Runtime System is not installed

[dennisqdw]

Ok, I've got a computer running xp64 that I want to make a render slave to one running windows 7 64. When I click on the "launch vray license server" selection, I get the error "runtime system is not installed" I have vray licensed and working fine on the win 7 machine. In the vray license server info box if have the server name listed, not IP address as I don't have static IPs, but according to the documentation it should still work. If I go to a browser on the slave and type http://Name of server:30304 I get a no response error. Now I've set this up in the past with XP systems with no problems, and because of the numerous sharing security complications that win 7 has (that I've more or less resolved) I'm inclined to think that it's something to do with win 7. But it could just be something I'm forgetting about. The official vray documentation isn't really helping me here. They say that I don't need the wibukey installed on the slave, which it isn't, but that error sounds suspiciously related to the wibukey. Anyone have any ideas? Oh yeah, I've also turned off windows firewall, but that didn't help, and I don't have an anti-virus app installed yet. thanx in advance. --ds

running max 2013 and 2011 if that matters.

[Morne]

make sure you have the same vray version installed in XP and win7. Re-install in XP if needed. Also make sure you're running the correct spawner for the max version you're running
For example if you're rendering from 2013 on your win7 pc, but on the xp pc you're launching the 2011 spawner, that wont work. I'm sure you know all that so I would say to start by re-installing vray on both machines and make sure you install the correct version. Then see if it works

If it doesnt work, try it the other way around just for troubleshooting , make the xp pc your workstation and the win7 pc the slave and see if it sees the license

[vlado]

You don't need to have the V-Ray license server on the slave machine, just on the main one. On the render slave, go to Start menu > Programs > Chaos Group > V-Ray for 3ds Max > Licensing > Administration > Change V-Ray client license settings and enter the IP address of the main machine. If you get a message that the settings could not be written, right-click on the "Change V-Ray client license settings" option and select Run as Administrator...

You might have to set up Windows Firewall too (both on the slave and the main machine).

Best regards,
Vlado

[dennisqdw]

Thank-you so much for making the (now obvious) suggestion that I didn't think of because I was so obsessed with windows 7. First, it's good to know that as you pointed out the license server on the slave had nothing to do with it. What is was was the firewall on the slave. I never thought that the slave firewall could be the problem, so I never turned it off to check. Doing so made everything work just fine for network rendering.

[dennisqdw]

ok, so I want to add a little more hard fought information that may help others with the same problem. After allowing the firewall on the xp machine to let the two boxes communicate, which as mentioned above did solve the problem, I realized that I still had the win 7 firewall turned off, and as soon as that was turned on, nothing worked again. Now here's my solution -there are probably more graceful ones out there by people who know this security stuff better than I do, but this will work.
1. In order to do network rendering I had to add a "rule" exception for the firewall. The one I picked was "port" and the number was 30304 (the default for vray). However, this did not work for distributed rendering.
2. In order to make that work, I had to go to the XP machine, change the 3dsmax 2013 directory permission to share, so that back in the win7 firewall settings you can allow specific programs to go through. You have to browse to the other machine and select "vrayspawner2013.exe", and that got DR to work.

If someone knows an easier way please post the link to it here.

[Morne]

I just switch off windows firewall and install kaspersky firewall which sorts out 99% issues with a default installation. I still change some more advanced settings for other stuff, but just with a default installation before I change settings, DR and Backburner works fine