DR causing max to crash

[chipnuts]

I just started using 1.5.00 on max 9 32 bit, xp sp2. I have two dual core amd comps with 2 gb's of ram. Only at first was I able to use DR with the Animation (prepass) IR setting. Upon cancelling the render, I would go and turn off the DR on my secondary computer, then restart it, when I do that, the max that I have open on my primary computer crashed. This has happened multiple times and now my secondary computer won't even take part in the DR after I start max up again.

Basically, start a DR render, then after a few frames stop the render, shut down the DR on other computer, start DR back up and primary max disappears.

Everything is configured correctly, b/c it was working fine earlier, even with cancelling and restarting renders, then all of the sudden it stops working correctly.

The scene I tested the animation IR stuff with, looked awesome with low render times. Keep up the great work folks!

[chipnuts]

ok, the DR did finally start on the scene, just took FOREVER for the buckets from that computer to start. Just as meanadam stated in the 'DR clients not starting on render after IRR pass' thread, the larger the file it seems to take exponentially longer for the file to open. This previous file didn't get through half the frame render on one computer before the second one started. Now, 1 computer has nearly rendered 2/3 of a frame before the second computer kicks in.

Also, the crashing 'bug' or 'feature' or whatever it is is still happening. So weird. Thanks again on a great update so far.

EDIT: So far subsequent frames Distribute Render instantly, I guess I just need to be a little more patient.

[werticus]

large scene files can take a while to propagate, depending on your network speed.

or if you've got computer with vastly different speeds you can see this happening too. dunno about the crashing though.

perhaps test dr with a very small scene... like one cube and see if it starts fast.

[chipnuts]

Yeah, that's what I did at first. Had a box that acted like a room with some holes cut out for windows, then just a torus and teapot in the 'room' and had them moving around as well as the camera.
That was to test the IR blending mode. DR and the IR blending worked great! I'll try using that scene again and see if I can get a more careful walk-through so other people can test if it crashes on their network as well. It just seems weird that as soon as the DR started up again on the second computer, that's right when max 'disappeared' on my primary system. Like it was some kind of network callback that was causing the crash.

Thanks for the input.

[chipnuts]

So I have a reproducible 'bug' with DR. It's happened on every file I've tried it on. I have a really small file linked in this post. This is on winxp home, max9_32, vray 1.5.00. I tried the same procedure on RC4 and it worked with no problems. Below are my steps to recreate the bug. It's easier if you have a laptop next to your workstation or at least 2 computers near each other.

1. Load file on main Computer A (No cracks on the scene, it's just a test)
2. Make sure DR is started on Computer B
3. Use B in the DR, let the render finish (cancelling does the same thing)
4. Exit the DR on Computer B
5. Then restart DR on Computer B
6. Watch max disappear from Computer A

I can start DR anytime and max doesn't crash. I've just opened the scene and exited, restarted the DR on Comp B, and it doesn't crash. But as soon as I use that computer to render with DR, shut the DR down, then restart the DR, it crashes max.

www.electrotoast.com/temp/animTest.zip

Hope this helps understand the problem more.
Granted, the simple work around is not to exit DR, but sometimes I've found it necessary in order to correct rendering artifacts

[chipnuts]

Just wanted to give an update to this 'bug'. I have tried it at work on a few files and the results are the same.

Later

[vlado]

Thanks for the pointer; I don't remember this happening here, but I'll try to reproduce it (might be related to the newly started server trying to join a non-existent DR rendering).

Best regards,
Vlado

[ruud3dv]

Have had the same experience a couple of days ago, didn't have time to try and reproduce, but it was related to DR on second computer and crashing on main workstation.

Vray 1.5.00 and Max 9-64 rev3 on workstation and clients here.

[chipnuts]

Heya all,
Just poking around to see if anyone else has had this happen again lately.
Anyone, anyone?

Thanks!

[vlado]

Please, see the end of this post for a way to work around the issue:

http://www.chaosgroup.com/forum/phpB...=177811#177811

This has already been corrected in our code, so I hope it will make it into the installer sometime soon.

Best regards,
Vlado

[chipnuts]

Vlado,
That workaround seems to have worked.

Thanks again for your help!