banding appears when using DR

[dynaman]

guys - i would be so grateful to anyone who can help me solve this problem...

we have been experiencing this problem probably every time we try to distribute a render over multiple machines. there are very clear "bands" across the image - where separate computers are rendering buckets horizontally across the image. the red lines indicate where the bands are most noticeable.

these scenes render out fine if they are done on a single machine, but for some reason this keeps happening when distributed. this seems like something simple that i'm doing wrong. does anyone know what might be causing this problem, or better yet - how to fix it?

thanks...



this 2nd image is lit differently, but still same problem...

[jujubee]

Make certain all your comps are seeing the proper texture paths as well as any saved lighting solution. It really looks like your network is dropping textures affecting overall GI in the scene.

One way to test it is to apply an override mtl with something plain, and see how the machines render out. If youre still getting banding then you know it's not a texture issue.

The other thing to note is to make sure your comps are all using the same plugins.

[DaForce]

also make sure that all machines are use a . for the decimal place and not a , you can check that in the windows regional settins

[vlado]

Might help also if you use Single frame mode for the irradiance map instead of Bucket mode.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Clifton Santiago]

You're using IR/LC? It looks like LC banding from rendering LC separately with Backburner strip rendering. Precalc the LC on one machine first.

[dynaman]

thanks guys - i will try these suggestions and post back if when i find a solution...

[dynaman]

well, we figured out the problem. we switched to precalculating the light maps on one machine, then distributed the final render and the banding has disappeared. thanks for tipping me off.

i do wonder though, why is there even an option to render light maps through DR buckets? if i understand correctly, each computer's calculation has a degree of randomness to the solution. and does each bucket (or row, or whatever is assigned) take into account the entire viewing frame, or just a condensed area surrounding the bucket?