So, you’ve set up your .ray3hosts file, got the raysat services running, and ping and telnet show that there’s no connection problems. But satellite still doesn’t seem to be working. What to do?

• Check that the raysat service running on the master too. (it has to be running on both the master and the slaves)
• Use the mental ray diagnostics to check whether the satellites are being used. In the mental ray renderer settings, click the Diagnostics tab, and select the Info and Progress checkboxes.
  If satellite is working, you should see something like this:

  // INFO : JOB  0.n  progr:    89.8%    rendered on MTL-SATELLITE:7020.6
  // INFO : JOB  0.13 progr:    90.9%    rendered on MTL-MASTER.13
  // INFO : JOB  0.6  progr:    91.9%    rendered on MTL-MASTER.6
  // INFO : JOB  0.n  progr:    92.9%    rendered on MTL-SATELLITE:7020.7
  // INFO : JOB  0.12 progr:    93.9%    rendered on MTL-MASTER.12
  // INFO : JOB  0.n  progr:    94.9%    rendered on MTL-SATELLITE:7020.2
  // INFO : JOB  0.n  progr:    95.9%    rendered on MTL-SATELLITE:7020.4
  // INFO : JOB  0.10 progr:    96.9%    rendered on MTL-MASTER.10
  // INFO : JOB  0.n  progr:    97.9%    rendered on MTL-SATELLITE:7020.0
  // INFO : JOB  0.n  progr:    98.9%    rendered on MTL-SATELLITE:7020.5
  

• Use Process Monitor on the satellite machine to confirm that the master is actually connecting to the satellite.
• On the master machine, in Softimage, open the script editor (ALT+4) and run this JScript:

  LogMessage( XSIUtils.Environment.Item("MI_RAY_HOSTSFILE") );
  

  This will log the .ray3hosts file that Softimage is using.
  Is this the same .ray3hosts file that you created?

  On Windows XP, UserTools creates the .ray3hosts file in the “wrong” location
  (UserTools puts it one place, but Softimage reads it from another place).