Replacing Maxzip for Backburner

[kosso_olli]

Hey guys,
did anybody here replace the ancient Maxzip from Backburner with something else? The reason behind is that Maxzip is unable to unzip files bigger than 4GB, which seems related to a 32bit piece of software. There is a section regarding the Maxzip-system in the 3sdMax preferences. We tried 7-zip, but can not get it to work.

Regards

Oliver

[^Lele^]

I assume you're aware of this?

[kosso_olli]

Yes, this is what I tried. Sadly couldn't get it to work, something must be wrong with the parameters.

[^Lele^]

Poke AD perhaps?
You mustn't be the only one to have a 4gb+ archive with BB.

[kosso_olli]

You're probably right, we can not be the only ones out there. However, I found this: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/suppo...r-message.html

So they basically say that this will never be fixed at all. I can get 7zip to work as archiver, but this only affects the internal Max archive system, not submission to Backburner.

So, what are the alternatives? Deadline is out of the game, because they belong to Amazon AWS, which is not covered by our security certification. What is best suited for small studios with a render farm consisting of 10 render nodes?

[Morne]

Not sure where that leaves you with your certification, but there's also this:

https://www.pulze.io/products/render-manager

Havent tried it myself, but apparently its good.

[kosso_olli]

Thanks Morne!
After testing it seems it is exactly what we are looking for. Easy to use, modern interface.

[Morne]

Thanks Morne!
After testing it seems it is exactly what we are looking for. Easy to use, modern interface.

Awesome, good to know.

[Alex_M]

Yes, this is what I tried. Sadly couldn't get it to work, something must be wrong with the parameters.

Hi, kosso_olli ,
Can you elaborate? Do you get an error message and what does the error message say? Please note that the command line of 7-zip will fail to create an archive when there are 2 or more files with the same name and extension in the archive if you don't use the -spf2 or -spf switch.

I am able to successfully archive a 3ds max scene with 7-zip (screenshot below) with the following command and switches even if there are multiple files with the same name and extension used in the scene:

a -t7z -spf2 -m0=lzma2 -mx=9 -mfb=273 -ms=on -myx=9

a - add files to archive

-t7z - Set type of archive.7z in this case. It will create a Zip archive if you don't specify this.

-spf2 - Use fully qualified file paths. This switch is important if you have duplicate file names! -spf2 creates an archive with full paths without drive letters and -spf creates an archive with absolute paths including drive letters.

-m0=lzma2 - Set compression method to LZMA2.

-mx=9 - Sets level of compression. x=0 means Copy mode (no compression). x=9 - Ultra

-mfb=273 - Sets number of fast bytes for LZMA. It can be in the range from 5 to 273. The default value is 32 for normal mode and 64 for maximum and ultra modes. Usually, a big number gives a little bit better compression ratio and slower compression process.

-ms=on - Enables solid mode. The default is "on" even if you don't specify this switch. You can set it to -ms=off if you don't want to create a solid archive. This will result in faster compression, but might lower the compression ratio. Keep in mind that updating solid .7z archives afterwards can be slow since it can require some recompression.

-myx=9 - Sets the level of file analysis (from 0 to 9 where 9 is maximum analysis).

And another note. You should tell Max to use either the 7z.exe file or the 7zG.exe executable to create the archives. Both will work, but 7zG.exe is the GUI module and will show you the 7-zip progress dialog during compression so you know how the compression process goes.

[^Lele^]

I think Olli's issue is with Backburner, not Max itself.

[kosso_olli]

Yes, exactly. 7Zip as archiver is working, but the files sent to Backburner can not be opened that way.