VRay Spawner and Backburner

[Mats_O]

Hi all,
We had problems with the VRay Spawner which didn´t start rendering as it should. The problem simply began between two renderings with no difference in installations or hardware what so ever. In the same time Backburner servers didn´t connect with the Manager. After hours of troubleshooting we opened some ports to Backburner in Windows Firewall and that solved it for VRay DR as well. So now I am wondering what VRay DR has got to do with Backburner?? Or is it just a coincidence? If it is, I assume we will get more problems with the Spawner shortly again.

[vlado]

This is odd. Will to reproduce it here.

Best regards,
Vlado

[tashko.zashev]

Hi,

VRay Spawner which didn´t start rendering as it should.

Would you please let us know the exact error message that you get? Is it that it could not connect to the V-Ray DR Spawner at all or there was a not responding message after connecting?

We did some tests here and the issue you described was reproduced when a firewall exception was missing from the (Windows) firewall settings. The V-Ray DR process will also not going to work in this case, because it actually starts the 3ds Max in server mode.
So we expect that your changes to the firewall port will fix this problem.


If it happens again, please open a support ticket and we will continue the troubleshoot via remote session.

[Mats_O]

Thanks for your reply! There was no error message. The slaves seemed to load textures, or at least the ram increased, but the render never started on the slaves. Instead ram just continued going up and down. The changes I did in the firewall was only for backburner. And that is what makes me confused.

[tashko.zashev]

Thank you for your update.

we opened some ports to Backburner in Windows Firewall and that solved it for VRay DR as well.

Does the DR rendering work as expected now after the Firewall changes?

Thanks for your reply! There was no error message. The slaves seemed to load textures, or at least the ram increased, but the render never started on the slaves. Instead ram just continued going up and down. The changes I did in the firewall was only for backburner. And that is what makes me confused.

If you still have troubles to set the DR process or the textures are not successfully loaded by the slave machine. Please attach the VRaylog.txt from one of the render slaves as soon as one DR job has been started.
Also what are the exact software versions ? V-Ray and 3DS Max.
Do you use the transfer missing maps option ?

[Mats_O]

Sorry to say, but problem just got back eventhough Firewall is currently off. Max Design 2015 SP3. VRay 3.10.01.

Is the VRaylog.txt directly at C:\ ? Then this is all there is in it:

================================================== ==
Console created, V-Ray A from Dec 5 2014, 23:21:31
================================================== ==

Then it is just empty. Not transfering any missing maps.

Thanks!

[vlado]

Is the VRaylog.txt directly at C:\ ?

No, it is not (as can see the date is 5 Dec 2014). By default it's in the temporary folder for the specific user that the spawner runs as.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Mats_O]

Found it, here is the log from one of the slaves..
Looks like it can´t load vray.cfg.

[vlado]

No, the vray.cfg file is not the problem. However this is also not the full log. In your scene, can you change the V-Ray log file location to "%TEMP%\VRayLog.txt" without the quotes and try to render again? Then get me the log file from the server.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Mats_O]

I did that and there are two VRaylog.txt, one at C:\ that reads:

================================================== ==
Console created, V-Ray A from Dec 5 2014, 23:21:31
================================================== ==
[2015/Jan/14|17:56:09] Received TM_END_RENDER from 10.0.0.4
[2015/Jan/14|17:59:02] Received TM_START_RENDER from 10.0.0.4
[2015/Jan/14|17:59:02] warning: DR request received from 10.0.0.4, but currently busy with 0.0.0.0

and one at my users temp folder that reads:
[2015/Jan/14|17:59:50] ================================================== ==========
[2015/Jan/14|17:59:50] Console created, V-Ray A for x64 from Dec 5 2014, 23:21:31
[2015/Jan/14|17:59:50] ================================================== ==========
[2015/Jan/14|17:59:50] Compiled with Intel C++ compiler, version 14
[2015/Jan/14|17:59:50] Host is 3dsmax, version 17
[2015/Jan/14|17:59:50] V-Ray DLL version is 3.10.01
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:10] Broadcasting TM_SERVER_STARTED after start up
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:10] Received TM_START_RENDER from 10.0.0.4
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:10]
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:10] Starting DR session from 10.0.0.4
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:10] Receiving DR scene from 10.0.0.4
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:13] [VRender] Constructor entered (loading from file).
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:13] Setting default filter kernel.
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:13] "default" preset not loaded: [loadPreset] Cannot open file "C:\Users\Mats\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMaxDesign \2015 - 64bit\ENU\en-US\plugcfg\vray.cfg"
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:13] [VRender] Constructor done.
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:13] Loading from file.
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:13] Loading filter parameters.
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:13] Adding host "HP1003172":20204 from scene
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:13] Adding host "HPZ600-B":20204 from scene
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:13] Loading done.
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:13] [VRender] Constructor entered (loading from file).
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:13] Setting default filter kernel.
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:13] "default" preset not loaded: [loadPreset] Cannot open file "C:\Users\Mats\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMaxDesign \2015 - 64bit\ENU\en-US\plugcfg\vray.cfg"
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:13] [VRender] Constructor done.
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:13] Loading from file.
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:13] Loading filter parameters.
[2015/Jan/14|18:00:13] Loading done.

[Mats_O]

VRaySpawner.txt reads for the last session:

0: [2015/Jan/14|17:59:32] ========================== Starting new session ==========================
1: [2015/Jan/14|17:59:32] Got this module name: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max Design 2015\vrayspawner2015.exe
2: [2015/Jan/14|17:59:32] Got this INI file name: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max Design 2015\VRaySpawner.ini
3: [2015/Jan/14|17:59:32] *** ALERT! Could not open INI file: "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max Design 2015\VRaySpawner.ini". Using defaults.
4: [2015/Jan/14|17:59:32] --
5: [2015/Jan/14|17:59:32] Dumping current settings...
6: [2015/Jan/14|17:59:32] VRaySpawner temp dir: "C:\Users\Mats\AppData\Local\Temp"
7: [2015/Jan/14|17:59:32] Application name (MAX/VIZ): "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max Design 2015\3dsmax.exe"
8: [2015/Jan/14|17:59:32] --
9: [2015/Jan/14|17:59:32] Process id is 2824 (0xb0
10: [2015/Jan/14|17:59:32] Executing ""C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max Design 2015\3dsmax.exe" -server C:\Users\Mats\AppData\Local\Temp\vraydummy2015.max "

[tashko.zashev]

Hi,

Thank you for posting the requested information.

I see that your 3DS Max 2015 has been updated to the latest Service Pack 3. There is an issue in the DR with this update and you will need a V-Ray 3 nightly build.
Please send us an email to support@chaosgroup.com and we will provide you with further details and instructions how to access this builds.

Thank you very much.

[Mats_O]

Aah, thanks! e-mail sent...

[tashko.zashev]

Thank you. You should receive email form our ticket system shortly.