Network render: Error Deleting XML

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

Not sure this is related but I know Discreet will give me crap if I dont ask here too.

VRay 1.09.02a (will do .3a when this project is over, dont have time to deal with all the glossy reflections right now)
Funny thing is I only have a few more frames to get it done.

Sending network jobs that can take quite a while to render (40m average per frame)

Problem is that some of them render and some dont. The monitor shows the error as a time out but when you look at the slave itself on the slave it says
Error: Error deleting c:\program files\discreet\backburner (and so on)\jobname.XML

Why would everything work fine then suddenly most of the slaves choke up this error? I have rendered this same job with no problems for a couple weeks then bammo :x here this goes.

There does not appear to be a permissions issue, the folder the XML is in is not read only or anything like that. :x

I actually watched on of the slaves work on a frame. All the passes completed and it rendered all except 3 buckets or so them the error popped up and then loaded the next job without saving the rendered image which apparently did not finish anyway.

If I render local there is no problem.

Any ideas?

2

Are your servers set to “time out” before it is finished?

3

Perhaps a bit dumb but where are the time settings for Max5 and backburner 2? Our network render guy is out today.
But oddly, it has not been a problem until now.

And as a side note:
When the error occured I looked in the dir where the XML is.
I could see it and the MAX, MAZ and XML for the new job as well.
Came back to show a co-worker and the offending XML file was gone.

4

the time out is set on each server, we are still running 4.2 here at work so I can’t say exactly where, in 4.2 it is under “general settings”. server does delete every job when it thinks it is finished.

5

Ok found the time out settings.

In the Network Render dialog under “Advanced” when you render.
Aparently under Max5 time outs are turned off, so I would assume this means let it go until it is done. Thise seems to only work when Max feels like it.

From here on I will be setting the time out when I submit.

Quite annoying to wait for the render only to have it fail 40 mins later when it is almost done.

I checked the XML file and the time out is set to “off” which still tells me there is an undocumented feature at work here.