MSD Render Farm Access

Log onto MyUniApps

In your browser, navigate to: https://myuniapps.unimelb.edu.au/vpn/index.html

Log in using your student Username and Password.

You may be prompted to detect the Citrix Receiver:

Feel free to download the Citrix Receiver app for your desktop to use myuniapps. This opens up a separate app on your computer to run myUniApps. Otherwise, click ‘Use Light Version’ at the bottom to simply use your browser window.

Navigate and Login to the Rendering Desktop

Navigate to the ‘Desktops’ tab at the top of the screen and click on the either “ABP Shared Labs” or “MSD Labs”.

If you are prompted to press ‘Ctrl-Alt-Delete’, you can do so via the dropdown menu at the top of the Citrix window.

Once loaded, a login screen will pop up. Please log in using your UoM credentials.

You may have to be aware of the login domain you are using;

If you are using a Staff account, you will need to precede your username with unimelb\

If you are using a Student account, you will need to precede your username with student\

Retrieve your Files

On the Rendering Desktop, retrieve your files from your online drive and unzip them to a location on the computer. Open and verify the contents of your file.

Remember that all files on the Rendering Desktop will be wiped if the device is restarted. It is therefore advisable to never make changes to your render file on this desktop.

Set up your Render Output Folders

Next, you will need to set up your output location on the Render Farm for your completed renders to save to.

This folder is mapped to your user ID when you log in so you do not need to worry about other students accessing your renders.

This folder will be located in the RenderOutput (R: Drive) under Network Locations.

It is possible that the first time you attempt to use the render farm you will not be able to see the R: drive. If the RenderOutput (R:) drive is not visible for you please go to the desktop and run the shortcut "R Drive fix". Alternatively you can log off and back on to achieve the same.

You may wish to set up a number of folders to organise the outputs of your Render. For example, creating a “Render elements” folder, or a folder to contain all the images from your animation sequence.

When you have set up your render output folders, go into the folders and note down the directory address.

You are now ready to move on to setting up the render job within 3DS Max

Encountering issues?

If you encounter any issues please see the troubleshooting section first. If your issue is not resolvable with the information provided here please log it with Stop1.

Please note that any issues with the Render Farm must be lodged via Stop1 for us to be able to process. Thank you for your help in establishing and making this new service more robust; We can only fix problems that we know about. So please log any issues you encounter with Stop1.