Distributed rendering with Vray? Any clue to Maps diseapearing

[jeandelessard]

Hi everyone.

 

we got a little detail to correct here in the DR with Vray. We have look in Vray Forum and no clue yet. Maybe we would have more chance here.

 

We have set the new Vray 1.5 SP1 in our network. Previous network was working fine. our problem seems to be that the slaves ( SPAWNER ) dont see any maps , textures or others that are in the Network. We have look at the Max Preferences/ UNC or relatives files. We look at Asset tracking and somewhere else. No clue there too. All the network work fine. Each computer see each other when we PING. Every computer see the directories where the maps are. If we start individualy each computer it works fine. If we try to do DR ... No maps, no textures, or no .ies files. It works if we put all maps in local computer. But it's a big waiste of time to manage that. We start manually the Spawner....

 

 

Any clu why the Spawner ( slaves ) Vray do not see the Directories where the files are located?

 

Everything have been look. From permissions to connexions cable. We use Windows XP pro. MAX 9 sp2.... etc...

 

thansk for your help

[ahmon]

Had problem like that too.

 

All of my computers were looking for files on the map network drive Z, which was a folder on my c drive. On my Workstation was looking for the files on the c drive so when i used dr the other computers would not see the maps. Changed the bitmap locations in the max file on workstation to look for then on z and not c and then all worked fine. So it was just that when i add the map to the material i went to the c and not the z drive. Maybe this is not your solution but it should not be anything big. But i guess it is big until you get it fixed.

[jeandelessard]

we have only use 2 directories that we name F and G in all the office. All the textures .maps and other need for modeling are there. all computers have their Own > for local needs but everything is save on F or G. No local save in all the office. So like that we are sure that we wont forget something in the Bureau...

[jean de lessard]

Dra, i have a question for you.

 

how did you manage the Computers to see the directories. Did we do something wrong in the installation process of Vray spawner? Does it works weel in your office when you launch the DR?

 

thanks

[jean de lessard]

we have try to check and uncheck almost all possibilities in MAX9 to see if it's works in the Preferences settings/UNC or Relatives....

 

But nothing works there.

 

At the beginning, when we install the Dr it was working very well. But after a day or 2 everything fall. Sometimes it could works ... sometimes not at all. Since a week, nothing...

[jean de lessard]

could the problem be on the backburner manager that don't find the maps or the path?

[alias_marks]

Yea, what happens when you turn off DR and run a single job through backburner, sending strips to all the slave computers (still using Vray)? Does it see the maps then? I've had this happen before too, and found that sometimes I have to re-run backburner to get the slaves to "magically" see the map/ies/hdri files again.

 

Double checking that everything is UNC mapped of course.

 

Good luck.

 

Michael

[jean de lessard]

If i run it alone without the DR, we can see the maps and everything. If we start thr Dr ... no more maps or textures.

 

sorry for my stupid question. but where did you re-run the backburner.

 

on my pc or on the slaves?

[alias_marks]

I set up just a straight forward "Net Render" through the backburner. I distributed the job through all of the slave computers from an administrator computer. I divided a sample job with maps into strips that was complex enough to send a piece to every computer (for example I used 10 strips, sent to different slaves).

 

For Clarification.

 

1. Started Backburner Manager, Server, and Monitor on Administrative machine.

2. Start the "server" from backburner on all of the slave machines and check to make sure they register in the Manager on the Administrative machine.

3. Check "Net Render" in Render dialog box and use Vray to render without DR checked.

 

So to answer your question, you run backburner on all the machines.

 

Do maps show up now?

[josegomez]

Could you explain how to do this? I tryied in Administrative tools but still the textures are missing. Don't know what doing bad. Using Win7 x64.

Thanks.

[strtigad]

Hi All,

 

Everyone help me, I used Vray DR the first time. All networking connection are each other PC has well connected. I have mainpc1 as Slave User and 5 pc as Slave one. Each PC has been sharing file or folder instead, copy & paste, when I hit render everything's running well and can see it the message on vray messages windows exception image. I can see anything (image, picture, etc) on it just blackscreen appear on my window render.

I use windows 7 as Slave user (server) and xp for the else third pc. Every pc salve has been running vray spawner except the Slave user (server).

please someone help me soon .....

[Corey Beaulieu]

There is a lot to read on this thread so I've honestly skimmed it. Maybe this has been said, but not long ago my office switched from backburner to deadline. With this switch we encountered a very similar problem. Our solution was to open the asset tracker, link all files that need linking and then the key to the fix is:

 

Select all maps and links > right click > hit: "resolve path to UNC Location".

 

After doing this, the DR slaves stopped returning black and off color buckets and our renders were back to normal. On occasion we see it still, but this now only means we need to restart the spawner. If trhis is the answer for you as well, you can setup your preferences to resolve UNC Locations automatically.

 

I don't know if it was the switch to deadline that was the problem or if the network changes we were making at the time, but all is good now and I would strongly recommend you give it a try.

[Mario De Achadinha]

From our experience make sure all the render slaves have your machine as the administrator. Run the spawner as a service and use your machines credentials to make it as the administrator. Then restart service.. should work

[strtigad]

Corey Beaulieu, Sorry would you help to write down here how to setup it step by step caused I'm new one in this field. thanks a lot

[strtigad]

Mario De, Thanks guy we're still trying corey's way right now. it's so hard for me the new one ...

[Eric]

When we first setup our farm, we had similar issues. Our first solution was to place all the maps on our server (not just a render server, but our actual file server for the whole office). We then installed "Allway Sync" on each of our render nodes and told them to synchronize the maps folder on our server with each of the node's "C:\Maps" folder. Moments after anything was added to the server's Maps folder, it was automatically copied to each of the render nodes. That worked okay, but it was silly to have duplicate copies on all the nodes.

 

We then switched to saving all the maps to one computer and using proper UNC paths. The benefit here is changes to materials happen instantly - you don't have to wait for a synchronization program to catch up and distribute the files across the nodes before you can click 'render'.

 

I do most of my modeling in Sketchup, then import the file into Max. Any time I make a change to the model and have to re-import an element, I have to open the Asset Manager and fix the path to the material so it uses UNC paths.

 

For what it's worth, I've never been able to simply tell the Asset Manager to resolve the paths to UNC - it doesn't actually do anything for me. I have to manually select a group of maps that are calling the same folder, then fix the path manually.