Vizard 7 » Reference » Clustering » Cluster basics
7.7
A cluster-based network is a special case of networking. It is designed to support multiple instances of Vizard rendered across more than one physical machine or GPU. Each instance of Vizard creates a unique 'application window' or 'graphics window'. Vizard's cluster tools handle much of the low-level synchronization between the different application windows automatically. These tools are geared toward creating a single coherent simulation but with multiple view ports/users.
Clustering is used for:
Note: Clustering requires all machines to have an Enterprise license installed, otherwise the cluster is limited to 5 minutes of execution.
Clustering can be used to sync Vizard application windows across machines or a single machine. A remote cluster requires the Vizard cluster master running on one machine and Vizard cluster clients running on all other machines. A local cluster is typically used with multi-GPU, single machine systems. In this case, only the Vizard cluster master is run and the localhost option is enabled.
Note: To leverage the power of multiple GPUs in a local cluster, Nvidia Quadro cards (non SLI'd ) are required. To ensure all rendering is performed on the GPU associated with the display the graphics window is initially created on, enable the viz.display.gpu_affinity option.
Collaboration is a feature that allows multiple users to share the same virtual environment. See the collaboration page for more information.
The master and clients all need identical copies of the Vizard script that is being executed and all resource files that will be loaded during initialization or during runtime. The only communication that occurs between the master and clients is synchronization calls that keep the view point and scenegraph states identical across all clients. Resources, such as models, textures, and audio files are not transmitted from the master to clients. If the client cannot find the referred to resources in the same path as on the master, then the clients will fail to load the Vizard worlds properly.