Render Commander — Blender Add-on

Take full control of background rendering without leaving Blender.

Run stills, animations, or frame lists in the background while you keep working. Designed for artists and studios working on multi-GPU systems.

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Features

Faster Renders on Multi-GPU Systems

• Device-Parallel Rendering: Launch multiple background render processes, each assigned to a specific GPU. Cut animation render times dramatically by leveraging all available devices simultaneously.

  

Quick Adjustments

• Render Presets & Overrides: Tweak resolution, samples, output paths, and more—without altering your original scene. Save and reuse presets for different project stages (draft, final, client review, etc.).

  

External Scene Support

• Render scenes stored in external .blend files without opening them in Blender.

• Preview scene settings, apply overrides, and start renders directly from the add-on panel.

  

System Integration

• Prevents system sleep during renders.
• Desktop notifications alert you when a render job finishes.

Advanced Customization

• Use custom Blender executable paths (e.g., different Blender versions or builds).
• Append your own Python scripts to render jobs for custom logging, post-processing, or pipeline integration.

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Installation

1. Download the latest release from the Releases page.
2. In Blender, go to **Edit > Preferences > Get Extensions.
3. Click Install from Disk… and select the downloaded .zip file.
4. Enable the add-on by checking the box next to Render Commander.

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Usage

1. Open the Render Commander panel in the Viewport Sidebar panel.
2. Choose a render mode: Image, Animation, or Frame List.
3. Cycles Render: On the addon preferences sub-panel select the render devices.
4. Optionally apply a preset or override specific settings.
5. Click Render — your job starts immediately, and you can keep working!

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Requirements

• Blender 4.2 or newer
• Windows, Linux