3dsmax Submission Plugin - Default setting

Deadline
1

In SMTD 5.0, I want the ‘Restart Render Between Frames’ to be 1) Not Sticky and 2) Default to NOT TICKED

To do this I’ve made sure that:

‘SubmitMaxToDeadline_StickySettings.ini’ has “RestartRenderer=false”

and

‘SubmitMaxToDeadline_Defaults.ini’ also has “RestartRenderer=false”

From the tests I’ve done, this works when I first open 3dsmax, it also works when I open a scanline scene, but when I open a MentalRay or VRay scene ‘Restart Render Between Frames’ is TICKED.

This behaviour is consistent across all our workstations.

Have I missed a config setting? Or do I have a bug?

2

Hey Jim,

The problem is that we currently force the RestartRenderer setting to be on for vray and mental ray. We weren’t aware of any cases at the time where forcing this to be on would cause problems, but I saw in that other thread that there are times you want it off. If you open SubmitMaxToDeadline_Functions.ms, you can search for this code:

			if rendererID == "mentalray" or rendererID == "brazil" or rendererID == "vray" or rendererID == "brmax" then
				SMTDSettings.RestartRenderer = true 
			else
				SMTDSettings.RestartRenderer= SMTDFunctions.getInI "RenderingOptions" "RestartRenderer" SMTDSettings.RestartRenderer
			
			--SMTDSettings.RestartRenderer= SMTDFunctions.getInI "RenderingOptions" "RestartRenderer" SMTDSettings.RestartRenderer

You can just comment out the first 4 lines and uncomment the fifth:

			--if rendererID == "mentalray" or rendererID == "brazil" or rendererID == "vray" or rendererID == "brmax" then
			--	SMTDSettings.RestartRenderer = true 
			--else
			--	SMTDSettings.RestartRenderer= SMTDFunctions.getInI "RenderingOptions" "RestartRenderer" SMTDSettings.RestartRenderer
			
			SMTDSettings.RestartRenderer= SMTDFunctions.getInI "RenderingOptions" "RestartRenderer" SMTDSettings.RestartRenderer

I think what we should do for the next release is add a “ForceRestartRenderer” setting to the defaults ini file. If this is True, then SMTD will always turn RestartRenderer on for the renderers listed above. If it is off, then it will use the default RestartRenderer setting. The code above would then look like this:

			if (SMTDFunctions.getInI "RenderingOptions" "ForceRestartRenderer" true) then
			(
				if rendererID == "mentalray" or rendererID == "brazil" or rendererID == "vray" or rendererID == "brmax" then
					SMTDSettings.RestartRenderer = true 
				else
					SMTDSettings.RestartRenderer= SMTDFunctions.getInI "RenderingOptions" "RestartRenderer" SMTDSettings.RestartRenderer
			)
			else			
				SMTDSettings.RestartRenderer= SMTDFunctions.getInI "RenderingOptions" "RestartRenderer" SMTDSettings.RestartRenderer

Cheers,

  • Ryan
3

Cheers Ryan,

That’s done the trick, and it’s working perfectly. I also agree that your propsed changes to the next release would be a good option to have.

I may have jumped the gun a bit wanting this option set as false by default, as I’ve spoken to another studio today who use VRay through Deadline. They simply untick the ‘Restart Render Between Frames’ option when submitting GI precalcs, on the basis that their render frames benefit from the restart renderer option being on and VRay being cleared between frames.

I guess I should do some tests to see the stability difference with it on and off, and then make the call.

Huge thanks!

4

Sounds like a good item for our 3dsmax FAQ! :slight_smile: