VDBs won't load on Deadline Render AWS Nodes

[Joelaff]

Any thoughts on why Windows based AWS nodes won't load the VDB files loaded into either VRayVolumeGrid or The Phoenix Simulator? I see the asset server sends them over. I see nothing in the logs about VDBs, no errors, but the VDBs don't render (as liquid/isosurface mesh).

It works on local nodes, but not on the remote nodes on AWS. I wonder if it is not being path mapped correctly. Is there some workaround for this?

Thanks.

[georgi.zhekov]

Can you try rendering the scene with V-Ray Standalone locally, just for the test - does it work this way?

Can you also send over the V-Ray log file so that we can check it as well?

Thanks!

[Joelaff]

We are rendering in Max, not standalone... Because there is some bug I have yet to narrow down where the Particle shader is not rendering correctly in standalone (renders some frames, but not others in a seemingly non-deterministic way-- no consistency to which frame fails, or which render node fails, or which render node that made the vrscene fails.). This is scene is massive with 100GB of assets. So I will have to narrow that down before I can report that one. But I think it is likely related to the numerous still existing bugs in Standalone where having various render elements messes up all kinds of things (like the particle shader).

In the case I am having trouble with above I am not sure how to get the vray log out of remote AWS nodes with deadline. I may have to see if I can connect to them with RDS or something, which I am not sure is possible. I could get the logs from deadline, but when rendering in Max vs standalone deadline is not very verbose. But I couldn't find anything in the logs about the missing VDBs. They just don't show up.

Would an error be reported if the actual VDB file was not found?

I may have to try standalone on AWS and see if that fails, as that would at least give me a proper log.

[georgi.zhekov]

There should be a message in the log that the vdb file is loaded when starting the render. If they are not, it will say that the file can't be loaded. There should be a message like this if they are missing:

[2024/Apr/10|10:10:55] [346 MB] [PhoenixCachePlugin] Frame data 0 can't be loaded from F:\Assets\VDB\_fire.vdb.
[2024/Apr/10|10:10:55] [346 MB] [PhoenixSimPlugin] No simulation data for frame time 10!

Is the issue only with VDB files - are there any textures or any other external files that are sent to the AWS node and render properly?