is it possible? as far as i tried it wasn’t using max5. what about using max6?
thx
hi appius
yes it’s possible, you can use a saved ir-map for dr.
just setup your pc’s the right way.
greez
ale
well, according to the manual : “Rendering scenes with irradiance maps may not be very productive as the irradiance map calculations are not distributed. Each render server calculates its own irradiance map so it may not be very efficient as the rendering time itself may take much less time than the preparation of the irradiance map”
how do you get it work?
that’s true, you can’t disribute the ‘calculation’ of the irmap,
but surely you can ‘share’ it accross the ‘render-farm’.
ale
Yes, but there’s no DR in MAX6, is there?
Marc
opening the temp max file the server uses, i guess i see the error. the path to the irradiance map refers to a local one, that of the client. wherever i put it it remains the local client path.. how do i solve it?
about max 6 and the distributed rendering:
http://www.chaoticdimension.com/forums/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4902&highlight=distributed+rendering
damn! got it!
i’ve to put the browse to the mshome in order to get a path like this:
\computer1SharedDocsirradiance.vrmap
ahrem…
so how exaclty do you make all your slaves see a precalculated irridiance map (.vrmap)? I entered the path in ‘From file:’ but my other machines dont see the vrmap and render black. What exactly are you referring to by mshome? Can all the servers use a presaved irradiance map?
He is refering to the UNC path like “\\ComputerName\sharedfolder\imap.vrmap” One way to get this path is by browsing through mshome xp? or mynetworkplaces in nt/xppro
I actually tried this before. Using Windows 2000 pro but doesnt work for Distributed rendering. To test it I just turn on a networked slave but it renders black! Nothing there because it cant find the irradiance map. The local machine I’m working on is the only one that renders fine even with this path.
I’m also unsure about rendering animations across many machines. If this doesnt work this way, I’m sure that wont work either.
This is what I did. BOXX03 is the name of the computer the map is on. Searched using My Network Places. The vrmap is on the desktop of that computer.
- Vray:: Advanced irradiance map parameters
- From file: (Browse using My Network Places)
\Boxx03Desktop est.vrmap
Doesnt work on any computers just renders black.
Doing further tests, we found that the the computers only recognize their local drives even if you use a UNC path. We found this out because we’re just using UNC paths now but a specific computer will render correctly with the map only if the map is in its local drive. We did this and rendered with only the computer sending the DR stuff and it did not render.
Is this a bug? We’ve been network rendering for a while with 8 systems and never had this problem. You would think that a UNC path is fool proof. Really dont know what the deal is. All computer sshow up in ANY My Network Places on any machine. Furthermore, some network drives are named the same with the same drive letter. Meaning, if we have a drive named ‘renderings’ as Drive letter R: its mapped the same on all the machines.
the vrmap needs to be in a shared directory on one of the machines, ie:
\MachineNameShareNamefolderfile.vrmap
AND if you have that many machines, the share folder should be on a machine running a server OS, not workstation - there’s a limit to the number of “connections” that win2k and xp workstation support
10 machines is the limit for windows, dont need a server quite yet for this network but this test is on 2 machines! not all of our machines and the problem is obviously not a windows file sharing problem because as I said, using UNC path the local machine cannot find the vrmap if its on another computer and we have rendered over the network before. Trust me. We have windows server on our farm but we’re just testing vray for now.
Can I get an authority to answer on this problem?
Like I said many times already in the ‘From file’ area of the irradiance map parameters we have entered to location of our vrmap.
Boxx03 = computer on our network
vray = shared folder on that machine that is visible on ALL machines
test.vrmap = vray irradiance map inside that vray folder.
Directory was located using the following method:
My Network Places
Computers Near Me
Boxx03
vray
Lastly, disregard the fact that we have 8 machines. the test was done only on one machine on our network. Also, we’re doing DR on Boxx03 so if we turn on that server in the Manager Settings window it works but if turn on another machine, that one renders without the map. If we put the file on another machine using UNC universal naming convention, Boxx03 cant find it but the machine we put it on can.
make sure the user that the vray spawner process (or max netrender service) is running as has the appropriate permissions
Once again…
of course they do.
I can use all the servers using bucket mode. I just want them to all use the irradiance map but that end of it is not working.
Seriously now, an authority please, I guess I’ll have to email chaos.
I have been doing VRay netrenderings with saved irrmaps for 6 months now and max netrendering for a couple years, having done all the installation/setup/config myself. I was merely trying to help you troubleshoot your problem, with common issues that people run into with netrendering.
Commonly, the backburner service is running as a user that doesnt have the same permissions as the user that is logged in and running max. Hence, why during netrender it can’t see the vrmap in the shared location. It would still work fine in bucket mode, because the backburner/vrayspawner generated max process wouldn’t need to look for the saved irrmap, but would not be able to find the irrmap if it didn’t have appropriate user permisions.
Also, do you have any maps (texture or otherwise) that are in a shared location? Do they have problems when netrendering? Check to see if the “include maps” option is enabled or not. A vrmap can get quite large and you may or may not want it being pushed with the maxfile at rendertime.
Okay, but the max netrender service or ‘server’ runs fine without vray and finds all the appropriate maps. Actually all of the machines we’re using have administrator rights and can see all the networked drives. We’re just testing on 2 computers again the one running Max and DR and the slave. If I send a net render job that has texture maps in a network drive the other machine finds the maps just fine. If I use DR with a UNC path for the irradiance map the machines dont find the map.
Can you tell me specifically what the deal could be with the permisions and DR specifically because all other types of net rendering works.
Sorry for the snaps, just that its getting really frustrating.
thanks again.
believe me…i understand your frustration
Vray DR uses the vrayspawner service as you probably already know. If you go into the services control panel (control panel-admin tools-services) and find the vray spawner service, open it. Go to the “log on” tab, and see if it is running as a user that has permissions to access the shared folder. I would not recommend using “log on as local system account” and instead pick a username/password that you know for sure can access the shares properly.
This is of course assuming you are using Max5. If you are using the Max6 DR hack, you’ll be looking for “backburner server” in the services list instead of vray spawner to make that log on change. Of course, doing the same thing for backburner in Max5 is a good idea.
If you are not running backburner server and/or vray spawner as services and are just manually launching them on the render node, just double check that the user you are running them can access the share properly from that render node.
If all that doesnt clear things up, and other maps are working fine, try droping the vrmap in the same folder as the other maps…could be something not behaving properly.
I really hope this helps, and if nothing else, closes up some of the questions.
That did it! Basically that other computer just had “log on as local account”! How could we have missed that? backburner2 server is running with administrator rights but not vrayspawner in services.
Thanks a lot. Its working fine now.