Running V-Ray from arbitrary directory

[vlado]

Hello guys,

Since we are often asked how to run V-Ray for Maya on Linux from files that are stored on a network location, I did a short page in the help index for this: http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/maya...l_from_dir.htm

Best regards,
Vlado

[renderfarmer]

Hi, Vlado. Thanks for getting this guide together for everyone.

The latest vray build I downloaded includes the three folders in a zip file. I extracted the three folders to a networked share at D:/vray/ and set all 8 environment variables as described in your instructions.

When I launch Maya I can load vray just as I had hoped however it won't render due to it's inability to find a license. This is very perplexing as when I install vray4maya locally on my workstation it finds the license server right away. I can also access the license server remotely from my workstation through a web browser at port 30304 using both the license server's name and IP. I even tried pointing VRAY_AUTH_CLIENT_FILE_PATH to C:\\vrlclient.xml - where i made a copy of the xml file and it still couldn't find a license.

Any ideas?

[vlado]

You only need to specify the path to the file, without the vrlclient.xml part; also the value of the environment variable should not include quotes or double slashes (a single slash is fine).

Best regards,
Vlado

[renderfarmer]

Vlado, you magnificent man, thank you! It's always the most obvious thing that is overlooked... I had the proper slashes, but the file name was superfluous.

Now, on to problem #2 I want to run Vray in standalone mode on my render slaves to batch render .vrscene files. When I install using your outlined procedure for standalone and try to run vray.exe I get a missing DLL error -libmmd.dll (see image).



I also tried to execute vray.exe using command line: D:\vray\maya_vray\bin\vray -server -portNumber=20207 with the same result.

My exact envars:

PATH = D:\vray\maya_vray\bin

VRAY_PLUGINS_x64 = D:\vray\maya_vray\vrayplugins

VRAY_AUTH_CLIENT_FILE_PATH = D:\vray\

Should I not be executing D:\vray\maya_vray\bin\vray.exe ? I also tried vraymayaspawner2012 and that yielded the same error. I will be needing vraymayaspawner2012 to run on the slaves as well for DR, so if there is a special environment variable for that please let me know.

Thanks again.

[vlado]

You can just copy the libmmd.dll from the other bin directory; since the file is included twice, it looks like our installer ignores the second copy - will make a note to fix this. Thanks for the pointer!

Best regards,
Vlado

[renderfarmer]

There are actually 3 files missing! See image attached.



D:\vray is the contents of the included zip file I downloaded from chaos group.
D:\vray_standalone is the contents following the instructsions on spot3d after running the installer and manually specifying the three directories.


I tried them one by one and both libmmd.dll and dte_wrapper.dll must be included otherwise there is an error when running vray.exe.

svml_dispmd.dll is the third missing file but i didn't get an error with it missing. I don't know what it does so I copied it anyway just in case and it seems to be running OK for now.

Thanks again for everything.

[vlado]

Yes, they are all duplicated in two places of the actual installation; good that you are up and running now. Will fix this for future builds.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Fredrik Averpil]

D:\vray\maya_vray\bin\vray -server -portNumber=20207

What is the equivalent command on OS X?
I've tried ./vrayslave -server -portNumber=20207 inside the maya_vray/bin folder, without success. I'm getting "permission denied", but this may because I'm testing on the demo build. Would be great to know if the syntax is correct though.

[t.petrov]

Hi,

Executing "/Applications/Autodesk/maya2012/Maya.app/Contents/vray/bin/vray -server" should do what you need,
but I don't know if the standalone is available in the demo builds.

/Teodor

[Fredrik Averpil]

It's there but I guess it doesn't work in the demo
Thanks though.

[Fredrik Averpil]

Hi,

I'm now trying to launch the OS X slave like this:
/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_vray/bin/vray -server -portNumber=20207

However, I'm getting this error:
dyld: Library not loaded: @executable_path/QtCore
Referenced from: /Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_root/MacOS//libvray.dylib
Reason: image not found
/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_vray/bin/vray: line 3: 33988 Trace/BPT trap: 5 /Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_vray/bin/vray.bin -portNumber=20207 $*


Any idea on how to start the slave via commandline on an OS X machine?
I've defined all the environment variables including DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH.

EDIT:

I previously posted an edit note about that I solved it, but even if the slave runs it doesn't work. See next post.

[Fredrik Averpil]

Hi again,

No luck yet with launching the DR Slave in OS X. So I opened the "vray" file inside of the /bin folder in an editor and I noticed all it's doing is modifying the DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH and then runs vray.bin. So I tweaked my environment variables and launches vary.bin instead. This actually launches the slave, but it seems it's missing the libraries still or something.


These are my env vars, and with them V-Ray for Maya works perfectly:

MAYA_RENDER_DESC_PATH=/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_root/bin/rendererDesc
LC_ALL=C
MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH=/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_vray/scripts:/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/include/maya/scripts/
VRAY_FOR_MAYA2012_PLUGINS_x64=/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_vray/vrayplugins
MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH=/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_vray/plug-ins:/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/include/maya/plugins/osxosx
PATH=/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_root/bin:/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_vray/bin:/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/vray/bin
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_root/MacOS/
VRAY_AUTH_CLIENT_FILE_PATH=/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/license/
VRAY_FOR_MAYA2012_MAIN_x64=/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_vray
XBMLANGPATH=/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_vray/icons/%B:/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_vray/icons/

And this is what I'm launching:

/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_vray/bin/vray.bin -portNumber=20207 -server

And this is the error I'm getting:

dyld: Library not loaded: @executable_path/QtCore
  Referenced from: /Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_root/MacOS//libvray.dylib
  Reason: image not found

If I change the DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH to this, the slave starts:

/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_vray/lib

But I get errors:

[2012/Jun/28|09:09:07] Reading configuration from "/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_vray/bin//vrayconfig.xml"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:07] ===============================================
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:07] V-Ray Standalone, version 2.20.01 for x64
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:07] Copyright (C) 2000-2010 Chaos Group Ltd. All rights reserved.
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:07] Use -credits option for additional third-party copyright notices.
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:07] 
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:07] Build from Feb  1 2012, 11:11:21
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:07] Compiled with GCC-compatible compiler, version 4.2
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:07] Operating system is Mac OS X
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:07] 
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:07] V-Ray core version is 2.00.01
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:07] ===============================================
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:07] 
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:07] Loading plugins from "/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_vray/vrayplugins/libvray_*.so"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:07] Finished loading plugins.
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:07] Entering server mode - waiting for render requests on port 20207. Press Ctrl+C to exit.
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] Starting DR session from 10.20.10.162
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] Receiving DR scene from 10.20.10.162
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] Reading scene file "/tmp/vrscene.txt"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] /tmp/vrscene.txt: done [ 0h  0m  0.0s]                                                  
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] Scene file parsed successfully in 0.0 s.
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsRenderChannels"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsOutput"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsOptions"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsImageSampler"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "FilterArea"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsCamera"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsCameraDof"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsMotionBlur"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "RenderView"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsEXR"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsPNG"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsJPEG"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsSGI"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsTIFF"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsTGA"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsColorMapping"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsUnitsInfo"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsGI"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsIrradianceMap"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsPhotonMap"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsDMCGI"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsLightCache"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsCaustics"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsDMCSampler"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsDefaultDisplacement"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsRaycaster"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsRegionsGenerator"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "LightRectangle"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsEnvironment"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "TexSky"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "RenderChannelDRBucket"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "GeomStaticMesh"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "BRDFDiffuse"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "UVWGenMayaPlace2dTexture"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "BitmapBuffer"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "TexBitmap"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "MtlSingleBRDF"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "Node"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "GeomStaticMesh"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "BRDFDiffuse"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "MtlSingleBRDF"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "Node"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Failed to create object of type "SettingsLightLinker"
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] Scene created successfully.
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] Objects in scene: 0
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] Starting render sequence.
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] Preparing renderer...
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] Preparing scene for rendering...: done [ 0h  0m  0.0s]                                                  
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] ========================
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] Starting frame 1.
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Camera FOV is too small, possible round-off errors.
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] Preparing scene for frame...: done [ 0h  0m  0.0s]                                                  
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] Compiling geometry...: done [ 0h  0m  0.0s]                                                  
[2012/Jun/28|09:09:15] warning: Scene is empty.

Anyone know what's wrong?

[t.petrov]

Hi,

It seems that V-Ray standalone could not find the plugins.
Can you verify that the plugins path in the '/Volumes/XSAN/Store/Public/Pipeline/bin/vray_maya/builds/vray_22001_official_maya2012_osx/maya_vray/bin//vrayconfig.xml; is correct?
It should point to you vrayplugins subdirectory (the one with all the libvray_*.so file in it).

/Teodor

[Fredrik Averpil]

Many thanks, the path in this file was completely wrong.

Seems to work now!