Re: Problem Rendering...Sean???

I'm not saying running the command line will be more efficient. Though you could argue that it makes starting the renders more efficient.

I wouldn't say it is for programming types, but it is a slightly more advanced way to start and manage your renders. Take two simple examples.

I want to render a 1/2 res version of a shot that takes about 15 minutes to load into maya(not including the 2 minutes it sometimes takes maya to start). I have to launch maya and load the scene. Finally, I have to set the render settings and either save a new version of the file, or save the 1/2 res render settings into this file, and remember to change them back when I go to do the final render. Thats a good 20 minutes of work.

Check the example out when you use the command line render command. Assuming your maya file is named myFile.ma (or .mb) and your full resolution would be 720 x 486:
Render -renderer sw -percentRes 0.5 myFile.ma

You must leave the shell open once you run this command, but it will output some very usefull information, far more than you'd see if you ran the batch render from within maya. The render command will use all the render globals settings that are not overridden using command line flags. This command took seconds to write. You could even put it into an executable text file and double click it. That way you know the command will always be the same. No more waiting 20 minutes to change the resolution of the render. If you want to render full res again you don't have to reopen the file and change the render globals. Just take the -percentRes 0.5 off and you render full res.

It also uses less memory because when you use the batch render menu item, that spawns a completely new separate render process. So what you have is your scene open in maya taking however much memory it takes. You also have a second maya version running silently in the background actually rendering, using the same amount of memory. Unless you close the interactive maya session after launching your batch render, you'll use twice as much memory as if you used a render script.

Take this second example:
I have a complex shot broken into 15 different maya files. Each take about 5 - 20 minutes to open based on complexity. I need to render each one of them for a delivery. It would be very combersome to open all of these files and launch a batch render. Especially waiting until one completely finished until starting the next. With the command line render you can stack these render commands to run one after the other by putting them into an executable text file (called a script):

on windows create a new text file. rename the extension '.cmd' without the quotes.
On linux create a new text file and change its permissions to executable by running chmod +x fileName

enter this into the file:

render -renderer sw scene1.ma
render -renderer sw scene2.ma
render -renderer mr scene3.ma
...
render -renderer sw scene15.ma

when you double click (or execute the script in a shell on linux) the text file it will launch the first command it encounters in the file. Once that render is finished it will continue onto the next render automatically until it finishes the final command. If an error is encountered in one of your renders which causes it to exit the other render commands will still run.

This workflow is priceless for people running a lot of renders. It may be a little tricky to set up, but once it works it is so much better than opening a maya file to render it.

Also note that there are a LOT of command flags that let you override almost every aspect of the render globals. This way you can tweak your render settings without launching your maya scene, run multiple versions at different resolutions, also control exactly where your images go and what they are named. It is there for a reason.

It wont run your renders faster, but it will make it easier for you to control your rendering.