DR maps not transferring (this old problem again...)

Corona Corona for 3ds Max Issues
1

Hi folks,

This one has us stumped, still.

We have 4 machines here all running on the same switch. I control 3 of them and my colleague controls 1 of them. All 3 of my machines render perfectly with both BB and DR rendering together. Maps are read fine and rendering works 100%.

We’re trying to get DR renders to launch from his machine and use one of mine as a DR node.

I can use my colleague’s machine as a DR slave when the render is launched from mine and everything renders perfectly. Maps are transferred properly.

However my colleague’s machine refuses to send any maps across the network for DR rendering when the render is launched from his own machine. For BB rendering they transfer just fine. In fact, it’s not only maps from his machine but mine too. If he renders a scene on his machine with maps from my machine (UNC all the way, of course) it still doesn’t work. So map location is irrelevant, it seems. His machine simply won’t transfer any maps of any sort from any location to or from his machine when he is the one to launch the render.

His machine works with maps perfectly over BB. It’s literally only DR that doesn’t work.

Here’s the error from my the DRServer log when his machine has sent the render:

Required asset file(s) could not be located:
\COLLEAGUESPC\corona test\12_1_2__guest_room_d.jpg

We have tried with different files. If we use a map that’s actually on my own machine (via UNC path) it still doesn’t work. My machine cannot get access to a map on my own machine, when the render is launched from his machine. It’s very bizarre.

That exact UNC path resolves perfectly on my own machine. I have full read and write permissions on that shared folder. I can view the map just fine. If I load the same max file myself and use HIS machine as a DR node, it works. The map is transferred.

Same max version, same corona version (inc. DR server) - we’re on the dailies from 20th with DR from 17th, UNC paths that properly resolve on both machines. The only obvious thing that’s different is that he’s on windows 7 pro and I’m on 8.1 pro. Maybe there’s an issue there somewhere?

Totally stumped! We think it must be some kind of network/permissions/ports issue but can’t think why…

2

I got same problem with corona 1.3 RC1. I have got 1 main pc and 4 slaves - the main pc starts rendering and after 1 hours DR giving me still Loading messagess and nothing is rendered on them. When i checked log files on each slave there are only restarts of the DR and nothing happened. Pervious day i rendered sucessfuly with corona 1.2 on these machines.

3

can you post the DRLog file? Do you have the “search LAN during render” checked on master?

4

Sure, Ondra.
Here is it.
This is a try from today just with one slave.
UPD: It’s rendering from 15 min. and giving only Failed.
UPD2: Will try with max 2015. Actually i have tryied Corona 1.2 + max 2016 and give the same result.
Only Corona 1.2 + max 2015 DR work propperly for me.

5

Guys, i think finally after all day testing i found what cause that problem.
All slaves didn’t want to render because i had few missing texures in this scene (normally with 1.2 it renders with stripes or washed out colors BUT it render the scene).
Hope to help with this to someone.
G.

UPD: And one more bug: after converting a scene from 1.3 + max 2016 to 1.2 + max 2015 - 70% of bump maps gone from something like 0.2-0.8 up to 10-16

6

I can say that in our case it is 100% nothing to do with missing maps. There are no missing maps in the scene. There’s only 1 map in it in total and it’s mapped correctly using UNC, and it renders fine over BB, so it’s not a pathing issue.

We have yet to test this on RC1/2/3/4 but I think it’s unlikely we will, until 1.3 is out officially.

7

Ok here we are again… :wink: The problem persists for us, unfortunately. Is there any official word on this? Is it acknowledged as a bug or something specific to our network?

We have since upgraded our network to the following:

  • all machines now running win 10 pro, max 2016 sp2, corona 1.3 retail. All identical software/plugins etc.
  • all assets on centralised synology NAS with access granted to all machines, and all can R/W to it perfectly in Windows
  • all machines network mapped to R: so they all can access with the exact same absolute path e.g. R:\resources\maps\map1.jpg

Now, as before, when using DR, everything works fine if we use UNC paths. e.g. \nas\resources\maps\map1.jpg, but as soon as we use the absolute path R:\resources\maps\map1.jpg the map is not transferred and we get the error Required asset file(s) could not be located. What happens is that the image renders but instead of showing the map the dump from each node is bright blue (the diffuse colour of the material). We can see it hitting the VFB in bright blue strips/wash across the image.

There are no permissions/user accounts issues here at all, since all machines can see that exact absolute path just fine outside of Corona, and they are all using the exact same user account both in windows and to access the NAS.

So the conclusion is still as before: Corona does not want to transfer assets across a mapped network drive during DR.

For now we are simply using the UNC path, which works perfectly, but it’s just a bore to have to ensure that all of our assets are mapped this way. Half our assets in our libraries are mapped to R:\ and when dropped into scenes refuse to render over DR, which is a hassle. It should work with both, mixed or otherwise.

Any news on whether this really is just a local issue for us here or if it’s a Corona issue? As I mentioned before, we never had this problem with this exact same network and setup with VRay.

Cheers,

8

I use absolute paths also and had random problems recently. Been using rather Rebus instead but not happy about it.

Each time I get to use DR different kind of issue comes up :- / It’s not 100perc yet.

9

The problem with DR is that it runs smooth for some users, and others have issues. Thy are extremely hard to diagnose, and usually we are forced to ask a lot of semi-blind questions to narrow down the possibilities.

Alex, here is one idea:

Could you check if your DrServer is running with administrator privileges? We had a similar case recently where 3ds Max would lose all paths if DrServer was ran in admin mode.
You should be able to check it by going to task manager, locating drserver.exe, right click, properties, compatibility - is the “run this program as admin” checked?
If it is, please try disabling the admin mode as described here.

I fixed this problem by going changing the permissions on the folder that contained the program.

I added each user that will run that program and gave them “full control” priviledges. That took care of the problem and I left the “run as admin” unchecked.

So here are the instructions:
-locate DrServer.exe, go one step up and select the root folder
-right click, properties, security
-click “edit”
-allow “full control” for all users/groups on the list
-apply
-this should set the permissions to all files and folders inside
-after that, you should be able to go to properties of DrServer.exe and uncheck the “run this program as admin” option - if it’s greyed out, you will need to go to “change settings for all users” and uncheck it in there

Please drop me a PM or email if you have any problems with that.

10

This is indeed true, Windows by default doesn’t allow mapped drives to be visible in elevated mode. One solution is to make everything run at same level of elevation (stupid, painful,),

the other one is to add into Registry a dword which allows to see mapped drives all the times. I do this each time after installation of Windows (I needed to do it first with 8 and this behavior continues into version 10)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/System

EnableLinkedConnections {=1}

11

Thank you both! Will try these suggestions out and see if there’s any change.

Cheers,

12

Well.. good news! It works! Maru’s steps fixed things. I.e. disabling “run as admin” and enabling security privileges for the drserver folder.

Maru, is there any way of making this happen during installation somehow so users can avoid having to do it?

Thanks again.

Cheers,

13

Actually all the glory goes to Ondra. I am just his little helper. :wink:

Maru, is there any way of making this happen during installation somehow so users can avoid having to do it?

Hopefully it is possible. The problem is acknowledged and we will be attempting to fix it.

14

Great to hear it! Looking forward to 1.4 too, and more VR support. Cheers.

15

Here is .reg file which does Juraj’s fix with one doubleclick. Not sure if restart is necessary
fix network dirves.reg (308 Bytes)

16

Excellent! FWIW I didn’t need to restart my nodes after doing this manually.

17

I did everything that you advised, but the message “DrServer is running with elevated UAC rights (as administrator)” persists.

18

Which versions is that? There were some problems with this, but they should be fixed already.

19

All daily builds from 12.03.2016.