Newbie Ship Tutorial Question (regarding Input / Output Paths)

[JezUK]

I've completed the ship tutorial and I'm wanting the rendering of the simulation solution to be shared across my network of 2 PCs.

I believe I need to change the $(scene_dir) Output (Simulation Cache Save Path) and $(same_as_output) Input (Preview & Render Cache Path) paths.

These .aur files are held at this location;

\\i9-7980xe\x\Learning Material\3DS Max\ChaosGroup\Phoenix FD\01 - Ship Tutorial\scenes\001_ship_start.max_Phoenix2_frames \

Yet when I place that into both Input and Output Paths, the previews are no longer there and the renders don't work.....

So, I clicked on the "Reset to Default" for both, thinking that'd fix things, and the preview simulation is still not visible in my scene.

The .aur files are there, nothing has been deleted or moved.

Please can you advise where I am going wrong since surely if I choose Reset to Default, it should at least work again as normal.

I have read the DOCs sections on Input and Output (so I'm clearly missing something !).

Many thanks.

[JezUK]

Okay, I'm getting close - it's a network issue that needs resolving, I currently cannot see my own local drive in UNC format, which explains things.

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Ah, yes, unfortunately there's a long and ever growing list of permission issues one might hit with Windows network sharing. You also gotta watch out which user starts the V-Ray spawner on the render machines and if that user can see the network folders...

[JezUK]

Hi Svetlin,

I’m edging closer, but still not there !

UNC is now working (turned out to be a firewall issue) but the distributed rendering of a single frame is still not working, only half of the sea gets rendered (by the host)

The messages in the vray log say that the slave machine has been started.

I'm not at my machine right now so can’t send the image until later today.

Any ideas ?

Eventually I need to apply these settings to my client’s ship once I manage to get this working !

(so I’m guessing if I’m happy with this liquid simulation I can save it as a preset ?).

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Huh, strange, which half of the sea gets rendered? Does the Phoenix log report any errors?

[JezUK]

Hi Svetlin,

Sorry, I see I made a mistake in my previous message, I meant "only half of the sea gets rendered (by the *server*) machine".

Btw, is it me (probably !) or is there some mixing of terms regarding Server / Host in the VRay Message Log and in the VRay Distributed Dialog Box (i.e. shouldn't the "Use Host" checkbox mean "Use Local/Server" ?)

Anyway, Tashko helped me today to set this up correctly

It was a couple of things, mainly a case of setting the correct User Accounts so that the Log On details would work correctly (for the textures side of things).

Very happy to see Phoenix renders now being shared across my two computers

And many thanks for all the help from Chaosgroup

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Yay! Glad it's working now

Cheers!