1. In Houdini, go to /out and create a HQueue Render node or HQueue Simulation node.

2. Configure the HQueue node:

   • Set the HQueue Server parameter to HQueue server’s network address.

   • Point the HQueue node to the render node that will render (for example, a Mantra node) or simulation (for example, a Geometry ROP). You can do this either by connecting the render node into the HQueue node’s input or by setting the HQueue node’s Output Driver parameter.

   • Set the Target HFS parameter to the Houdini install directory to use on the farm.

3. Click the Render button on the HQueue Render node or the Simulate button on the HQueue Simulation.

1. In Houdini, go to /out and create an HQueue Render node.

2. Configure the HQueue node:

   • Set the HQueue Server parameter to HQueue server’s network address.

   • If you are using the Karma ROP or USD Render ROP to render with Karma, then set the Output Driver parameter to the ROP node or directly connect the ROP node to the HQueue Render node’s input.

   • If you are using the USD Render ROP LOP to render with Karma, then set the Output Driver parameter to the ROP node.

   • Set Target HFS to the Houdini install directory to use on the farm.

3. Click the Render button on the HQueue Render node.

Use the XML/RPC interface to script creating and managing jobs.

1. Use the Distribute shelf tool to create and configure the HQueue Simulation render node.

   The shelf tool is on most dynamics shelf tabs such as Particle Fluids, Fluid Containers, Cloth, Wires, etc.

2. For volume sliced simulations, set the Slice Divisions parameter on the HQueue Simulation ROP to break up the simulation into slices.

   The number of slices determine the number of client machines required to process the simulation. For example, if Slice Divisions is set to 2×2×2, then a total of 8 client machines are required on HQueue to simulate the scene.

   For particle sliced simulations, the Distribute shelf tool automatically inspects the number of slice planes in the simulation and sets the Number of Slices parameter accordingly.

3. On the HQueue Simulation render node, click the Render button to submit the job.

There are 2 methods to setup your cluster simulation for submission to the HQueue farm.

1. Navigate to /out and create an HQueue Simulation render node.

2. Set the Output Driver parameter to point to your Wedge ROP.

3. Set the Partitioning Type to Wedges.

4. Configure the HQueue Simulation ROP to point to your HQueue server and the location of Houdini on the farm as usual.

5. On the output driver node pointed by the Wedge ROP, set its output file parameter so that the filename contains ${WEDGENUM}. This is required so the output of each wedge is saved to a different file.

6. Go back to the HQueue Simulation ROP and click the Render button to submit the job.

1. In Houdini, go into your TOP network and create a HQueue Scheduler node.

2. Configure the HQueue Scheduler node with the following information:

   • The address of the HQueue server.

   • Set Universal HFS to the Houdini install directory to use on the farm.

   • Click the Load Path Map button to load HQueue’s network folders configuration into the PDG job environment.

3. Set the Default Scheduler on the TOP network to point to the HQueue Scheduler node.

4. Cook the TOP network.

When you submit jobs from Houdini, the .hip file does not need to be saved under a shared network folder. You can work on a file in a local directory and then automatically copy the file to a shared network folder and submit it.

1. On the HQueue Render node or HQueue Simulation node, change the Render Current HIP File menu to “Copy Project Files to Shared Folder and Render”.

2. Set the Project Path to where you would like to copy the .hip file to.

3. When you click Render a file dependency dialog pops-up the following:

   

   Choose the files you want to copy to the shared network folder, then click OK.

You can configure the HQueue Render node or HQueue Simulation node to submit a job for some other .hip file. This might be useful if you want to render a .hip file that’s already on a shared network folder, but you don’t have access to it.

1. On the ROP, change the Render Current HIP File menu to “Render Target HIP File”.

2. Set the Target HIP to the location of the .hip file on the shared network folder. You can use $HQROOT in the path to represent the root of the shared network folder.

3. Click the Render button.