Loading Vray completely from Network

V-Ray V-Ray for 3ds Max General
1

I don’t know if this was asked before but, Ist there a way to load Vray for Max entirely from a Network location without installing it on the local machine?

2

This is currently not possible - we are working on that regard though.

3

Actually it is possible; will post some instructions a bit later.

Best regards,
Vlado

4

Does this also work with maya.?
Maybe as module?

5

Yes it works - please check the following page how to set it up:

6

And here it is how it could be loaded from arbitrary location in 3DSMax:

Let us know if you have any questions or difficulties to set it up.

7

Sweet, So in my case where I have to have our IT dept install updates on over half my render farm which is a pain I can create a central folder for the slaves and just update the one folder when needed to update all the slaves?

8

Or use deadline!

9

Hey Guys, thanks for the response. Well we were looking for a way to run the whole Vray package on the workstations but i presume the reason for the current limitation is Max since it seems to work in Maya. But you said you’re working on it so i guess we can wait and for the time being we will stick to our current deployment method.

Thanks!

10

How do you run the spawner using this? Is it as simple as just replacing 3dsmax.exe with Vrayspawner2015.exe?

11

You will have to copy the spawner and some other files (like the vraydummy.max file) to the folder where 3dsmax.exe is located and then run that instead of 3dsmax.exe. However copying the files requires adminitrative permissions for the .bat file which may or may not be possible. On the other hand, there is probably no need to update those files for every different V-Ray build.

We’ll have to think of some better way to do it for; the spawner supports an .ini file that tells it where the 3dsmax.exe is located but the location of that .ini file is hard-coded right now - it needs to be a command-line argument.

Best regards,
Vlado

12

Ha, I’ve been trying this with the help of Thinkbox, and not completely got it to work. They have issues with admin permissions! Mind sharing here or PM? I’ve got a bat file that can install vray, Railclone, forest, and 3dsmax in one hit using command line, but not through Deadline.

13

That’s something that I am looking for since a long time.
Do you mind sharing it?

Thanks

14

Hi, long weekend so just catching up! I’ll dig out the dat file I made. Not actually working through Deadline still but you can run it on each machine and installs everything in one hit. Can you PM me?

15

I’ve tried setting up Max 2016 using the “arbitrary location” instructions and I think it’s working. (And I really like doing it this way).

However all these machines previously had Vray installed for Max 2015. If I was starting with a fresh machine with no Vray history -- how would the machine know what to use for the license server settings?

16

Set the VRAY_AUTH_CLIENT_FILE_PATH environment variable to point to the folder that contains the vrlclient.xml file with the V-Ray license server settings (IP address and port number).

Will make sure to add that info to the docs page.

Best regards,
Vlado

17

Thanks Vlado. Hopefully you can set up a page showing the process for Phoenix too. Ivaylo said it’s similar, but I’m guessing it needs different variables?

18

Well, in my situation we’re using deadline and vray standalone under linux. Using maya and vray loading from network, without installation.
Deadline pointed to a .sh file, with all the variables set to network repository. Under configure plugin option. Last step modify vrlclient.xml, \vray\bin\vrayslave and vraymayaslave2014 daemon, with all needed variables (this is to have DR working).

#!/usr/bin/env bash

VRAY_SILENT=/mnt/pf/tools/SOFT/VrayLinux
YETI_ROOT=/mnt/pf/tools/SOFT/Yeti/Linux
VRAY_ASSETS_PATH=/mnt/pf/
YETI_TMP=/mnt/pf/cache

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$VRAY_SILENT/vray/lib/linux_x64/gcc-4.4/
PATH=$VRAY_SILENT/maya_vray/bin/:$YETI_ROOT/bin/:$PATH
PLUGINS=$VRAY_SILENT/maya_vray/vrayplugins/
VRAY_PLUGINS_x64=$VRAY_SILENT/maya_vray/vrayplugins/:$YETI_ROOT/bin/
VRAY_AUTH_CLIENT_FILE_PATH=$VRAY_SILENT/

VRAY_USE_THREAD_AFFINITY=1
VRAY_USE_NORMAL_DIFFERENTIALS=1

VRAY_TEXTURE_CACHE=16000
VRAY_MAYA_KEEP_BITMAPS=0
VRAY_TERMINATE_ON_FRAME_END=1

VRAY_VFB_SRGB=1

PEREGRINE_LOG_FILE=$YETI_TMP/yeti/log.txt

vray $* -verboseLevel=3 -progressIncrement=5

This is for linux nodes. Last line is the way, deadline opens vrscenes.

For windows workstations, we use a .bat file, with smth like that:

rem #################_VRAY_###########################################################################

set VRAY_FOR_MAYA2014_PLUGINS_x64=%VRAY_FOR_MAYA2014_PLUGINS_x64%;X:\tools\SOFT\Yeti\2014\bin
set VRAY_PLUGINS_x64=X:\tools\SOFT\Yeti\2014\bin

P.S. I freaking HATE LINUX. All the permission stuff etc…

19

Vlado, can we have a list of the files that would need to copied in this case?

20

Additionally, I cannot get this to work at all. Max always seems to ignore the plugin.ini specified.
Is there anywhere/anyone that has a step by step (idiots guide) method to setup running plugins from a network location??