Problem with DR - Max Design 2009

[ArchimedStudio]

Hello,

I just installed Max Design 2009 64bits on my workstation and Max Design 32bits on my renderslave. I of course installed the corresponding version of Vray (SP2) on each machine.
When I start a rendering, the slave machine is found and the max file is transfered correctly (the Vray log shows "Server ip.address: Scene loaded : starting render"), but a few seconds later, I get the message "Server ip.address: Render completed" in the log, but the rendering is very far from being done.
Then the slave machine does not respond until the rendering is done.

For info, I've been able to setup DR for max 7, 8 and 9 (I never had the chance/time to install my version of max 2008...) without a problem. Everything was working fine with these versions and the same computers (win XP64 on workstation and XP32 on the slave).

Oh, and I did run a rendering job through Backburner...

Has anyone got any clue of what I might have done wrong during the setup?

Thanks a lot!!

[vlado]

Probably the slave machine could not find a license for V-Ray. Make sure that you select the render slave installation and that at the end of the installation you fill in correctly the ip address of the license server for V-Ray.

Best regards,
Vlado

[ArchimedStudio]

Probably the slave machine could not find a license for V-Ray. Make sure that you select the render slave installation and that at the end of the installation you fill in correctly the ip address of the license server for V-Ray.

Best regards,
Vlado

Thanks for the reply Vlado.
I did install the render slave version of Vray on my slave machine. I also did put the correct IP address. I left the connection port to its default 30304.
I don't understand why the slave machine is found at the beginning of the rendering, but after a few seconds the slave machine thinks the render is completed, then it does not respond anymore. I never had this problem before (as I said, I setup DR on max 7, 8 and 9 with no problem...).
I'll try to re-install vray on my slave machine. If you can think of something else in the meantime, I would really appreciate!

thanks again!

[ArchimedStudio]

By the way, I also do have the VrayDummy2009.max running on my slave machine. So I'm guessing everything "should" be fine.

[dbibb]

I thought you couldn't use DR from max 64 bit to max 32 bit?

[ArchimedStudio]

I thought you couldn't use DR from max 64 bit to max 32 bit?

Well, it definitely worked very well with Max 9 64bit for my workstation and Max 9 32bit for my render slaves.
I didn't have the chance to test it with max 2008.

I reinstalled Vray on my slave, but it's doing the same thing. The workstation calculates the LC while seeing the slave (orange message in the log saying that the scene has been transfered) but as soon as the LC is finished calculating (by the way, the buckets only display the workstation name... not the slave's! another hint that something is wrong) I get the message in the log that the rendering is complete and then the green message saying that the slave is not responding.

I really don't see what the problem is

[vlado]

Have you tried normal backburner rendering with the new slave? Or rendering from the command line or from the UI to see if you still get any errors?

Best regards,
Vlado

[ArchimedStudio]

Yes, I ran a simple scanline rendering through backburner without any problem.
Any other idea?

[ArchimedStudio]

I've also tried to turn off both firewalls (never had to do this in the past, but still, I wanted to make sure this was not the problem now), but it's doing the same thing.
On the slave machine, when I launch a rendering with DR, the max file is called : vray_server_scene_1.max

So? Still no idea what the problem could come from? Please! I have 3 high rez renderings that need to be done tomorrow and without DR, it's almost impossible

thanks!!

[thablanch]

Try to grab the working files from an other machine that works fine, copy paste them in the new machine:

files you are looking for are:
vraydummyXX.max
vraydummyXX.xml

had a similar problem on a few install and this did the trick, don't know why, but hey.... (was not max2009, but situation was the same)

[ArchimedStudio]

Try to grab the working files from an other machine that works fine, copy paste them in the new machine:

files you are looking for are:
vraydummyXX.max
vraydummyXX.xml

had a similar problem on a few install and this did the trick, don't know why, but hey.... (was not max2009, but situation was the same)

Since I was only setuping 1 slave machine for now, I could not copy/paste these 2 files from a machine that works... BUT since it worked with Max 9, and the 2 .xml files (from Max 9 and Max2009) looked exactly the same, I tried copying and renaming these 2 files from Max 9 to Max 2009.
And guess what : IT WORKS!!!!!

Thanks a lot for your help!

[thablanch]

Glad to know it did help...

[ArchimedStudio]

Sorry to re-open this thread, but the problem is not fixed. It looks like it appears randomly.
It might have something to do with rendersize, because if I render a small image or if I render a region on a large image, DR works fine. If I try and render the whole 3200x2400 image, DR won't work.

I don't remember this happenning in SP1

Any ideas?

thanks

[ruud3dv]

Check the vraylog.txt on the slave's C:\, it'll give you more information on why the render quit/completed

[ArchimedStudio]

Check the vraylog.txt on the slave's C:\, it'll give you more information on why the render quit/completed

thanks for the tip!!
Nothing seems to be wrong in the vraylog.txt. But in the VRSpawner.log, here's what it says:

========================== Starting new session ==========================
1: [2008/Jun/5|09:01:36] Got this module name: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\vrayspawner2009.exe
2: [2008/Jun/5|09:01:36] Got this INI file name: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\VRaySpawner.ini
3: [2008/Jun/5|09:01:36] *** ALERT! Could not open INI file: "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\VRaySpawner.ini". Using defaults.
4: [2008/Jun/5|09:01:36] --
5: [2008/Jun/5|09:01:36] Dumping current settings...
6: [2008/Jun/5|09:01:36] VRaySpawner temp dir: "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\network"
7: [2008/Jun/5|09:01:36] Application name (MAX/VIZ): "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\3dsmax.exe"
8: [2008/Jun/5|09:01:36] --
9: [2008/Jun/5|09:01:36] Process id is 392 (0x18
10: [2008/Jun/5|09:01:36] Executing ""C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\3dsmax.exe" -server C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\network\vraydummy2009.max"
11: [2008/Jun/5|09:07:16] Process id is 392 (0x18
12: [2008/Jun/5|09:07:16] Executing ""C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\3dsmax.exe" -server C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\network\vraydummy2009.max"
13: [2008/Jun/5|09:09:12] Process id is 392 (0x18

etc, etc, etc... keeps on going with "Process id", "Excuting", "Process id" .... etc...

so? did that help?