate (VBR) & Balances quality and bitrate over time within constraints on bitrate\\
572 Constant Bitrate (CBR) & Attempts to keep the bitrate fairly constant while quality varies\\
575 CQ mode is recommended for file-based video (as opposed to streaming). The following FFMpeg command-line parameters are used for CQ mode:
580 \begin{tabular}{{p{4cm} p{10cm}}}
581 -b:v <arg> & Sets target bitrate (e.g. 500k)\\
582 -minrate <arg> & Sets minimum bitrate.\\
583 -maxrate <arg> & Sets maximum bitrate.\\
584 -crf <arg> & sets maximum quality level. Valid values are 0-63, lower numbers are higher quality.\\
588 \textit{Note 1}: Bitrate is specified in kbps, or kilobits per second. In video compression a kilobit is generally assumed to be 1000 bits (not 1024).
590 \textit{Note 2:} Other codecs in FFMpeg accept the \textit{-crf} parameter but may interpret the value differently. If you are using \textit{-crf} with other codecs you will likely use different values for VP9.
592 \texttt{bitrate=1024k}\\
593 \texttt{minrate=512k}\\
594 \texttt{maxrate=1485k}\\
597 \textit{Tiling} splits the video into rectangular regions, which allows multi-threading for encoding and decoding. The number of tiles is always a power of two. 0=1 tile; 1=2; 2=4; 3=8; 4=16; 5=32\\
598 \texttt{tile-columns=2}
600 (modified from {\small \url{https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/EncodingForStreamingSites}})
602 To use a 2 second \textit{GOP} (Group of Pictures), simply multiply your output frame rate $\times$ 2. For example, if your input is \textit{-framerate 30}, then use \textit{-g 60}.\\
605 number of \textit{threads} to use during encoding\\
608 \textit{Quality} may be set to good, best, or realtime\\
609 \texttt{quality=good}
611 \textit{Speed}: this parameter has different meanings depending upon whether quality is set to good or realtime. Speed settings 0-4 apply for VoD in good and best, with 0 being the highest quality and 4 being the lowest. Realtime valid values are 5-8; lower numbers mean higher quality\\
614 \subsection{Piping Video to a Command Line}%
615 \label{sub:piping_video_command_line}
616 \index{rendering!command line}
618 You can pipe a video to any command line on the computer, such as
619 ffmpeg. This can be especially useful with raw video files. Next
623 \item on a terminal window create a named pipe file, for example:
624 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
625 mknod /tmp/piper.yuv p
626 \end{lstlisting} load your video and do your editing
627 \item set up your Render (\texttt{Shift-R}), you can choose a raw
628 format such as \textit{yuv} or \textit{rgb}
629 \item for the filename \textit{Select a file to render to}, use the
630 named pipe as created in step 1 (\texttt{/tmp/piper.yuv})
631 \item for \textit{Insertion Strategy}, you will want to make sure to
632 select \textit{insert nothing}
633 \item click for OK on the green checkmark.(the \CGG{} gui will look
634 like it is hanging while waiting for a command line to use the
636 \item on the terminal window, keyin your command, for example:
637 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
638 /mnt0/build5/cinelerra-5.1/thirdparty/ffmpeg-3.4.1/ffmpeg -f \
639 rawvideo -pixel_format yuv420p -video_size 1280x720 \
640 -framerate 30000/1001 -i /tmp/piper.yuv /tmp/pys.mov
644 A slightly different option can be used instead that may be more
645 familiar to some. In the render menu after choosing the File Format
646 of \textit{ffmpeg}, use the pulldown to choose \textit{y4m} as the
647 file type. This choice results in putting a header on the rendered
648 output with some pertinent information that can be used for ffmpeg
649 processing thus alleviating the requirement for
650 \textit{pixel\_format}, \textit{video\_size}, and \textit{framerate}
651 on the ffmpeg command line. In this case the format is
652 \textit{yuv4mpegpipe} instead of \textit{rawvideo}. An example
653 command line would look as follows (assuming the created pipe is
654 called \texttt{piper.y4m}):
655 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
656 ffmpeg -f yuv4mpegpipe -i /tmp/piper.y4m -vcodec libx264 /tmp/test.mp4
659 \subsection{Faststart Option for MOV type files}%
660 \label{sub:faststart_option_mov0}
662 If you have mov video and want to be able to start playing without
663 having to first load the entire video, \textit{-movflags=+faststart}
664 is needed for ffmpeg to put the meta-data, known as the \textit{moov
665 atom}, at the beginning of the file. Otherwise, ffmpeg puts this
666 atom at the end of the video file which means you have to wait to
667 play until the whole video is loaded. Or worse yet, if the file
668 becomes damaged in the middle and you can not get to the end, you
669 won’t be able to play anything.
671 Now you can have the \textit{moov atom} put on the front of the file
672 (automatically via a second pass). To do this, when rendering using
673 ffmpeg \& either the mp4 or qt format/container, click on the
674 video/audio wrenches and choose \textit{faststart\_h264}. With the
675 \textit{qt} format, settings will just be the default whereas the
676 \textit{mp4} format uses the highest quality and lowest file size as
677 possible, but you can easily modify these options in the associated
678 Video Preset textbox.
680 \section{About Image Sequences}%
681 \label{sec:about_image_sequences}
682 \index{image sequence}
684 \CGG{} supports image sequences with both decoding and encoding.
686 \CGG{} by default uses ffmpeg as encoding/decoding engine but we can disable it to have the specific internal engine available. See \nameref{sec:ffmpeg_early_probe_explanation} on how to switch between engines. With the internal engine we can create and load sequences of OpenEXR; PNG; TIFF; TGA; GIF; PPM and JPEG. With ffmpeg we can create and load DPX sequences or create a custom preset for any kind of image. Using these formats results in great timeline efficiency and high video quality at the cost of taking up a lot of space because they are uncompressed (or with lossless compression).
687 By rendering, you will get as many still images as there are frames in the project, plus a \textit{file-list} (or \textit{TOC}) that indexes the images. A good practice is to create a folder to contain the images (for example \texttt{/tmp/img\_seq/}) and then open the rendering window in \CGG{} and set a serial and increasing number as the name (for example: \texttt{/tmp/img\_seq/image \%05d.png}). \textit{image} is a generic name chosen at will; $\%$ creates a progressive sequence of distinct images; $05d$ indicates how many digits the image number will be, in this case 5 digits to go from $00000$ to $99999$.
688 Once we have our folder of images, if we want to import it in a project just load the file-list, which includes the link to all the files of the sequence.
689 To learn more about using and creating a preset with ffmpeg of an image sequence, see \nameref{sec:ffmpeg_image2_streams} and/or \nameref{sec:image_sequence_creation}.
691 \section{Data storage formulas}%
692 \label{sec:data_storage_formulas}
695 If we are dealing with large projects and poorly compressed formats, we will get large files that are difficult to manage and take up a lot of space on the HDD. We present some simple formulas to be able to calculate the space that will be occupied and the data rates we have to deal with:
700 \[ \dfrac{Width \times Height [pixels] \times BitDepth [bits/pixel] \times Color}{8 [bit/Byte]} \]
701 \[= ... [MB/frame] \]
704 \[ Frame size [MB/frame] \times frames [frame] = ... [MB] \]
707 \[ Frame size [MB/frame] \times fps [frame/sec] = ... [MB/sec] \]
708 \item[Data in 1 Hour]
710 \[ \dfrac{Data Rate [MB/sec] \times 3600 [sec]}{1024MB/GB} = ... [GB] \]
713 \section{Batch Rendering}%
714 \label{sec:batch_rendering}
715 \index{batch rendering}
717 Batch Rendering as implemented in \CGG{} is considered to be more of
718 an advanced feature and careful usage is advised. It automates the
719 rendering of audio/video files in that
720 you can establish a set of job parameters, save them, and use them
721 repeatedly (figure~\ref{fig:batch01}). It also allows for \CGG{} to
722 be run by external programs, with no need for the user to manually
723 interact with the user interface.
725 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
726 \includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{batch01.png}
727 \caption{Example of the Batch Render menu}
731 If you want to render many projects \index{project} to media files without having to
732 constantly set up the render dialog for each one, batch rendering is
733 a more efficient method of rendering. To use this feature you need to
734 understand certain concepts.
737 \item You must define a list of Batches (\textit{Job} \index{job}) before starting the rendering. This is created using the \textit{New} button and displayed in \textit{Batches to Render} dialog.
738 \item Each batch consists of a source project already created in \CGG{}, e.g. \texttt{aaa.xml}, to which we assign the rendering parameters.
740 \item to associate \texttt{aaa.xml} to the batch we use the \textit{EDL Path} input field.
741 \item we decide a name and path for the output file.
742 \item let's set the \textit{File Format} of the output file.
743 \item We configure the file with the Audio/Video \textit{wrench}.
744 \item we decide whether to create different files for each \textit{label} and whether to use a \textit{Render farm}.
746 \item Created the first batch, we will see it appear in the dialog \textit{Batches to Render}.
747 \item Using the \textit{New} button again we create a second batch for another source project (\texttt{bbb.xml}) and configure it at will.
748 \item We continue with the source projects \texttt{ccc.xml}, \texttt{ddd.xml}, etc. until we run out of projects that we want to render in batch.
749 \item Note that each batch has its own name, path and rendering parameters.
750 \item Now we have our \textit{Job}, a list of batches. We can still configure it or modify it if we want to change something. In addition we can delete a batch from the list or we can disable it in the \textit{Enabled} field so that it is not taken into account during rendering, but without deleting it.
751 \item Finally we start batch rendering with the \textit{Start} button.
754 Let's see in detail how to set the Batch Rendering.
756 The first thing to do when preparing to do batch rendering is to
757 create one or more \CGG{} projects to be rendered and save them as a
758 normal project, such as \texttt{aaa.xml}. The batch renderer
759 requires a separate project file for every batch to be rendered.
760 You can use the same \CGG{} project file if you are rendering to
761 different output files, as in an example where you might be creating
762 the same output video in different file formats.
764 You do not have to render an entire projects. We can limit ourselves to an \textit{active region} \index{active region} that we can set through a selection in Cut and Paste mode, with labels or In/Out Points. Or the rendering will start from the Insert Point position until the end of the project. Remember: if we want to render the entire project (and not just one active region) it is important to bring the Insertion Point to the beginning of the timeline. This is the only way we are sure to include the whole project.
766 With all the \CGG{} xml project files prepared with active regions,
767 go to \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Batch Render}. This brings up the
768 batch render dialog. The interface for batch rendering is more
769 complex than for single file rendering. A list of batches must be
770 defined before starting a batch rendering operation. The table of
771 batches appears on the bottom of the batch render dialog and is
772 called \textit{Batches to render}. Above this are the configuration
773 parameters for a single batch; a batch is simply a pairing of a
774 project file with a choice of output file and render settings.
776 It may be advisable to start with a \textit{Delete} so you don't have any problems. Set the \textit{Output path}, \textit{File format}, \textit{Audio},
777 \textit{Video}, and \textit{Create new file at each label}
778 parameters as if you were rendering a single file. These parameters
779 apply to only one batch. In addition to the standard rendering
780 parameters, you must select the \textit{EDL Path} to be the project
781 file (such as \texttt{aaa.xml}) that will be used in the batch
782 job. In this case, \textit{EDL Path} is not related in anyway with
783 the EDL files as created by \texttt{File/Export EDL}. In batch
784 render mode the program will not overwrite an existing output file
785 and will simply fail, so make sure that no files with the same name
786 as the output files exist before starting.
788 If the batches to render list is empty or nothing is highlighted,
789 click \textit{New} to create a new batch. The new batch will contain
790 all the parameters you just set. Repeatedly press the \textit{New}
791 button to create more batches with the same parameters. When you
792 highlight any batch, you can edit the configuration on the top of
793 the batch render window. The highlighted batch is always
794 synchronized to the information displayed. You can easily change
795 the order in which the batch jobs are rendered, by clicking and
796 dragging a batch to a different position. Hit \textit{Delete} to
797 permanently remove a highlighted batch. In the list box is a column
798 which enables or disables the batch with an \texttt{X} meaning the
799 batch job is enabled and will be run. This way batches can be
800 skipped without being deleted. Click on the \textit{Enabled} column
801 in the list box to enable or disable a batch.
803 The description of each of the columns in the batch list are as
807 \item[Enabled:] an X in this column means the batch job will be run.
808 \item[Labeled:] an \texttt{X} in this column goes hand in hand with
809 create new file at each label.
810 \item[Farmed:] to use or not the render farm.
811 \item[Output:] path and filename for the generated output.
812 \item[EDL:] the path and filename of the source EDL for the batch
814 \item[Elapsed:] the amount of time taken to render the batch if
815 finished. If field is empty, it did not run.
818 The \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Batch Render} pulldown brings up the
819 Batch Render window to be used for batch rendering as well as DVD/BD
820 creation. There are some additional buttons that can save time and
821 mistakes. These are described next.
824 \item[Save Jobs] when you have set up the batch jobs the way you
825 want and you think you may have to run them more than once, it is
826 beneficial to save the jobs for later use so you easily run them
827 again. It is recommended to use a filename with .rc as the extension
828 so that it is obvious that it is a list of batch jobs to be run.
829 \item[Load Jobs] reload a previous set of saved jobs. This can come
830 in handy if you did not have the time to render them when you
831 originally set them up, if you need to rerun, or if you got
835 To start rendering from the first enabled batch,
836 hit \textit{Start}. Once rendering, the main window shows the
837 progress of the batch. After each batch finishes, the elapsed column
838 in the batch list is updated and the next batch is rendered until
839 all the enabled batches are finished. The currently rendering batch
840 is always highlighted red. To stop rendering before the batches are
841 finished without closing the batch render dialog, hit \textit{Stop}.
842 To stop rendering before the batches are finished and close the
843 batch render dialog, hit \textit{Close}. Or you can exit the batch
844 render dialog whether or not anything is being rendered, by hitting
847 You can automate \CGG{} batch renders from other programs. In the
848 batch render dialog, once you have created your list of batch render
849 jobs, you can click the button \textit{Save Jobs} and choose a file
850 to save your batch render list to. It is recommended that you use
851 a filename with the extension of .rc in order to make it obvious that
852 this is a list of batch jobs to render. Once you have created this file,
853 you can start up a batch render without needing to interact with the
854 \CGG{} user interface. From a shell prompt, from a script, or other
857 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
858 {path_to_cinelerra}/cin -r batchjob.rc
859 \end{lstlisting} substituting your actual filename for
860 \texttt{batchjob.rc}. \textbf{Warning} this file will be modified
861 so if you use any filename that is not a legitimate list of batch jobs to
862 render, that file will be overwritten and its previous contents destroyed.
863 When invoked with these parameters, \CGG{} will start up and run the
864 rendering jobs in the list contained in that file starting at the defined
865 \textit{active region}, without creating its usual windows. If you do not
866 specify a filename, the default will be \$HOME/.bcast5/batchrender.rc.
867 Possible messages you might see where you started up the job are as follows.
869 \item[The following files exist: - filename - Won't overwrite existing files] that batch job will not run in order to prevent writing over previous run.
870 \item["filename" No such file or directory] the specified batch job file does not exist.
871 \item["filename": Permission denied] the specified batch job file does not have write permission so can not be updated.
872 \item[Render::run: filename] the batch job with the name of filename will be processed.
873 \item[** rendered 0 frames in 0.000 secs, 0.000 fps] either you used a file that is not a list of batch jobs or the batch jobs within the file were not enabled.
876 \subsection{Advanced features}%
877 \label{sub:advanced_features}
878 \index{batch rendering!more options}
880 \textbf{Warning}: \textit{Save to EDL path} overwrites the current EDL thus destroying the original contents.
882 Although the operation of Batch Rendering in \CGG{} is similar to that of other NLEs, there is one big difference that we need to take into account. The render setup is not done on a project-by-project basis, which are then brought into the Batch window to be rendered automatically. The setup must be done in the Batch rendering window, where various projects are loaded and set up. In the case of similar projects, derived from a single EDL with some variation, this mode offers the possibility of altering the projects without having to open each individual project, make the changes, set up the rendering, save and import into the Batch window. The procedure is to select the batch we want to modify in the Batches to render window; operate on the currently open timeline (even if it does not correspond to the one we want to modify) making the desired changes and then press the \textit{Save to EDL path} button. Thus the chosen batch, while retaining its original name, will now contain the modified project. Since this possibility destroys the original EDL overwriting it with the modified one, you must be very careful. This procedure is convenient in case the batches are similar, i.e. they are variations of the same EDL, where we want to experiment with other effects, other output formats or when trying out various cuts of a DVD/BD before the final production. It might also be useful to use an \textit{active region} of the timeline, so as to speed up rendering times but still have an indicative result for comparison. Instead operating on different projects, we can do a \textit{save as...} of the project on the timeline to have a new EDL with a new name and then replace it with the batch selected in the joblist using the \textit{Use Current EDL} button. The new project (with its name) overwrites the original project.
884 The \textit{Save to EDL Path} and \textit{Use Current EDL} buttons
885 can be valuable tools for advanced usage or for developers doing
886 testing. Description of how you can expect them to work will help
887 to illustrate how to take advantage of their capabilities (figure~\ref{fig:batch-advanced}):
889 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
890 \includegraphics[width=0.7\linewidth]{batch-advanced.png}
891 \caption{New Buttons with Unsafe GUI in batchrender}
892 \label{fig:batch-advanced}
897 \item[Save to EDL Path] Warning: this function overwrites the contents of the original EDL with new data, keeping the name of the original. If we don't know exactly what we're doing we may lose the original project. If you have made a change to the EDL, use
898 this button to save the changes so that they will be used in the
899 render operation. Although you can get the same results by using
900 \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Save\dots}, this capability was initially
901 added to assist developers in testing the batch jobs needed to
902 create dvd/bluray media as it keeps the work focused in a single
903 window and retains the original job name. An example --you have
904 everything all set up with a new job in the Batch Render window
905 using \texttt{generic.xml} for the EDL path and with a job name of
906 \texttt{original\_name.xml}. Then you realize that you forgot to
907 cut out a section in the media that is not wanted in the final
908 product. You can cut that out and then \textit{Save to EDL Path} so
909 your change will be in effect for the rendering. Without this
910 button, you would be using the EDL you started with and the cut
911 would be ignored. Alternatively, if the cut changes are saved via
912 \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Save as}\dots with a filename of
913 \texttt{new.xml} and then you use \textit{Save to EDL Path}, the
914 current highlighted job displayed in the window as
915 \texttt{original\_name.xml} will be replaced with \texttt{new.xml}.
916 However, it is important to note that the result will be saved with
917 the name \texttt{original\_name} – that is, the new content from
918 \texttt{new.xml} but with the old name of
919 \texttt{original\_name.xml}. To have this functionality we have to enable the checkbox in \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$ Preferences $\rightarrow$ Appearance} tab; section \textit{Dangerous:} and unchecked (default) \textit{Unsafe GUI in batchrender}.
920 \item[Use Current EDL] Warning: this function overwrites the contents of the original EDL with new project. If we don't know exactly what we're doing we may lose the original project. if you are working on media and still testing
921 out the results, you can take advantage of this click-box to quickly
922 get results. Basically, you change the media, save that change with
923 another name (in order to preserve the original name in case you
924 don't like the changes), and press \textit{Use Current EDL}. As an
925 example, a user creates a new job in the Batch Render window using
926 the current media, previously defined in generic.xml, with the EDL
927 path of \texttt{generic.xml}. The user then changes the media on
928 the timeline, saves the changes via \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Save
929 as\dots} with a new name, such as \texttt{new\_name.xml}, and then
930 clicks on \textit{Use Current EDL}. In this case, the EDL path
931 listbox will be automatically updated to the \texttt{new\_name.xml}
932 and the current existing highlighted job will be replaced with the
933 \texttt{new\_name.xml} in the EDL column.
934 \item[Warn if Jobs/Session mismatched] Warning: It is better to keep this function unchecked because it is only needed in case of changes on the original EDL. By default it is hidden and is shown only if we enable the checkbox in \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$ Preferences $\rightarrow$ Appearance} tab; section \textit{Dangerous:} and checked \textit{Unsafe GUI in batchrender}. After you set up your render
935 and press Start, the program checks to see if the current EDL
936 session matches your Batch Render job. If the EDL has been changed
937 since the batch job was created, it warns you so that you have the
938 opportunity to \textit{Save to EDL} path to record those changes.
939 Otherwise, you can dismiss that warning box, disable the warning
940 message by unchecking the box and use the original values. If you
941 never want to be warned about the mismatches, leave the box
942 unchecked (figure~\ref{fig:batch02}). It is advisable to keep it unchecked because it can cause problems.
945 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
946 \includegraphics[width=0.9\linewidth]{batch02.png}
947 \caption{Batch render with the 4 ghosted buttons on the right side
948 + the Warning message below}
952 A very clear tutorial on these features can be found \href{https://linuxvideoediting.blogspot.com/2021/01/save-edl-path-use-current-edl-in-cinelerra-gg.html}{here}\protect\footnote{credit Igor Vladimirsky}; in Russian but easily translatable with DeepL or similar.
954 \subsection{Command Line Rendering}%
955 \label{sub:command_line_rendering}
956 \index{rendering!command line}
958 The command line rendering method consists of a way to load the
959 current set of batch rendering jobs and process them without a
960 GUI\@. This is useful if you want to do rendering on the other side
961 of a low bandwidth network and you have access to a high powered
962 computer located elsewhere. Setting up all the parameters for this
963 operation is somewhat difficult. That is why the command line aborts
964 if any output files already exist.
966 To perform rendering from the command line, first run \CGG{} in
967 graphical mode. Go to \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Batch Render}.
968 Create the batches you intend to render in the batch window and
969 close the window. This automatically saves the batches in a file
970 with the name of \$HOME/.bcast5/batchrender.rc. Set up the
971 desired render farm attributes in \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$
972 Preferences} and quit out of \CGG{} if you want to use the Render
973 Farm capability. These settings are used the next time command line
974 rendering is used to process the current set of batch jobs without a
975 GUI\@. It is important to remember that the rendering will begin at
976 the defined \textit{active region} saved when the project was saved.
978 On the command line run:
980 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
984 \section{Background Rendering}%
985 \label{sec:background_rendering}
986 \index{background rendering}
988 Background rendering causes temporary output to be rendered
989 constantly while the timeline is being modified. The temporary
990 output is displayed during playback whenever possible. This is
991 useful for transitions and previewing effects that are too slow to
992 display in real time. If a Render Farm \index{render farm} is enabled, the render farm
993 is used for background rendering. This gives you the potential for
994 real-time effects if enough network bandwidth and CPU nodes exist.
996 Background rendering is enabled in the \texttt{Performance} tab of
997 the \texttt{Preferences} window. It has one interactive function
998 \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$ Toggle background rendering} \index{background rendering!toggle}. This
999 sets the point where background rendering starts up to the position
1000 of the insertion point. If any video exists, a red bar appears in
1001 the time ruler showing what has been background rendered
1002 (figure~\ref{fig:back-ren02}).
1004 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
1005 \includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{back-ren02.png}
1006 \caption{Settings Background Rendering}
1007 \label{fig:back-ren02}
1010 It is often useful to insert an effect or a transition and then
1011 select \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$ Toggle background rendering}
1012 right before the effect to preview it in real time and full frame
1013 rates (figure~\ref{fig:back-ren}).
1015 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
1016 \includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{back-ren.png}
1017 \caption{Timeline with the top red bar}
1018 \label{fig:back-ren}
1022 \item[Frames per background rendering job] This only works if a
1023 Render Farm is being used; otherwise, background rendering creates a
1024 single job for the entire timeline. The number of frames specified
1025 here is scaled to the relative CPU speed of rendering nodes and used
1026 in a single render farm job. The optimum number is 10 - 30 since
1027 network bandwidth is used to initialize each job.
1028 \item[Frames to preroll background] This is the number of frames to
1029 render ahead of each background rendering job. Background rendering
1030 is degraded when preroll is used since the jobs are small. When
1031 using background rendering, this number is ideally 0. Some effects
1032 may require 3 frames of preroll.
1033 \item[Output for background rendering] Background rendering
1034 generates a sequence of image files in a certain directory. This
1035 parameter determines the filename prefix of the image files. It
1036 should be accessible to every node in the render farm by the same
1037 path. Since hundreds of thousands of image files are usually
1038 created, ls commands will not work in the background rendering
1039 directory. The browse button for this option normally will not work
1040 either, but the configuration button for this option works. The
1041 default value will be /tmp/brender .
1042 \item[File format] The file format for background rendering has to
1043 be a sequence of images. The format of the image sequences
1044 determines the quality and speed of playback. JPEG generally works
1045 well and is the default.
1047 Tip: If you have rendered your whole project with \textit{File format}
1048 set to JPEG and there are no missing numbers in the sequence, you can
1049 create a video from that sequence outside of \CGG{}.
1050 For example, if using the default output so that your files are named
1051 /tmp/brender000000, /tmp/brender000001, ... in a window, you would type:
1053 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1054 ffmpeg -f image2 -i /tmp/brender0%5d -c:v copy brender.mov
1056 which would create the video file brender.mov - be sure to delete
1057 existing brender files before creating a new sequence to ensure there
1058 are no missing numerical values in the sequence.
1060 \section{Render Farm Usage}%
1061 \label{sec:render_farm_usage}
1064 Render Farm uses background rendering, a feature of \CGG{} where the
1065 video is rendered in the background, to speed up rendering
1066 significantly. Because rendering is memory and cpu intensive, using
1067 multiple computers on a network via a render farm is a significant
1068 gain. With \CGG{} installed on all nodes, the master node and the clients communicate via a network port that you specify.
1069 The Master node is the one of the instance of \CGG{} that we normally start with its gui; the other nodes are the instances of \CGG{} that we decide to start in parallel from the terminal to create the Render farm (clients).
1070 \CGG{} can distribute the rendering tasks over the network to the
1071 other computers of the Render Farm; or among all threads of a multicore CPU. The render farm software tries
1072 to process all of the rendering in parallel so that several
1073 computers can be used to render the results. The \textit{Total jobs
1074 to create} in the setup or labels on the timeline are used to divide
1075 a render job into that specified number of tasks. Each background
1076 job is assigned a timeline segment to process and the jobs are sent
1077 to the various computer nodes depending upon the load balance. The
1078 jobs are processed by the nodes separately and written to individual
1079 files. You will have to put the files back together via a load with
1080 concatenation, or typically by using a command line tool from a
1083 \subsection{Basic Steps to Start a Render Farm}%
1084 \label{sub:basic_steps_start_render_farm}
1086 The following steps are just a guideline to start your render farm.
1087 It is assumed that you already have the master and client nodes
1088 communication, shared filesystem, permissions and usernames synched.
1089 Let's take the example of a network with 2 PCs: the master and the client. On the client we set 5 tasks; on the master we set 2 tasks.
1092 \item On the master computer, use \texttt{Settings} $\rightarrow$
1093 \texttt{Preferences} $\rightarrow$ \texttt{Performance} \texttt{tab}
1094 to set up a Render Farm:
1096 \item check the \textit{Use render farm} box;
1097 \item in the \textit{Hostname} box, keyin your hostname or ip
1098 address such as 192.168.1.12 or \textit{localhost};
1099 \item enter in a port number such as 401--405 (only a root user
1100 can use privileged ports) or $10650...$ for non-root and click on \textit{Add Nodes}. To find a range of free ports to use you can look at the file \texttt{/etc/services};
1101 \item you will see something like the following in the Nodes
1102 listbox to the right:\newline
1103 \begin{tabular}{lllc} On & Hostname & Port & Framerate
1105 X & 192.168.1.12 & 10650 & 0.0 \\
1106 X & 192.168.1.12 & 10651 & 0.0 \\
1107 X & 192.168.1.12 & 10652 & 0.0 \\
1108 X & 192.168.1.12 & 10653 & 0.0 \\
1109 X & 192.168.1.12 & 10654 & 0.0 \\
1110 X & localhost & 10655 & 0.0 \\
1111 X & localhost & 10656 & 0.0 \\
1113 \item set the Total number of jobs to create. This number only pertains to client nodes, so we do not need to consider the master node;
1114 \item click OK on the bottom of the Preferences window.
1116 \item For external network nodes, now we must join the nodes created to instances of \CGG{}. On the client computers ($192.168.1.12$), on the terminal, start 5 background \CGG{} tasks via:
1117 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1118 cd {path_to_cinelerra}
1119 cin -d 10650 cin -d 10651
1123 In practice, at each instance that we start, the cursor will be positioned in a new line ready to enter the next command, without exiting the task. If we have several PCs on the network, repeat these steps for each new client (with its own ip address).
1124 \item Similarly, on the terminal, we must join the local nodes (internal to the Master node) created to instances of \CGG{}. On the Master node (localhost), start the 2 background \CGG{} tasks via:
1125 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1126 cd {path_to_cinelerra}
1130 Similar to the previous point, the cursor positions itself in a new line ready to enter the next command, without exiting the task.
1131 \item When your video is ready, setup a render job via \texttt{File
1132 $\rightarrow$ Render} or \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Batch Render}
1134 \item The results will be in the shared file \texttt{path/filename}
1135 that you selected in the render menu with the additional numbered
1136 job section on the end as $001, 002, 003, \dots 099$ (example,
1137 \texttt{video.webm001}).
1138 \item When finished, load your new files on new tracks via
1139 \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Load} \textit{concatenate to existing
1140 tracks} or if you used ffmpeg, run \textit{RenderMux} from the Shell
1142 \item If you plan on doing more rendering, you can just leave the
1143 master/client jobs running to use again and avoid having to restart
1144 them. You can also close the terminal, but the jobs will remain active until you turn off the PC. Or you can kill them when you no longer are using them.
1147 \subsection{Render Farm Menu and Parameter Description}%
1148 \label{sub:render_farm_parameter_description}
1149 \index{render farm!parameters}
1151 Below we describe the Performance tab for configuring a render farm
1152 (figure~\ref{fig:farm}).
1154 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
1155 \includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{farm.png}
1156 \caption{Settings: Preferences: Performance tab, menu
1157 to set up your Render Farm}
1162 \item[Project SMP cpus] although this field is not Render Farm
1163 specific, it is useful for \CGG{} to have the CPU count and for
1164 using multiple threads.
1165 \item[Use render farm] check this to turn on the render farm option.
1166 Once checked ALL rendering will be done via the farm including the
1167 usual Render (\texttt{Shift-R}). You may want to turn if off for
1169 \item[Nodes listbox] displays all the nodes on the render farm and
1170 shows which ones are currently enabled. The Nodes listbox has 4
1171 columns -- On, Hostname, Port, Framerate -- which show the current
1172 values. An \textit{X} in the \textit{On} designates that that host
1173 is currently enabled; \textit{Hostname} shows the name of the host;
1174 \textit{Port} shows the port number that host uses; and
1175 \textit{Framerate} will either be zero initially or the current
1177 \item[Hostname] this field is used to edit the hostname of an
1178 existing node or enter a new node.
1179 \item[Port] keyin the port number of an existing or new node here.
1180 You can also type in a range of port numbers using a hyphen, for
1181 example $10650-10799$ when you need to add many.
1182 \item[Apply Changes] this will allow you to edit an existing node
1183 and to then commit the changes to hostname and port. The changes
1184 will not be committed if you do not click the OK button.
1185 \item[Add Nodes] Create a new node with the hostname and port
1187 \item[Sort nodes] sorts the nodes list based on the hostname.
1188 \item[Delete Nodes] deletes whatever node is highlighted in the
1189 nodes list. You can highlight several at once to have them all
1191 \item[Client Watchdog Timeout] a default value of $15$ seconds is
1192 used here and the tumbler increments by $15$ seconds. A value of
1193 $0$ (zero) disables the watchdog so that if you have a slow client,
1194 it will not kill the render job while waiting for that client to
1196 \item[Total jobs to create] determines the number of jobs to
1197 dispatch to the render farm. Total jobs is used to divide a render
1198 job into that specified number of tasks. Each background job is
1199 assigned a timeline segment to process. The render farm software
1200 tries to process all of the rendering in parallel so that several
1201 computers can be used to render the results.
1203 To start, if you have computers of similar speed, a good number
1204 for \textit{Total jobs to create} is the number of computers
1205 multiplied by $3$. You will want to adjust this according to the
1206 capabilities of your computers and after viewing the framerates.
1207 Multiply them by $1$ to have one job dispatched for every node. If
1208 you have $10$ client nodes and one master node, specify $33$ to have
1209 a well balanced render farm.
1210 \item[(overridden if new file at each label is checked)] instead of
1211 the number of jobs being set to \textit{Total jobs to create}, there
1212 will be a job created for each labeled section. If in the render
1213 menu, the option \textit{Create new file at each label} is selected
1214 when no labels exist, only one job will be created. It may be quite
1215 advantageous to set labels at certain points in the video to ensure
1216 that a key portion of the video will not be split into two different
1218 \item[Reset rates] sets the framerate for all the nodes to $0$.
1219 Frame rates are used to scale job sizes based on CPU speed of the
1220 node. Frame rates are calculated only when render farm is enabled.
1223 Framerates can really affect how the Render Farm works. The first
1224 time you use the render farm all of the rates are displayed as $0$
1225 in the \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$ Preferences}, Performance tab
1226 in the Nodes box. As rendering occurs, all of the nodes send back
1227 framerate values to the master node and the preferences page is
1228 updated with these values. A rate accumulates based on speed. Once
1229 all nodes have a rate of non-zero, the program gives out less work
1230 to lower rated nodes in an effort to make the total time for the
1231 render to be almost constant. Initially, when the framerate scaling
1232 values are zero, the program just uses package length -- render size
1233 divided by the number of packages to portion out the work (if not
1234 labels). If something goes wrong or the rates become suspect, then
1235 all of the rest of the work will be dumped into the last job. When
1236 this happens, you really should \textit{reset rates} for the next
1237 render farm session to restart with a good balance.
1239 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1240 {path_to_cinelerra}/cin -h # displays some of the options.
1243 \subsection{Detailed Setup Description}%
1244 \label{sub:detailed_setup_description}
1245 \index{render farm!setup}
1247 {\color{red} CAUTION }, any exact command lines worked as of
1248 $01/2018$ on a Fedora system. These can change over time and on
1249 different operating systems/levels. Always check/verify any command
1253 \item[Set up \CGG{}] A \CGG{} render farm is organized into a master
1254 node and any number of client nodes. The master node is the
1255 computer which is running the gui. The client nodes are anywhere
1256 else on the network with \CGG{} installed and are run from the
1257 command line. Before you start the master node for \CGG{}, you need
1258 to set up a shared filesystem on the disk storage node as this is
1259 the node that will have the common volume where all the data will be
1260 stored. The location of the project and its files should be the
1261 same in the client computers as in the master computer and to avoid
1262 problems of permissions, it is better to use the same user in master
1263 and clients. For example, if you have the project in
1264 \texttt{/home/<user>/project-video} you must create the same
1265 directory path on the clients, but empty. Sharing the directory of
1266 the location of your project on the master computer can be done with
1267 NFS as described next. Alternatively, you can look up on the
1268 internet how to use Samba to share a directory.
1269 \item[Create a shared filesystem and mount using NFS] All nodes in
1270 the render farm should use the same filesystem with the same paths
1271 to the project files on all of the master and client nodes. This is
1272 easiest to do by setting up an NFS shared disk system.
1274 \item On each of the computers, install the nfs software if not
1275 already installed. For example, on Debian 9 you will need to run:
1276 (be sure to check/verify before using any command line):
1277 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1278 apt-get install nfs-kernel-server
1280 \item On the computer that contains the disk storage to be shared,
1281 define the network filesystem. For example to export \texttt{/tmp},
1282 edit the \texttt{/etc/exports} file to add the following line:
1283 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1284 192.168.1.0/24(rw,fsid=1,no_root_squash,sync,no_subtree_check)
1286 \item Next reset the exported nfs directories using:
1287 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1289 \end{lstlisting} and you may have to start or restart nfs:
1290 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1291 systemctl restart nfs
1293 \item Each of the render farm computers must mount the exported
1294 nfs target path. To see the exports which are visible from a
1295 client, login as root to the client machine and keyin:
1296 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1297 showmount -e <ip-addr> #using the ip address of the storage host
1299 \item to access the host disk storage from the other computers in
1300 the render farm, mount the nfs export on the corresponding target
1301 path: (be sure to check/verify before using any command line):
1302 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1303 mount -t nfs <ip-addr>:/<path> <path>
1304 \end{lstlisting} where \texttt{<path>} is the storage host
1305 directory, and \texttt{<ip-addr>} is the network address of the
1306 storage host. Because all of the computers must have the same
1307 directory path, create that same directory path with the same
1308 uid/gid/permissions on each storage client computer ahead of time.
1309 \item To make this permanent across reboots on the client nodes,
1310 add the following line to \texttt{/etc/fstab}:
1311 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1312 {masternode}:/nfsshare /mnt nfs defaults 0 0
1313 \end{lstlisting} You can make this permanent on the disk storage
1314 host BUT the command lines shown, which were correct in January 2018
1315 on Fedora, may be different for your operating system or in the
1316 future. In addition if your network is not up, there may be
1317 numerous problems. If you make a mistake, your system may not boot.
1318 To make permanent, add the following line to \texttt{/etc/fstab}:
1319 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1320 192.168.1.12:/tmp /tmp nfs rw,async,hard,intr,noexec,noauto 0 0
1321 \end{lstlisting} You will still have to mount the above manually
1322 because of the \textit{noauto} parameter but you won’t have to
1323 remember all of the other necessary parameters. Depending on your
1324 expertise level, you can change that.
1326 Later, to remove access to the storage host filesystem:
1327 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1331 Be aware that you may have to adjust any security or firewalls
1332 you have in place. \textit{Most firewalls will require extra rules
1333 to allow nfs access}. Many have built-in configurations for this.
1335 \item[Configure Rendering on Master Node] There is 1 master node
1336 which is running the \CGG{} gui and where the video will be edited
1337 and the command given to start up the rendering. Any number of
1338 client computers can be run from the command line only, so they can
1339 be headless since no X or any graphical libraries are needed. Of
1340 course, the \CGG{} software must be installed on each of the client
1343 \item Assuming you already have \CGG{} installed on the master
1344 node, start \CGG{} by clicking on the icon or by typing the
1345 following command on the terminal screen:
1346 \texttt{/{cinelerra\_path}/cin}.
1347 \item Use the \textit{File} pulldown \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$
1348 Preferences}, the Performance tab, to set up your Render Farm
1349 options in the Render Farm pane.
1350 \item Check the \textit{Use render farm} option. By default, once
1351 you enable the option of Render Farm, rendering is usually done
1352 using the render farm. Batch rendering can be done locally, or
1354 \item Add the hostname or the IP address of each of the client
1355 nodes in the Hostname textbox and the port number that you want to
1356 use in the Port textbox. You can make sure a port number is not
1357 already in use by keying in on the command line:
1358 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1359 netstat -n -l -4 --protocol inet
1360 \end{lstlisting} Next, click on the \textit{Add Nodes} button and
1361 then you will see that host appear in the Nodes list box to the
1362 right. The \texttt{X} in the first column of the nodes box denotes
1363 that the node is active. To review the \textit{standard} port
1364 allocations, check the \texttt{/etc/services} file.
1365 \item Enter the total jobs that you would like to be used in the
1366 \textit{Total job} textbox.
1367 \item The default watchdog timer initial state is usually just
1368 fine but can be adjusted later if needed.
1369 \item Click OK on the Preferences window when done.
1371 \item[Create Workflow] While working on the master computer, it is
1372 recommended that you keep all the resources being used on the same
1373 shared disk. Load your video/audio piece and do your editing and
1374 preparation. Add any desired plugins, such as a Title, to fine-tune
1375 your work. You want to make sure your video is ready to be rendered
1376 into the final product.
1377 \item[Start the Client Nodes] To start up the client nodes run
1378 \CGG{} from the command line on each of the client computers using
1379 the following command:
1380 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1381 /{cinelerra_pathname}/cin -d [port number]
1383 /mnt1/bin/cinelerra -d 401
1384 \end{lstlisting} This starts \CGG{} in command prompt mode so that
1385 it listens to the specified port number for commands from the master
1386 node for rendering. When you start each of the clients up, you will
1387 see some messages scroll by as each client is created on that
1389 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1390 RenderFarmClient::main_loop: client started
1391 RenderFarmClient::main_loop: Session started from 127.0.0.1
1392 \end{lstlisting} As it completes its jobs, you will should see:
1393 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1394 RenderFarmClientThread::run: Session finished
1396 \item[Render Using Render Farm] After you have followed the
1397 preceding steps, you are ready to use the render farm. Click on
1398 \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Render}\dots which opens the render
1399 dialog. The most important point here is to use for \textit{the
1400 Output path / Select a file to render to} a path/file name that is
1401 on the shared volume that is also mounted on the clients. Click on
1402 OK to render. The \CGG{} program divides the timeline into the
1403 number of jobs specified by the user. These jobs are then
1404 dispatched to the various nodes depending upon the load balance. The
1405 first segment will always render on the master node and the other
1406 segments will be farmed out to the render nodes. Batch Rendering,
1407 as well as BD/DVD rendering, may use the render farm. Each line in
1408 the batchbay can enable/disable the render farm. Typically, video
1409 can be rendered into many file segments and concatenated, but
1410 normally audio is rendered as one monolithic file (not farmed).
1412 Another performance feature which can use the Render Farm is
1413 \textit{Background Rendering}. This is also enabled on the
1414 \texttt{Preferences $\rightarrow$ Performances} tab. The background
1415 render function generates a set of image files by pre-rendering the
1416 timeline data on the fly. As the timeline is update by editing, the
1417 image data is re-rendered to a \textit{background render} storage
1418 path. The Render Farm will be used for this operation if it is
1419 enabled at the same time as the \textit{background render} feature.
1420 \item[Assemble the Output Files] Once all of the computer jobs are
1421 complete, you can put the output files together by using the shell
1422 script, \textit{RenderMux} (from the menubar \textit{scripts} button
1423 just above FF), if the files were rendered using ffmpeg (see \nameref{sec:menu_bar_shell_commands}).
1425 If you want to remain within the open project in \CGG{}, you can load these files by creating a new track and specifying concatenate to
1426 existing tracks in the load dialog in the correct numerical order.
1427 File types which support direct copy can be concatenated into a
1428 single file by rendering to the same file format with render farm
1429 disabled as long as the track dimensions, output dimensions, and
1430 asset dimensions are equal.
1432 Finally if you want to use ffmpeg from terminal externally to \CGG{} you can go to the directory where the rendered files are, it creates a text file \texttt{list.txt} containing the list of all our files:
1433 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1439 and finally give the command
1440 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1441 ffmpeg -f concat -i list.txt -c copy output.webm
1445 \subsection{Quick and Easy Render Farm Setup – The Buddy System
1447 \label{sub:buddy_system_way}
1449 These steps are for quickly setting up render farm with the least
1450 amount of additional system work, but it is non-optimal. It is
1451 useful in situations where a few people all show up with their
1452 laptops to work together on the same video/audio file and you don’t
1453 want to bother setting up NFS for a shared disk.
1456 \item Make sure the \CGG{} program is installed on all of the
1457 computers and the network between the main computer and the client
1458 computers is working. Use the same version if possible.
1459 \item Load your video file on the master node and use \texttt{File
1460 $\rightarrow$ Save as}\dots to save it to \texttt{/tmp}.
1461 \item Move that same file with the same name to \texttt{/tmp} on all
1462 of the client computers via rsh or sneaker net -- the ONLY reason
1463 you are doing this is to avoid having to set up NFS or Samba on the
1464 buddy client laptops that show up!
1465 \item Edit your video/audio file to get it the way you want it and
1466 add the plugins, such as a Title, etc.
1467 \item Check for a set of unused ports in \texttt{/etc/services}
1468 file, if username is root usually $401-425$ are available; if
1469 non-root, then $10650-10799$.
1470 \item On the master computer, in \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$
1471 Preferences, Performance} tab:
1473 \item check the box \textit{Use render farm}
1474 \item keyin localhost for the hostname or an ip address of the
1476 \item keyin the desired port number for each client; and use
1477 \textit{Add Node} for each host
1478 \item set total jobs to the number of client computers $+1$
1479 multiplied by $3$ (or proportion to client speeds)
1482 \item On each buddy client, create a job for each port:
1483 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1484 /{cinelerra_pathname}/cin -d port#
1486 \item On the master, bring up the render menu and name the output
1487 files, for example \texttt{/tmp/myoutput.webm}.
1488 \item The client nodes output results will be on their local
1489 \texttt{/tmp} filesystems so you will have to again use
1490 \textit{rsh/ftp} or \textit{usb sneaker net} to move them over to
1491 the main computer. File names will be the render job output file
1492 name with port number tacked on
1493 (e.g. \texttt{/tmp/hb.webm001...webm005}).
1494 \item Load the files by concatenate to existing track on the master
1495 node or use RenderMux shell script.
1498 \subsection{Multi-core Computers Render Farm Setup}%
1499 \label{sub:multi_core_render_farm_setup}
1500 \index{render farm!multi core CPU}
1502 If you are lucky enough to have a computer with a large cpu core
1503 count, setting up a render farm can really take advantage of using
1504 all of the cores at 100\%. This is much faster than the default automatic
1505 threading capability. Since you don’t need to communicate with other
1506 computers, you will not have to be concerned about TCP communication
1507 or shared disks/files; only localhost nodes. On the terminal we will open many instances of \CGG{} by connecting them to the jobs created. The number of such jobs can be the total number of CPU threads (-1) or not. When you are going to be doing other work
1508 simultaneously while rendering a large job, you will want to leave
1509 some of the cpus available for that. Be sure to set \textit{Project SMP
1510 cpus} in the \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$ Preferences, Performance} tab to your CPU
1513 \subsection{Troubleshooting Tips and Warnings}%
1514 \label{sub:troubleshhoting_tips_warnings}
1515 \index{render farm!troubleshooting}
1517 \noindent If you have problems running the Render Farm. Here is a
1518 list of items to check.
1521 \item \CGG{} must be installed on the master node and all client
1523 \item It is best to have the same username available on all nodes to
1524 avoid problems with access rights.
1525 \item Check file permissions and ownership to ensure that the
1526 clients all have access.
1527 \item If a node does not have access to an input asset it will not
1528 die, but just display error messages.
1529 \item If a node can not access an output asset, the rendering will
1531 \item A port in use when stopped may take up to $30$ seconds to time
1532 out before you can restart the jobs.
1533 \item Each of the port combinations have to be unique across
1534 clients, and not already in use in the network.
1535 \item \CGG{} load balances on a first come, first serve basis. If
1536 the last section of the video is sent to the slowest node, the
1537 render job will have to wait for the slowest node to finish. It
1538 would be better to start on the slowest node with the earlier
1539 section of the video so keep that in mind when designating port
1541 \item If not running as root, a port number in the higher range of
1542 $10650$ and above must be used instead of the $401+$ range.
1543 \item The master and client jobs on the ports do not go away so if
1544 you want to stop them, you will have to kill them via: \texttt{kill
1546 \item Check to see if there are services listening on the ports to
1547 use: \texttt{netstat -n -l -4 --protocol inet}
1548 \item There is a watchdog timer in \CGG{} and if there is no
1549 response from a client in the designated number of seconds, it will
1550 kill the render job.
1551 \item The \textit{localhost} should exist as $127.0.0.1$ in
1552 \texttt{/etc/hosts} and as the \texttt{lo} network device in
1554 \item If the job loads become unbalanced, you may want to
1555 \textit{reset rates} to start over for new framerates.
1556 \item If jobs are split in a key section on the timeline, you may
1557 wish to \textit{use labels} to prevent this.
1558 \item For testing purposes, you may want to start a client in the
1559 foreground using \texttt{-f} instead of \texttt{-d}.
1560 \item If one of the client computers is unavailable, check to see if
1561 there is an \texttt{X} to the left of the \texttt{nodename} in the
1562 Nodes listbox. Check the \texttt{X} to disable it which sets ON to
1564 \item A red message in the lower left hand corner of the main
1565 timeline that reads \textit{Failed to start render farm} often means
1566 that the client \CGG{} programs were not started up.
1567 \item A message of \texttt{RenderFarmWatchdog::run 1 killing server
1568 thread \\ \#address\#} means that the client did not respond in
1569 time. You can adjust the timer in \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$
1570 Preferences, Performance} tab.
1571 \item When you get the message \texttt{RenderFarmClient::main\_loop:
1572 bind port 400: Address already in use}, use a different port. See \texttt{/etc/services} for free ports.
1573 \item A message of \texttt{RenderFarmServerThread::open\_client:
1574 unknown host abcompany} means that the hostname of abcompany is not
1575 in \texttt{/etc/hosts} so you will have to add it or use the ip
1577 \item There are numerous error messages associated with file
1578 \textit{open/close/status} or problems with the file that should be
1579 dealt with according to what is printed out.
1580 \item Other illustrative messages may be shown such as:
1581 \texttt{RenderFarmClientThread:: run: Session finished}.
1584 And here are a couple of more tips for making Render Farm specific
1587 \item Because \textit{index files} speed up displaying the video you
1588 may want to share these files with the clients on a shared
1589 filesystem. More information on index files configuration is
1590 outlined in~\ref{sub:index_file_section}.
1591 \item Or, one of the convenient features of \CGG{} is the
1592 redirection of the path via \texttt{CIN\_CONFIG} as in:
1593 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1594 CIN_CONFIG="/<shared_file_pathname>/<filename_such_as_.bcast5>" cin
1595 \end{lstlisting} This means that you can make project related
1596 configurations that do not impact the default \texttt{\$HOME}
1597 config. You can either export your default \texttt{\$HOME} config
1598 or the \texttt{CIN\_CONFIG} config to use on the render farm.
1601 \paragraph{Warnings}
1603 If one of the render farm computers is connected to the internet,
1604 you should use a firewall to maintain the safety of all of the
1605 computers. The ports have to be reachable for the intranet but you
1606 do not want the ports to be open to the outside.
1608 %%% Local Variables:
1610 %%% TeX-master: "../CinelerraGG_Manual"