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Recipe

Blender

Render Blender scenes headless on a Node Lodge GPU. Install Blender 5.2, render stills or animations with Cycles and OptiX, download the frames.

Render with Cycles from the command line. No desktop, no remote viewer.

GPU: RTX-class (RT cores) for OptiX. VRAM sized to the scene: see 3D rendering.

1. Install

Blender needs a few X11 and OpenGL libraries, even in background mode:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y libxi6 libxkbcommon0 libxrender1 libxxf86vm1 libxfixes3 libsm6 libgl1 libegl1

Download the official Linux build:

cd ~
curl -L https://download.blender.org/release/Blender5.2/blender-5.2.3-linux-x64.tar.xz | tar -xJ
export PATH="$HOME/blender-5.2.3-linux-x64:$PATH"
blender --version

Use the version that matches your local Blender. All releases: download.blender.org/release.

2. Upload the scene

Pack external assets first: File → External Data → Pack Resources. Then:

rsync -avz ./scene.blend ubuntu@203.0.113.42:~/render/

3. Test one frame

cd ~/render
blender -b scene.blend -E CYCLES -o //frames/frame_#### -F PNG -f 1 -- --cycles-device OPTIX

Note the render time and peak memory in the log. Multiply by the frame count to size the session.

4. Render the animation

Run it inside tmux:

tmux new -s render
cd ~/render
blender -b scene.blend -E CYCLES -o //frames/frame_#### -F PNG -a -- --cycles-device OPTIX

Detach with Ctrl+b d.

Argument rules:

  • Arguments run in order. Put -f or -a last, after -o, -F and -E.
  • Cycles options go after --.
  • // is relative to the .blend file. #### is replaced by the frame number.
  • -s 1 -e 120 before -a renders a range.
  • --cycles-device CUDA if OptiX is unavailable on the GPU.

5. Multi-GPU offers

Cycles uses every GPU for each frame by default. For long animations, one process per GPU on separate ranges is often faster:

CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0 blender -b scene.blend -E CYCLES -o //frames/frame_#### -F PNG -s 1 -e 60 -a -- --cycles-device OPTIX &
CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=1 blender -b scene.blend -E CYCLES -o //frames/frame_#### -F PNG -s 61 -e 120 -a -- --cycles-device OPTIX &
wait

6. Download the frames

rsync -avz ubuntu@203.0.113.42:~/render/frames/ ./frames/

Then select End session. The machine and its disk are deleted.

Reference: Blender command line arguments.