VRayVolumeGrid cache path problems

[spacematt]

I know there is already a document on Distributed Rendering and problems with the VRayVolumeGrid and comparable Phoenix FD nodes, but it doesn't help me.

The problem is, the file path in VRayVolumeGrid doesn't appear to respect Maya's conventions on file paths. In the UI the path appears to be relative to the project root. The absolute path accessible via getAttr() does include the // in the path, but when the project is moved to a new root, the cache isn't found, unlike various textures, references, geocaches, etc. It also appears Maya's File Path Editor has trouble with these pathnames too.

This is a problem in our mixed OS environment, and especially the render farm, where paths generated in Windows won't work, and UNC paths won't work either because the render farm has its own server.

I'm curious if there are some other workarounds for this? It seems bit of a tangle, which would be fixed by just interpreting the file path the proper way. Right now I'm looking various hacky solutions, but wondering if anyone else has been in the same boat and solved it elegantly.

[mbreymann]

I have the same issue with volume grids, VDBs as inputs, and UNC paths for distributed rendering in a Windows environment. The UNC paths seem to simply not be respected, even though the docs say this is the proper workflow. The same goes for alembic caches as inputs with UNC paths to V-Ray meshes. (Maya 2017 and V-Ray 3.5).

Is there a fix for this? Also, it seems there should be support for mounted drives. If, for example, all machines on a local network have UNC path \\mynetwork\sharedfolder and all machines have this location mapped to Z:, the path Z:\maya\cache\myspecialcache.vdb should be understood by V-Ray.

[vlado]

If, for example, all machines on a local network have UNC path \\mynetwork\sharedfolder and all machines have this location mapped to Z:, the path Z:\maya\cache\myspecialcache.vdb should be understood by V-Ray.

Generally this seems to work fine here. It would be best to contact us at support@chaosgroup.com so that our support team can look at your specific set up.

Best regards,
Vlado

[psanitra]

Vray 3.5 here, windows 7, max 14/17. Using Volumegrid A LOT an current project, UNC paths works fine for me, also vray proxy loading alembics works fine. But! I know i definetly had a problem when the vray spawner service was not login correctly with user name/password, so you can check that, maybe it helps.

And while we`re talking about volumegrid, currently(3.50.04) volumegrid paths are not showing in max asset tracking. Can something be done about it?

Also cloning(instance) any grid will just break/bug it. After instancing, it will only render one, and also if you delete one, it will delete both. Pressing UNDO deeper then COPY command with delete both grids. definetly bugged.

Thank you!

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Indeed, instancing and asset tracking are not implemented yet. Hope we can get there soon.

Cheers!

[mbreymann]

Ah, maybe it's the V-Ray Spawner Service that's the problem for me. Reading over the note in the docs, it's not clear whether it's the spawner on the host, the clients, or both that need the login account modified in the service. Anyone know the process for creating this user account and setting access privileges on Windows 10? Does it need to have a roaming vs local profile?

If this doesn't fix the problem for me I'll post steps to reproduce the issue in a simple scene.

[spacematt]

Any thoughts for those of us who can't use UNC paths for the reasons in the OP? Any way to force or trick the node to use a relative path?

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

We gotta fix anything that's wrong with the paths. If possible, contact Support and they will reproduce it and log the issue.

Thanks!

[nweeden]

We're having issues with UNC paths on the VolumeGrid in V-Ray Next. It seems to be removing the "\" at the beginning of the path, meaning every time I open the file it's lost it's connection the the vdb. I'm currently working around it by mapping the path but that's not perfect as we've had various problems with mapped paths on our farm in the past.

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Indeed, just fixed it in Phoenix. Will pick it to the stable nightlies for Maya as well.

Cheers!

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Hey, nweeden , it will be in tomorrow's V-Ray stable nightlies for Maya.

[nweeden]

Quick response! Thanks