Rendering on Distributed Machines
How to run scenery-based applications on a distributed setup, such as a CAVE or PowerWall.
Rendering with distributed setups is still experimental, so this document is very likely to change in the future.
Requirements
For all machines of the setup:
current version of Java 11 installed from adoptopenjdk.net
up-to-date graphics driver (currently only tested with Nvidia Quadro cards, get the most up-to-date drivers from nvidia.com/drivers)
Vulkan SDK installed for debugging, vulkan.lunarg.com
psexec for remote execution installed, from docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/psexec
For the control node:
current installation of JetBrains IntelliJ Community Edition for running the examples, www.jetbrains.com/idea/download/
a clone of the scenery git repository, github.com/scenerygraphics/scenery
scenery's cluster scripts, from github.com/scenerygraphics/cluster-scripts
Optionally:
a remote desktop solution, such as VNC might help with debugging the setup
Basic Setup
Install the above requirements on the machines, and make sure that processes can be remotely launched with psexec
, see e.g. this link for details on psexec setup.
In order to run distributed applications, all machines need to access to two network shares, which do not necessarily need to reside on the same machine:
a share containing the scenery application directory, including all JARs built, a suggested structure for this is:
# contains the scripts from the cluster-scripts repository path/to/base # contains the scenery git repository and JARs path/to/base/scenery
a share containing the data to be loaded.
The scripts from the cluster-scripts
repository need to be adjusted for your local setup, in particular the username and password for the rendering node accounts need to be changed, as well as their names, and the name of the network share used. Go through the scripts carefully, they contain comments in places that need to be changed and are very short.
Next, the pom.xml
file from the scenery repository needs to be imported into IntelliJ on the control node. Open IntelliJ, select the file via File > Open
, and follow the instructions.
Screen configuration
In order for scenery to know about your screen configuration, a screen configuration YAML file is required, such file looks like this:
We assume that all projectors have the same resolution. When launching on each of the nodes, the appropriate screen is determined using the match
block. Here, Property
means the appropriate screen is determined using the JVM system property scenery.ScreenName
. This property gets set by the run-cluster.bat
and run-test.bat
scripts. An arbitrary numbers of screens is possible, but the YAML file and run-cluster.bat
script need to be adjusted accordingly.
Running DemoReelExample
In IntelliJ, find DemoReelExample
. This example can be found in the project in the src/test/tests/graphics/scenery/examples/cluster
directory. In the example, make sure that the IP given for TrackedStereoGlasses
matches that of your tracking system, and the YAML file given matches the name of your screen configuration. Then, click the Run
button to run this locally and verify all data is found.
Afterwards, go to Run > Edit Configurations...
to adjust the parameters of this test for it in order to run on all nodes. The VM options of DemoReelExample should look like the following:
In the Before launch part of the window, two additional steps need to be added:
The Maven goal package needs to be run in order to build all JAR files and make them available to the other nodes.
The
run-cluster.bat
script needs to be run to launch scenery instances on the projection nodes. The External Tool setup for that script should look like the following image:
After this is complete, DemoReelExample can be run again and should now launch on all the nodes.
Controls
In DemoReelExample, you can use the WASD keys of the keyboard to move around. You can also keep an Xbox or PS4 gamepad connected to the control node to use for movement. Further keybindings are:
Button | Function |
| Go to the Bile scene |
| Go to the C. elegans scene |
| Go to the Drosophila scene |
| Rotate scene up/down |
| Rotate scene left/right |
In order to quit the demo on all nodes, use the killall-java.bat
script.
Troubleshooting
Should you experience any issues, please feel free to contact us on the Gitter channel, or file an issue on Github.
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