Distributed Rendering between Windows and OS X computers?

[vlado]

You can't have "z:" on a Mac though

Best regards,
Vlado

[Morbid Angel]

You can't have "z:" on a Mac though

Oh... I was actually looking to buy some more render hardware and there are some really good Mac pros for sale but I can't deal with constant pc/mac bridging...just not worth the time

[everythinghasfresnel]

Hey guys, I hope you don't mine me jumping into this thread because I've got similar issues. I'm trying to use the "Transfer Missing Assets" feature in the latest build for slave machines that don't share the same network path. I need the master to transfer the scene and textures to the slaves. For clarity, I'm using all Macs, and I'm running "/Applications/Autodesk/maya2013/vray/bin/vrayslave" from the slaves, and "Render -r vray ..." from the master. (How to get the vrayslave to launch as root when the computer starts up is another problem...)

When "Transfer Missing Assets" is not checked, the slaves will render, but without textures, which produces incorrect buckets.

When "Transfer Missing Assets" is checked, I get the following output on the slave running vrayslave.bin

/Applications/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/Maya2013-x64/bin/vrayslave
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:23] Reading configuration from "/Applications/Autodesk/maya2013/vray/bin//vrayconfig.xml"
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:23] ===============================================
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:23] V-Ray Standalone, version 2.25.01 for x64
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:23] Copyright (C) 2000-2012 Chaos Group Ltd. All rights reserved.
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:23] Use -credits option for additional third-party copyright notices.
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:23] 
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:23] Build 22637 from Jan  8 2013, 15:22:41
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:23] Compiled with GCC-compatible compiler, version 4.2
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:23] Operating system is Mac OS X
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:23] 
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:23] V-Ray core version is 2.00.02
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:23] ===============================================
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:23] 
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:33] Loading plugins from "/Applications/Autodesk/maya2013/vray/vrayplugins/libvray_*.so"
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:34] 110 plugin(s) loaded successfully
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:34] Loading plugins from "/Applications/Autodesk/maya2013/vray/vrayplugins/libstd_*.so"
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:34] Finished loading plugins.
[2013/Feb/7|14:07:34] Entering server mode - waiting for render requests on port 20207. Press Ctrl+C to exit.
[2013/Feb/7|14:08:07] Starting DR session from [I]<masterIP>[/I]
[2013/Feb/7|14:08:07] Receiving DR scene from [I]<masterIP>[/I]
[2013/Feb/7|14:08:07] warning: DR request received from [I]<masterIP>[/I], but currently busy with [I]<masterIP>[/I]
[2013/Feb/7|14:08:07] Reading scene file "/tmp/vrscene_20207.txt"
[2013/Feb/7|14:08:07] /tmp/vrscene_20207.txt: done [ 0h  0m  0.0s]                                                  
[2013/Feb/7|14:08:07] Scene file parsed successfully in 0.0 s.
[2013/Feb/7|14:08:07] Scene created successfully.
[2013/Feb/7|14:08:07] Objects in scene: 62
[2013/Feb/7|14:08:07] Starting render sequence.
[2013/Feb/7|14:08:07] Preparing renderer...
[2013/Feb/7|14:08:07] Creating bitmap manager  0m  0.0s] [ 0h  0m  0.0s est]
[2013/Feb/7|14:08:07] Preparing scene for rendering...: done [ 0h  0m  0.0s]                                                  
[2013/Feb/7|14:08:07] ========================
[2013/Feb/7|14:08:07] Starting frame 1.
[2013/Feb/7|14:08:07] warning: Environment variable VRAY_ASSETS_CACHE_PATH is not specified.
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28] warning: Bitmap file "/tmp/vray_assets_cache/20207_7a47b5cf63a6727dd59f7f5ef0c740e6_Arches_E_PineTree_3k.hdr" failed to load: [LoadImageFile] Failed to open file: no such file
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28] Number of raycasts: 0
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28]   Camera rays: 0
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28]   Shadow rays: 0
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28]   GI rays: 0
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28]   Reflection rays: 0
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28]   Refraction rays: 0
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28]   Unshaded rays: 0
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28] Number of intersectable primitives: 601
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28]   SD triangles: 600
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28]   MB triangles: 0
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28]   Static primitives: 0
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28]   Moving primitives: 0
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28]   Infinite primitives: 1
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28] Bitmap file "/tmp/vray_assets_cache/20207_7a47b5cf63a6727dd59f7f5ef0c740e6_Arches_E_PineTree_3k.hdr" unloaded.
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28] Cleaning up bitmap manager
[2013/Feb/7|14:16:28] Closing DR session from [I]<masterIP>[/I].

The only thing I can find online that's similar to VRAY_ASSETS_CACHE_PATH is this section in the manual on environment variables, but this variable isn't mentioned there, and I don't know that it even matters because the textures are not located on the slave machine unless sent from the master. I'm not sure if I need to set the environment variable manually, or if I should be doing something different altogether to use the transfer missing assets feature.

Any assistance would be appreciated!

[vlado]

Do you have a /tmp folder on your machine? If not, then you will need to set the VRAY_ASSETS_CACHE_PATH environment variable to a folder that actually exists, right before running the slave.

Other than that, we are trying to get newer Mac OS X builds out and we'll check it out.

Best regards,
Vlado

[everythinghasfresnel]

Yes, I have a /tmp folder on the slave machine, and inside is a folder named "vray_assets_cache".

On the slave machine, I entered "export VRAY_ASSETS_CACHE_PATH=/tmp/" to assign an environment variable.

Then when I start the render, the slave does not hang on the same warning as before, but it fails to proceed after the last line seen below.

[2013/Feb/7|19:26:55] Starting DR session from 172.20.117.86
[2013/Feb/7|19:26:55] Receiving DR scene from 172.20.117.86
[2013/Feb/7|19:26:55] Reading scene file "/tmp/vrscene_20207.txt"
[2013/Feb/7|19:26:55] /tmp/vrscene_20207.txt: done [ 0h  0m  0.0s]                                                  
[2013/Feb/7|19:26:55] Scene file parsed successfully in 0.0 s.
[2013/Feb/7|19:26:55] Scene created successfully.
[2013/Feb/7|19:26:55] Objects in scene: 62
[2013/Feb/7|19:26:55] Starting render sequence.
[2013/Feb/7|19:26:55] Preparing renderer...
[2013/Feb/7|19:26:55] Creating bitmap manager  0m  0.0s] [ 0h  0m  0.0s est]
[2013/Feb/7|19:26:55] Preparing scene for rendering...: done [ 0h  0m  0.0s]                                                  
[2013/Feb/7|19:26:55] ========================
[2013/Feb/7|19:26:55] Starting frame 1.
Preparing scene for frame...: 41.27% [ 0h  0m  0.0s] [ 0h  0m  0.0s est]

A few minutes go by while the master completes the render, and then the slave kicks this out.

[2013/Feb/7|19:26:55] ========================
[2013/Feb/7|19:26:55] Starting frame 1.
[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16] warning: Bitmap file "/tmp//20207_7a47b5cf63a6727dd59f7f5ef0c740e6_Arches_E_PineTree_3k.hdr" failed to load: [LoadImageFile] Failed to open file: no such file

[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16] Number of raycasts: 0
[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16]   Camera rays: 0
[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16]   Shadow rays: 0
[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16]   GI rays: 0
[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16]   Reflection rays: 0
[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16]   Refraction rays: 0
[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16]   Unshaded rays: 0
[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16] Number of intersectable primitives: 601
[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16]   SD triangles: 600
[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16]   MB triangles: 0
[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16]   Static primitives: 0
[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16]   Moving primitives: 0
[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16]   Infinite primitives: 1
[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16] Bitmap file "/tmp//20207_7a47b5cf63a6727dd59f7f5ef0c740e6_Arches_E_PineTree_3k.hdr" unloaded.
[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16] Cleaning up bitmap manager
[2013/Feb/7|19:35:16] Closing DR session from 172.20.117.86.

Open to suggestions.

[vlado]

I don't have any suggestions right away, but we are compiling a new nightly build and we'll test with it.

Best regards,
Vlado