Renderfarm slow to join render process.

[Mokiki]

I am trying to render a relativel vellum simulation scene. Basically just deforming geo nothing fancy. The bgeo files are 60mb per frame so nothing that big.

When I render the scene with just the background and lights without the file cache present, all render server join the rendering process instantly.
But when the renderfarm has to load the 60mb cache file they need over 4 minutes to join the rendering process. Which is much longer than I am used to from bigger files in 3ds max.

Using: Houdini 17.5.293 and vfh 17.5.293_a675c3e_5059

[ronald_a]

are you creating vrscenes prior to rendering on the farm? if so, how big is you vrscenen file?

[Gosho.Genchev]

4 minutes sounds a bit too much.

Can you please show us the log from the Houdini Console (if rendering from the GUI) or the command line ?

Thanks!

[Mokiki]

Hello Gosho.

Sorry i was not in the office anymore when you posted your message.
Right now I am even running into the problem that after some time the render machines will just abort the DR session without having even started to render after some waiting around.

But here is the log from the Houdini Console:

VFH [Info] * Processing scene for frame 1.000...
VFH [Info] * Scene processing time: 0h 0m 4.6s
VFH [Info] * Starting render for frame 1...
VFH [Info] V-Ray: GI engines: 'Brute force' and 'Light cache'
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Preparing renderer...
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Using Intel Embree ray server
VFH [Progress] V-Ray: Preparing scene for rendering... 35%
VFH [Progress] V-Ray: Preparing scene for rendering... 100%
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Scanning scene for light plugins.
VFH [Info] V-Ray: 3 lights found.
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Using adaptive light evaluation with 8 lights.
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Light tree is enabled with clamp coefficient 0.1 and even split coefficient 0.5.
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Using low thread priority.
VFH [Info] V-Ray: dr host: 192.168.0.216:20207
VFH [Info] V-Ray: dr host: 192.168.0.215:20207
VFH [Info] V-Ray: dr host: 192.168.0.214:20207
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Connected to render host 192.168.0.216:20207
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Connected to render host 192.168.0.215:20207
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Connected to render host 192.168.0.214:20207
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Using 3 hosts for distributed rendering.
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Max ray intensity is enabled: rendered result may have incorrect brightness.
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Consistent lighting elements are enabled.
VFH [Progress] V-Ray: Preparing scene for frame... 5%
VFH [Progress] V-Ray: Preparing scene for frame... 91%
VFH [Progress] V-Ray: Preparing scene for frame... 100%
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Using Embree ray tracing.
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Embree dynamic geometry tree contains 0 primitives.
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Embree dynamic geometry tree built in 0.17 ms.
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Embree dynamic geometry tree takes 0.00 MB.
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Using 0.84 MB for adaptive lights buffer
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Server 192.168.0.216:20207: Scene loaded; starting render
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Server 192.168.0.215:20207: Scene loaded; starting render
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Server 192.168.0.214:20207: Scene loaded; starting render
VFH [Warning] V-Ray: Render host rm104 (192.168.0.214:20207) is not responding
VFH [Warning] V-Ray: Render host rm106 (192.168.0.215:20207) is not responding
VFH [Warning] V-Ray: Render host rm105 (192.168.0.216:20207) is not responding
VFH [Warning] V-Ray: Slave dropped and there are no more render hosts that can work on the scene. Waiting for a host to connect...
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Server 0.0.0.0:0: Render completed
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Server 0.0.0.0:0: Render completed
VFH [Info] V-Ray: Server 0.0.0.0:0: Render completed

And here is a screenshot of the cmd window for the render server

[Gosho.Genchev]

I was hoping for something ... more useful

Could you please add the verboselevel=4 and try again - the debug log should be enough to tell what the problem is, or at least give us a hint on how to go about reproducing it here. At the moment I have no clue what could be causing this...
E.g. "vray.exe -verboselevel=4 -server"

Thank you!

[Mokiki]

Here is the attempt with verboselevel=4

[Gosho.Genchev]

Awesome, is it possible to provide us with the VRScene (a HIP file would be even better!) being rendered that's causing this? Looking at the log, we should be able to reproduce it here.

If you're rendering straight from the Houdini GUI, there's the option to export a VRScene on the V-Ray Renderer ROP.

[Mokiki]

I get an error message saying that can't use that function because I use Houdini Indie.

[Gosho.Genchev]

Ah, I see.

Alright, a have a couple of requests then, please excuse me for dragging this along but we'd really prefer to resolve this as quickly as possible:

1. Could you please verify that both your workstation and the slaves are running the same V-Ray version. I know you were setting up V-Ray for Houdini yesterday so things should be OK but still, errors happen and I'd like to get this out of the way. Please verify the folders are named the same.
2. Would you please provide us with the complete log files, from both the slave machines and your workstation.



- To generate a V-Ray log file on your workstation, you could either Copy - Paste the console messages in a file or add the following environment variable to the hfs17.5.293.bat file (the one you're using to start Houdini with V-Ray): "VRAY_FOR_HOUDINI_LOG_FILE_PATH =C:\somePath"

e.g. like this:

:: Houdini install location
set VFH_HFS=C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 17.5.368
set VRAY_FOR_HOUDINI_LOG_FILE_PATH=C:\Users\Gosho\Desktop

:: DO NOT EDIT STUFF BELOW (well, only if you really know what you're doing)

This will generate a "vray4houdini_log.txt" file on my Desktop once I start Houdini.

Please enable the Debug logging as well:







- The log files of the slaves are located at "C:\Users\Gosho\AppData\Local\Temp\vraysl_log_20207.txt" in my case, you should swap the username only.





3. The HIP file, if possible. Houdini Indie has a certain restriction on 3-rd party software that prevents us from exporting VRScenes.

[Mokiki]

1. Workstation and Slave are running the same version.
2. I created the vray4houdini_log.txt file for the workstation but the render machine isn't creating a log file in my AppData\Local\Temp\ The folder is completely empty. (no hidden files)

3. In terms of sending the hip file I can do this. Do you want me to send it to the email in your signature?
Also while they shouldn't be necessary to render the first frame do you want me to also add a .bgeo file for one of the frames?
If you guys want the cache files how should I send them? (for 1 frame it is probably around 50mb)

[Gosho.Genchev]

Yes, please send the files directly to the mail in my signature. Feel free to use any file-sharing service of your choice.

The folder is completely empty. (no hidden files)

That's interesting ... The screenshot you showed us from the slave machine says it's using that folder. I'll try to force this on my end by denying write permissions to see what happens.

Thank you!

[Mokiki]

Done. I sent you a wetransfer link.
Thank you for the in depth help Gosho. I appreciate it!

[Gosho.Genchev]

No worries, that's my job after all

I've managed to reproduce this here. Looks like removing the extra attributes that come from the DOP simulation resolves this in this case. Please clean up the Vellum caches so they only contain the attributes that you need.

Still no clue why that is happening but at least we've got something to work with so we can fix the issue. I'll be logging it in our tracker.

Thank you for the file. Never would've thought the attributes are the culprit.

Hope that helps!

[Mokiki]

I just did as you suggested and it worked instantly. I'll keep testing some more with the other render slaves but I think this looks good. Should anything pop up I'll make another post in this thread.
Once again thank you for the swift help!