Setting Up the Environment

Before we begin building our distributed rendering system, let’s set up the necessary tools and dependencies.

📋 Prerequisites

Install Node.js

First, make sure you have Node.js and NPM installed. You can download it from nodejs.org.

Verify installation:

node --version
npm --version

You should see version numbers for both commands. This tutorial works with Node.js v14 or higher.

Install Blender

Ensure Blender is installed on your system and accessible via the command line. You can download Blender from blender.org.

Verify installation:

blender --version

You should see Blender version information printed to the console.

Download Sample Blend File

For this tutorial, we’ll use the Racing Car sample from Blender:

🔗 Download Racing Car Sample

After downloading:

  1. Extract the .blend file
  2. Note the path to this file - you’ll need it in Part 1

Note about Blender Performance: Blender rendering is resource-intensive. This tutorial suggests rendering up to 5 frames or running multiple render processes in parallel. If your computer struggles with these workloads, reduce the frame count to a value that works for your system.

Create Working Directory

Set up a folder structure for the tutorial:

mkdir distributed-system-tutorial
cd distributed-system-tutorial

All code examples and files will be created within this directory.

Platform Support

This tutorial has been tested on macOS and Linux.

Windows Users: When working with file paths, ensure you:

Common Windows Blender path: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\blender.exe

Verify Your Setup

Before proceeding, verify you have:

What’s Next?

Now that your environment is ready, let’s build the first component: a rendering node that accepts Blender jobs via HTTP API.

← Back to Overview Part 1: Rendering Node →

Having issues? Open an issue on GitHub