3dsmax 8 Failed to render the frame Error

Deadline
1

Current Config:



3dsmax 8 with SP3

Vray Renderer 1.5RC3

3GB Ram

Windows XP Pro 32-bit



Been getting random failures with the error report of “Failed to render the frame.” The failures are random. They fail on random machines and time. Brute force eventually gets the frame rendered. They fail at this point:



0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:15.0] [00:00:15.5 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:15.5] [00:00:15.7 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator…: done [00:00:15.9]

0: STDOUT: Preparing direct light manager…

0: STDOUT: Preparing global light manager…



Error Reports is:



Error Message

Failed to render the frame.

2006/12/12 10:04:54 INF: Loaded c:/deadline/slave/jobsData/CD_009_All_GS_v01.max

2006/12/12 10:06:46 INF: Job: c:/deadline/slave/jobsData/CD_009_All_GS_v01.max







Slave Log

n blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:09.5] [00:00:13.9 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:10.0] [00:00:14.1 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:10.5] [00:00:14.4 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:11.0] [00:00:14.5 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:11.5] [00:00:14.7 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:12.1] [00:00:14.9 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:12.6] [00:00:15.2 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:13.1] [00:00:15.4 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:13.6] [00:00:15.7 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:14.0] [00:00:16.1 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:14.5] [00:00:16.4 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:15.0] [00:00:16.6 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:15.5] [00:00:16.9 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:16.0] [00:00:17.1 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:16.5] [00:00:17.3 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:17.0] [00:00:17.6 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:17.5] [00:00:17.8 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator… [00:00:18.0] [00:00:18.0 est]

0: STDOUT: Building motion blur raycast accelerator…: done [00:00:18.1]

0: STDOUT: Preparing direct light manager…

0: STDOUT: Preparing global light manager…

---- December 12 2006 – 11:31 AM ----

Scheduler Thread - Render Thread 0 threw an error:

Scheduler Thread - Failed to render the frame.

2006/12/12 10:04:54 INF: Loaded c:/deadline/slave/jobsData/CD_009_All_GS_v01.max

2006/12/12 10:06:46 INF: Job: c:/deadline/slave/jobsData/CD_009_All_GS_v01.max





Error Type

RenderPluginException





Error Stack Trace

at Deadline.Plugins.PluginLoader.RenderTasks(Int32 startTask, Int32 endTask)

at Deadline.Plugins.PluginLoader.RenderTask(Int32 task)

at Deadline.Plugins.Plugin.RenderTask(Int32 frame)

at Deadline.Slaves.SlaveRenderThread.RenderCurrentTask()



If we can get more detail on the error report we can troubleshoot it, but thats all the info we always get. Any help or direction would greatly be appreciated.



Lap

2

Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all the details we can extract about

the problem (it’s not easy pulling decent error messages out of 3dsmax).

Deadline is simply telling max to render, and max is returning False,

which basically means it failed to render the frame. Is it possible that

you could send us a test scene that reproduces the problem? Also, which

version of Deadline are you using? We made a lot of changes to the max

plugin in Deadline 2.6 to get around some issues with vray 1.5, so it

might be possible your problems will go away if you’re running that version.



There is the possibility that the error might be memory related too,

which would explain its randomness.



Cheers,

3

We are currently running version 2.6 of deadline. We knew of the black frames output from version 2.5. I will try to get you a test scene.



Lap

4

Is there some improvements with this problem in deadline 2.7? I’m getting similar error, with words -

Scheduler Thread - Render Thread 0 threw an error:

Scheduler Thread - Failed to render the frame.

Error Type

RenderPluginException

Error Stack Trace

at Deadline.Plugins.PluginLoader.RenderTasks(Int32 startTask, Int32 endTask)

at Deadline.Plugins.PluginLoader.RenderTask(Int32 task)

at Deadline.Plugins.Plugin.RenderTask(Int32 frame)

at Deadline.Slaves.SlaveRenderThread.RenderCurrentTask()



It’s totally random, I can’t reproduce this error on the test scene, but I’m getting this error quite often. And what is worst that error occurs when frame is 85-90% rendered!

It’s not a problem with overnight renders, but when you sitting and waiting for one frame, and it dropped almost rendered, it’s very sad.


5

Is there some improvements

with this problem in deadline

2.7? I’m getting similar

error, with words -

Scheduler Thread - Render

Thread 0 threw an error:

Scheduler Thread - Failed to

render the frame.

Error Type

RenderPluginException

Error Stack Trace

at

Deadline.Plugins.PluginLoader.

RenderTasks(Int32 startTask,

Int32 endTask)

at

Deadline.Plugins.PluginLoader.

RenderTask(Int32 task)

at

Deadline.Plugins.Plugin.Render

Task(Int32 frame)

at

Deadline.Slaves.SlaveRenderThr

ead.RenderCurrentTask()



It’s totally random, I can’t

reproduce this error on the

test scene, but I’m getting

this error quite often. And

what is worst that error

occurs when frame is 85-90%

rendered!

It’s not a problem with

overnight renders, but when

you sitting and waiting for

one frame, and it dropped

almost rendered, it’s very

sad.





As Ryan explained already, Deadline does not render, Max does. So when Max crashes, it is USUALLY a Max problem, not Deadline’s fault. And when Max crashes, 99% of the cases are memory-related. As you know, Max 8 cannot address more than 2GB of memory when running on 32 bit OS.



Possible solutions:

*If the scene is really heavy, splitting it into portions to be composited later could be a solution

*If the scene contains more large bitmaps than geometry, enabling the Bitmap Cache might reduce memory usage.

*Using the 3GB switch can give Max up to 3GB (but this can make Windows more unstable)

*Running Max 8 on Win XP64 will give Max access to 4GB of RAM.

*Switching to 64 bit Max 9 or 2008 will remove any practical memory limits, but this is not an option if you have to stay with Max 8 because of plugin dependencies.



Once again, a large number of Deadline error reports (not only with Max, but from Maya, XSI, Fusion, whatever) are related to the actual program reporting a crash to Deadline, not to Deadline failing in some way. Thus, debugging the scene / Max itself makes sense. Does Max crash when rendering the same scene on the same machine without Deadline? What is in the scene? What is the renderer and what advanced options are enabled (esp. memory-hungly ones)?

6

I do understand all these things, Borislav. I’m posting here, at Deadline’s support, because Deadline is great software, I want to use it, but sometimes I have problems with it. I’m using 3dsmax8+vray 1.5rc4 and the scene I have problem with is rendered locally without any problem. And furthermore it renders with Deadline too, but not all the time.

To be true, scene is big enough and complex enough, not too much but anyway it may be a cause… I’ll try to use 3gb switch, may be it will help.



Thank you!

Sergo.