# Distributed Rendering Texture Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Issues\ **Created:** [January 22, 2010, 8:24am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914 "2010-01-22T08:24:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![miguelortega](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/miguelortega/32/54822_2.png) [@miguelortega](https://forums.chaos.com/u/miguelortega)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 8:24am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/1 "2010-01-22T08:24:52Z")
I am getting erros saying warning:Bitmap File “G:/xxxx/xxxxx/xxxx.tiff” failed to load failed to open file:2 this happens for all my files, so does this mean i need to transfer all the files to every computer? or do they just need access to the directory in the main render client? EDIT: the only way i got it to work is to map the drive by setting permissions to the root of the drive on the render server, this seemed to work, is this a correct way? windows warned me of it being a risk. so im a bit worried. please excuse my lack of Networking knowledge. for example lets say i have 2 computers, in my Client the textures are stored in F:/scenes/textures/example.tiff when i now set my sharing permissions to F:/scenes/textures/ and then map my drive to that as well in the slaves, It is reading that directory as the root of F:/ as opposed to a folder within F:/ this is causing vray to not find my textures . The only way it seems to not give me an error is when i set the root of F:/ as shared but like i mentioned above im told this is a bad idea (sharing a root directory) can anyone help me out would be really appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![miguelortega](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/miguelortega/32/54822_2.png) [@miguelortega](https://forums.chaos.com/u/miguelortega)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 7:11am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/2 "2010-01-23T07:11:59Z")
my render times are actually slower now that i have DR on, why would this be the case? ---
**Author:** ![vlado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/779978/32.png) [@vlado](https://forums.chaos.com/u/vlado)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/3 "2010-01-23T18:47:45Z")
The texture maps need to be in a place where all machines can access them. You can either copy them locally, or place them in a shared network location. For DR, it takes some time to write out the render scene file and transfer it to all the render servers; for simple scenes this time might be longer than the actual rendering. Best regards, Vlado ---
**Author:** ![Mules](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/mules/32/13850_2.png) [@Mules](https://forums.chaos.com/u/Mules)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 9:33am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/4 "2011-05-11T09:33:10Z")
I managed to set up distributed render between a PC (as client) and a Mac (as server); a simple setup with a basic 3D scene (Maya2012). Both Pc and Mac render the image. Now I’m also trying to figure out how to let the Mac find the bitmap files (I also get the failed to load error). Is it possible to let the Mac find the bitmaps on a Windows system? Mac sometimes uses other file path notation. Sharing the drive or a subfolder and mounting it on a Mac does let it find the Bitmaps … I installed Vray for Maya as standalone on the Mac (Snow Leopard). There is no Maya itself installed on the Mac. I also didn’t install the V-Ray license server on the Mac because I thought maybe this was not needed … ? I start the render from Maya2012 on the PC; batch render with Distributed Rendering turned on. Tnx, Mules ---
**Author:** ![vlado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/779978/32.png) [@vlado](https://forums.chaos.com/u/vlado)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/5 "2011-05-18T15:55:10Z")
If V-Ray cannot load a texture, it will check the VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH environment variable and look in the directories listed there. You can set this variable before starting the V-Ray render server, so that it can find the textures. Best regards, Vlado ---
**Author:** ![Mules](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/mules/32/13850_2.png) [@Mules](https://forums.chaos.com/u/Mules)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 9:58am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/6 "2011-06-30T09:58:04Z")
I’m trying to get my head around this because I can’t seem to get it working. I still get the error on the OsX render slave : warning: Bitmap file “D:/projects/dual/sourceimages/lettering\_color\_vs002.tif” failed to load: Failed to open file: no such file On PC (WinXP) I shared the folder D:/projects (share name : projects). On the Mac I can access this share (using correct user account login). I guess the path on OsX to that share is Volumes/projects. I added this in the Maya.env file in users folder on the Mac : ### BEGIN CHAOS ### These lines are inserted by VRay installer ### Please do not modify anything between BEGIN CHAOS and END CHAOS VRAY\_FOR\_MAYA2012\_MAIN\_x64=/Applications/Autodesk/maya2012/Maya.app/Contents/vray VRAY\_FOR\_MAYA2012\_PLUGINS\_x64=/Applications/Autodesk/maya2012/Maya.app/Contents/vray/vrayplugins VRAY\_FOR\_MAYA2012\_MAIN\_PowerPC=/Applications/Autodesk/maya2012/Maya.app/Contents/vray VRAY\_FOR\_MAYA2012\_PLUGINS\_PowerPC=/Applications/Autodesk/maya2012/Maya.app/Contents/vray/vrayplugins VRAY\_PATH=$VRAY\_PATH:/Applications/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/Maya2012-x64/bin/x64/vc6 VRAY\_TOOLS\_MAYA2012\_x64=/Applications/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/Maya2012-x64/bin ### END CHAOS VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH=Volumes/projects I guess I do not have to add the VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH in the Maya.env on the PC. I read that some used symlinks on Mac to get it working. I start the render from within Maya (batch render) and not with Vray standalone … The file path in the file nodes is a relative path. When trying to change this to a absolute path, Maya switches this back to a relative. I’m not sure if this adds to the problems. Thanks! Mules ---
**Author:** ![vlado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/779978/32.png) [@vlado](https://forums.chaos.com/u/vlado)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 7:44pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/7 "2011-07-02T19:44:37Z")
The variable needs to be set on the machines where the render servers are running. One way to do it is to modify the vray-slave script to set the variable before V-Ray is started. Perhaps we can also figure a way to specify this variable in the Maya settings and then transfer it to the slaves automatically. Best regards, Vlado ---
**Author:** ![Sacha](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/sacha/32/51202_2.png) [@Sacha](https://forums.chaos.com/u/Sacha)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/8 "2011-09-23T19:14:55Z")
> [@Paul\_Oblomov](#): > > If V-Ray cannot load a texture, it will check the VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH environment variable and look in the directories listed there. You can set this variable before starting the V-Ray render server, so that it can find the textures. Hey vlado, would it also be possible to get vray also look at the “VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH” for “Lightmaps”? I guess when using DR just on windows machines it’ll work but the network-names between OSX and WIN are different, so I can’t access that files. I placed a Photon Map on my mac in the folder, which I set in the env but the log says: Error loading photon Map from file “d:/Maya/projects… etc”, so he just looks at the original place, I set in maya (on the windows machine) for the map… Or am I doing saomething wrong? ---
**Author:** ![vlado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/779978/32.png) [@vlado](https://forums.chaos.com/u/vlado)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 6:42am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/9 "2011-09-26T06:42:28Z")
Hm, I think we are using the VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH variable for light cache files already (as well as irradiance maps and photon map files). I’ll double-check though. Best regards, Vlado ---
**Author:** ![Sacha](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/sacha/32/51202_2.png) [@Sacha](https://forums.chaos.com/u/Sacha)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/10 "2011-09-26T15:00:03Z")
> [@fantoosh420](#): > > Hm, I think we are using the VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH variable for light cache files already (as well as irradiance maps and photon map files). I’ll double-check though. > > Best regards, > Vlado The textures are working perfect but when I want to use a saved Lightmap and place it in the sourceimages on my main machine and also in the path, i set for VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH on the mac he still tries to load the image from the original place (sourceimages on win) and doesn’t look in VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH. Would be great if you could check that.. thanks ---
**Author:** ![ignuf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/43a26b/32.png) [@ignuf](https://forums.chaos.com/u/ignuf)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 3:16pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/11 "2011-10-06T15:16:10Z")
hi , been looking at this thread which seems to outline the problem i’m having but so far haven’t been able to implement the solution , I’ve got a pc and a mac , the pc is the main computer and the mac is the slave. I managed to share the maya project folder on the PC and used smb on the mac to connect to the PC and mount the shared folder, so far so good. started v-ray slave on the mac , then in Maya on the PC I activated the distributed rendering option, Vray found the mac/slave, great so far ! On actual rendering though, the mac does join in but i get the black squares , ok… so the slave/mac can’t find the textures as its looking for the D:/ drive of the pc… how can i get the slave to find the files ? took a look at the answers you provided further up the thread but… I have no idea how to find/modify the “VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH” any help appreciated 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sacha](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/sacha/32/51202_2.png) [@Sacha](https://forums.chaos.com/u/Sacha)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/12 "2011-10-06T16:30:11Z")
Hey ignuf… you should look at [http://www.chaosgroup.com/forums/vbulletin/showthread.php?63998-DR-on-different-OSes](http://www.chaosgroup.com/forums/vbulletin/showthread.php?63998-DR-on-different-OSes)… there you’ll find what you need… A tipp: either you have a folder on the mac, where every single image file, needed for the project, goes (so you’ll have all twice, on on the pc an one on the mac), or you mount the sourceimages (or whereever you store all your images for that project) folder from your pc via smb and assign that path to the VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH. edit: it works most of the times… i had problems with the lightmaps so decided to switch my mac into a win for dr 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ignuf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/43a26b/32.png) [@ignuf](https://forums.chaos.com/u/ignuf)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 6:11pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/13 "2011-10-06T18:11:55Z")
Thanks for the link aqua 🙂 though I think I’ve reached the point you got to where you mentioned that for some reason the slave doesn’t seem to be redirected to the location of the textures even though I’ve opened the terminal and entered the export VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH=”Macintosh HD/users/…/sourceimages/” to tell vray where the mounted folder is. Also did as you suggested re copying the source images to the mac and then tried to do the terminal command export VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH=”" etc and still no joy there, so close and yet so far 😉 do you know if there’s a way to check that the export VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH=”Macintosh HD/users/…/sourceimages/” command has worked in the terminal? ---
**Author:** ![Sacha](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/sacha/32/51202_2.png) [@Sacha](https://forums.chaos.com/u/Sacha)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 7:09pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/14 "2011-10-06T19:09:12Z")
> [@andybot\_cg](#): > > Thanks for the link aqua 🙂 > > do you know if there’s a way to check that the export VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH=”Macintosh HD/users/…/sourceimages/” command has worked in the terminal? just enter export. That shows you all set variables. If the path is correct it should work. The textures were all fine for me.. just the lightmaps didn’t work. I suggest anyway to enter the export command (of course with your path 😉 ) to the “profile” file within /etc to have the variable set whenever you open the terminal. edit: by the way do not use the slash at the end of the path! just export VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH=“/Volumes/Macintosh HD/users/…/sourceimages” … that worked for me! ---
**Author:** ![t.petrov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@t.petrov](https://forums.chaos.com/u/t.petrov)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2011, 8:40am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/15 "2011-10-07T08:40:00Z")
ignuf: “env | grep VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH” should tell you if the path is set. Also keep in mind that if you use export the exported environment variable is valid/active only for this terminal. This implies that you should run the V-Ray Standalone from the same terminal. Something like: $ export VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH=/my\_path/ $ /path/to/vray/vray -server -portNumber=20207 /Teodor ---
**Author:** ![ignuf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/43a26b/32.png) [@ignuf](https://forums.chaos.com/u/ignuf)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2011, 10:17am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/16 "2011-10-07T10:17:03Z")
ok thanks guys for your help so far 🙂 still having problems, probably because i’m currently so unfamiliar with using the Terminal. when I enter the $ export VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH etc… and hit enter , all i get in the terminal as a response is “\>” what does this mean, is it that its accepted the command, or waiting for more input ? I tried entering the env | grep … line but just get the “\>” response again. wish there was an app for that 😉 ---
**Author:** ![t.petrov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@t.petrov](https://forums.chaos.com/u/t.petrov)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2011, 10:33am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/17 "2011-10-07T10:33:24Z")
I think you should see “$”, but I’m mostly linux guy, so I may be wrong. Are you sure you’ve closed all your quotes? If you have typed an opening quote, then you should type a closing quote. If you don’t do so the shell will think that you want to enter multi-line strings. This is what happens on linux. If you still have problems, please attach a screen shot. This way it will be easier to see what exactly you’re doing. /Teodor edit: This seems to be the only GUI way to set env variables: [Mac OSX Tips: Setting environment variables](http://mactip.blogspot.com/2004/04/setting-environment-variables.html) ---
**Author:** ![ignuf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/43a26b/32.png) [@ignuf](https://forums.chaos.com/u/ignuf)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2011, 12:12pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/distributed-rendering-texture-question/22914/18 "2011-10-07T12:12:57Z")
Hi Teodor, thanks again, ok, after what you suggested, think I’ve made minor progress in that the terminal now goes to the user$ prompt after I enter the VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH=“/Users/ignuf/Documents/projects\_personal/kings\_collage/sourceimages” 😉 the grep command hasn’t worked though unfortunately, so the only way I know if its worked or not worked, is when I hit render and get :- warning: Bitmap file “D:/projects\_personal/kingsCollage\_Project/sourceimages/kingsColl\_wal\_col\_4k.png” failed to load: Failed to open file: no such file so far, the render slave is still looking for the D:/ drive of the PC. when i enter the VRAY\_ASSETS\_PATH command should I be in a particular directory ?