Getting started with V-Ray Standalone - how to render vrscenes one after another?

[Karol.Osinski]

Hey everybody, I finally want to put my hands on V-Ray Standalone. I could find any info in documentation on how to render vray scenes one after another. Any tips?

I on Maya btw.

[alexander.kazandzhiev]

Hi you can't, but you can always make a script to do it. I've attached two sample scripts for Windows that render sets of scenes. The vrayall.cmd calls vray.exe for all .vrscene files in the current directory and the vrayls.cmd reads the scene files list from a list provided as a file (scenes.txt) so you can call it like "vrayls scenes.txt".
Hope this helps.

Best regards,
Alexander

[Oleg_Budeanu]

You can use Thinkbox Deadline, the version for 2 PC's is free.

[waaazoo]

Hey everybody, I finally want to put my hands on V-Ray Standalone. I could find any info in documentation on how to render vray scenes one after another. Any tips?

I on Maya btw.

Really simple. Create a text file with the different batch command lines. Rename it as .bat and drag and drop into a Vray standalone command prompt.

typical batch command line:

"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2020\bin\render.exe" -r vray -proj YOUR_PROJECT_PATH -cam camera1 -s 1 -e 1 -b 1 -x 5000 -y 3300 -im IMAGE_OUTPUT_NAME SCENE_PATH_NAME.mb

"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2018\bin\render.exe" -r vray -proj X:\current_projects\my_project -cam camera1 -s 1 -e 1 -b 1 -x 5000 -y 3300 -im image_name X:\current_projects\my_project\scenes\my_scene.mb


EDIT: This works for Maya scenes off course.

[Karol.Osinski]

waaazoo just tried your method with .mb scenes - works like a charm, thanks a lot man!

alexander.kazandzhiev Thank you The .vrayscene method will also be super useful whenever I have to avoid missing paths between MAC n Windows.

Cheers guys.

[Karol.Osinski]

Hi alexander.kazandzhiev I am trying your method with batching .vrscenes, the given examples works well but now when I am trying to render .vrscene exported with VRay 5 the VFB is not being displayed. I am receiving the following error.

[alexander.kazandzhiev]

Hi, sadly the 5.0 V-Ray Standalone doesn't have the new VFB UI implemented. It will save the render outputs properly so it can be used as batch rendering or render server, but Update 1 fixes this. There may be other problem of course, but I can't figure out the version from the screenshot.

Best regards,
Alexander

[Karol.Osinski]

Hi Alexander, I am on V-Ray for Maya and we sadly still did not receive an Update 1. I am currently on hotfix 2.

[alexander.kazandzhiev]

Update 1 for Maya is in progress. Until then there is a V-Ray Standalone installation that has Update 1 https://download.chaosgroup.com/?platform=47&product=47, if it could suit your workflow.

Best regards,
Alexander

[Karol.Osinski]

Hi alexander.kazandzhiev , can I simply install it over V-Ray Standalone which already got installed with V-Ray for Maya? Will it automatically updated it? I have to launch few scenes tonight and I don't want f*** anything up. Thanks

[Karol.Osinski]

waaazoo Hey man, sorry for bothering you again. Is it possible to display the frame buffer with your method? I tried to add " -display=1 " after dragging the .bat file into Standalone but I suppose this is not the way it works.

[waaazoo]

waaazoo Hey man, sorry for bothering you again. Is it possible to display the frame buffer with your method? I tried to add " -display=1 " after dragging the .bat file into Standalone but I suppose this is not the way it works.

Hi Karol, No problem at all.
With the mayabatch method (maybatch.exe) you can't have the VFB if I'm not wrong.
With Vray.exe in batch you can theoritically have the VFB showing up, but It doesn't work currently with Vray5 (it works with VrayNext). you add the -display=1 in the batch file like this:

vray -sceneFile="C:\YourProject\YourScene.vrscene" -imgFile="C:\YourProject\images\YourImageName.exr" -distributed=0 -imgWidth=1920 -imgHeight=1080 -skipExistingFrames=1 -display=1 -autoClose=0 -frames=StartFrame-EndFrame,1

[Karol.Osinski]

Thank you so much waaazoo , in general that batch trick with .mb scenes helped me to optimize the efficiency of renders a lot by using all the machines, all the time instead of having one idling for the rest of the night once it finishes the render. I really appreciate it man.

[alexander.kazandzhiev]

Hi Karol, better don't mix them. I was meaning if you could prepare the scenes in Maya and then, use the Standalone installation for the batch rendering with vray.exe

Best regards,
Alexander

[Karol.Osinski]

Hi Alexander, I installed an updated Standalone and so far it works well with Maya .mb scene batch method.

However, I still don't use the .vrscene batch method because I have a problem with accessing our local network.

1. Launching the .cmd file containing list of .vrscenes from my desktop gives me ACCESS DENIED.

2. Launching the .cmd file directly from the server gives me error with UNC path.

In general it is easier to launch batch of .mb files, as it is faster to make the last minute change and simply saving the scene instead of re-exporting it to .vrscene file. I am aware it takes more resources to render this way, and it also sometimes takes ages for the render to start as the headless Maya has to open and load everything.
VRSCENE is so fast to load in Standalone.

Is there NO WAY to have VFB open using .mb batch method ?

Thanks and have a good day.
Karol