mr proxies and backburner

[milfora]

Hi,

 

I an trying to render out my project which I have setup a lot of mr proxy objects for vehicles and road furniture.

 

I have setup a network render file (I usually work locally, then move the files to a central network location for final rendering).

I am trying to render out the FG map only through backburner (on a spare machine I have set up), but when I hit the 'Generate Final Gather Map Now' button and send the project through backburner, the slave machine reports that it cannot find the *.mib files (but still carries on generating the FG map anyway). I have put a copy of the proxy files in a 'renderassets' folder on the network, and pointed to it through an MXP file.

 

The backburner error message appears as below

"2008/08/06 12:24:12 WRN MENTAL RAY LOG: PHEN 0.3 error: mip_binaryproxy: File D:\Documents and Settings\amilford\My Documents\3dsmax\sceneassets\renderassets\Vehi_Golf.mib not found"

 

Is there a specific location the mr proxy *.mib files need to be? I have tried putting these *.mib files everywhere, but the slave server does not seem to find them.

 

Thanks in advance

 

AM

[Justin Hunt]

Either create an EXACT folder structure on the slave as what you have on your machine, and copy the mib file there

 

or a better solution, on your machine repath the proxies to the central folder where the proxies now live.

 

The same goes for all texture maps, RPC's xrefs etc.

 

This is one of the bigest AITAs when it comes to network rendering.

 

jhv

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

I am not at my Max computer, but it is highly recomeneded to always work off a network, and always use UNC pathing.

 

Copy the proxy file, and its preview file to the network, then select the proxy in the scene, and then go to the rollout on the side panel, and change the location. Use a UNC path to locate it.

 

You might also be able to use asset tracking to do relocate it to a UNC path on the server.

Edited August 6, 2008 by Crazy Homeless Guy

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

 

This is one of the bigest AITAs when it comes to network rendering.

 

jhv

 

Alabama Information Technology Association?

 

http://www.alabama-infotech.org/

[milfora]

Thanks guys,

 

I had a bad feeling that was what was required - I have over 400 vehicles I need to repath!

 

Thank heavens I've picked up a little bit of maxscript. If anyones interested, the script below will strip away a filename from an mrProxy object.

 

You're right Justin, its a real pain - as this is my first mr animation, it's been a very steep learning curve. (unfortunately its 42km long and approx 40000 frames) I probably should have chosen a smaller project to cut my mental ray teeth on

 

-- remove file path from mr proxy objects
for obj in selection do
(
if classof obj == mr_Proxy do
(
	fname = filenameFromPath obj.filename
	obj.filename = fname
) -- end if
) -- end selection loop

 

AM

[Macer]

As Travis mentioned you could try another option (if you can't script - like me!) and put all the files in the same folder on your server and open the asset tracker in max > select all 400 files to be repathed > right click and select retarget common root > point to location > done. Would this work with proxies? Are they listed here?

 

I haven't had a chance to play with them yet (ie no repetitive objects in my recent projects), I'll be bound to need them soon enough though - so I'd better read up on them.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Just double checked. Yes, you can path MR Proxies through asset tracking.

[milfora]

Excellent, I'll use that in future

 

Thanks

 

AM

[Justin Hunt]

LOL it should be PITA

 

question for asset tracking, when ever I repath through AT it only remeamber it for that session and reverts back when I re-open the file, I must be doing something wrong, this happen to anyone else?

 

jhv

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

My asset tracking always remembers the UNC paths when I assign them that way. I have always use UNC paths ticked under the Customize > Preferences > Files, and I have convert to UNC paths under File > Asset Tracking > Paths > Preferences > Convert file paths to UNC.

 

On rare occasion I have had to select another file when locating a file, then relocate the original file in order for it to take, but 98% of the time it works without a problem.

[Macer]

Yeah, I often have to select any random (for speed - whatevers closest) file in the correct folder for the retarget common root to take, but it is correctly remembered and saved with the file. I also have unc paths checked - don't know if this makes a difference to it being correctly saved though?