DR in Viz 2005 Works!!!! (Recipe Inside)

[paulison]

cool, im rendering on 9 machines at the moment but havnt tried DR yet with viz2005 because so many people have said it didnt work. Will add this to my list of things to do thanks!

[CCS]

czoog - I emailed you. Let me know if you didn't get it.


Also, could you clarify the process a little? Here's what I did. Maybe I am screwing something up.

When I run backburner, I have all machines running 'server' and one running 'manager'. Each server machine generates an XML, but only the manager has the MAX file.

I have VIZ & vray working fine on my main computer (manager). I have a new machine that I have now installed everything on. VIZ works fine, but vray won't work because I only have one license. My understanding is that it will still work work network rendering and distributed rendering - just not in "normal" mode within VIZ. (Is this correct?)

Am I to copy & rename a MAX file from the manager and rename it "vraydummy60.max"?

I then to copy & rename an XML file to "vraydummy60.xml". Do I take the XML from the manager or the server?

Also, my understanding is that I create the INI file, copy the XML and MAX file, and run vrayspawner - all on the machine I want to use as vray's equivalent of a server, but not on the manager. Is this correct?

Thanks for the continued help.

[CCS]

Is there anyone who can email me a copy of "vrayspawner60.xml" that works with VIZ 2005 and vray 1.46.09, or alternately, post its contents here ???

Thanks

And... Merry Christmas!!

[paulison]

Hi All,

Having just got DR to work in viz2005 I thought that i'd summarise what was needed for me to get it working:

Firstly, make sure the VIZ 2005 directory is not set to read only :P

1. create a file called vrayspawner.ini in your viz root directory. Edit with notepad and put this info inside:

[Directories]
TempDir=C:\Program Files\Autodesk VIZ 2005\network
AppName=C:\program files\Autodesk VIZ 2005\3dsviz.exe

make sure this file is saves with the ini extension (not txt). Right click on start, click explore, go to tools -> folder options -> View, then untick "Hide extensions for known file types". Now you should be able to rename the txt file to an ini

Also, adjust the locations this file points to according to what is needed. For example, some people use a network drive for the TempDir emp

The reason for the ini file is because by dafault (no ini), the program looks for 3dsmax.exe rather than 3dsviz.exe

2. Find any completed job .xml file from the backburner 2 directory and copy this into your viz root folder, then rename this to vraydummy60.xml

3. Open viz 2005 and save a new job over the file vraydummy60.max in the viz root directory. You may need to insert a camera before saving called cam_0 (depends on contents of your vraydummy60.xml file)


4. double click on vrayspawner60.exe in your viz root directory. This should start vraydummy, and the vray spawner.

Notes: if vray spawner or viz dissapear straight away, open and study these two files for indications of why there was a failure:

c:\VRSpawner.log <---the location of this file may vary

c:\program files\Autodesk VIZ 2005\network\ToServer.txt <---if viz keeps opening and closing, look in this file and see what the error is (be quick though as the file dissapears after a retry)

Lastly, delete contents of c:\program files\Autodesk VIZ 2005\network as another thing to try if all else fails.

Hope this summary of my day helps someone else

BTW: I doubt many people would get all of this to work easily without help so I think for vray 1.5, if the whole process was made much easier then more people would have luck using DR with viz2005

[geoff]

Followed all your tips and it worked great.......for about 2 hours!

Found that viz (or vray) had created a new vraydummy60.xml and vraydummy60.max files on the root of c:/ with a the log files.
Replaced them with ones that I knew were ok and it's working again.

Also found that I've had to add an extra IP (any old no) otherwise it doesn't seem to pick on one machine! Don't know what that's about.

Thanks for the help chaps

Geoff

[geoff]

Spoke too soon.
The vraydummy60.xml gets modified each time I render.
So I get one chance and rendering and then I have copy the vraydummy60.xml that works over each time. Have 5 slave machines. That won't get annoying will it!
Have tried making the file read only but doesn't find that machine.
Any clues as where I am going wrong?

[timmatron]

Has anybody gotten DR to work in Viz 2006 yet? I've tried just about everything, but no go. The Vrayspawner will stay open, but it is still failing. I even made a new xml file through the backburner and copied it over.

1.5 can't come out soon enough. Solid DR would be such a dream come true. Well that, and a fix for the missing bitmaps problem in 1.47/Viz 2006.