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Welcome to Smoozy

Smoozy is your personal bridge to powerful remote rendering. It was built specifically for Blender 3D artists who want to render their work fast, without the need to compromise on render quality by simplifying the scene.

Why Renting Servers Makes Sense Now

The AI boom has made powerful GPUs ubiquitous worldwide. This massive supply has driven the price of renting servers down to dirt-cheap levels — you can often rent a machine with an RTX 4090 for as little as $0.50 an hour. While AI researchers use these for training models, 3D artists can hop onto the exact same servers to render their frames fast and affordably.

Recommended Providers: While Smoozy is designed to work with almost any Linux machine, it has been heavily tested and works beautifully with cloud providers like Tensordock and Hyperstack.

Getting Connected & Setup

Setting up a remote server requires a secure connection, which leads to a slight "chicken-and-egg" situation: you need a secure key to rent a server, but you need Smoozy to generate that key, without which you won't be able to rent the server in the first place. Here is how we make it simple.

Step 1: Your Digital Key (SSH Keys)

Think of an SSH Key as a secure digital key. You need this key before you can rent a server. When you first launch Smoozy, (or anytime in your Settings, or even from the dropdown in the Add Server dialog), simply click Generate Key. Choose a name, and Smoozy will instantly create your secure key and provide your new "Public Key" in a copyable text field.

Note: You only need to do this step once per server provider!

Step 2: Renting Your Server

Head over to your chosen cloud provider (like Tensordock or Hyperstack). Before you deploy your machine, look for their "Security", "SSH Keys", or "Secrets" settings page and paste the Public Key you just copied from Smoozy.

Tip: If using platforms like Hyperstack, remember to explicitly check the "Public IP" box before deploying your server.

Step 3: Adding the Server to Smoozy

Back in Smoozy, click to add a new server. You will need two pieces of information:

  • The IP Address: Found on your server's control page on the provider's website.
  • The Username: This changes depending on your provider. For Tensordock, the username is usually user. For Hyperstack, it is usually ubuntu.

The "One-Click" Setup

A helpful feature of the Add Server dialog is the Auto-Setup. Simply check the boxes to install GPU drivers and the specific Blender versions you need (Smoozy offers the current LTS or latest stable versions here).

Click Add & Install. Smoozy will connect to your new server and handle all the dedicated Linux commands behind the scenes. You'll see a clean, stripped-down progress log showing exactly what is installing, giving you clear visibility into the process without overwhelming you with a wall of code.

Managing Software Later

Once connected, you have full control. The Server Software panel lives in the middle of the window right under the file browser. Here you can:

  • Install minor Blender patch updates (e.g., from 4.2.1 to 4.2.2).
  • Uninstall specific Blender versions if no longer needed.
  • Install Alpha, Beta, or Release Candidate (RC) builds.
  • Register custom Blender builds that you have uploaded, allowing Smoozy to use them for rendering.
  • Update your Nvidia GPU drivers with a single click.

Troubleshooting Tools & The Server Worker (Why you can close Smoozy)

Smoozy installs a background "Worker" on your server. This Worker manages your render queue and history on the server itself. This means once you send a job to the queue, you can completely close the Smoozy app, disconnect from the internet, or even connect from a different computer later. The server will keep rendering independently and hold your history safely.

If things ever act up on the server side, right-click your server in the list. Smoozy includes built-in SOS tools that let you reboot the entire machine or reinstall these core server tools (the Worker) without ever needing to touch a terminal window.

Your Remote Workspace (The File Browser)

Smoozy features a built-in file browser. If you aren't familiar with Linux, don't worry. Your safe working area on the server is simply your "home" folder. Use the browser exactly like you use your local computer. Create your project folders, organize your workspace, and upload your .blend files directly through the interface.

Setting Up the Render

Once you select a .blend file in your remote file browser, the Render Settings panel becomes active.

1. "Render With" (The Version Matchmaker)

Before Smoozy touches your file, it looks at the exact Blender version you used to save it, and hunts for a matching installation on your remote server.

Compatibility Intelligence:

Smoozy knows the hard rules of Blender. For example, a file saved in Blender 5.0+ cannot be opened in 4.2 at all. It can be opened in 4.5, but major features like the newly rewritten Compositor will break. Smoozy will catch these issues, clearly warn you about the breaking changes, and prompt you to install the correct version to protect your render.

2. The Core Checks

These two steps are entirely independent. You can do one, both, or neither!

  • Action A: Pre-load Settings (Optional)

    When you select a file, Smoozy doesn't yet know if your file contains 1 Scene or 10, so it defaults to letting you render either the Active Scene or All Scenes. Click Pre-load Settings to tell the remote server to silently open your file and extract your Scenes and View Layers. This populates Smoozy's UI with a detailed view of those settings.

  • Action B: Check Dependencies

    Hit Check Dependencies. Smoozy scans the selected file, figures out exactly what caches, HDRIs, or textures it needs, and securely beams only the missing files to the server. It caches them cleanly and creates a temporary .blend file for the render job with its internal paths rewired on the fly. Your original file stays completely intact.

3. Dialing in the Details

You don't need to touch anything if your .blend file is already configured. However, if you want to override settings on the fly:

  • Quality Overrides: Type in a new Sample count or Resolution percentage right here.

    Note: Overriding the Sample count in Smoozy will override any individual View Layer Sample overrides you set up inside the .blend file!

  • Frame Range: Type in specific Frames, or leave it blank to render the full animation as saved in the file.
  • Device: Toggle instantly between GPU and CPU rendering. (CPU fallback is available primarily for users dependent on OSL — Open Shading Language — which requires an OptiX GPU or CPU, and does not work on standard CUDA).

4. View Layers

Only visible if you pre-loaded settings.The View Layers panel shows the available View Layers for your currently selected Scene. Overriding a View Layer here makes it render (or not render) across all Frames in your job, regardless of how you keyframed its renderability inside Blender.

5. Batch Rendering

You can select multiple .blend files in the file browser and add them to the queue. Even if those files were created in completely different versions of Blender, Smoozy will figure out the best compatible version for each file and render them all back-to-back using their individual default settings.

Monitoring & Getting Your Frames

The Queue

Keep an eye on the Queue tab. You can watch the progress bars and console logs as the server crunches through your active Frames.

Frame Delivery

When a job finishes, it automatically moves to the History tab. From there, simply click "Show Outputs". Smoozy will jump you to a folder in the remote file browser containing your finished images, ready to download.

A note on File Output nodes: Smoozy cleanly respects complex File Output node setups (where an animation might split into hundreds of files across different custom folders). Because these files scatter in many directions, clicking "Show Outputs" will simply point you to one of those locations to get you oriented in the file browser. If you built the node tree, you'll know where to look.

Known Limitations and Little Quirks

  • Automatic GPU Drivers (Nvidia Only): Smoozy's "One-Click" automated GPU driver installation currently only supports Nvidia GPUs. If you rent a server with an AMD or Intel GPU, Smoozy will not install the drivers for you automatically. However, if you know how to install them yourself via the terminal, there is nothing stopping you from using Smoozy!
  • Ubuntu Only: While Smoozy interacts purely via standard Linux commands, currently only specific Ubuntu distributions are thoroughly tested and supported (specifically 22.04 and 24.04). Older versions like 20.04 have reached End of Life and will not work.
  • Dependency Checking is One Layer Deep: Smoozy can detect and upload immediate dependencies (textures, HDRIs) linked in your master .blend. However, if your scene relies on nested data — such as a .blend file bringing in assets from another .blend file — Smoozy's scanner will not jump into that second file. You'll need to organize your workflow to account for this.
  • No Automatic Add-on Support: Smoozy does not support installing custom Blender add-ons automatically through the UI. If an add-on merely functions as a time-saver to arrange native Blender features (like HardOps, Light Wrangler, or Shaders Plus), your file will render, because the end result is native data. However, add-ons that actively inject custom code that must run during the render (like FLIP Fluids) will fail unless you either bake their results first, or manually install them onto the server yourself.
  • Sequential Rendering (No Splitting): Each job you submit is processed on a single server, start to finish. If you queue up five different animations to the exact same server, they will not process simultaneously; it will simply compute them one after the other. It currently does not split a single animation across multiple servers to render in parallel.