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Render Nodes

Render nodes let you install SarabFX plugins on your render-farm workers — headless machines that only render final output — without spending your interactive artist seats on them.

A render node runs a special render-only build of the plugins: it opens the same projects and renders identical output, but has no interactive controls (no parameter UI, no on-screen gizmos, no in-host activator) and produces output only on a final/export render, never in the viewer.

Studio & Enterprise only

Render nodes are included with Studio and Enterprise licenses. Each license carries a separate pool of render-node seats, independent of your interactive artist seats.

What you get

Tier Interactive artist seats Render-node seats
Personal 2 —
Studio 5 10
Enterprise custom custom

The two pools are counted separately — activating a render farm never uses up an artist seat, and vice-versa.

How it's different from the artist plugin

Artist build Render build
Parameter UI & gizmos Yes No (locked)
In-host "Activate License" button Yes No (CLI only)
Viewer / interactive render Full effect Passthrough (source shown; no preview)
Final / export render Full effect Full effect
Reads your saved project Yes Yes — renders it identically

Same look, no controls

The render build shares the exact effect/GPU code of the artist plugin, so a shot renders identically. It simply can't be operated — it renders what the project already specifies.

Install on a farm node

Render builds are distributed as their own farm installers (named render-…), separate from the artist installers.

Farm machines only

A render build registers the same plugin identity as its artist counterpart, so the two must never be installed on the same machine. Install render builds only on render-farm workers, never on an artist workstation.

  1. Download the render installer for your platform from your account on sarabfx.com — e.g. render-SarabFX-RenderNodes-<version>-macOS.pkg (all plugins) or a single render-<Plugin>-<version>-macOS.pkg.

  2. On the render node, install system-wide:

    sudo installer -pkg render-SarabFX-RenderNodes-<version>-macOS.pkg -target /

  3. (Recommended) Mark the machine as a render node in the worker environment so it always claims a render seat:

    export SARABFX_RENDER_NODE=1

Activate a render node (headless)

Render nodes have no GUI activator — activate from the command line:

SarabActivator --render-node --email you@studio.com --license-key <YOUR-KEY>

This verifies the license, saves it locally, and — when your host next loads the plugin to render — claims a render-node seat. If the license is Personal (no render seats), activation is refused with a clear message.

Automate it in your farm manager

Bake the two lines above (export SARABFX_RENDER_NODE=1 and the SarabActivator --render-node … call) into your Deadline / Tractor worker provisioning so new nodes come online activated.

Move a node to another machine

Releasing a render node uses the same email-confirmed deactivation as any other seat — freeing it lets you activate a different machine in its place.

SarabActivator --deactivate --license-key <YOUR-KEY>

We email a confirmation link (valid one hour) to your account address; clicking it frees the render seat on the server. The node is cleared locally right away.

Run SarabUninstaller on the node and choose the license marked [render node]. It removes the plugins locally and emails the same confirmation link to free the seat.

Once the seat is freed, activate the replacement node exactly as above.

Why the viewer shows nothing

A render build deliberately renders passthrough during interactive/viewer renders and only produces the real effect on a final/sequence render (Resolve Deliver, nuke -x, NatronRenderer). This is expected — render nodes are for batch rendering, not interactive work.

A real export came out as passthrough?

Very rarely a host mis-reports a final render as interactive. Set export SARABFX_RENDER_FORCE=1 on the worker to disable viewer suppression and always render. If you hit this, tell support which host and version so we can tune the detection.

Troubleshooting

  • Activation refused ("requires a Studio or Enterprise licence") — your license tier doesn't include render seats. Upgrade to Studio or Enterprise.
  • "Maximum render nodes reached" — all render seats are in use. Free one with --deactivate (see above) before activating another node.
  • Node renders noise / nothing after a transfer — make sure the old node was deactivated (seat freed) and the new node activated with --render-node.

For anything else, see Support.