2014: constant node crashing

[simmsimaging]

I emailed Vlado about this but haven't heard anything on it as of yet. Wondering if anyone else is running into this?



This happens on all my nodes since installing 2014, but all were working just fine with 2013. Nightly builds and stable release are all causing the same problem. Everything renders fine on my workstation, it's only when using DR that this happens. Anyone else figured out a solution? It's been killing my render times over here for weeks now!

b

[svetlozar.draganov]

Could you please try to run one BackBurner job - in order to work properly Distributed Rendering requires at least one Backburner job to be started.
Let us know if the issue still persist after that.

[simmsimaging]

I have not run each node as a server since installing 2014, but one of them is my primary BB server and has definitely run BB jobs - and it still crashes. I will try the rest later today.

[devin]

What are you supposed to do if you don't use BB, we use Deadline.

[vlado]

What are you supposed to do if you don't use BB, we use Deadline.

If you plan to use DR, you need to run at least one BB job. The first time BB runs, it does some initialization that's apparently needed later on to start 3ds Max in DR mode.

Best regards,
Vlado

[vlado]

Brett, is the 3ds Max 2013 version still working fine? I still have to get you that debug build anyways.

Best regards,
Vlado

[simmsimaging]

Not sure- haven't been working with it for a while now. My freelancers are all on 2014 and switching around is a PITA.

I did re-run a BB render on my primary BB server, and also on 2 other nodes. Still having the same problem

b

[svetlozar.draganov]

Would it be possible to connect to your machine remotely in order to solve this issue ?
If yes , please write to vray@chaosgroup.com with Remote Session request.
Please describe what exactly is the issue, or include a link to this post.

[simmsimaging]

It would be possible but not ideal right now. I am super busy, working night and day, and cannot spare time to give up control of my workstation. It's also hard to say how long it will take as the crashes are sporadic and not always happening so it can't be reproduced with perfect control right now. Maybe there is a file that does it everytime, but not sure.

The bug tracking build sounded like a better solution for right now maybe?

b

[svetlozar.draganov]

Could it be scene related ? Have you tried to render different scene - it would be best if we step back and run DR on a very simple scene.
If everything went fine it could be related to something in the scene.
Are you using any other 3rd party plugins ?

If we have your scene we could try to render it in our environment - if we get the same error it is most certainly that something in the scene cause this issue - or there is a bug with something.

Let's do the following:
First create some simple scene set Image Sampler to Fixed with 10-20 subdivisions per pixel - this will force Vray to spend much time for a single bucket and all machines will be able to join in the rendering.
If the result is without any bugs - send you original scene for investigation here , if the bug still persist we don't have other options except to connect remotely and run tests directly on your machines.

We could run the tests not only from your workstation machine, we could use 2 of your slaves and you could continue to work during our tests.

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

[simmsimaging]

Hi Svetlozar -

It is happening on more than one scene for sure, but they have many similiarities. I sent Vlado a scene several weeks ago and I believe you guys tried it without being able to reproduce the crash but he can confirm. We can set up a remote session if you do not need to use my primary workstation for sure.

b

[svetlozar.draganov]

Hello again - it would be very helpful if you are able to send the scene also to us before moving to remote session.
If it is possible please send it to support@chaosgroup.com and include a link to this thread.

[simmsimaging]

I posted a 1GB scene several weeks ago. I'm away from my office now for a week or more so if you don't have now I can't do anything about it till I get back

[svetlozar.draganov]

Hello simmsimaging

The scene you have sent us was given to me and I am testing it in the moment.
I am using Max 2014 + Vray 2.40.04 - and have half of the image already rendered using a single slave.
Everything goes fine so far without any crashes on the slave or anything other suspicious.

Could you please give us more information when the crash happens - at the beginning of the rendering or at the end or it is random.
Also how much memory do you have installed on your slave machines ? The scene is using 13GB on my workstation machine and around 11GB on the slave machine.
Have you tried to render the scene directly on the slave machines - I mean without DR just to start it on a single slave machine ?

The scene is using a few plug-ins - Forest Pack Pro , MultiTexture and RailClone - do you have installed on all slave machines ?
How many machines are you using with DR ? Could you try to run only one slave machine and one workstation ?

There are a few textures missing from the package you have sent us - I don't think that they could cause the trouble but just letting you know.

Except the used plug-ins in the scene - have you got any other third-party plug-ins installed on the workstation and slaves ?

It is difficult to solve the issue by heart, and without a change to reproduce it in our environment - so the best option we have is to do a remote session and run the test directly on you machines.
It would be very helpful for us if you are able to prepare simplified version of the scene which still has the same issue - simpler scenes are easier to find and solve issues, if for example the issue could be reproduced without any plug-ins usage that would be great .

For the remote session we will need two of your machines - one workstation and one slave machine.
Please let us know if you would like to do a remote session with you - if yes please send you request to support@chaosgroup.com in order to schedule a on-line meeting.
Please include a link to this thread to the mail in order to find out easily what is the issue about.