Cinema 4D Program Documentation Reference Cinema 4D Advanced Features
Function available in CINEMA 4D Visualize, Broadcast, Studio

Team Render

All verified (green) computers can take part in rendering. Search bars and filters are shown in this image.

With Team Render, you can quickly and easily render on multiple computers (on which the same version of Cinema 4D must be installed) across a local network with the click of a button. These computers can not only be used to render animations but can also be combined to render a single(!) image:

4 computers are used to render a still image (differently colored Buckets via Show Bucket Color option).

If Team Render is used to render an animation, each client computer will render one entire frame of animation at a time.

Tip:
If you have at least one Team Render client installed via the installer, this entire program directory can be copied to other computers without using the installation medium.

Tip:
If desired, a Team Render server can be started that makes the Team Render functions available per remote control via a website. More information is available under The Team Render Server.

How to Use Team Render

Proceed as follows to render using Team Render:

All you have to do now is wait. Once the Project file has access to all textures/XRefs/Assets or other external files, they will automatically be distributed to all computers and rendering will begin.

Tip:
In the following description, numerous references are made to servers and render clients:

  • Server: The computer from which the Team Render rendering is initiated
  • This can be a normal installed version of Cinema 4D or a Team Render server.

  • Render Client: The computer(s) to which the server sends render jobs via Team Render (this can be a regularly-installed version of Cinema 4D or a Team Render client installed via the installer).

Miscellaneous

Where are the Team Render settings located?

Render clients

The installer can be used to install Cinema 4D instances solely as render clients with a reduced GUI. These instances will only consist of the list of machines (see also The Team Render Machine List) a console and selected commands such as Preferences, Help, Update, etc. These functions should already be familiar to you from the normal Cinema 4D installation.

Note that warning and error messages are also displayed in the console. This can include messages regarding missing textures, full hard drives, etc. (these are, by the way, the same prompts that can be found in the Render Queue’s Log file).

These render clients can be restarted from the server (right-click on a render client in the server computer’s Team Render Machines list and select Restart Client).

This information will in part be displayed in the Jobs and Network logs. Note that they will, for the most part, be in English (and in some cases in the language of the operating system you’re running, e.g., for error messages).

Note also that the render client will at least list the Team Render server in green (currently, render clients can only be verfied by the Team Render server and the machines list only serves informational purposes). Any parallel render clients that may be present will NOT be listed here.

The Python field below is not a special Team Render function but is a general access point for the Python API (details regarding Python can be found at http://developers.maxon.net).

Easy connection of multiple render clients with the server

If you want to automatically connect multiple render clients with the server without verification, create a text file named ,c4d_net_server.txt’ with the following content:

Server address:Port:;server’s security key

This would, for example, look like this: 192.168.0.45:5402;abcde, whereby the IP address can be replaced by the host name.

Place this text file in the same directory as the Cinema 4D Team Render Client executable file. When the render client is started, it will automatically connect with the server (which must already be running). Using this text file can save you a lot of time, e.g., when connecting dozens of render clients.

If you do not want to create this text file yourself you can use the Save Server command described below.

Render clients use the following specific commands:

Save Server

This function can be used to save the server to which the render client is (or was) assigned in a text file named ,c4d_net_server.txt’. This text file is the same as described above but might have to be supplemented by a security token (a prompt will appear if this is required).

Load Server

This command can be used to load the text file if you do not want to save it in the Cinema 4D program directory.

Team Render limitations

The following functions are not supported by Team Render: