Here is a good implementation used at some of our Qube studios using for Windows rendernodes that need path translation. This technique is similar to the "ln -s" symbolic link method used on OSX/Linux.
If you are running Windows 7 (or Vista and above), then you can use "mklink" on the Renderfarm Workers to have the /Volumes/ path work automatically without any path translations. The best part is that this also works for paths internal to the scenefiles and not just the external ones specified to the renderfarm manager.
On each Worker (assuming you have MyNetWorkShare folder on MyServer):
- mkdir C:\Volumes
- cd \Volumes
- mklink /D C:\Volumes\MyNetworkShare \\MyServer\MyNetworkShare
Check with:
- dir \Volumes
- dir \Volumes\MyNetworkShare
Origins:This was originally setup with AfterEffects running on OSX artist machines and rendering on Windows renderfarm machines.
AfterEffects Note: AfterEffects with then use C:/Volumes/... for where it is trying to find the files and will find them because of the symbolic link on the Workers. One issue noted in CS3 and CS4 is that the Output File Path in the submission dialog needs to be specified (or it will try to write the files to "C:\...\Support Files\" where aerender.exe lives.
