AWS Thinkbox Discussion Forums

Deadline renders black frames

Deadline
#1

Hello,
today I installed the latest deadline (10.1.13.2)
For some unknown to me reason whatever I send to deadline renders black.
I have no idea why does that.
I worked with the previous version 10.1.15 if I remember, and I didnt have any problem.
But becasue I put 3ds Max 2021 I had to install the latest version.

What causes this issue?

#2

Can you provide some more info?

  • What render engine (Arnold, Corona, Redshift, Scanline, V-Ray, something else)?
  • Have you tested if it does the same with other renderers?
  • Does it do it with every scene, or just one?
  • Was the scene created in 2021, or in an older version? Do 2020 and earlier scenes submitted from those versions of 3ds Max to Deadline 10.1.13 render correctly?
  • Have you tried submitting a 3dsCmd job instead of 3dsmax job? They use different control mechanisms to talk to 3ds Max, so if the one produces black output and the other does not, we would know better where to look.
  • Is there anything interesting in the task logs (attach here or email them to Thinkbox Support together with your questions if you cannot share)
#3

I am using Vray 5.02
Yes it does it on every file I am putting of the same project.
I just opened the files with 3ds Max 2020 and send them from there to Deadline and they work.
It does it when I send it from Max 2021.
I test it on another PC and there works with no issues (both Max versions).
Same plugins on both PCs

#4

Can you elaborate here: “I test it on another PC and there works with no issues (both Max versions).”

How did you test it? Did you run Deadline Worker with 2021 on the other machine?
Does that mean that the Worker on the submitting machine renders black, and the worker on the other PC does not?

Are you saving out of the VRay VFB, or the Common tab render output path? If saving the VFB, what does the 3ds Max output save?

I highly recommend creating a Support ticket with a detailed explanation (and maybe a link to this forum thread) - either email support@thinkboxsoftware.com, or go the the Zendesk page https://awsthinkbox.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

#5

Both PCs have latest Deadline installed.
They are not communicating with each other.
In the one PC as I said, whenever I send a file from Max 2021 it renders black.
In the other PC renders as it should, normal.
Both PCs have the same plugins. Particularly for this project I use only Vray (5.02)
In the PC with the issue, if I send the file through Max 2020 it renders normal as well.

I don’t understand what do you mean with the saving out the Vray VFB?
Can you do this with Deadline (I dont know)
I am using the common tab Render Output path.

#6

Some users do not save the 3ds Max output, but write out of the VRay VFB - in that case, the Render Elements can be embedded as layers in an EXR file, and you have ways to split RGB and Alpha, write a RAW file, etc.

Sounds like you are saving the image via the 3ds Max render output. It would be interesting to know what you get if you disable that, and set up the output in the VRay Frame Buffer itself.

If that saves properly, the issue might be somewhere between V-Ray and 3ds Max.

Also I assume that rendering with 2021 to disk without Deadline works as expected?

#7

Just found the issue
My mistake…
Because the machine was setup a few days ago with Max 2021.
Thus never been used with this…
On my rush for the project I forgot to put the extra paths for the map files.
I just put them and now it renders correctly.
But it should render the file with no maps. I dont understand why it render it complete black like empty space.
Anyway thank you for your time.

#8

Normally, if the Ignore Missing External File Errors checkbox is unchecked, the job would fail and let you know something is missing. I assume yours is checked…

I am not sure why missing textures would result in missing geometry, but I have not used V-Ray 5 yet, so it is possible it behaves in unexpected ways :slight_smile:

#9

Yeah that confused me.
And I didnt think from the beginning what could possible cause the issue.
Because in the past whenever I forgot to put a map path I got grey geometry.
But this time I got complete blackness.
Probably has to do with Vray 5 as this was added last months to my arsenal.
Anyway thank you again.

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