Vray 5 material Library on network render

[clay_creative]

Hi,

Having installed Vray on workstations and our render farm, the render nodes cannot access the new textures associated with the new vray materials. I see others have had the same problem, and the suggested solution is to change the project paths in 3DS. However these are render nodes, so 3DS max can't be run to configure the network paths. More than this Autodesk state that render nodes cannot be configured to point to different paths without a full workstation license access. What is the proposed solution for this? Surely Vray's new materials are supposed to also be rendered over a network?

[Joelaff]

You can install the library locally on each render node.

You could likely also use a mount point to mount a network shared library on the render nodes. Possibly even a windows Shortcut, though I have not tried it.

[clay_creative]

Hmm, I tried installing them, but they still are missing... I'll have to look into that some more

[Joelaff]

One thing to note is that the installer puts the library in C:\Users\<INSTALLER_USER>\Documents rather than into the non-user-specific C:\Users\Public|Documents where I think they belong.

Why does this matter? If you run your rendering software as a user other than the admin user who installed the software it will not have access to the files. You can run C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\3ds Max 2021\bin\mtllib.exe as the user who will be running Max to install the matlib in the proper folder for that user. This will re-download if needed. You could presumably move the files there manually as well.

[robdeja]

We had the same issue but you can set the path with an environment variable or through a registry key. See the docs here:
https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...+Asset+Browser

[Joelaff]

We had the same issue but you can set the path with an environment variable or through a registry key. See the docs here:
https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...+Asset+Browser

Do you know if setting these automatically makes the asset browser look in the right place inside Max? Or do you still have to add paths image Max?

[dean_dmoo]

Was running into this today whilst installing the latest hotfix. Initially the rendernodes weren't rendering a vray material library. And the library button was no longer working on my WS. I had moved the library from the initial local user folder to a network location. So I was about to post a frustrated message, however....

Changing the registration key to the network location on my WS fixed the button. So that was step one working.

Then for the rendernodes I found the the program "Vray Material Library downloader" in the windows vray menu. If you start it up you are given the option to choose a target directory for the library download. In my case I used the network location where I had already saved it. The program recognizes that the library is already there and, I assume, sets up the rendernode paths to this location. The rendernodes worked correctly after this.

Did the same for my home WS, the button hadn't worked at all as I didn't download the library during installation and had just copied it over from the network location at the office. (mirrored server so everything has the same network location) But because I hadn't installed the library at all there wasn't a registrypath to edit. So I just did step 2 and that also fixed the path and button.

[Joelaff]

Thanks for the info!

[dean_dmoo]

So this longer works for us. For some reason, when moving to max 2021 with all the updated software it just will not recognise the network link on the rendernodes.

- Setting project folder on WS doesn't work (whether it's as the shared drive folder Z: or the network address). Nodes are unlicensed trial versions so we don't open max on them.
- Using the library download trick doesn't work either (whether as user with admin rights or run as administrator).
- local registry edit on the rendernodes doesn't work either even though the adress is exactly the same as on the workstation.

Everything else works fine on the rendernodes (as in all other textures, proxies, etc). The only way for the rendernode to see the textures is to manually go into the max asset tracking and set the folder to the shared folder path. Obviously we are not going to start doing that as it's too easy to forget and have a textureless render come out of the rendernodes.

Anyone from chaos that knows a solution or where we need to look? Seems like a pretty basic issue to solve, but somehow we can no longer get it to work. (Installing locally isn't a solution as principally it's ridiculous to waste harddrive space on every rendernode for this.)

[^Lele^]

it just will not recognise the network link on the rendernodes.

*It* being?

[dean_dmoo]

3DS max 2021 on the rendernodes

[^Lele^]

Ok, feel free to mail me, so we can continue the discussion with some actual data on your configuration.

[clay_creative]

Has anyone else found that the C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\3ds Max 2021\bin\mtllib.exe trick is no longer available with 3ds max 2022? Seems really off that Chaos Group have removed it as this was the way we got all the render nodes to point to a network path with all the materials on. Is there a different solution? Currently all of our render nodes can't access the vray materials.

[^Lele^]

Hello!
The file (as most of the old install) moved to a different location for max 2022, so to respect the new plug-in paradigm.
The folder, with contents more or less equivalent to the pre-2022 locations, is this one: "C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\VRay3d sMax2022"
You'll find the file you need here: "C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\VRay3d sMax2022\bin\mtllib.exe"

[markus_s_cg]

Hi, I've installed and downloaded the library on my rendernodes, but when I send jobs it is still not rendering textures from the library.
I tried using a network path like: "\\eg-fs01\x\BEX\Media library\Textures\V-Ray Material Library" but it didn't render textures. I also tried installing it locally to "C:\Users\Username\Documents\V-Ray Material Library" but that didn't work either even though the folder gets populated with the files.

Asset tracking is showing this path in my testfile. "assets\Bricks" but apparently the searchpath doesn't work for the rendernodes. Any ideas?