Nodes not loading vrmap

[mmrender]

Hi,
some few nodes of our render farm are not loading the precalc. vrmap and vrlmap. But they read textures and write the output files without problem. In this case the irrmap and light cache map are quite small, not more than 5 megs, so I don't think It has nothing to do with memory problems.
Could it be someting related with UNC paths and VRAY in those pc's?
Any advice to solve it would be appreciate!

Manuel

[Clifton Santiago]

Yes, it most likely is UNC. Make sure everything is UNC. Max 8 now defaults to converting to UNC for map paths (Go to File -> Asset Tracking), but I don't think it does it for .vrmap or things like Vray HDRI maps. You may have to manually path them.

Either that or put your .vrmap is in a shared folder, shared with all machines on the farm.

Or save your .vrmap locally to each machine.

[Mediastation]

Hiya,

WooHoo! First post!

I had the same trouble with Backburner and a vrmap shared over the network - Blank frames.

However, as Clifton also suggested, copying the vrmap locally to each machine on the network (e.g C:\My Job\My.vrmap) worked fine, so I'd recommend that solution.

All the best,

Andy

[mmrender]

Hi,
finally I solved it being careful to set all paths in VRay as UNC paths.
I didn't realize before because some nodes where working fine and others not. The thing is that some computers in the our network have mapped the remote unit drive so they could see the path in the normal way, i.e Z:\farm\maps. But other group of pc's don't have it mapped, so that's why I get confused.

Thanks for your help,

Manuel

[Infrared digital]

I have used the Asset Tracker to adjust the UNC paths for my textures and now when using Backburner - all the textures are found and render correctly.

What I want to know is - how can I set up the textures etc correctly from the start so that I don't have to manually tell the machine where they are.

Incidentially, all files are located on the office Server. All machines have Network Drives Mapped to this machine and also - Max has its paths configured to look at the Project and Textures files. With all this done - Max still loses textures when a model is opened on different machines.

N

[Dynedain]

What I want to know is - how can I set up the textures etc correctly from the start so that I don't have to manually tell the machine where they are.

When picking a map, if you browse through the network instead of the mapped drive, you'll end up with a file location that looks like \\Server\Share\folder\file instead of Z:\folder\file

This is a UNC path. If all your paths use this, then all your machines will be able to find the files properly (as long as they have the permissions to do so).

[emptyvoxel]

I recommend not ever using mapped drives when working with Max. Around here we've switched to going through "My Network Places," since the shortcuts maintain the full network path, rather than some arbitrary Y: or Z: drive that may confuse other computers.
My Network Places > Add Network Place. Works great!

~e

[Clifton Santiago]

Unfortunately at my office, you cannot browse UNC via My Network Places. However, I discovered that in Max 8, if you look in Asset Tracking, it is by default assigned to convert any map paths to UNC. So you can browze via Z:\folder\file, but it ends up as \\Server\Share\folder\file.

However, this only works for maps assigned to a material within the file. If you load up old materials that are not UNC, they won't automatically be converted. I think Vray HDRI maps and displacement maps are converted, but .vrmaps and .vrlmaps are not.

[Dynedain]

Unfortunately at my office, you cannot browse UNC via My Network Places.

If browsing the network is blocked on your network, you can always get to the machine by typing \\Server\Share in the location bar of Windows Explorer. You can then create shortcusts on your desktop or wherever for your most popular locations...

I would talk to your IT people about browsing the network since UNC paths are far more reliable than mapped network drives.[/quote]

[Clifton Santiago]

If browsing the network is blocked on your network, you can always get to the machine by typing \\Server\Share in the location bar of Windows Explorer. You can then create shortcusts on your desktop or wherever for your most popular locations...

Sure, I did that on day one. Doesn't everyone? But that doesn't make Max material editor browse via UNC. Even with a UNC startup path specified for my maps folder (in Configure User Paths -> File I/O -> Materials: \\Server\Share\maps). Its got to configurable, but it doesn't seem to work the way expected...

[Infrared digital]

Thanks for your replies - when all the machines are looking in the same direction, life will be alot smoother.

N