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Install and set up external rendering engines

General indications

In order to have Render workbench fully functional, you must give it access to one or more external rendering engines. To achieve that, you must follow a 2-step process:

  1. Install the rendering engine(s) on your system.
  2. Set up this/these external rendering engine(s) in Render workbench.

We are aware that installation, particularly the set up of a rendering engine, can be a daunting and even dissuasive step. Therefore, if you encounter any difficulty, please do not hesitate to report an issue in order for us to help you and also to improve the process for other users. Also, do not forget to consult the Miscellaneous section below, or the FAQ section on the README for AppImage related problems.

Step 1: Install external rendering engines on your system

To use Render Workbench, you must first install one of the supported rendering engines on your system.

At the moment, the following engines are supported:

The precise installation procedure for each of those engines should be first searched on their respective websites. However, you will find below some indications for a few platforms.

After installing, it is recommended to make sure your rendering engine is fully functional: test scenes are usually provided with the renderer for that purpose, please refer to its documentation.

You'll also find a 'Test' button on the settings screen for each renderer, so you can make sure that the settings you've entered for a renderer make sense for Render Workbench.

Step 2: Set up external rendering engines in the workbench

Once you have a rendering engine installed on your system, you have to set it up in the workbench.

Each renderer has some configurations to be set in Edit > Preferences > Render before being able to use it.

Preferences

At least, you must fill in the path to your renderer executable, in the corresponding section. This is a mandatory step, otherwise the workbench will not be able to run the engine when required. Some renderers may provide two flavours of their engine: a command-line and a GUI; in which case you should fill in both.

Optionally, you may want to add some command-line parameters (for instance, to activate GPU rendering, or to specify halt conditions etc.: see your renderer's documentation) to renderer invocation. In that case, you can use the dedicated field 'Render parameters' in your renderer section.

Optionally as well, you can set a few renderer-wide parameters:

  • Prefix: A prefix that can be added before the renderer executable invocation. This is useful, for example, to add environment variables or run the renderer inside a GPU switcher such as primusrun or optirun on Linux. This parameter is fully optional and can be left empty if not needed.
  • Default render width, default render height: the default dimensions of the rendering output. Default values are 800x600 and can be left as-is if no special dimensions are required.

Per-platform indications

Ubuntu

Povray

Install
Povray is in the repo, so just do it the simple way: sudo apt install povray

Set up
In workbench settings, enter /usr/bin/povray in 'PovRay executable path'.

LuxCoreRender - UI only

Caveat: this install is easier (and lighter), but you won't be able to run Luxcorerender in batch mode

Install
Download Luxcore binaries package from website, with this link: Standalone release v2.6

Choose a target directory for the application. Let's call it <appdir>.

Unzip the downloaded package file into <appdir>

Set up
In workbench settings:

  • Leave 'LuxCore command (cli) path' blank.
  • Enter <appdir>/LuxCore/luxcoreui in 'LuxCore UI path'

LuxCoreRender - Full (UI & batch)

Install
Download Luxcore binaries package from website, with this link: LuxCore API SDK release v2.6

Choose a target directory for the application. We'll call it <appdir>.

Unzip the downloaded package file into <appdir>

Copy all the files in <appdir>/LuxCore-sdk/lib/ to <appdir>/LuxCore-sdk/bin/. Very important: If you miss this step, you'll get some fatal "cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory" messages...

Set up
In workbench settings:

  • Enter <appdir>/LuxCore-sdk/bin/luxcoreconsole in 'LuxCore command (cli) path'
  • Enter <appdir>/LuxCore-sdk/bin/luxcoreui in 'LuxCore UI path'

Appleseed

Install
Download Appleseed binaries package from website, with this link: Appleseed for Linux

Choose a target directory for the application. We'll call it <appdir>.

Unzip the downloaded package file into <appdir>

Install Python 2.7 library sudo apt install libpython2.7 (Very important)

Set up
In workbench settings:

  • Enter <appdir>/appleseed/bin/appleseed.cli in 'Appleseed command (cli) path'
  • Enter <appdir>/appleseed/bin/appleseed.studio in 'Appleseed Studio path'

Ospray Studio

Install
Download Ospray Studio binaries package from website, with this link: Ospray Studio for Linux

Choose a target directory for the application. We'll call it <appdir>.

Unzip the downloaded file into <appdir>

Set up
In workbench settings:

  • Enter <appdir>/ospray_studio-0.12.1.x86_64.linux/bin/ospStudio in 'OspStudio executable path'

Cycles standalone

Cycles standalone has to be compiled from sources. See https://github.com/blender/cycles

Warning: Installing Cycles standalone from sources can be tricky and time-consuming, see below. You'll be warned...

Pbrt

Pbrt has to be compiled from sources. See https://github.com/mmp/pbrt-v4

Archlinux

In Archlinux, all renderers have been packaged, either in official repositories or in AUR.

There is just a point of attention: for a given renderer, it can exist several packages in AUR (version, -git etc.) and not all will fit correctly. The following array gathers the recommended packages and the corresponding workbench settings:

Renderer Repo Package Workbench Settings
Povray Official povray PovRay executable path: /usr/bin/povray
LuxCore AUR luxcorerender LuxCore command (cli) path:
LuxCore UI path:		 /usr/bin/luxcoreconsole
/usr/bin/luxcoreui
Appleseed AUR appleseed-git Appleseed command (cli) path:
Appleseed Studio path:		 /usr/bin/appleseed.cli
/usr/bin/appleseed.studio
Ospray AUR ospray-studio OspStudio executable path: /usr/bin/ospStudio
Cycles AUR cycles-standalone Cycles executable path: /usr/bin/cycles
Pbrt AUR pbrt-v4-git Pbrt executable path: /usr/bin/pbrt

Windows

Povray

Install
Download Povray 3.7 installer: https://www.povray.org/ftp/pub/povray/Official/povwin-3.7-agpl3-setup.exe

Run Povray installer.

Set up
Look for pvengine64.exe on your system. In Render settings, fill 'PovRay executable path' with <path/to/pvengine64.exe>

LuxCoreRender

Install
Download Luxcore binaries package from website, with this link: LuxCore API SDK release v2.6

Choose a target directory for the application. We'll call it <appdir>.

Unzip the downloaded package file into <appdir>

As stated in Download page (https://luxcorerender.org/download/):
All Windows executables require the Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for VS 2017 and Intel C++ redistributable.
Please check your system meets those requirements, or update it accordingly.

Set up
In workbench settings:

  • Enter <appdir>/luxcorerender-v2.6-win64-sdk/bin/luxcoreconsole.exe in 'LuxCore command (cli) path'
  • Enter <appdir>/luxcorerender-v2.6-win64-sdk/bin/luxcoreui.exe in 'LuxCore UI path'

Appleseed

Install
Download Appleseed binaries package from website, with this link: Appleseed for Windows

Choose a target directory for the application. We'll call it <appdir>.

Unzip the downloaded package file into <appdir>

Set up
In workbench settings:

  • Enter <appdir>/appleseed/bin/appleseed.cli.exe in 'Appleseed command (cli) path'
  • Enter <appdir>/appleseed/bin/appleseed.studio.exe in 'Appleseed Studio path'

Ospray Studio

Install
Download Ospray Studio installer: https://github.com/ospray/ospray_studio/releases/download/v0.12.1/ospray_studio-0.12.1.x86_64.windows.msi

Run Ospray Installer

Set up
Look for ospStudio.exe on your system. In Render settings, fill 'OspStudio executable path' with <path/to/ospStudio.exe>

Cycles standalone

Users @MisterMakerNL and @metalex201 provide precompiled versions, many thanks to them:
https://github.com/metalex201/Cycles-standalone-windows-build. [4.0.0]
https://github.com/MisterMakerNL/Cycles-stand-alone-windows-build. [1.13.4]

Download the repository as a zip, unzip to a target directory and enter the path to binary to 'Cycles (standalone) executable path' field.

In other cases, for instance for those who like challenges, Cycles standalone can be compiled from sources, from here: https://github.com/blender/cycles
Compiling Cycles standalone from sources can be tricky and time-consuming; it is recommended to stick to precompiled versions - you'll be warned.

Pbrt

Pbrt has to be compiled from sources. See https://github.com/mmp/pbrt-v4

Miscellaneous

Notes on installing Cycles for Render (standalone version)

To use Cycles renderer with Render workbench, you need a standalone version of Cycles, named Cycles Standalone. This version is distinct from the one embedded in Blender. You will find some more information about Cycles Standalone in the dedicated Blender wiki page.

No precompiled binaries are provided by Blender team in standard environments.

In several environments, however, you'll be able to find such binaries, on the initiatives of advanced users (thanks to them!): see per-platform instructions above.

Mac OS Big Sur users may also find some valuable instructions here.

In other cases, Cycles Standalone may require compilation from sources. Sources and compilation instructions can be found here.

As an alternative, in the (fairly rare) case you already compile Blender by yourself, you can enable WITH_CYCLES_STANDALONE and WITH_CYCLES_STANDALONE_GUI in cmake variables (I also had to add -lGLU to CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS) before your build process. You will then get a separate 'cycles' executable compiled together with Blender.

Caveat: Compiling Cycles Standalone can be tricky and time-consuming. If you don't have access to binaries, but if you have no taste for poorly documented installation procedures or if you have no time to waste, you should rather consider using Appleseed, LuxCoreRender or Ospray, which both provide ready-to-use binaries for many platforms, along with excellent rendering features.

Important note on using LuxCore with OpenCL Render Engines (GPU accelerated)

If you use LuxCore with OpenCL Render Engines, ie PATHOCL, RTPATHOCL or TILEPATHOCL, LuxCore will have to compile the associated GPU kernels. This is not done at installation but "on-the-fly" at first execution. However, this compilation takes a few minutes.

In practical terms, at first rendering, LuxCore seems to hang with the following message: "[PathOCL kernel] Compiling kernels".

BE PATIENT, DO NOT INTERRUPT RENDERING AT THIS STAGE.

The compilation will eventually reach completion after a few minutes. And for subsequent renderings, the compiled kernels will be cached and reused, without recompilation.

LuxCore and CUDA issues on GNU/Linux

Here is a quick summary of the CUDA libraries (libnvrtc & libnvrtc-builtins) embeded in LuxCore versions:

LuxCore CUDA
2.4 10.2.89
2.5 & 2.6 11.0.194

By default, these libraries take precedence over those installed on the system. If your architecture is no longer supported by the embedded libraries, or not functional (GPU driver not synchronized with the expected Cuda Toolkit version) then the kernels compilation process will fail with the following error:

nvrtc: error: invalid value for --gpu-architecture (-arch)

This happens even if a CPU OpenCL Render Engine like PATHCPU is active (compilation will always take place if CUDA cores are detected). For example, version 11.x will be unable to compile kernels on Kepler architecture (Compute Compatibility 3.0).

See this compatibility table: https://gist.github.com/ax3l/9489132.

There are 3 possible solutions:

  • Overwrite the libraries in the LuxCore folder with those of a compatible release.

  • Use the functional CUDA libraries you have installed on your system, via a wrapper of the luxcoreui binary:

    #!/bin/bash
LUXCORE_BIN=$(readlink -f $(dirname $0))
CUDA_LIB=/usr/local/cuda/lib64:/usr/local/cuda/targets/x86_64-linux/lib/
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$CUDA_LIB:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
$LUXCORE_BIN/luxcoreui "$@"

  • Disable/tweak the use of CUDA cores detected by LuxCore.

    There are 3 types of devices used for rendering (multiple devices per type is possible): OpenCL GPU, OpenCL CPU, CUDA GPU (enumerated in that order, this is important for later).

    So you will have to select the devices involved in the calculation by adding configuration lines on the fly to the Project.cfg file generated by FreeCAD-render, using the following wrapper of the luxcoreui binary:

    #!/bin/bash
LUXCORE_BIN=$(readlink -f $(dirname $0))
cat >> "$2" << EOL

# default
opencl.gpu.use = 1
# default
opencl.cpu.use = 1
# disable CUDA cores (1:GPU_OCL, 1:CPU_OCL, 0:GPU_CUDA)
opencl.devices.select = 110
# disable Nvidia OptiX denoiser
cuda.optix.devices.select = 000
film.opencl.enable = 1
# Use the first device found (GPU_OCL)
film.opencl.device = 0
EOL
$LUXCORE_BIN/luxcoreui "$@"

    Documentation of these settings: https://wiki.luxcorerender.org/LuxCore_SDL_Reference_Manual_v2.6

Bugs & Errors

Most of the indications above rely on external information that can vary.

Please do not hesitate to open an issue to report errors, dead links, out-of-date information, questions and so on.