Nightlies on a Small Farm

[isoparmesan]

I'm wondering what the expected compatibility is when using nightly builds. If I install a nightly build on my workstation, and then submit a render to a render farm that all have the official current stable build, should I expect compatibility problems? Is it better to install the nightly build on all of the nodes, or to avoid using nightlies in production entirely?

[Morbid Angel]

you are best to use the same exact build on every machine. There is a nightly zip package that comes with each build, which you can setup using env variables so you can copy it once to a central network location and have entire farm point there. It ensures quick and easy updating of the machines and also allows you to roll back quickly in case a build is a bugged one.

[Svetlozar Draganov]

Using different V-Ray builds is not recommended at all since there is a huge room for unpredictable errors.
Our recommendation is to always use absolutely the same build on all machines.

[alainfx]

On a related subject, let's say I install on all computers, the latest "Nightly" nightly :
vray_adv_31501_maya2016_x64_26623.rar

As it's a 3.15 version (probably the beta for 3.20), will it work with third-party plug-ins that are currently compiled for VRay 3.10 ?

Thanks.

[ivaylo.ivanov]

It should. If it doesn't work, it's considered a bug and we will fix it.

[alainfx]

Thank you.

[alainfx]

Well, today, the version available in the "Nightly" nightlies changed a lot :
vray_adv_33501_maya2016_x64_26630.rar

So it jumped from v3.15 to v3.35.
Is this v3.35 also compatible with third-party plug-ins that are currently compiled for VRay 3.10 ?

Cheers.

[vlado]

So it jumped from v3.15 to v3.35. Is this v3.35 also compatible with third-party plug-ins that are currently compiled for VRay 3.10?

Yes, it should be. Ideally all 3.x versions should be backward compatible with previous 3.x releases.

Best regards,
Vlado

[alainfx]

Thanks Vlado !