V-Ray for Maya (standalone): frame numbering not being applied

[Fredrik Averpil]

On our render farm, when rendering a frame sequence 1-100 using V-Ray for Maya's standalone vray.exe, I am having issues with not getting the frame number applied to the output image's filename.

I'm rendering 1 frame per machine, using this kind of command:

vray.exe -display=1 -interactive=0 -autoClose=1 -sceneFile=P:/RnD/fredrik/012-maya/002-maya/maya/render/standalone_v071_130809.vrscene -imgWidth=640 -imgHeight=480 -imgFile=P:/RnD/fredrik/012-maya/002-maya/maya/render/standalone_v071_130809/renderOutput..vrimg -frames=1-1

The next machine gets to render -frames=2-2, the third machine gets to render -frames=3-3 and so on...

However, the images doesn't get the frame number applied (like renderOutput.0001.vrimg, renderOutput.0002.vrimg, renderOutput.0003.vrimg). All machines try to write their frame to renderOutput..vrimg instead.

If the chunk size would have been, say, 2 ... so that the arguments would have been -frames=1-2, -frames=3-4 and -frames=5,6 then the frame numbering is applied correctly.

Is there no way I can get the frame numbering applied when just rendering a single frame per command?
I'm on nightly build 23395, Maya 2012.

[t.petrov]

Two options:
1. pass the proper path (with the index in it) in the -imgFile path
2. don't pass the path using -imgFile, but store the path in the vrscene file in the SettingsOutputPlugin

I might miss something of course.

[Fredrik Averpil]

Unfortunately my render manager does not allow me to pass a command or variables on a per frame basis (only on a per job basis), so I can't use alternative #1 (I know, that really sucks).

What is the SettingsOutputPlugin and how do I use that? (I don't know what that is and Google leaves me empty-handed)
I export my .vrscene from within Maya and then initiate my farm manager (also from within Maya) which in turn executes vray.exe.

[t.petrov]

It turns out that it should work as expected, if you set this parameter to true:

img_file_needFrameNumber: bool = false, If true, the frame number is added to the image file name

You can set the parameter using this post translate python script:

from vray.utils import * 
l=findByType("SettingsOutput")
l[0].set('img_file_needFrameNumber', True)

[Fredrik Averpil]

Thank you, this seems to work, although I think that this is a bit messy for such a basic feature. The functionality is almost already directly available when executing vray.exe with -noFrameNumbers.

In my opinion, the command -noFrameNumbers should have already inserted a frame number based on its description (below) - or you could add a third mode (2) which would always, really always, add in the frame numbers.

    -noFrameNumbers=0/1 - controls whether the -frames option will cause
         frame numbers to be automatically appended to the names of the
         rendered image files.
         (default is 0 - the -frames option always causes frame numbers to
         be added to the output image files.)

Feature request, please?

[vlado]

The original idea was that if you were giving different frames to different machines, you could figure out the correct output name (with numbers embedded) for the -imgFile option too. After all, you already have that for the -frames option.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Fredrik Averpil]

Yes, I totally agree with you on that note. It's just that in my case (and with the render manager I'm wrestling against at the moment) it's very cumbersome to do this, although possible.

I mean, that -help text does actually say "always causes frame numbers to be added to the output image files".

Either way, I'd love to see that do what it says.

[vlado]

Either way, I'd love to see that do what it says.

I will change it to say "if there is more than one frame specified" and it will be correct Also, instead of giving one frame to a machine, give it two and it is also going to be fine.

Best regards,
Vlado