Upgrade to 3 but some projects possibly need 2.4

[tricky]

We are wanting to upgrade to version 3 of Vray but as our projects run on for so long, it is difficult to find a gap where we can transition. Also, we have an animation job with several GI solutions saved so that we can re-render broken frames etc.

If we upgrade to vray 3 and install on our farm, are we going to experience transition issues, particularly with these saved GI solutions?

Am I correct in thinking that we cannot have two versions of vray installed at the same time?

[nakama]

you can have two versions of vray installed at the same time - if you have 2 seperate max versions installed.
I got the problem solved that vray 2.4 is running on a max 2012 installation and vray 3.0 is running on max 2014

[tricky]

That won't work. All projects are on Max2014.

I vaguely recall this being an issue last time we upgraded. Chaosgroup should really try and have it so that multiple versions can be installed. Why isn't this possible I wonder? We are running 10+ projects simultaneously so the chances of all of them finishing at the same time is as likely as all the planets lining up in a row.

[instinct]

Because you would have plugins with the same classid multiple times (just to name one reason).

[tricky]

Because you would have plugins with the same classid multiple times (just to name one reason).

(not knowing anything about programming)...why couldn't they just have different class ids?

[instinct]

The ID is what max uses to reference each class. A class in this case could be VRayHDRI. If you had a different class ID you would have as many different versions of VRayHDRI in your map browser. Also if you would open an 2.x file in 3.x it would not use the correct version, or would not be able to recognise it at all if said version is not installed.

Cheers,
Thorsten

[tricky]

The ID is what max uses to reference each class. A class in this case could be VRayHDRI. If you had a different class ID you would have as many different versions of VRayHDRI in your map browser. Also if you would open an 2.x file in 3.x it would not use the correct version, or would not be able to recognise it at all if said version is not installed.

Cheers,
Thorsten

Surely this is all resolvable though? We've put a man on the moon

[instinct]

Surely this is all resolvable though? We've put a man on the moon

Yup...and we lost a shuttle here and there

Seriously, i am not sure if it is possible in a graceful realiable way as much of this is out of Chaosgroup's control. Also this is only one of the issues. There are things that are loaded as dlls rather than plugins that are installed to the root of the max folder that can not really coeexist most likely. Generally this seems like a box of pandora to me. While it probably is possible in a more or less usable wa it is not really something i would want Chaos to spend their time on. You can kind of centrally deploy vray. Supporting it in a renderfarm context to make it really switchable is also possible, but can be tricky.

Cheers,
Thorsten

[svetlozar.draganov]

If we upgrade to vray 3 and install on our farm, are we going to experience transition issues, particularly with these saved GI solutions?
Am I correct in thinking that we cannot have two versions of vray installed at the same time?

There will be some differences between 2.x and 3.x renders since a lot of optimizations were introduced in 3.x so if you want to get absolutely the same result it would be better to render with 2.x version.
Two V-Ray versions per single Max installation is not possible so far.

That won't work. All projects are on Max2014.

There is also 3DSMax 2014 Design version - you could use it with Vray 2.x and use regular 3DSMax 2014 with Vray 3.x

[trixian]

Aren't those 2 max flavours licensed as separate products? (silly Autodesk).
Buying a new license of max seems a bit over the top.
Personally I tend to hold out on upgrading until I'm certain I can go fully into the new version (between projects), though this can get tricky sometimes timing-wise.

[alexyork]

Aren't those 2 max flavours licensed as separate products? (silly Autodesk).
Buying a new license of max seems a bit over the top.
Personally I tend to hold out on upgrading until I'm certain I can go fully into the new version (between projects), though this can get tricky sometimes timing-wise.

I'm in the position now where I'd love to upgrade but the pace of release of patches to fix big issues is so rapid that I'd rather just sit tight for another few months until things are a bit more settled. But then trying to find a window in which to upgrade, learn the new/changed features and roll out across my nodes is going to be very tough. I guess I might just have to lose a weekend to it.

[trixian]

One thing that would make life a bit simpler would be a "VRay Auto-Patcher" of sorts. Let it silently retrieve new updates and notify you when its ready for installation. This way, updating multiple machines would be a breeze, and Chaos can better "screw over" the warez scene by letting VRay patch more often rendering cracks unusable.
This would also let us in on the mythical nightly builds automatically if wanted, instead of the way it is done today.

This would mean Chaos needs to set up some server stuff and maybe invest some cash in this, so they might not want to.