deadline and max findings

Deadline
1

sanity check:
-restart renderer between frames is disabled, what is this
-render output path refers at a project folder, what is the problem

vray:
-vray framebuffer instead of maxes, how can I make showup the vray buffer instead of maxes while rendering

repository
-repository, only deadline related stuff gets transfered there right? Scene stays at same place on shared network?

where to find this info in manager:
-estimated time to complete job
-currently rendered frame by slave

TNX, great aplication

2

“Restart Renderer Between Frames is disabled and VRay or Brazil is the selected renderer.”
This is a Warning, which means that you can uncheck it to ignore it, or you can let it switch the Restart Renderer Between Frames.
We are often getting inconsistent results from these two renderers, esp. with huge scenes where releasing memory between frames seems to fix the problem.
The option to restart the renderer appears to solve this most of the time, but sometimes it is even better to restart Max (which is a separate option in the Submitter). You can just ignore this, or completely remove it by editing the file “SubmitMaxToDeadline_SanityCheck_General.ms” found in the \Submission\3dsmax folder on the Repository.

“FF:The Render Output Path appears to point at a PROJECT folder!”
This is a Frantic Films internal (See the FF) check which prevented us from dumping render data in the Project folder tree (where it does not belong, it had to go to the Renders folder). Out internal folder structure changed in the mean time and we are not using this anymore. This test is defined in the Private file called “SubmitMaxToDeadline_SanityCheck_Private.ms” in the \Submission\3dsmax on the Repository. This file can be edited by you at will and you can use it to implement your own checks since we are not going to overwrite it when updating Deadline. You can simply add – in front of the line

– #(SMTD_Private_SanityCheckFunctions.CheckForProjectPath, #fix , “FF:The Render Output Path appears to point at a PROJECT folder!”, SMTD_RepairFunctions.FixRenderOutputPath, true),

to disable it.

Uncheck the “Show Virtual Frame Buffer” checkbox in the Submitter (in the Render tab) and enable the VRay Frame Buffer in the VRay render dialog before submission. It should appear when rendering.

By default, the MAX file goes there, while bitmap textures, XRefs and other external files (Point Caches, Hair Caches etc.) should be accessible over the network using a mapped drive. There is an option to collect and send all textures (or only the local ones) to the Repository, too. When a slave picks up a job, it copies the data locally first, then it loads the scene.

In the Monitor, the total time so far and the estimated (VERY rough) time left are shown on the right side of the Tasks tab’s header.
You can also see the data in the Statistics tab (when the job is completed, the Estimate will be at 0 and the real Elapsed time will be shown).
In the Tasks tab, you will see the list of all Tasks (typically one frame, or more) and what slave is working on that Task.
Alternatively, in the Slave list, you can see what job, task number and progress a specific slave has. (you might have to enable some of these columns if they are not on - right-click the columns and check the ones you are interested in).

It is very possible that I misunderstood some of your questions. In such case, please clarify!

3

Ok Bobo, most is clear now0 One thing, why is the scene loaded to the repository?

Tnx a lot for you elobarate answers!

4

The scene is copied to the repository so that it can be copied locally to the slaves when they start rendering. Because the scene isn’t loaded over the network, this can potentially reduce network load. Also, depending on some of the submission options you use (like the RE stuff under the Pathing rollout), we will make changes to the scene and submit that modified scene, then undo the changes after the submission.

However, there is the option under the Options tab to not submit the scene file with the job if you would rather not submit the scene.

Cheers,

  • Ryan
5

I am still a bit confused about the repository. My repository is on the same nas server as where my project folder is saved. So each slave could get their needed files from the project folder. Now it is like it does an extra step, saving it over to the repository dir and distributing it to the slaves.

Cheers!

6

Workflow-wise it means this:

You open a Max file. You submit it to Deadline. A COPY (let’s call it a snapshot) of the scene is sent to the Repository (which can be anywhere). Now you can continue modifying your Max scene and resaving over the original file. If that copy were to be used by Deadline, resaving the file would suddenly change the scene being rendered (some slaves would “see” a newer file than others). We assume that people keep on working on the scene and potentially resave over the original file while Deadline is crunching on the snapshot of the scene sent to Repository and the output will be consistent.

In a company with hundreds of artists, we cannot even be sure that the scene wouldn’t be modified by somebody else while being rendered directly. It would require a version control / checkout system where a file sent to render would be locked for editing at its original location while Deadline is using it. This is obviously complicating things and is currently not part of Deadline.

If you are absolutely sure the file you are submitting will never be modified during the rendering is going on, you can tell Deadline to use the existing copy, at your own risk.

There is a second benefit to having the MAX file inside the job folder on the Repository. If a month later that job is still in the monitor and you want to rerender it, you can be sure that what will render will be EXACTLY what was submitted a month ago and not what the file is now (which could be modified by you or somebody else and you wouldn’t be able to tell for sure). So the copy of the Max scene inside the job folder guarantees reproducible render results and also serves as an additional level of backup - you can select a job, hit Ctrl+D and grab the Max file from the job folder, knowing exactly what it renders like based on the job’s output.

7

I have been saved several times by the ‘deadline backup’.

I’ve also been bitten in the ass before from XRefs changing while rendering. It’s really easy to accidentally change a scene file or rename a scene file while a render is going. Not only does it screw up the frames after the change, but you also lose the scene file which rendered the first range of frames. In essence it kills the entire render.

8

If I’m submitting from the commandline what’s the argument to do this? I tried looking all through the help and options file but couldn’t find it.

thanks.

9

There are two things you need to do to not submit the scene with the job. The first is to add this to the plugin info file (the second file being submitted with the job):

SceneFile=\\path\to\scene\file.max

The second is to simply not include the max file as the third file submitted with the job in the command line. So you’re essentially just submitting the job info and plugin info files, and then Deadline uses the path in the plugin info file to determine where the max file is.

Cheers,

  • Ryan
10

hi
yes i also have the problem that i can not find the option of save renderout file when i submit job from 3ds max->deadline ->deadline(3ds cmd),and i also can not find the complete job.please help me!!!thank you!!!

11

You specify the render output path in the 3dsmax Render Options dialog (see attached image). This is where Deadline saves the files to, so make sure it’s a network accessible path, otherwise your rendered images will be lost.

Cheers,