alias_marks Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 Hey viz guru's out there. So, our office is getting around to getting a good DR system setup and I'm working on getting things all straightened out. I'll get to the biz, I'm losing all my textures when I render with DR only on my render nodes - see below I've made sure all computers can see the textures on the main network and they are all UNC named so there's no crossups. Also, if I render on the same scene solo on one of the render nodes, it seems to work fine so I know the nodes can get to the files. Any ideas? Thanks a bundle. looks like someone here has had the same problem: http://www.chaosgroup.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=18118&highlight=missing+maps but alas, still no solution...dang! Thanks for the help, M- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manta Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 Hmmmm...can we see what its supposed to be rendering, the final render in other words... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfa2 Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Michael, I dealt with this problem for quite a while and just recently got to the bottom of it. In the past I copied all of the scene materials to the 3ds max 'maps' folder on each of my DR render nodes and that worked. But it was a major pain each time I modified or created a new map because I had to make sure and copy the new or modified maps everywhere. It worked, but it sucked. What I've changed to fix this is to run the vrayspawner as a service instead of running it as a program. Just log on to each DR machine and type C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3dsMax8\vrayspawner60.exe -service (or whatever your max or viz path is). Then reboot the machine and you should be good to go. I also now have my maps centralized on a dedicated server and I use UNC paths when I load them into my models. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alias_marks Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 Gary, appreciate the response. I'm a little foggy on what you mean by go to the DR machine and type in "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3dsMax8\vrayspawner60.exe -service." 1. do you mean rename the actual exe file to read "vrayspawner60.exe -service" 2. do you mean type that file path into the top of an explorer window? 3. do you mean type that into the "run" dialog of windows? 4. do you mean type that in an msdos command line window? I've tried these options with no success. I'm imagining this is a network issue and am not much of an IT guru, so you're explanation is appreciated. The bugger is I've gotten it to work before, no prob, not changed any settings, come back the next day and have this issue. William, here are a couple examples of what's happening and then how it's supposed to look. Appreciate the responses and the time. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alias_marks Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 So I've figured out how to run vrayspawner as a service (my Opt # 3 from above), I restarted the DR node and was able to get my main machine to send it successfully (according to the Vray dialog) but still got the same problem once the rendering started. This is a real drag. Any other people with similar experiences/solutions? I guess I'll try a fresh install and see how that goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfa2 Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 Mike, it sounds like the path of the material or the path set in the 3dsmax.ini file aren't correct. Are you using UNC paths? \\server_name\folder\file.jpg? It would be your safest bet to use UNC. Also open you file and press Shift+T and check out the asset tracking to see where your maps are being grabbed from. Use the table view in the asset tracker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alias_marks Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 Gary, thanks for the tip. Haven't explored the Asset tracker before. I've attached a screenshot of my asset tracker and the textures that aren't showing up do have UNC path's associated with them. I definitely think you're correct and it's a safe bet to use UNC paths. However it seems I'm still having trouble with this one. Any other ideas to explore? Again, thanks for the clear, and direct assistance gary. I appreciate the responses so far. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfa2 Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 Shot in the dark here, but do all of your PC's have the same version of Vray? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alias_marks Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 yep, all exactly the same Viz2007 with Vray 1.5RC3 - and I have gone through this tutorial very carefully to make sure DR works correctly with Viz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfa2 Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 That tut has you running vrayspawner as a program and not as a service. Have you rebooted your DR machines and just let them run the spawner as a service? Can you start VIZ on the DR machine and open and render the file successfully there? What resolution are you rendering this image at? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alias_marks Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 yes am running DR spawner as a service, like you suggested, however the issue persists. If I run the rendering from the node machine without DR and as a single render it comes out fine. These are small res test renderings that have not been resized from the images that are in this thread. 1000x1000 max so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfa2 Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 Let's try an image that doesn't use any maps. Just put some teapots and boxes in a scene, put some plain vray shaders on them with different colors and render that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alias_marks Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 with no maps With UNC pathed maps and UNC pathed max file name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfa2 Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 That Grebble thing is cool. Did you just do those? Or are those from your other tests? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alias_marks Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 haha, thanks. No actually I've got a simultaneous thread going on at the vizdepot forums and I posted the same thing just as you asked for them. Edit - yest I just made them 5 minutes ago http://www.vizdepot.com/forums/showthread.php?p=49436&posted=1#post49436 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfa2 Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 I found this file and note on the Chaos board. Here is a ZIP file which contains the following files: (*) vraydummy60.max (*) vraydummy60.xml needed to run the DR under VIZ 2006. Copy them (overwrite) on all the render-slaves as well as the client machine. Seemed to help other people...it's worth a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alias_marks Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 yes, I found those as well. They are copied and correctly stored on my node machines and the control machine. --------------------------------------- just fyi to for anyone else reading this post with the same problems, there's a vrayspawner.ini file in the attached zip file that you need in addition if you're trying to run Vray with Viz. The ini file needs to be opened and changed to match you're max file directory location. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfa2 Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 I guess you've also read that a lot of people are having problems with VIZ and DR. Since I run max, I guess I haven't had to overcome the same hurdles as you and the others. It sounds like you've done everything right...which has to be frustrating. One last thing to try...the way I used to do DR. Copy all the maps to each DR machine and make sure they are in a folder that is in the max or viz .ini file for user paths. Other than that, I'm not sure. But I'll keep thinking about all the stuff I've tried. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and the first thing that pops into my head is the answer to a problem I was working on the day before...its really scary when that happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alias_marks Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 Alright Gary, sounds good. I really do appreciate your help along the way here. I'll keep poking around too and see if I can't figure it all out. yes, a bit frustrating is definitely the underlying theme here. haha. Oh well, hopefully there's a solution somehow. Take Care, mb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alias_marks Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 ok, @ long last after tearing out most of my hair I think I've found the solution. Here's what needs to happen: before you can even start up Dist. Render, you've got to do a backburner job with ALL the nodes you're planning on using for DR at the same time. Make sure you see all the machines in the monitor and that they are contributing to the job through "split scanline" contributions. Then re-copy all the vraydummy, vrayspawner.ini, and vrayspawner.xml to the viz directory on all the machines (nodes and manager). What I was doing: doing one backburner job one at a time just between the manager and the new node when ever it was that I needed to add another node. Then recopying the 3 files from above. bah! gesh, what a gauntlet. I look forward to the day when DR is a little more user friendly. maybe like modo and the new boujour approach...is a good solution -hint hint, wink wink chaos group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thablanch Posted June 14, 2007 Share Posted June 14, 2007 Can not find the thread anymore, but there is a known issue with viz2007/DR. ( wich is the main reason we stuck with 2006 for so long) 2008 has no problem at all, even works better/faster than 2006.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alias_marks Posted June 14, 2007 Author Share Posted June 14, 2007 You know what Alain, I think you might be right. Got back to my workstation this morning and things worked fine up until lunch, then SLAM! Same exact problem again. had to go through and re-run backburner all over again with the nodes to get it back up and running again. Lame, hopefully we get 2008 in the next couple weeks here. ----------------------- On a side note, Gary, do you know how to get vrayspawner60.exe to stop running as a service and get it only to run as a program again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfa2 Posted June 15, 2007 Share Posted June 15, 2007 On a side note, Gary, do you know how to get vrayspawner60.exe to stop running as a service and get it only to run as a program again? run this at a dos prompt or Start -> Run "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3dsMax8\vrayspawner60.exe" -UnregServer Since you use VIZ make sure that path goes to your VIZ folder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
futuraa Posted July 8, 2007 Share Posted July 8, 2007 well another way to fix that problem: 1. Textures loaded from shared server 2. Load texture paths from server on all your max nodes 3. render on dr and you`ll not have that problem with textures the important part is to always load your textures from a shared server that every other node have access to, and have those textures folders put in your user paths in max settings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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