DR Project Folder Weirdness

[Morne]

Hi all

We have a team of guys each working on a different project. At night whoever has a deadline the next day, uses the other's nodes as slaves.
Next day when the other people arrive and want to start work on their project, their project folder changed to whatever job was rendered with DR.

Is this expected behavior or a glitch?
Max or VRay?

[svetlozar.draganov]

It doesn't sound like a Vray issue but it would be a good idea to debug it.
Which is Vray and Max version installed on the machines and what steps we should follow in order to replicate the issue into our environment?

[Morne]

It doesn't sound like a Vray issue but it would be a good idea to debug it.
Which is Vray and Max version installed on the machines and what steps we should follow in order to replicate the issue into our environment?

This is with max 2015, vray 2.5

Start max and setup your project folder on the server. Save max file
On another pc start max and setup a different project folder on the server and save your max file, close max and on same pc start spawner.

From the 1st pc run a DR job using the 2nd as a DR slave. Once the render is done, close spawner and open max. Somehow project folder switched to whatever the 1st pc had it setup as. Weird

[svetlozar.draganov]

Thanks for the clarification - I got the same behavior after following the steps you've provided.
I am not sure however if this is a bug or expected behavior - it might be necessary all the machines participating in DR to have the same project.
I will send the case to our developers for confirmation and I'll get back to you.

[svetlozar.draganov]

I was explained that changing the project folder is required by Vray, otherwise the assets with relative to the project folder paths won't be found by the servers.
We'll add a feature request into our system to make that change only for the current Max session.

[Morne]

I was explained that changing the project folder is required by Vray, otherwise the assets with relative to the project folder paths won't be found by the servers.
We'll add a feature request into our system to make that change only for the current Max session.

Thanks for the feedback Svetlozar. That's why we love ChaosGroup, support is AWESOME!

[Morne]

OK this problem is more serious than we thought. The artists didnt notice their project folder changing and had a max crash. When one of the artists wanted to restore his autobackup max file, it was the autobackup from a DIFFERENT job

[tashko.zashev]

It really messes up the entire project workflow. Our devs are working to solve this bug. V-Ray render slave should automatically revert back the project folder as soon as the render has been completed.

[vlado]

A temporary solution would be to run the DR spawner as a different Windows user.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Morne]

A temporary solution would be to run the DR spawner as a different Windows user.

Best regards,
Vlado

OK we set this up with:
runas /user:domainname\username "c:\program files\autodesk\3ds max 2015\vrayspawner2015"

That user is setup to have local admin.

However, the spawner launches max, but it never loads vraydummy scene, it just sits there

Any help? Or alternatively is there a fix for this project folder issue yet?

[tashko.zashev]

OK we set this up with:
runas /user:domainname\username "c:\program files\autodesk\3ds max 2015\vrayspawner2015"

That user is setup to have local admin.

However, the spawner launches max, but it never loads vraydummy scene, it just sits there

Any help? Or alternatively is there a fix for this project folder issue yet?

Hi Morne,

You are using a nightly build with 3DS Max 2015 SP3/Extension 2 right?
Some additional changes to the builds are required to load the V-Ray dummy scene properly on 3DS Max 2015 SP3. However, the slave should be able to render the job even if the Dummy scene is not loaded.

[Morne]

Hi Tashko

In this particular instance, we are using Max 2015 with SP3 (extension1 NOT 2) and the VRay 2 nightly "vray_adv_25501_max2015_x64.exe"

Will test to see if the slave actually renders...

[tashko.zashev]

Hi Tashko

In this particular instance, we are using Max 2015 with SP3 (extension1 NOT 2) and the VRay 2 nightly "vray_adv_25501_max2015_x64.exe"

Will test to see if the slave actually renders...

Yes, please run a quick render test and let me know if there are any problems.

[Morne]

Jip, works great.

Max starts up as untitled without loading vraydummy. Then when you send the job it loads the server scene. After the render is done and you load max, the project folder is still what its suppose to be.

Thanks, using a different user for the spawner works great as a workaround.

[Morne]

Hi V-Ray Team

Old thread, but was this issue ever fixed, or the suggested workaround of running spawner as a different user, is still the way to go?