Share via

  • Article

Image Rendering v2

Version: 2.0

Description

This sample demonstrates how to run a parametric sweep application that renders images according to instruction files, how to upload and download files from Windows Azure blob storage, and how to call the HPC Job Scheduler Web service with the REST API

Overview

The HPC Image Rendering sample demonstrates how to run a parametric sweep application that renders images according to instruction files.

This sample includes several types of applications, as shown in Figure 1:

Figure 1

Architecture of the Image Rendering sample

Note:
Blue arrows signify application / service calls; orange arrows signify data transfer to/from blobs.
  1. Windows Phone 7 (WP7) client. The client creates the HPC job, monitors the job’s status, and shows the output video file.
  2. HPC Web Access website. A Windows Azure web role that manages the creation of the HPC parametric sweep job using the representational state transfer (REST) interface of the HPC Pack web features.
  3. Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 SP2 cluster with Windows Azure nodes. The head node controls the Windows Azure nodes that run the image-rendering parametric sweep application.
  4. Windows Azure blob storage. The blob storage contains the input and output rendering files, as well as the output video created by combining all the outputted images.
  5. Video encoding service. A Windows Azure web role that downloads all rendered images and creates a video file from them.
  6. Push notification service. A Windows Azure web role that uses WP7 Push Notifications to inform the client about the status of the job.

This sample uses the Aqsis application to render 3D images according to the RenderMan® standard, and the FFmpeg utility to create a video file from a set of images.

Note:
To use this sample application, download the sample RenderMan data files, extract them to the labs folder, and copy them to Windows Azure blob storage as described later on in the document.

This sample demonstrates some of the new features offered by Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2 (SP2). Refer to the What's New in Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2 article on TechNet for the complete list of new features offered in this version.

Key Features

This sample demonstrates the following features:

  • Uploading a parametric sweep application package to Windows Azure nodes.
  • Uploading and downloading files to Windows Azure blob storage.
  • Creating and running a parametric sweep job in a Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 SP2 cluster.
  • Controlling jobs with the REST interface of the HPC Pack web features.

next >

Downloads

Download The Offline Training Kit
Download Hands-on Lab Document (DOCX)
Download Hands-on Lab Source Files

Contents