Maya 2019 + Vray 4.30.01 always rendering masterlayer when batch rendering?

[brobins]

I am having issues with Vray 4.30.01 and Maya 2019. I have a number of render layers to render and when batch rendering it seems that vray just keeps rendering the master layer over and over again.

Is there a fix or work around for this? Its causing a few headaches on a live project.

Thank you

[Morbid Angel]

are you using deadline or render setup I think there is an issue with render setup always by default enables master layer, you have to disable it in state set ui if I remember correctly.

[brobins]

rendering locally inside maya 2019. using render setup. what is state set ui? is this inside of maya?

Thank you!

[Morbid Angel]

sorry i confused state set with 3ds max render setup is what i meant. I think in there you have to turn off master layer in the render setup ui (I can't recall where exactly though). I highly suggest not to use render setup though, its caused me a lot of issues in the past, at least in maya 2018 its not prod ready.

[brobins]

I seem to have it working now but I am not sure what I have done to fix it.

To provide some context. I am bringing a Maya 2016 file into 2019 and am using Legacy Render Layers, not the new Render Setup as I mentioned above. Last night when attempting to batch render the render layers the only one that would render (over and over again) was the masterLayer, which was not even "renderable".

I have managed to get it working now as expected by going back a few file versions and trying again. There must have been something I did to the file that stopped it working correctly, I just wish I knew what so that I dont do it again

[seandunderdale]

Im having a similar issue at the moment. Using render setup, but as far as Im aware no legacy layers are built in the scene. When I run my bat file script, it always renders a master layer, even though in render setup its disabled. I deleted maya prefs but no change. Maya 2018.6 and Vray Next 2.1 (v4.30.01) The only fix I can think of it to disable all lights etc in masterLayer, so that when it runs, it at least runs very quickly.

[Morbid Angel]

I think the masterlayer needs to be disabled inside render setup.

[seandunderdale]

Disabled how? Other than setting it to not be renderable.

[Morbid Angel]

So for me, I use deadline to submit to farm and if I click on this button it will not submit this layer.

[seandunderdale]

I wish the problem were that simple. When I referred to "setting it to not be renderable" I was referring to that button youve highlighted.

[yolov]

Is there anything in your bat scripts that might force the masterLayer in some way?

Are there any useful hints (errors, warnings or otherwise) in the Maya render log that might point to why this is happening?

[seandunderdale]

I got deadline installed and it seems when I submit the render layers I created, it also submits about a handul of "masterLayer" layers. No idea where these came from. I am referencing in someone elses car exterior file, but it has no render layers in it that I can see. I also cant see anything when I turn off DAG objects only in the outliner.

[yolov]

Does it only happen with this one scene?
Does the same happen if you reference the same scene in a fresh new scene?

[seandunderdale]

This is the first time Ive ever had it happen. (At home or in studio) Ill need to test without the reference loaded. Hard to find time to test these things in the middle of production, but at least I can delete the layers so they dont render. I think its more a Maya problem anyway. My guess is somewhere an import or the reference has brought in some legacy render layers and theyre getting caught up in the submission somehow, as theyre definitely not visible in my scene. I did open the reference in legacy mode to check there wasnt a bunch of junk data lurking, but didnt find anything.

[seandunderdale]

Ok, I had some down time between shots and got to the bottom of it. Its not a Vray issue at all, but since RenderSetup by default hides render layer info in the outliner it makes it hard to see whats going on behind the scenes if youre trying to find rogue layers. There's an option in RenderSetup preferences to enable all RenderSetup data to show in outliner. (I can see why they hide it by default) But I dug around and found some names of layers that had been renamed. These old layers, rather than being renamed and being fine, seemed to hang around as a non visible layer in render setup, but renderable when submitted....but also not as the old name, but called "masterLayer".

Weird, but at least its not the references or anything with the scene. Just need to be very weary of renaming RenderSetup layers and making sure you check how its all looking in the outliner.