Problem with vrayFrameBuffer and Deadline

[re:FORM]

I'm testing out the deadline renderfarm manager software and I'm getting a weird warning message when I enable the vray framebuffer to render out different render elements.

It appears to be related to the "hidden feature" the render history. When Deadline starts rendering, each node has a window that keeps popping up saying :

The path "" not found do you want to create it?

Any ideas how to solve this? The guys at FranticFilms tested a scene that exhibited the problem on vray sp1 but they couldnt recreate it. I am running sp2, so that may be the issue.

Any ideas?

[vlado]

When doing network rendering either though deadline or backburner, it would be best to disable the render history (e.g. remove the VRAY_VFB_HISTORY environment variable) on that machine.

Best regards,
Vlado

[RE:FORM_STUDIOS]

That's what I would have thought too... but unfortunately, I don't have that environment variable set on that machine. It's a new workstation so its only had sp1 and sp2 installed on it, and I only experimented with the render history variable on my laptop.

[vlado]

Ok, have you tried to submit the job with the render history button in the VFB Off on your workstation? Maybe when someone created the scene this was turned on at some point and the scene was saved this way.

Best regards,
Vlado

[robdeja]

Deadline is really great but we have this problem a lot. The way around it is to untick the "Render to memory frame buffer" option in the Vray Frame Buffer settings.

I leave it on while test rendering but often forget to turn it off before submitting to Deadline and it causes the render history problem and takes 8x longer to render (if it doesn't crash out).

Hope this helps.

[re:FORM]

Ah good to hear I'm not the only one with the problem.

Does it help to setup your render history properly, so it has a path it can find and thus avoid the warning dialog?

Thanks for the workaround, I'll try it out. Its not perfect though as I like to be able to see how a render is looking rather than wait for the finished frame.

Vlado: I dont have a render history button on my vfb, and the file is definately clean; I created a fresh maxfile, created a sphere, and sent to render on deadline with render elements and render to vfb. I've not enabled render history on this system (its only a month old). From what robdeja says, this is a common problem. If you've not already tested vray with deadline, you can download the software for free from franticfilms website.

[robdeja]

The deadline render history problem doesn't appear to be linked to the environmental variable as this has been happening to me for at least 6 months and I've only recently been using the render history environmental variable.

[vlado]

Hmm, ok, I'll check it out. Strange that the guys at Frantic have not really mentioned anything about this to us.

Best regards,
Vlado

[jreynolds]

Most likely when we encountered this problem here at Frantic we were in the middle of production so we built a workaround based on the fact that we don't often need to look at the images when rendering in slave mode.

Currently on our network the option under Submit To Deadline v2.7/ Render (Tab) / Show Virtual Frame Buffer is also handling the VRay Frame Buffer. This would be a solution I can suggest currently though there is most likely a better solution that we should look into with Vlado and I'll contact him right away.

If you contact us we can make sure that you get the latest script that incorporates this change if it isn't the one that you currently have. We understand that other studios like yourself may like to see the rendering image so we'll get this worked out to the best of our abilities.

Best regards,
--Jon

[re:FORM]

Hi Jon,
Thanks for your input.
I'm just evaluating the software at the moment, and apart from the problem I found with vfb I like what I see.
I did contact FranticFilms directly and they tested the scene on vray1.5sp1 without being able to recreate the problem... and then suggested I raised the issue with vlado, which is what I've done.

It's not a big issue for me as I'm not a heavy renderfarm user, but I just though it was something either frantic or chaosgroup would like fixed

[jreynolds]

Good to hear! I'm always happy to see someone trying out Deadline as I use it every day and would not like to do without it

[Adam H. Stewart]

I wonder has there been any update to this subject ?
I'm just starting to using the VFB with spk3 and getting that damned error all the time - I'm using Deadline 2.6 Verson 2.7.27948 with 3dsmax 9 spk3

Thanks as always


Adam

[jreynolds]

If you open the SMTD script ( Latest is 3.1 ) look under the "Render" tab and uncheck "Show Virtual Frame Buffer" for an immediate solution. If it's the error about the VRay VFB history dialogue you most likely need to set up the proper environment variable on all render nodes if you want to see the VFB while the node renders.

It's been a while since we figured this one out so if those suggestions don't help let me know and I'll check with Ryan.

Best regards,
--Jon

[Adam H. Stewart]

Thanks man - I'll have to get them to do to a an upgrade to 3.1 just got the e-mail today.
I'm not sure what you mean when you say envrionment variables, I did a search in the Vray help and didn't get anything is it something in Vray, Deadline or max ?

Hope all is well, will be seeing you soon I hope


Adam

[jreynolds]

No Prob

IIRC the original problem came about when everyone started using the history dialog hidden feature set with the system variable "VRAY_VFB_HISTORY = 1". I think what would happen is that when this was active and a render was sent to Deadline with the VRayVFB on the render nodes wouldn't know what to do with the request to use the history window, without the variable set on each, and would error out. It may be the case that we have some extra error handling in the latest Deadline but I always send with the VFB inactive so I haven't encountered this problem for a while.

Did you try it with 2.6? It may work with those settings I suggested.

Are you coming to work with us? Which office?

Ahhh.... I see /LA in your location now, well I'm in Winnipeg but maybe we'll work together on something

Best regards,
--Jon