V-Ray 3.6 VFB hangs

[KiboOst]

VFB and other max windows hang (not responding) - minutes or even more are needed for 3ds max to respond, other applications and system UI work fine. Very rare behaviour, not reproducible here.

So some questions only for those with problem 2 :

1. Is this happening only on max 2018?
   Only 2018.3 here, win7x64pro sp1
2. Is this happening only on dual Xeons?
   No, Corei7 6850K, Core i7 5930K, Core i7 4930K, Core i7 3930K etc.
3. Do you have GPUs on those machine and what kind?
   EVGA GTX 1070 8Go, GIGABYTE GTX 960 4Go, EVGA GTX960 2Go

And this is not rare at all, it is all day long !!!

[vlado]

And this is not rare at all, it is all day long !!!

Yes, we got that part... We are doing everything we can to find the cause and fix it.

Best regards,
Vlado

[KiboOst]

Could it be related to nVidia driver version ?
384.76 here, I will test last 388.x

Also, could it be related to single/dual monitors ? We are all on dual monitors here

[postfaust]

Yes, we got that part... We are doing everything we can to find the cause and fix it.

Best regards,
Vlado

Hey Vlado...
You think this freezing problem might be related to the new multi-threading options introduced in Max 2018?
I think i should try setting the env variable for vray threads to 1 and see what happens...

On the same note...
Any chance to get the IPR options available for native Max FB or VFB+ plugin?

Thanks,
Greg

[^Lele^]

the new multi-threading options introduced in Max 2018?
I think i should try setting the env variable for vray threads to 1 and see what happens...

Care to elaborate?

[vlado]

Small update: it appears that we managed to reproduce the same issue with Arnold too on one of the machines in the office.

Best regards,
Vlado

[KiboOst]

vlado
Take it with a grain of salt at this time but...
I have deployed nVidia drivers R388.13 and it seems it is a lot better. We had only once problem (on 9 max users), killed max and reopened without problem.
Also, some users reported me the 3dsmax UI is a lot more responsive and never hangs anymore, which was sometimes the case (for very little time) even without rendering.

I will keep two big eyes on this during coming days and post more feedback.

[KiboOst]

ok, flashing windows hasn't disappeared totally, so the bug is still present, but it happens a lot less than with previous drivers (all other identical, machines/max/scenes etc)

[KiboOst]

More people rendering these days, so I can confirm that VFB hanging is still happening a lot, even if less with last driver.
Anyway, it seems that sometimes when we access heavy files on the network while vfb is flashing/hanging, it come back to life !! Some machines have nVidia network card, so it may be related but sounds very strange...

[joconnell]

Anyone got any ideas where the nvidia driver issues kick in in terms of their release numbers? I've got some huge scenes which are slow enough without the vfb hangs too!

[Gerrit]

Same issue here with max2018 win7
Well i dont think this is just an issue of vray itself as this happens with Arnold, Octane, Vray and Mental Ray on my Workstation. I dont knew why i dont get this Issue with corona but they seem to make something different. Currenty it helps to use the standalone by using the vrscene export and render.
I used VS to debug the 3dsmax process, and for my opinion it is (again) one of the unessesary redraws inside of max Ui. Most unessesary redraws happens inside the Slate editor, and by closing it before Rendering it gets mutch better. In some cases it freezes while redrawing the right command pannel.

But there are other stupid redraw problems inside 2018 without having a specific render engine. Max Windows freak out and will switsh seveal times between Slate, Max, Trackview, Pf...whatever MDI belongs to 3dsmax.
When I start 2018, sometimes it took 2min to finally initialize the viewports, and after another 5min doing nothing and grabbing another coffee it just crached.... again!
And finally the Slate is freezing at each first start while rendering the stupid icons. By forcing another redraw it finally does the rest of all icons. I dont understand why adsk is not cacheing the icons.

I hope it helps...
Gerrit

[Companioncube]

Anyone got any ideas where the nvidia driver issues kick in in terms of their release numbers? I've got some huge scenes which are slow enough without the vfb hangs too!

384.76 was meant to fix some issues with 2017/2018 but might not of fixed all issues or introduced new ones in newer drivers.

[joconnell]

I used VS to debug the 3dsmax process, and for my opinion it is (again) one of the unessesary redraws inside of max Ui. Most unessesary redraws happens inside the Slate editor, and by closing it before Rendering it gets mutch better. In some cases it freezes while redrawing the right command pannel.

That's interesting - I use a little render panel to kick off things at various qualities, I might try using as few floating panels as possible and see if that gives me less hangs.

[im.thatoneguy]

Same. Makes cancelling a render impossible. It's all the max windows flickering in and out of existence and the Vray VFB only sometimes updates when it's done rendering. I tried adjusting priority and threading, no effect. Seems like a Max 2018 bug.

[stevesideas]

Having the same flickering windows and VFB issues when using Max2018 and latest Vray