DR missing maps - oldie but still a baddie

[ior=0]

First off, I know this issue has been around for ages...I think I've read most of the posts trying to solve this problem but I haven't been able to yet so I really need some help.

The setup:
Main workstation: Dual AMD 265 Opterons, 4GB RAM, XPpro, MAX 8sp3, VRAY 1.5 RC3

Render Slave 1: Dell Precision 530 dual zeon 2ghz, 2GB RAM, XPpro, MAX 8sp3, VRAY 1.5 RC3

Render Slave 2: Shuttle XPC 2.8ghz HT, 1GB RAM, XP home, MAX 8sp3, VRAY 1.5 RC3

OK so far so good....
I have shared folders for "textures" and "work" that are mapped as network drives T: textures W:work on all 3 machines.
I am using UNC paths for all textures, and have confirmed this with Asset manager.

I am having a disconnected network drive issue on the remote slaves and have tried the "ipconfig /autodisconnect -1" on the drive host machine (main workstation - XPpro), so any help with this for starters would be great. I have also tried removing the network drives from the slaves, just keeping the folders shared with "Allow network...etc". Doesn't seem to make any difference. Backburner still renders fine on the slaves, DR renders but doesn't pick up the textures.

The scene is very simple VRAY plane, with a checker map and then UNC assigned textures and a sphere with a UNC assigned texture.

All 3 machines will contribute to the DR rendering but only the main workstation will use the textures. Proceedural maps work ok(well checker does!) The slaves render the scene in grey but with no textures.

If I "backburner" to both of the remote slaves they render and save the inage to the network drive ok. So the slaves can and do see/access the network drives.

So why don't the slaves pick up the texures in DR?

On the rendered images, if I have texture maps assigned to the checker shader on the VRplane and DR, the VRplane comes out grey, if I uncheck the texture maps in the checker shader(black and white), the checker DR's on all machines, so something odd is happening with the networked maps.

Well I'm hoping that covers everything, if it doesn't that's probadly where I'm going wrong.
Hope you can help.

[Clifton Santiago]

Try stopping and restarting the VraySpawner service on the offending nodes. Also, get rid of XP home. I don't know if it is still currently an issue, but I remember back in the day when I had issues sharing files between a machine with Win2kPro and a machine with WinNT.

[ior=0]

thanks Clifton, I totally agree about XP home, I'm planning on propagating a version of pro when I'm ready to move over to XP64 and MAX 9.

I'll try restarting the service too, although the machines have been rebooted so many times in this process I'm not sure it'll make any diffference. Worth a try though.

[ior=0]

ok an update...i've been busy working so haven't been able to test a few things until now.

Clifton I've tried restarting the spawner service several time but to no avail.

I had a job getting the spawners to actually respond to begin with, until I sent a job to both slaves via backburner. The slaves both rendered find; found the remote textures and saved the image to a remote location.

Same job done in DR, both slaves participate but do not use the remote textures. Restarted the spawner service and the same thing happens, no textures on the slaves. Asset tracking confirms all are network paths.

I'm stumped?!?

Does this sound familir to anyone?

[RErender]

You might try running spawner as a program, might be a permissions thing for the service.

[ior=0]

RErender I will try that, as backburners are running as apps at the mo cos of a problem (can't remember what though).

I've been using the DR on a job just at the mo, using the override mat to put a wireframe onto a model and the DRslaves seem okay, but I do have to start a DR render, then cancel it because only the host workstation joins in. After a couple of cancels the 2 slaves usually decide they'll join in too and render fine with built-in mats, just not textures.

I'm off to stop the services and boot the apps with fingers and toes crossed

I'll let you know in a minute or two what happens.

[ior=0]

yipeeeee!!
that fixed it. Thanks RErender.
So what do I need to do to give the services the right permissions?

[RErender]

I am not that good with the service stuff, and I don't know how your network is setup, but if you go to the properties of the service you will see a tab "Log On" there you can input a name and password for an user account that has access to the map directories.

[pailhead]

How do you run spawner as a program?

[RErender]

run vrayspawner.exe (or something like that, not at my comp right now) from the root of max, hmm not sure if RC3 puts it there anymore, if not look at the chasgroup program group in the start menu.