VRay DR + RPC = Unhandled Exception

[Donald2B]

First, I have searched for an answer and there are many discussions of this but a viable solution hasn't been posted yet. I have tried other solutions people have said worked in their situation, but nothing has yet fixed our problems here. So here it goes!

After spending about half of my day today trying to track this down! I basically loose 7 machines due to this problem! This is becoming unacceptable in our tight deadline situations...We are now looking at other rendering engines and worst case scenario other tree packages.

I did some test today and here were my results:

Computer Submitting VRay DR:
XPx64; 2x3.4GHz Xeon HT; 4GB Ram
Max7 SP1 & Vray Advanced 1.47.03; RPC 3.11.4.0
ACM installed on Main File Server & Max configured correctly.

I have a rack of 10 rendernodes all identical: XPx64; 2x3.6GHz Xeon HT; 6GB Ram

On those 10 rendernodes everything works perfect. Installed Max7, Max7 SP1, VRay Advanced, RPC. That is it. Everything works all the time no problems here! YEA!

7 workstations in our office...ALL exhibit an Unhandled Exception Error while trying to DR ANY file with an RPC in it.

All 7 workstations are the same: XP SP2; 2x3.4GHz Xeon HT; 2GB Ram and same installation of Max as stated above. All pathing is correct to RPC content. BB works perfect, just not DR.

Sending a DR render to any of those 7 workstations results in an unhandled exception.

So I took one workstation and uninstalled max7 and all plugins. Reinstalled Max7, Max7 SP1, VRay, RPC on Max7 CD2. Added RPC paths to the [bitmapdirs] section in the 3dsmax.ini file.

Result: Works perfectly! NO Problems.

Next, started max on the workstation and proceeded to setup ACM and all RPC content was located and placed into a dummy file. Closed Max. Started VRSpawner.

Result: Unhandled Exception with RPC. Damn!

Proceeded to uninstall Max7 AGAIN. Repeated the first test with just installing the software and then running the VRSpawner WITHOUT starting Max.

Result: Works perfectly again.

At this point, I tried different versions of the RPC plugin, but the same result occured. After running max and actually placing an RPC into a file, I am no longer able to use that computer as a DR Slave.

I don't know if this will help anyone help me out, but I am at my wits end trying to get VRay and RPC to play together nicely. We have spent WAY too much money on RPC content to just ditch it for something else at this point. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Let me know if you would like for me to run any other tests or try anything else out.

[RErender]

Have you seen this thread? http://www.chaosgroup.com/forum/phpB...&highlight=rpc

seems to be a problem with acm if spawner is running as a service?

[Donald2B]

Thanks RErender...I did see that thread.

Spawner is not running as a service, just started the old fashioned way, 'double-click icon'

I made sure that the acm stuff was setup correctly and all that pathing setup accordingly. I would really like to do some more trials, but I am not really sure how to proceed from this point. It is really bothering me that I can't get this figured out. Normally it is something really stupid that I forget to change, but I have double and triple checked this and it is just strange.

What I could do though, for those machines that are workstations, is the create another installation of Max that hasn't been run and make sure that I start the spawner out of that folder instead of the working copy of max. I might try that...it would kinda suck to do that but if I can get those machines back it would be really helpful.

Thanks for taking the time to the reply!

[RErender]

You could probably just use different plugin.ini's

Maybe a standard one without rpc being loaded that will load for spawner and then you could create custom shortcuts that call a different ini (one with rpc) when the box is being used as a workstation. There is a command line switch to call a different ini.

It's also possible to load and unload plugins on the fly so it would be possible to create a script that unlods rpc if its in slave mode, loading and unloading plugins can be unstable though.


I don't recall all the details, just woke up :P , but if this sounds like a good idea I could look them up.

[Donald2B]

Yeah, Please! Those sound like some interesting ideas. Thanks!

[RErender]

Easiest way is to got to the plugins folder , create a new folder called "RPC", move all the rpc plugins into the new folder (make sure to move not copy).

Next go to the root of Max and find the plugin.ini open it in a editor and add the line

RPC Plug-ins=E:\3dsmax7\plugins\RPC\

int he [Directories} area(make sure to edit the path to match your install). Save this file in the root of max as plugin_rpc.ini

Finaly copy a Max shortcut and edit it's target properties to look like

E:\3dsmax7\3dsmax.exe -p plugin_rpc.ini

One caveat is that if a plugin install adds to the plugin.ini the rpc one will not be updated so it will take some dilegence to keep them in sync.

Hope it does the trick for you

[Donald2B]

Thanks...that is some great information...going to try that out on Monday when I get back into the office. Cheers!

[Donald2B]

Okay...here is a bit of an update...the multiple plug-ins didn't work and I am not really sure why, but still got the unhandled exception errors. So I thought I would just start all over with my testing. Here is what happened on the first trial.

Completely removed anything related to Max7 on Workstation A.
Reboot
Installed Max7
Installed Max7SP1
Installed RPC Version 3.11.4.0
Installed VRay Advanced 1.47.03

Opened Heavy RPC populated file on Main Workstation.
Started VRSpawner on WorkstationA
Scene Rendered Fine. (As Expected)

Started Max on Workstation A
Closed Max
Started VRay Spawner on Workstation A
Scene Rendered Fine Again. (As Expected)

Started Max on Workstaion A again
Created a couple RPC and saved file
Closed Max
Started VRay Spawner on Workstation A
Scene Rendered fine. (Unexpected...normally crashed with unhandled exception error with an RPC)

I was able to replicate my first experience later on this afternoon where as soon as I run Max on workstation A, DR errors are going to happen with RPCs. The only difference in that situation is that I installed an older version of RPC (the one on Max7 2nd CD) first and then uninstalled and installed the newer version of RPC. So I don't know if this helps anyone else out, but that was the problem here. I have been able to setup 3 other workstations now with NO DR problems. VERY STRAGE...but I am not complaining yet. I still have the 4 different states of the Max7 folder saved on my hdd so I can go back through and see what changes that make it so that VRay DR and RPC fail to work correctly.

I hopes this helps anyone else. Will try and keep updating this thread with any other experiences that I may come across in this crazy process.