If you have a slow internet connection and need to render several scenes which all use the same assets (textures, etc.), you may want to use the possibility of uploading the assets once and then include in your .vua projects only the elements which change (generally the .mb scenes).

To benefit from this feature, contact us and tell us you would like to use this feature. We will create a temporary ftp account and master directory on the RANCH for you:

• The ftp server is: ftp://download.ranchcomputing.com

• The login and password to access this ftp account will be the same ones that you use to login on your RANCH account on the RANCH web site.

• The name of your ftp master directory will be your e-mail address with the “@” replaced by a “_”. e.g. if your RANCH registered user e-mail is john.smith@MyISP.com, a john.smith_MyISP.com ftp directory will be created for you.

Please wait for a confirmation that we have created this ftp account before sending a project.

• In your newly created ftp master directory, you can create several subdirectories if you want, each one with a different set of assets.

• With your favorite ftp client, upload in the chosen assets directory the elements that needs to be reused by several projects.

Content of /john.smith_MyISP.com/ProjectAssets1

In the example above, user John Smith has been allocated a /john.smith_MyISP.com ftp master directory on the RANCH. In it, he has created a ProjectAssets1 subdirectory in which he has uploaded all the assets he needs (a Maya project structure must be preserved).

• On your computer, put in your main project directory only the elements which are not already included in the assets ftp directory (e.g. the scenes directory, workspace.mel file…)

• Include in the root of your project directory a UseLocalAssets.txt text file which contains the name of the ftp assets directory to use, in our example it would be ProjectAssets1.

• You can now pack your project directory with RANCHecker as usual to create the .vua file, and upload it to the RANCH. When the RANCH Runner checks the project archive and detects the UseLocalAssets.txt file, it will automatically add the content of the ProjectAssets1 ftp directory to the content of the .vua archive to create the full project.

• This feature is not intended to be used as a permanent online storage facility. When the content of the assets directory(ies) is no longer needed, please erase it.

• The content of the chosen assets directory is always merged to the content of the .vua archive you send. If files with the same name are present in the assets directory and in the .vua archive, the files in the assets directory will overwrite the files in the .vua archive.

• Do not include unnecessary files in your assets directory. They would all be added to the project even if they are not used in the scene, and thus would increase the time needed to distribute the project across all the RANCH Runner nodes.

• Very important: make sure that all the assets to be used by a project are already uploaded on the RANCH before you send the project in the queue. Otherwise, there is a high risk that the validation process will pack the project without all its content, leading to errors in the final render. The validation process, which includes the assets in the final project, may indeed occur as soon as your .vua file is uploaded.

• An assets directory content must respect the Maya project structure, but you have a great flexibility to organize your files as you want. For instance you can include only a sourceimages subdirectory (with only textures) in your assets directory, and include everything else in the .vua project. The important thing to remember is that all that is in the chosen assets directory will be added to the content of the .vua file to form the final project.