HQ Plants DR Slaves and 3DSMax.ini

[ior=0]

I am trying to get HQPlants (on a network drive) working with ForestPro 4.1.5 but my DR render slaves don't seem to be able to get any of the textures.
Itoo recommend adding the maps path to the 3dsmax.ini file of the slaves, which I have done, but every time I set DR render the 3dsmax.ini is over written without the custom map paths I just added.

The DRspawner.log seems a bit odd and I was wondering if this was causing the 3dsmax.ini overwrite?

0: [2014/Jan/15|16:28:41] ========================== Starting new session ==========================
1: [2014/Jan/15|16:28:41] Got this module name: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max Design 2014\vrayspawner2013.exe
2: [2014/Jan/15|16:28:41] Got this INI file name: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max Design 2014\VRaySpawner.ini
3: [2014/Jan/15|16:28:41] *** ALERT! Could not open INI file: "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max Design 2014\VRaySpawner.ini". Using defaults.
4: [2014/Jan/15|16:28:41] --
5: [2014/Jan/15|16:28:41] Dumping current settings...
6: [2014/Jan/15|16:28:41] VRaySpawner temp dir: "C:\Users\Simon\AppData\Local\Temp"
7: [2014/Jan/15|16:28:41] Application name (MAX/VIZ): "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max Design 2014\3dsmax.exe"
8: [2014/Jan/15|16:28:41] --
9: [2014/Jan/15|16:28:41] Process id is 2996 (0xbb4)
10: [2014/Jan/15|16:28:41] Executing ""C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max Design 2014\3dsmax.exe" -server C:\Users\Simon\AppData\Local\Temp\vraydummy2013.ma x "
11: [2014/Jan/15|16:33:59] Process id is 2996 (0xbb4)
12: [2014/Jan/15|16:33:59] Executing ""C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max Design 2014\3dsmax.exe" -server C:\Users\Simon\AppData\Local\Temp\vraydummy2013.ma x "

The 3dsmax.ini file of the DRslaves I'm trying to modify are located here: C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMaxDes ign\2014 - 64bit\ENU

thanks

[AlexP]

We had similar problems, ended up just putting all the maps on the network in a new folder and using 'relink bitmaps' script.

[ior=0]

Colins "relink bitmaps" script is a solution (thks AlexP) but doesn't really answer the question why the DRSlaves can't find the textures even though the Asset Tracking says they are "Found" and even when some of the "missing" textures are installed on the Slaves with the Itoo s/w.

It seems that some of the texture paths are missing in the material (they just have texturename.jpg in the slot and no path at all) Why can't the DRSlaves can't find them, even though the max asset tracking can? Do the DRSlaves have to have a full UNC path to operate?

Still not sure why the DRSlave 3dsmax.ini is being overwritten with a default one either?

[svetlozar.draganov]

Assets Tracking functionality shows if the local machine could connect to the textures, however DR slaves could still have accessibility issues related to firewalls , missing mapped drives, user-account rights and etc.

In order to troubleshoot what's going on we will need to know:

1. What kind of path is used for texture linking - UNC or Mapped Drives ?
2. How VraySpawner has been started on the slave-machines - as a windows service or manually ?
3. Make sure that all the machines participating in the DR rendering has the same Vray version installed and the correct VraySpawner has been launched (if you have multiple Vray installed).