If I create a scene that has some objects, but no lights in it and render with DR I get a black image. If I render that same scene without DR I’ll get my image. I’m using the new 1.5. Anyone else experiencing this?
BTW…this is with GI turned off.
I seem to remember default max’s lights are not supported in dr.
Ahh…that would do it. I never noticed it before.
Max lights are supported in DR, the default light is not however.
Yeah, the default light. When I read rivoli’s post that what I was understanding him to say.
thanks guys.
yep, I guess that’s what I meant: default 
on the topic of DR bugs…
Does anyone else have the problem that when they render using IR map on a single machine with 3 passes, it works, but turn on DR and it only carries out one pass? Is there an option somewhere?
It is working, it’s doing three passes per bucket.
so you mean it shows as only one pass, but in fact each bucket is doing the 3 passes in one go?
Absolutely !
A single bucket (Core) is doing all the calculations for the bucket (all passes), as there is no SURE the same core would fall on the same bucket aftwerwards. That’s why all the passes are done in a raw, and then the core keeps the info for it, which is Distributed to all the other render-nodes, before the start of the real rendering.
Best regards,
nikki Candelero
Great, nice a clear answer.
My only problem now with DR is that my slaves start to “not respond” after a couple of renders, and now my current scene has no slaves picking up. I wonder if this is a lic problem, or network?
Was someone working on a GUI for DR?
I get that too. I just restart max and everything is ok for a while more. Kind of puts a kink in your day…but for now it’s better than just using one computer. :?
I tried restarting max on my workstation but they slaves still do not pick up the job. Of course if I restart all the machines, all get them to work, but again for only 4/5 render. PAINFUL!
Are you running your DR slaves as a service or a program? I run mine as a service and it seems to work really nice that way.
interesting, I have put the short cut link to the program in the startup folder of the slaves, so when they start they start it, along with the server.
How can I go about making it a service?
Thanks
Start → Programs → Chaos Group → V-Ray Adv for 3dsmax → Distributed rendering → Administration → Register V-Ray spawner service. Just click this on each of your slaves. You won’t need it on the PC you use.
With the way we have our network setup, I can use the DR machines without anyone even being logged in. As long as the comptuer is on…I’m good to go. Pretty sweet.
ok, i shall try. And I can delete the link to the short cut from the startup menu?
Yeah, you won’t need that anymore. 
well, its getting more and more weird!! I have the spawner running as a service on the machine next to me, and when I render with it, it loads the file(I should explain I am using an empty scene with only lights in, and xref the geom in from another file) and render the scene empty.
I am assuming this is a problem with xref’s and using DR as a service?
Are you using UNC pathing? \\servername\foldername\filename.max