AUA.zip (4.6 MB)
I am running a network render job through Deadline on a 3ds Max scene using Corona Renderer. The scene contains an animated environment/background setup where the active environment map is selected dynamically using a Corona Select Map, whose index parameter is driven by a Bezier Float controller, or a Bezier Script controller where the script expression is “F”.
When rendering locally, the output is correct across all frames: the environment background changes as authored, the correct map is selected at each frame across the entire sequence.
When the same job is dispatched through Deadline to network render nodes, the rendered background is wrong. The behavior differs depending on which controller type is driving the Corona Select Map index. When driven by a Bezier Float controller, the network render always produces the background that corresponds to the value at the first keyframe of that controller, regardless of which frame is actually being rendered. When driven by a Bezier Script controller with “F” as its expression, the network render always produces the background that corresponds to frame zero, even when the timeline does not start at frame zero and frame zero has no defined keyframe.
Additionally, the problem is not isolated to the Corona Select Map and its controller chain. A direct test was performed by animating the rotation parameter of a Corona Bitmap assigned to the environment slot — with no Select Map or external controller involved. This also fails in network rendering, consistently rendering the rotation value at frame 1 across the entire frame range regardless of which frame is being rendered.
The error is consistent. All other aspects of the render — geometry, lighting, materials on objects — are correct on the network render. Only the environment background is affected.
What is causing animated environment map parameters — whether driven through a Corona Select Map and a Bezier Float or Bezier Script controller, or through a directly animated parameter on a Corona Bitmap — to produce a different result in a Deadline network render than they do in a local render, and how can it be corrected?