Yea, Spawner is broken again (sarcasm)

[bhh]

Updated to Vray 3.10.01 yesterday and now spawner is broken on all 12 computers. I just had two employees spend the last 4 hours trying to get it working, which cost me..., oh never mind.
Every time we upgrade Vray, It cost us more than the cost of the licenses trying to fix DBR and this just can't keep happening - Is there support for this software beyond the message board?

One artist has isolated everything to just their two workstations so we can minimize the number of variables and here are the facts:

No virus software on either machine.
Firewall is disabled on both machine.
Max 2015 SP3.
Brand new test scene, no maps or anything.
Spawner being run as vrayspawner2015.exe and we're running it as administrator

The scene has been tested on both workstations trying to use the other one as a slave. Same sequence of messages happen on both machines with the obvious exception of the machine names and IP addresses.

1) Warning: Render host desk02b (192.168.1.62:20204) is not responding.
2) Render host 192.168.1.62:20204 added.
3) Scene transferred to desk02b:20204
Message 1 happens again and the loop continues.

Any help would of course be appreciated.

[vlado]

Reasons for the error can be various and may have nothing to do with the spawner itself. First, please download the patch 3.10.02 from our website. Next, if the errors continue, it would be best to email our support guys to support@chaosgroup.com - they will help you out.

Best regards,
Vlado

[bhh]

Thanks Vlado, we'll start with the patch and go from there. Appreciate the quick response.

[bhh]

Also, have you guys thought about writing some sort of utility that makes troubleshooting DBR issues easier? A number of conditions need to be met for it to work and a piece of software that could at least let us know which conditions were not being would provide a clearer road map for trouble shooting and would probably save you guys time too not having to deal with as many support issues related to it. It is our number one reoccurring issue and suspect many small studios share the same experiences and now that we have to buy render licenses, it's something I'm less inclined to just live with.

[vlado]

Also, have you guys thought about writing some sort of utility that makes troubleshooting DBR issues easier?

Yes; and f.e. the option to transfer missing assets was a part of an effort to make a part of the DR process easier. There is still more to be done in the coming builds.

It is our number one reoccurring issue and suspect many small studios share the same experiences and now that we have to buy render licenses, it's something I'm less inclined to just live with.

It is a valid point, yes.

Best regards,
Vlado

[bhh]

No luck with the patch. Same errors. Will contact support now.

[vlado]

No luck with the patch. Same errors. Will contact support now.

Ok then. Btw does this happen for a simple scene?

Best regards,
Vlado

[bhh]

Yes, we created a brand new test scene with no maps or anything.

[bhh]

We upped the verbosity level and are noticing a strange message.
TM_SERVER_STARTED receiving from 192.168.1.62:20204

This is another artist's machine on our network but we are not attempting to connect to that machine for these tests. What is the TM_SERVER?

EDIT: We had 192.168.1.62 shut down and we're not getting that message anymore but still no dice, same sequence of errors.

[vlado]

We upped the verbosity level and are noticing a strange message.
TM_SERVER_STARTED receiving from 192.168.1.62:20204

This is another artist's machine on our network but we not attempting to connect to that machine for these tests. What is the TM_SERVER?

This should be fine generally; it's related to the ability for a render server to auto-join an ongoing DR render. Whenever a render server is started, it broadcasts a message in the local network. If a client machine is doing a DR render and has that server listed as a render host, it adds the server for DR rendering. Otherwise, the client machine just prints this message.

In any case, I noticed you use SP3 for 3ds Max 2015 and someone complained just today about issues with that, so I'm going to try and install it now to see if I will get any issues.

Best regards,
Vlado

[bhh]

This should be fine generally; it's related to the ability for a render server to auto-join an ongoing DR render. Whenever a render server is started, it broadcasts a message in the local network. If a client machine is doing a DR render and has that server listed as a render host, it adds the server for DR rendering. Otherwise, the client machine just prints this message.

In any case, I noticed you use SP3 for 3ds Max 2015 and someone complained just today about issues with that, so I'm going to try and install it now to see if I will get any issues.

Best regards,
Vlado

Could be this, we installed Autodesk 3ds Max 2015 Extension 2 yesterday which I think included SP3

[bhh]

We rolled back to previous version of Vray and same issue. Unfortunatly rolling back to earlier version of Max is not so easy but this suggest to me something in new 3DS update is breaking DBR/Vray.

[vlado]

Yes, I'm getting the same problem now that I installed EXT 2. Let me poke around a bit and try to see if I can get it working.

Best regards,
Vlado

[vlado]

So there appears to be a change in Extension 2 that causes 3ds Max to crash while loading the DR scene on the render server. I already implemented a work around and our support guys will be able to get you an updated stable build.

Best regards,
Vlado

[bhh]

Thank you very much Vlado. I apologize if I came across as pissy in my earlier posts.