Installing the RenderMan Artist Tools on

OS X

Introduction

Requirements

Before You Install

   The License Server

Installation

   RenderMan Pro Server

   RenderMan Artist Tools

Configuration

Running Alfserver

Running the Alfred Maitre-d

Known Issues

Introduction

This document describes how to install RenderMan Pro Server and the RenderMan Artist Tools on your Macintosh, including PhotoRealistic RenderMan, the License Server components, and, for the first time, Slim, Alfred, 'it', and Irma.

Requirements

• RenderMan Pro Server and the Artist Tools require Mac OS X 10.3.5 (or higher) on a G4 or G5.
• The RenderMan Artist Tools make use of the X11 windowing system. This package is available from the Apple download site, and is also contained on recent (10.3.5 or higher) release disks.
• The RenderMan Artist Tools are tailored for specific Maya versions; make sure that you download the version appropriate for the version of Maya that you are using.
• For additional important information regarding the RenderMan Artist Tools and OS X, please click here.

Before You Install

Licensing

Pixar's software will run only with a valid license, and the installer will require you to supply a valid license.  Licenses are obtained from Pixar, and are keyed to a special machine designated as your license server. RenderMan Pro Server can run using an existing license server on another machine on a network. If you are already running a license server, skip ahead to the Installation Process. If you will be installing a new license server, please continue.

Installing the License Server

In order to install the license server you will need to download Pixar_License_version.tgz.

Once that's been downloaded, you're ready to run the license tools installer, Pixar_License_version.pkg, from the unzipped .tgz bundle (simply double click on the .tgz file and it will expand to a Mac OSX installer package). Then…

1. Double click on the package to install the license server.
    
2. A pleasant Welcome screen is the first thing you'll encounter; click Continue to proceed to the Software License Agreement. You can print or save the agreement or just read it, then click Continue. A new window will appear and ask you to agree or disagree to the terms. If you disagree, click disagree, and the installer will quit. If you click Agree the installer will proceed and you will be bound to the terms of the license agreement.
    
3. The next window will instruct you to select a disk upon which to install the software. Please do so, then click Continue to continue. You will be asked to Authenticate yourself. Please note that you need Administrator permissions to install the software.
    
4. At this point a text editor will come up into which you will cut/paste your license. If you have received a license already, replace the contents of the license.dat file with the license that you received, then save the file. If you do not have a license yet, just continue with the install and we'll come back to this step later. In either case, the installation will complete and you will need to restart your Mac. You can do so by clicking on the Restart button in the installer window once the it has finished.
    
5. If you did not have a license for the previous step, you will need to get your lmhostid. Licenses are obtained from Pixar, and are keyed to a special machine designated as your license server. In order to generate your license, Pixar will need that machine's unique FlexLM ID number. To generate the FlexLM ID, you must run a program called lmutil, which is part of the installation. If you have installed to the default directories, run:
    
   /Applications/Pixar/license-3.0/lmutil lmhostid
    
   This will print out information similar to the following:
    
   lmutil - Copyright (c) 1989-2003 by Macrovision Corporation. All rights reserved. The FLEXlm host ID of this machine is "000a000e1e10"
    
   Then run:
    
   /Applications/Pixar/license-3.0/lmutil lmhostid -hostname
    
   This will print out information similar to the following:
    
   lmutil - Copyright (c) 1989-2003 by Macrovision Corporation. All rights reserved. The FLEXlm host ID of this machine is "HOSTNAME=mymac.local"
    
   Send the entire output of these commands to RenderMan sales (rendermansales@pixar.com), who can then create your license. Once you have received a valid license file, you will need to replace the contents of /Applications/Pixar/license-version/license.dat with the license file you receive. Please ensure that no spurious line feeds have been introduced by your mail client during this process.

You can stop and start the license server from the Preferences menu of RenderMan.app (installed separately, see below) or by running LicenseSetup.app (RAT only). Select the Licensing tab and click the “Start” button. The service is started as “unknown” and added to your Startup items, so that the license server automatically starts after a reboot.

Installation

RenderMan Pro Server and the RenderMan Artist Tools for Macintosh are installed using the Mac OS X installer. The programs, in their entirety, are contained in individual .pkg files (each unzipped from .tgz bundles). The installer can open and install these packages from your Downloads directory, your desktop, or wherever it resides on your Mac.

To Install RenderMan Pro Server

1. Start the Installation

   Double-click on the Pixar_RenderManProServer_version.pkg to start the installation. The .pkg includes (and will install) versions optimized for the G4 and G5.
    

2. Introduction

   After double-clicking on the installer package (Pixar_RenderManProServer_version.pkg), you will be greeted by an introductory screen. Please click Continue to proceed with the installation.
    

3. Read Me

   A “Read Me” file appears on the next screen. This will provide you with important information regarding the release. You can print or save this information if you so desire, or click Continue to continue.
    

4. License Agreement

   Next is the Software License Agreement. You can print or save this information or just read it, then click Continue. A new window will appear and ask you to agree or disagree to the terms. If you disagree, click disagree, and the installer will quit. If you click Agree the installer will proceed and you will be bound to the terms of the license agreement, whether you read it or not.
    

5. Select a Destination

   The installer requires that you select a disk upon which to install the software. Please do so, then click Continue to continue. You will be asked to Authenticate yourself. Please note that you need Administrator permissions to install the software.
    

6. Installation Type

   If this is the first time you are installing RenderMan Pro Server, you will be asked to click Install to proceed with the installation. Any subsequent installations, even after uninstalling the same or a different version, will ask you to click Upgrade.
    

7. Installation

   Here's where the magic happens. After a moment or two, RenderMan Pro Server will be installed and will start itself up. The Preferences window will appear and you will need to enter the License Server information. Please enter the Server Location and Port Number (note that the default port is 7498). You will need to hit the “Enter” key after typing each of these important bits of information into their respective fields. You can change this information at any time by going back to your Preferences.
    

8. Finish Up

   The installation is hereby complete. Go ahead and click Close. Now you can start rendering. Or you can install the RenderMan Artist Tools …

To Install The RenderMan Artist Tools

Note:  The RenderMan Pro Server package must be installed prior to installing the RenderMan Artist Tools.

1. Start the Installation

   Double-click on the Pixar_RAT_version-Mayaversion.pkg to start the installation. Please note that the packages are for specific versions of Maya. Your system can be configured to accommodate multiple versions, if necessary.
    

2. Introduction

   After double-clicking on the installer package (Pixar_RAT_version-Mayaversion.pkg), you will be greeted by an introductory screen. Please click Continue to proceed with the installation. Yes, this is indeed quite similar to how you installed RenderMan Pro Server…
    

3. Read Me

   A “Read Me” file appears on the next screen. This will provide you with important information regarding the release. You can print or save this information if you so desire. After reading it (it is important information, after all) please click Continue.
    

4. License Agreement

   Next is the Software License Agreement. Once again, you can print or save this information or just read it, then click Continue. A new window will appear and ask you to agree or disagree to the terms. If you disagree, click disagree, and the installer will quit. If you click Agree the installer will proceed and you will be bound to the terms of the license agreement.
    

5. Select a Destination

   The installer requires that you select a disk upon which to install the software. Please do so, then click Continue to continue. You will be asked to Authenticate yourself. Please note that you need Administrator permissions to install the software.
    

6. Installation Type

   If this is the first time you are installing the Artist Tools, you will be asked to click Install to proceed with the installation. Any subsequent installations, even after uninstalling the same or a different version, will ask you to click Upgrade.
    

7. Installation

   After you have been authenticated by the OS, the Artist Tools files will be installed. Once the files have been installed an application window will appear and you will need to enter the License Server and Maitre-d information. Please enter the Server Location and Port Number (note that the default port is 7498) of your license server in the Licensing tab and the name of your Maitre-d in the Maitre-d tab. You can change this information at any time by opening the Preferences panel for RenderMan.app, or by running LicenseSetup.app, located in the bin directory of the RenderMan Artist Tools. NOTE: You cannot start the license server or Maitre-d during the installation; they must be started after the installation has been completed, via RenderMan.app or LicenseSetup.app.
   

8. Close the Installer

   The installation is hereby complete. Go ahead and click Close.
   

9. Starting Services

   You can now start the License Server and Maitre-d.

Configuration

Environment Variables
Proper configuration of environment variables is necessary for full functionality. The environment variable $RMANTREE should be set to point at the location of RenderMan Pro Server. $RMANTREE/bin should be added to the computer's paths. To set $RMANTREE follow the procedure outlined here:

1. First, set $RMANTREE:
   • setenv RMANTREE /Applications/Pixar/RenderMan.app/Versions/RenderManProServer-[version]
2. Next, add $RMANTREE/bin or $RMANTREE/bin/prman to your path.
3. RenderMan Pro Server commands and utilities will now be available from the command line.

Please note that these guidelines for command line rendering are based on the default installation, as provided by the installer. For more information on using and Pixar's RenderMan, please consult the User's Manual.

The variables for the RenderMan Artist Tools are all automatically added to your Maya.env file (in ~/Library/Preferences/Alias/maya/version/). The appended lines should look a little something like this:

	RATTREE=/Applications/Pixar/rat-6.5-maya6.5
	MAYA_LOCATION=/Applications/Alias/maya6.5/Maya.app/Contents
	DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH = $MAYA_LOCATION/MacOS
	MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH = $MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH:$RATTREE/bin
	XBMLANGPATH=$RATTREE/lib/mtor/resources

For more on environment variables, click here.

Alfserver
Alfserver provides remote execution services for Pixar's NetRender and Alfred products. Typically the server runs as an unattended service or 'daemon' on each remote host in the renderfarm. It waits for connection requests on a specified set of network service ports, and processes the requests it receives; usually this means launching the RenderMan renderer, prman.

Alfserver runs in the background and will automatically start (as “nobody”) when a system comes online. It can be started and stopped from the RenderMan.app control panel, from the command line, or via telnet from remote hosts (port 1501 by default). Please note that Alfserver should not be run as “root”, or it will not be able to perform certain tasks (e.g. netrendering). 

Running the Alfred Maitre-d

If you have decided to run an Alfred Maitre-d and you have already configured alfred.ini (see above), you will need to ensure that the maitre-d machine is running the Alfred maitre-d before running the Alfred UI or dispatcher on other machines.

The Alfred maitre-d can be started one of two ways:

1. Via the Preferences menu of RenderMan.app (RPS or RAT) or by running LicenseSetup.app, (RAT only). Click on the Maitre-d tab and start or stop the Maitre-d Service via the button there. The service is started as “nobody” and will be added to your Startup items, so it will restart after a reboot.
2. Via the command line by running alfred with the -maitre_d flag. The alfred executable is located by default in /Applications/Pixar/rat-version-mayaversion/bin/alfred.app/Contents/bin. It should not be run as root, since it does not require special permissions. Note that this will not enable the Maitre-d to start automatically after a reboot.

Known Issues

• The documentation for RenderMan Pro Server includes a Java search engine. Some Web browsers on the Mac do not seem to handle this well. The screen must be refreshed for the engine to work properly.
• At present, the Alfred maitre-d and License Server cannot be started via RenderMan.app or LicenseSetup.app or automatically started at boot time on OS X Tiger (10.4.X). It must be manually started as described above.

What if I need more help?

Check out the RenderMan Support Forum.

If that fails, try customer service:
Email: rmancusp@pixar.com
Phone: (800) 937-3179 (U.S. only); (510) 752-3028 (direct)