add more tasks with maxscript

Deadline
1

Hi, I am looking for a way to submit custom tasks within 1 job through maxscript. A basic example would be:
Task 0: create teapot
Task 1: create sphere
Task 2: create box and save scene

I have only managed to create 1 task within the job.
So my question is: is there a maxscript command to add more tasks?

Thanks,
Nahuel

2

Hello Nahuel,

I am not sure what you mean by tasks. If you mean Deadline tasks, each can run on different machines, and therefore not all of them would be able to output to the same file, as they could all be writing their output at the same time, thus overwriting or erroring out on the job. Could you clarify?

3

Thank you for your reply Dwight.

Yes, I meant Deadline Tasks, as far as I know 3ds Max doesn’t restart between tasks if the scene file is the same and if “Enforce sequential rendering” is enabled. What I want to do is create various tasks within a job (without restarting max between them). Basically, I am trying to submit thinking particles simulations as tasks, I managed to submit them but they are all in Task 0. I was looking for a way to display 3 tasks (if i have 3 simulations within 1 TP system).

Thanks,
Nahuel

4

Hi Nahuel,

3dsMax never restarts between tasks unless you tell it to by use of the “Reload Plugin Between Tasks” checkbox (off by default). We also have an additional feature that allows us to just “un-load & re-load the VRay renderer plugin” without effecting the running instance of 3dsMax. This is super useful, if you need to force the purging of any VRay renderer memory out of the system and it’s something which we recommend is ON by default for all things VRay (with the exception when running LC/IM calculation pre-pass jobs)

“Enforce sequential rendering” will just ensure the tasks are always processed in order, which would be useful in what you are trying to achieve.

Inside of the SMTD (Submit Max To Deadline) interface on the “scripts” tab, we have the ability to submit a MaxScript job where it can be forced to work on a single task or respect whatever scene frame range you have configured to be used in the render scene dialog. See here for more info on the features available:
thinkboxsoftware.com/deadlin … cripts_Tab

We also expose a number of very useful Lightning functions to 3dsMax & Maxscript when we are running jobs through Deadline. See here for the functions available:
thinkboxsoftware.com/deadlin … _Interface

Please check out the boilerplate MaxScript template file that is created when you click on the “New Script From Template” button in the “scripts” tab of SMTD.

Hope this helps,
Mike