[Paraview] Questions about using ParaViem in a cluster

[Utkarsh Ayachit]

Leo,

> The cluster has no graphics. Only CPU. We use off-screen rendering and
reverse-connection
> I'd like to run pvserver in the cluster and have the OpenGL windows
defined in the .PVX file open in my local machine so I can create 6 views
in a Cubemap shape.

The two statements are little confusing. If your cluster has no graphics
output, where are you intending the 6 views to be displayed? The pvx-based
multiview setup is designed for cases where the server can present windows
for each rank to display the same scene from different cameras -- think
immersive environments as follows:

[image: Inline image 1]


> 2) mpirun -np 6 /sw/apps/suse/shared/paraview/5.2/intel/bin/pvserver -rc
--use-offscreen-rendering  --client-host=${IP} cubemap.pvx
> The output: "Client Connected."
> No OpenGL windows are open thou.

Since you're using "--use-offscreen-rendering", that's what pvserver is
doing -- everything's offscreen. You won't see any windows. In general, I
don't think there's much point to running in immersive mode i.e. pvx
together with offscreen.

> In order to use .PVX files I have to run with -np = number of machines
defined in the .pvx file? If so, why is that?

In general, yes. There are ways around it to use separate dataserver and
render server, but I personally have never used pvx in
client-data-server-render-server mode.

> Is it possible to do what I am trying to?

I am confused what you're intention is. If you elaborate on your use-case,
maybe we can suggest a different approach.

> Using off-screen rendering, my local machine does any type of graphic
work? Or is it only like an "image stream" of the data rendered in the
server?

Offscreen simply means if and when that process needs to do rendering, it
won't do that onscreen, instead in a offscreen frame buffer. Whether that
process does the rendering or not is not controlled by offscreen, but
instead "Remote Render Threshold" in Settings and the size of the geometry
being rendered. In client-server configurations, if geometry size is larger
than the remote-render-threshold the ParaVIew renders on the server
processes and delivers images to the client. If geometry size is less than
the remote-render-threshold, then is will deliver geometry to the client
and render it locally.

Hope that helps,
Utkarsh
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