vray dr & max design vs. plain max

[Casey Hawley]

I've been using Max Design 2009 with Vray 1.5 SP2 Distributed Rendering just fine.

 

Now I have Max 2010 (note: not DESIGN version) with Vray 1.5 SP5 and DR doesn't work. Net Render via Backburner DOES work in both versions. DR from 2009 still works too.

 

Both versions of Max + Vray DR are installed on slave machine. Both versions of Vray Spawner are installed as services & run under Admin user rights.

 

I have tried to go through and set all the same persmissions for 2010 resource folders to match settings of 2009. Maybe I missed one? Can someone list the essential files/folders that need to be accessible for DR.

 

Can't, for the life of me, figure out why 2010 won't do DR. Do i need a VraySpawner.ini to help distinguish incoming requests?

 

Please help!

[BrianKitts]

You shouldn't have to do any special manual configurations to get it to work as long as all machines have the right matching versions of max/vray with the machine that you're working on.

 

Just to confirm (If I'm reading your post right) you do have 2010 standard max on the DR machines, as it is not possible to DR 2010 standard with a machine that has 2010 design on it, they are completely different releases of max as far as network rendering is concerned.

 

As a test make sure that you can render a scene through backburner first on all the machines sent from your primary workstation. That typically works best for trouble shooting any connectivity / plugin issues. Once that's sorted out DR should be easier to enable.

Edited September 1, 2011 by BrianKitts

[Casey Hawley]

It's a real head scratcher, that's for sure!

 

I have only Design 2009 and 2010 Standard installed on both workstation and server/slave. There is only one slave computer (with dual quad Xeons!) And as I said, net render via Backburner works fine for both versions of Max. DR works fine for Design 2009 too.

 

It is only DR for 2010 that is not working, or at least doesn't appear to be working. Here's a grab of the Vray Messages window:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]44623[/ATTACH]

 

Strange that it says 1 host will be used for DR, then it starts and stops immediately, with no errors. The image continues to render using local cores only. DR never kicks in.

 

Perhaps DR is broken in VRay 1.5 SP5?

[Casey Hawley]

Here's a snip from the VRSpawner.txt log file:

0: [2011/Sep/1|09:03:58] ========================== Starting new session ==========================

1: [2011/Sep/1|09:03:58] Got this module name: C:\3ds Max 2009\vrayspawner2009.exe

2: [2011/Sep/1|09:03:58] Got this INI file name: C:\3ds Max 2009\VRaySpawner.ini

3: [2011/Sep/1|09:03:58] *** ALERT! Could not open INI file: "C:\3ds Max 2009\VRaySpawner.ini". Using defaults.

4: [2011/Sep/1|09:03:58] --

5: [2011/Sep/1|09:03:58] Dumping current settings...

6: [2011/Sep/1|09:03:58] VRaySpawner temp dir: "C:\3ds Max 2009\network"

7: [2011/Sep/1|09:03:58] Application name (MAX/VIZ): "C:\3ds Max 2009\3dsmax.exe"

8: [2011/Sep/1|09:03:58] --

9: [2011/Sep/1|09:03:58] Process id is 1552 (0x610)

10: [2011/Sep/1|09:03:58] Executing ""C:\3ds Max 2009\3dsmax.exe" -server C:\3ds Max 2009\network\vraydummy2009.max"

 

It looks like only the 2009 spawner is being executed. I believe this log entry occurs when the server/slave boots up and starts the spawner service as there is typically only one "session" block per day. Shouldn't I see the 2010 spawner being executed too? Can both spawner services run at the same time, or am I chasing my tail here trying to have two versions of Vray doing DR on the same computer?

 

For clarity.. I am not trying to render using DR in both Max versions at the same time. Only one at a time.

Edited September 1, 2011 by spacecase

[Casey Hawley]

I think I'm on to something here..

 

Can I uninstall the Vray SP2 version and run Max Design 2009 net render, or DR with SP5 on the slave instead?

 

Maybe there is a conflict between the two versions of Vray on the slave?

 

I always thought each version of Max needed its own version of Vray.

 

**Edit**

A-ha! Indeed... only one version of the spawner service will "listen" for DR requests at a time. I stopped both, then only started the 2010 spawner service and BOOM.. DR for 2010 works!

 

Plus, SP5 doesn't show as a choice under Assign Renderer in Max 2009. Guess that answers that question, too!

Edited September 1, 2011 by spacecase