DR Dark Render Buckets

[jujubee]

I'm getting slight bucket artifacts (darker and lighter) using IR/LC with 1.47.03 and wondering how to resolve them. No saved maps here. Gamma is same across the systems except a slight Adobe Gamma adjustment on one of my systems. I dont think that is causing this tho. Any ideas?

[efx2004]

Do you use HDRI? All nodes should see maps you use including HDRI file.

[jujubee]

Nope - no HDRIs here.

[jujubee]

Checked the software versions as well - same across the board...

[mikeeee2]

I have expierienced this too using 1.46.15 but only w/ large renderings. Like 5500X5500. When I render smaller it runs like a champ. So I render on one machine and WAIT........

[jujubee]

Yeah- this was a rather large sized render...

[skogzort]

I get this too, and the dark buckets are also tinted “green” – It happens even on a very small render of one simple object. I’m using Max 5.1 and Vray 1.47.03.05 – I know my network is working excellent and DR has worked for me before, so I need to determine if this is a consistent problem and if so what circumstances cause it to happen. I will do more tests and post details about it soon.

[Donald2B]

Anyone figured this one out yet? I am getting this now too for some reason. Max 7 SP1 NOT 7.5. VRay 1.47.03

Funny thing is that when I save the IR from that render and then render with the saved IR with Lightcache disabled...all of the darker buckets go away and the image is fine. Would this have something to do with the Lightcache or IR not getting to all of the DR machines? I have 10 DR machines + machine the render was started from. Unfortunately I am under the gun and don't really have time to trouble shoot this right now.

[jacksc02]

charles,
why dont you render stripes from a saved ir/lc map?
You will get less problems

[vlado]

If any external files are involved (textures, irradiance/light/photon caches, proxy .vrmesh files) it would be best to copy these files locally to each render slave.

It seems a somewhat more general problem that happens when many machines try to load the same files (any files, not just textures) from the network at the same time. I have seen the same problem happen when using 3dsmax from the command line where many machines try to load the same .max file - every now and again some machines fail to load the file completely, and V-Ray wasn't even used in that case. I suppose that your problem is based on
the same issue.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Donald2B]

Thanks for the info Vlado. I did some work this weekend on the file and what you said seems to be valid. I have 10 machines in my renderfarm and start the render on a seperate machine for a total of 11 machines. When I render the image the first time all is good except for the darker blocks that appear. NOT BLACK just darker like they didn't load the IR. Once the render has completed, I saved the IR and rendered the image again and all came out fine! I have been able to reproduce this behavior over and over with this file so I am glad that I found a work around. Thanks all!

[3ddesign]

Vlado's answer has piqued my curiosity. If I save my IR map to each of my render slaves, how do they know where to go look for it. The only place I can see to tell Vray where the IR map is would be in the Mode>From File section. Could anyone explain how loading textures and IR maps on my render slaves works?

Craig

[RErender]

You would path it to a local folder and make sure all the computers had it in the same spot, ie. C:\Maps\this.imap

[Donald2B]

After some more tinkering, I figured out why I am getting the darker spots. I am exceeding the 10 connection limit of Windows. If I only use 8 machines out of my renderfarm and then start the render on a spare machine in my office, all is good with 3 different files that were exhibiting this behavior.

I am not really sure why this works fine with smaller resolution images though. I assume it has to do with the fact that the amount of information that needs to be transferred between computers is smaller and therefore can be done faster and avoids 10 simulatneous connections. I have Windows Server 2003 I have been wanting to install to see if I can get around that pesky problem.

[3ddesign]

RErender: Thanks for your response. I feel foolish now seeing how obvious it was.

Donald2B: I have 10 machines running Windows Server 2000 (plus my local machine) and get the same dark spots on large renderings.