backburner being... strange.

[Neilg]

Has anyone here seen backburner thinking it was rendering one frame, but actually rendering another. So that when the frame it thinks it's rendering is done, it considers it done in the manager (but doesnt save it out) and the other frame it's actually rendering it saves out, then renders again on another farm machine because it doesnt know it's been done?
Leads to an animation with most of the frames missing (but BB thinking they're all done fine) and another animation with most of the frames being rendered twice.


It's doing my tits in. 80% of my frames on an animation were not rendered last night - and the few farm machines that were doing this were completley wasted because everything they did ended up being re-done by another one.


It's happened a few times in the past few weeks - not being aware it was rendering a strip then having to re-do it - but it's the first time it's got in the way of an animation.
Anyone seen this, and can offer a reason?
Ditching bb is probably out of the question here.

[beestee]

Sounds like a backburner manager issue to me. Several routes you could go to try and fix it, and rarely do I find that what ends up being the solution actually makes sense.

In an ascending order of time consumption, you could try these things if you have not already:

1. Reboot the manager

2. Double check the settings in the manager

3. Uninstall then re-install the manager

4. Try using a different port number for the manager(you may need to coordinate this with your network administration)

5. Install the manager on a different computer

I have found that we get a lot less issues when the manager is on it's own dedicated computer, or a computer that is used for little else. Remember that for the last two options, you will have to go in and change the server settings on all of your nodes to look to the new manager settings, so they are considerably more time consuming.

Actually I am kinda suprised that you have stuck with backburner so long considering the amount of animation, and no doubt network rendering you do. I guess until you are met with a deal-breaking issue, backburner is the best solution, but hopefully when that issue arises it doesn't cost you a big contract.

I would love to see a chaosgroup solution for network rendering

[m_hinks]

Actually I am kinda suprised that you have stuck with backburner so long considering the amount of animation, and no doubt network rendering you do. I guess until you are met with a deal-breaking issue, backburner is the best solution, but hopefully when that issue arises it doesn't cost you a big contract.

I would love to see a chaosgroup solution for network rendering

So would I! Out of interest, what system would you recommend for netrendering instead of backburner? I saw ButterflyNetRender (www.liquiddreamsolutions.com) today, and it seems nice, but I downloaded the trail and its virtually impossible to install!!

[jacksc02]

what version of BB are you using?
Your not doing anything silly with the ranges your rendering out? like a negative frame number?

[beestee]

Out of interest, what system would you recommend for netrendering instead of backburner?

http://www.chaosgroup.com/forums/vbu...er+replacement

[Neilg]

what version of BB are you using?
Your not doing anything silly with the ranges your rendering out? like a negative frame number?

The 2007 version - one under the newest.
path's about as simple as it gets, 200 frames of camera movement in a static 30mb scene.
The server is already running on it's own machine too.

We dont have the newest version, but we're right at the end of a big job so theres absolutley no chance it would be re-installed for my not even slightly important personal project. I imagine we'll upgrade when we do the max install, which should be soon but who knows eh.
Just wanted to see if anyone knew why it would do this - it's messed things up for me before but never like this, it's a new one and weird as.


We have looked into other options but theres never been much support for the idea - backburner is completley broken sometimes, but only sometimes, and it's free...