Deadline 10.3.0.15 - 3dsMax 2024 - Deadline is modifying 3dsmax.ini and Plugin.UserSettings.ini

[morean]

Hello there.

We are running Deadline 10.3.0.15 and 3dsMax 2024.2 on our farm. I noticed that 3dsMax is resetting usersettings (keyboard shortcuts, layouts) to its default and that our bercontile plugin is not working, when rendering a job that was submitted to the farm.
I first thought that this was related to some startup scripts inside 3dsMax or a corrupt ENU folder.
But after many tests I realized that it is Deadline that is changing the 3dsMax.ini inside the ENU folder and it is also changing the Plugin.UserSettings.ini

As soon as a worker picks up a job, both ini-files get changed into *.ini.backup and only one new 3dsMax.ini-file is created. The missing Plugin.UserSettings.ini then causes the problem with our plugins not working. This happens on all our nodes / workstations except for one. The only node not affected by this issue, is a node that did not launch 3dsmax manually, but only through the farm. The *.ini-files remain untouched.

Is this issue known? I could not find anything on the internet related to it.

We also have 3dsmax 2023. This version is not affected by the issue. It only affects 3dsMax 2024.
I already deleted the ENU folder several times, cleared all plugins and came to the conclusion that it must be deadline that is changing the files, since the creation date of the files matches the times when a worker picks up a job.

I also updated the repository and the clients to Deadline 10.3.1.3 (the installer say 10.3.1.4, but afterwards the repo shows 10.3.1.3)

Our repository runs on a Windows based Server.
The clients connect directly.
We do not use AWS and only render on the machines inside our office.

If you need any additional information, I can provide it.

Many thanks in advance and kind regards,
Wojtek

[karpreet]

Hello!

Looking at the 3dsmax.py, the plugin code creates a 3dsmax.ini file if it fails to fine one when starting the job. It should also report that in the render logs if creating a new file. This is the code in /Repo/plugins/3dsmax/3dsmax.py on line #1212:

        # The LoadSaveSceneScripts setting is what runs the callback script we need to initiate the connection to 3dsmax.
        if os.path.isfile(self.MaxIni):
            if FileUtils.GetIniFileSetting(self.MaxIni, "MAXScript", "LoadSaveSceneScripts", "1") != "1":
                self.Plugin.FailRender(
                    "3dsmax.ini setting in [MAXScript], LoadSaveSceneScripts, is disabled - it must be enabled for deadline to render with 3dsmax")
        else:
            writer = File.CreateText(self.MaxIni)
            writer.WriteLine("[MAXScript]\n")
            writer.WriteLine("LoadSaveSceneScripts=1\n")
            writer.Close()
            self.Plugin.LogInfo("3dsmax.ini file created [MAXScript] [LoadSaveSceneScripts=1]: %s" % self.MaxIni)

I believe something else is deleting the .ini files or renaming it to .backup file and 3dsmax.py file created the .ini file. You can also run Process Monitor to target the .inifile and see which process is touching the file while rendering.
Feel free to share the render logs as well from the job in the Monitor.