deadline start up error, jobs will not render

Deadline
1

i keep getting erros on my one machine with deadline, startup error lightningmax.dlx,
i found in the deadline support information that reinsatllting the client for c++ distributable could help, i did this (with all 3dsmax processes killed)
but i still get the error :frowning:
will not start rendering…

what can i do? (the job picks up on my other slave, that works)

2

Which version of Deadline are you using?

Also, is it possible to post a job log from a machine that can render the job? Just submit a simple, single frame job to the queue and grab the job’s log after it is finished by right-clicking on it in the Monitor and selecting Job Reports -> View Log Reports. I just want to compare the logs to see if anything stands out.

Thanks!

  • Ryan
3

heres a log report of 2nd slave, ill let a frame finish tonight, right now i have to render on my one machine(the faster one) for which deadline slave not working

deadline version 5.1 beta , but this error also happened with 5.0

what can i do? :astonished:

4

Thanks for the log. I noticed that the 3dsmax version is different. I’m not sure if it makes a difference, but the log from the good slave shows the Max version as 12.1.7.209, while the one from the bad machine shows 12.1.9.216.

Maybe you could just try reinstalling 3dsmax 2010 to see if that helps? Also, I forgot to ask for confirmation on this, but when you reinstalled the Deadline client, did you install all 4 c++ redistributables? If not, maybe give that a try. You shouldn’t obviously need all 4, but it won’t hurt anything to try. :slight_smile:

If neither of those reinstalls work, we’ll have to do some deeper debugging.

Cheers,

  • Ryan
5

jes i installed all c plus distributables

guess i have to reinstall 3dsmax, ill try that

its weird because i have rendered succesfully with this machine before many times with deadline

6

reinstalled 3dsmax, even turned off the 3dsmaxcmd.exe workaround, but it fails regardless

what is lightningmax.dlx, do i need it to render the job :question:

i hope we can solve this, got apersonal project to deliver in 2weeks :astonished:

thanks for your help ryan

7

update,
just copied my 3ds max folder from good slave to bad slave, so they have same version,

i STILL get same error, also interesitng, because the older build does not have the hotfix applied, which makes max crash on mentalray.dlz, so i .bak that up on my other slave, (and then max starts) but i guess ur really supposed to install the hotfix which fixes that (and let you use mentalray), which brings the newere core of 12.9.asdölfjaös

and i just reinstalled deadline client and repository completely new btw as well, (i did insatll bluroffline tools at home to run python in max, not sure if the python, qtpython did anything)

hope you can help

8

After copying your Max folder from a good slave to the bad one, you’re actually now getting a different error. In the new error, Max is just crashing, as opposed to getting to the point where it can’t load the lightning plugin. So I would suggest running the 3dsmax installer again so you get back to the lightning.dlx error. Once you get there, you can proceed with the following debugging steps.

First though, I’ll just explain what lightning is briefly. It’s a plugin that Deadline gets 3dsmax to load when it starts up. This plugin facilitates communication between Deadline and the running instance of 3dsmax. This allows Deadline to control how 3dsmax renders the job, and keep it loaded in memory between frames. So to answer your question, yes, it is needed for rendering. :slight_smile:

The next debugging step is to see if 3dsmax will load lightning without Deadline in the picture.

First, you need to go to \your\repository\plugins\3dsmax and find the appropriate .dlx file your the version of 3dsmax you want to debug with (in your case, I think this is lightning64Max2010.dlx). Copy that file to a local location on the bad machine. For this example, let’s assume you copied it to c:\temp\lightning. After copying the file, rename it to Lightning.dlx.

Second, you need to configure your 3ds max so that it loads Lightning.dlx on startup. Note that using plugin manager to load the plugin once 3ds max is fully started will not work properly, so you must add it to the plugin.ini. Let’s say 3dsmax is installed to C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2010. Open plugin.ini in this folder, and in the section entitled [Directories], add this line:
Lightning=c:\temp\lightning

Third, you can now launch 3dsmax.exe. It should load Lightning.dlx, which exposes an interface object called DeadlineUtil. You can check if it’s been loaded by looking at the Plug-in Manager in 3dsmax, which you can access from the Customize menu. You can also confirm it’s been loaded by running the following command in the maxscript listener:

ShowInterface DeadlineUtil

You should see something like this printed out:

Let us know if the plugin has been loaded or not, and we’ll go from there.

Cheers,

  • Ryan
9

i just dropped the .dlx in plugin folder and run the script

then i get this

10

ok, now this job is picking up!

11

(i left the plugin.dlx in plugins folder)

12

That’s good news. At least we know that 3dsmax itself doesn’t have any problems loading the plugin. That means that for some reason, max isn’t loading the lightning plugin in the first place.

I did notice that max is configured to use local user profiles. Usually, this isn’t an issue, but I’ve seen cases where this can screw things up. For example, on an old workstation of mine, 3dsmax was using someone else’s user folder to store and read settings. So Deadline was putting the dl.ini file (the custom ini file that tells max to load lightning) in my user folder, but Max was reading someone else’s at startup.

Before we try to determine if that’s the case, can you try disabling user profiles in 3dsmax on the bad machine? It’s actually really easy to do so. Just go to C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2010\ and open InstallSettings.ini. Find the [Least User Privilege] section, and set useUserProfiles to 0. Now submit a new job to Deadline and see if it at least gets past the point of loading lightning. Send us the error log if the job produces one.

Cheers,

  • Ryan

Edit: I saw your additional posts after typing this up. I guess leaving the lightning.dlx there is a potential workaround, but it’s not ideal. Since you’re in a crunch though, it might be best to just leave things alone now that they’re working. But if you want to keep debugging the problem further, delete lightning from the plugin folder and follow my suggestions above.

13

ill try the user settings and let you know