Chaos Scatter - Vray 6 - Max 2023 issue

[flipbook]

Hey guys, rolled out Max 2023/Vray 6 (latest official build) and I just can not get Chaos Scatter to work on the farm. I've created a simple scene, scattered some objects (sphere or teapot for example) on a plane. Basic vray material and sent it off to the farm. The scatter objects never render. I am at a total loss now ha. Something so simple. Cant see any one else complaining about this so wondered if I have missed something new?

Just to note when I use Cosmos assetts (location is set to a network share) it renders fine. If I pull a scatter object from Cosmos then again it just wont render. Also to note when not using Scatter or Cosmos assets everything still renders fine (can access stuff on the network as normal). Any help be appreciated.

Thanks

[Joelaff]

Have you tried it with simple objects (like scatter a sphere on a plane).

I know Chaos scatter shows up as a separately installed program in the Add Remove Programs. Maybe check the nodes to be sure they have it. I am guessing some permissions, or file access issue. (like a file in a different location relative to the farm machines) Note that if the farm machines have a different username you may run into issues with some assets, Some assets that are meant to be shared are for some reason installed into the local user's directory structure. So files reference incorrect paths if the username changes.

You could also check the vray log in the TEMP directory after you have an issue, perhaps there is some info there.

[flipbook]

Have you tried it with simple objects (like scatter a sphere on a plane).

I know Chaos scatter shows up as a separately installed program in the Add Remove Programs. Maybe check the nodes to be sure they have it. I am guessing some permissions, or file access issue. (like a file in a different location relative to the farm machines) Note that if the farm machines have a different username you may run into issues with some assets, Some assets that are meant to be shared are for some reason installed into the local user's directory structure. So files reference incorrect paths if the username changes.

You could also check the vray log in the TEMP directory after you have an issue, perhaps there is some info there.

Thanks for the reply. I have indeed tried with simple objects. It must be an install issue then although I have reinstalled it many a time but didn’t know about it being a separate program so I will look at that thanks.

Everything else working fine in production for share locations and permissions so probably is the install. Thanks for the pointer. Shall check in the morning

[WSP ProjectViz]

I am experiencing the same issue. It will render in viewport, but rendering on the farm produces none of the scattered content. I even created a brand-new scene, added a teapot, scattered some spheres on the surface, and sent it to the farm. Nothing appears on the surface. I even tried reinstalling the plugin (V-Ray for 3ds Max 2023), once as a render version and once as a workstation version on several of the render nodes. Same problem. I am at a loss to figure this out, but based on the previous posting, it would seem this is not an isolated problem.

My farm is running Deadline 10.1.23.6 and the nodes are running 3ds max 2023.3 and V-Ray 6 hotfix 3.

[vladimir_krastev]

Hi, thanks for posting. Please have a look at this thread and let us know if it worked.

[WSP ProjectViz]

So, a little more research has revealed the following. For some odd reason the file called Plugin.UserSettings.ini was not appearing in the preferences folder (C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2 023 - 64bit\ENU). I deleted this folder and restarted the render farm and I still would not see any scatter content. I proceeded to turn off the "Ignore Missing DDL errors in Deadline, which would then give me the error that Chaosscatter2023.dlt was missing, which indicates 3ds Max is not reading the plugin folder in the 3ds Max directory in Program Files.

I run all my render nodes using Deadline as a service, which means I had to log into one of my systems, launch 3ds Max 2023 and check to see if Chaos Scatter was even loading. Starting 3ds Max in a normal session created the Plugin.UserSettings.ini with the appropriate pathing information for Chaos Scatter (Additional MAX plug-ins=C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2023\PlugIns) and from this point on, Chaos Scatter works on the render farm. I just needed to ensure that Plugin.UserSettings.ini was copied to the preferences folder of all the render nodes.

My best guess is that there is a bug in the way 3ds Max creates the default user preference folder when running from a command line (method for network rendering). I will test a little further and submit a defect report to the 3ds Max dev team.

[vladimir_krastev]

Hi WSP ProjectViz are you testing a simple scene with default setup? I made a test today with Deadline and Chaos Scatter in 3ds Max 2023, V-Ray 6 update 1 but everything works with no issues. If you are still having issues with your setup please open a ticket trough our support contact form.