Error rendering region/crop from 3dsmax

Deadline
1

We have been using backburner for a while, being aware of its limitations. now we want to update or 3D software from max 8 to max 9; in order to do this we looked into using deadline as our render manager since it seems to be the best/only choice to mix some 64 with 32 machines in the same rendering network.

We are testing the trial version currently with max 8 before we change all our structure, to make sure its compatible with all our work process. 
We have encounter an error that we can seem to be able to fix.
We render very high res images and everytime we enable the region render from the tiles tab, we get and error on the slave machine.
The render starts and finishes as expected, sometimes even saves the rendered image, but the slave receives an error and redoes the work endlessly. here is a copy of the error report:

SEH exception: SEH Exception trapped in 3ds max: Access Violation
Process: C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3dsMax8\3dsmax.exe
Module: C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3dsMax8\MAXScrpt.dll
Date Modified: 04/18/2006
Exception Code: C0000005
Read Address: 00000000
Instruction: 8B 01 FF 90 88 10 00 00 50 68 F2 09 00 00 E8 AD
Call Stack:
679B0000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3dsMax8\MAXScrpt.dll
+00069FA0 Exception Offset
104C0000 c:\Deadline\temp\lightning\lightning.dlx
+00011037 (10687698, 12DF88, 1064E844, 2, 14133790)
104C0000 c:\Deadline\temp\lightning\lightning.dlx
+00008211 (141337C8, 12DF88, 1064E844, 2, 12CC48)
104C0000 c:\Deadline\temp\lightning\lightning.dlx
+0001D561 (12DAF4, 1051AFBC, 12DF88, 1064E844, 2)
104C0000 c:\Deadline\temp\lightning\lightning.dlx
+0001D032 (1FF7, 12DDF8, 12DF88, 1064E844, 2)
104C0000 c:\Deadline\temp\lightning\lightning.dlx
+0001C97C (1FF7, 12DDF8, 12DDAC, 12DF88, 1064E844)
104C0000 c:\Deadline\temp\lightning\lightning.dlx
+00018350 (1FF7, 12DDF8, 12DDF8, 12DDF8, 679D7B4E)
104C0000 c:\Deadline\temp\lightning\lightning.dlx
+00017368 (104DC850, 1051AF78, 0, 12DF88, 12DFD8)
104C0000 c:\Deadline\temp\lightning\lightning.dlx
+000145E3 (1051AF78, 0, 12DF88, 12DFD8, 1031E0B0)
104C0000 c:\Deadline\temp\lightning\lightning.dlx
+00014067 (1051AF78, 12000E, 0, 12DF88, 12DFD8)
00400000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3dsMax8\core.dll
+0003F979 (E, 0, 12DF88, 12DFD8, 67A104C1)
679B0000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3dsMax8\MAXScrpt.dll
+0000117E (12DEF8, 2, 0, EE06440, 7D4D8D10)
679B0000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3dsMax8\MAXScrpt.dll
+0000E10B (67D95548, 7D4D8D10, 2, 12E08C, 0)
679B0000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3dsMax8\MAXScrpt.dll
+0000117E (EE06440, 3, 0, 12E46C, 7D4D8D10)
679B0000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3dsMax8\MAXScrpt.dll
+0000CE40 (12E46C, 0, 107E18BC, 107E15EC, 62)
679B0000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3dsMax8\MAXScrpt.dll
+000014D9 (EE1F850, 7D4D8D10, 1, 67D9BE5C, 0)
679B0000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3dsMax8\MAXScrpt.dll
+0000E14A (67D95548, 7D4D8D10, 2, 12E208, 67D9BE5C)
679B0000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3dsMax8\MAXScrpt.dll
+0000117E (EE1F850, 3, 0, 107E1CDC, 7D4D8D10)
679B0000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3dsMax8\MAXScrpt.dll
+000014D9 (250, 107E15B0, 7D4D8D10, 7C041008, 0)
679B0000 C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3dsMax8\MAXScrpt.dll
+0006CF6F (0, 12E334, 0, 4, 12E32C)
2007/10/18 07:36:58 INF: Loaded c:/deadline/slave/jobsData/standing_lamp01.max
2007/10/18 07:36:59 INF: Job: c:/deadline/slave/jobsData/standing_lamp01.max

We have tried this rendering with scanline and vray and it hapens in both cases... also tried not seing the buffer and is the same.

Is there any kind of script or something we could do in order to make this work.. other than this we like all the features Deadlines offers to our netrendering process, we have a small render farm (about 10 computers) and we find that is totally worth using Deadline  if we could just fix this.

I appreciate any help or ideas you could give us to solve this.

Best,

Martin Solarte

2

Hi Martin,



An Access Violation error almost always means that the render ran out of

memory and crashed, which seems to be the case here. With tile rendering

in Deadline, the entire scene is still loaded into memory, but then only

a portion of the frame is rendered using the region rendering feature.

Have you tried rendering the same high res image without splitting it up

into tiles? Also, have you tried increasing the tile count so that

smaller tiles are rendered? Finally, do you only get this error with the

high res images (ie: have you tried tile rendering a simple teapot)?



Thanks!

3

Ryan,

Thanks for your answer,

The case exactly is not related to the tile rendering but to the region/crop

rendering (the last check box option on the tiles tab).

Our interest is to render sometimes just a specific part of the image from a

very high res one (5000 by 500 pixels); when we send the render the slaves

receives the work and renders the crop, almost always saves it but then the

work reads some error and the slave starts the job again…

we have try it with different crop sizes and with some very simple scenes

with a few boxes, but every time we send a region/crop it behaves the same

way… i feel like the easier solution would be to tell deadline to ignore

the error since is not affecting the resulting image, and label the work as

completed so the slave doesn’t keep doing it.



I appreciate any ideas you could give us that would help us solve this

problem.



Best,



Martin Solarte





On 10/19/07, Frantic_Deadline Listmanager <

Frantic_Deadline.listmanager@support.franticfilms.com> wrote:


From: "Ryan Russell" (rrussell@franticfilms.com)

Hi Martin,

An Access Violation error almost always means that the render ran out of
memory and crashed, which seems to be the case here. With tile rendering
in Deadline, the entire scene is still loaded into memory, but then only
a portion of the frame is rendered using the region rendering feature.
Have you tried rendering the same high res image without splitting it up
into tiles? Also, have you tried increasing the tile count so that
smaller tiles are rendered? Finally, do you only get this error with the
high res images (ie: have you tried tile rendering a simple teapot)?

Thanks!
- Ryan

--
Ryan Russell
Frantic Films Software
http://www.franticfilms.com/software/
204-949-0070

To reply:Frantic_Deadline.4099@support.franticfilms.com
To start a new topic:Frantic_Deadline@support.franticfilms.com
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4

Ryan,



Thanks for your answer,

The case exactly is not related to the tile rendering but to the region/crop

rendering (the last check box option on the tiles tab).

Our interest is to render sometimes just a specific part of the image from a

very high res one (5000 by 500 pixels); when we send the render the slaves

receives the work and renders the crop, almost always saves it but then the

work reads some error and the slave starts the job again…

we have try it with different crop sizes and with some very simple scenes

with a few boxes, but every time we send a region/crop it behaves the same

way… i feel like the easier solution would be to tell deadline to ignore

the error since is not affecting the resulting image, and label the work as

completed so the slave doesn’t keep doing it.



I appreciate any ideas you could give us that would help us solve this

problem.



Best,





Martin Solarte

5

Hi Martin,



Sorry for the misunderstanding. I tried the region rendering myself and

was able to reproduce this exact problem. It turns out that we are

trying to run a tile assembly script after the region finishes rendering

(which we shouldn’t be doing because we’re not doing tile rendering in

this case). I’ll talk to our max submitter guru about getting this

fixed, but in the meantime there is a workaround you can do that should

work.


  1. Setup the job in the max submission script as normal, but under the

    “Job” tab, make sure that the “Submit Job As Suspended” box is checked.

    Then submit the job.


  2. Find the newly submitted job in the monitor, right-click on it, and

    select “Repository Directory.” Open the max_job_info.job file here,

    delete the line below, and save the file:



    PostFrameScript=“maxTileAssemblerCommand.ms”


  3. Right-click on the job again and select “Resume”.





    Now Deadline will no longer try to call the maxTileAssemblerCommand.ms

    script file, which should fix the problem. I’ve tested this here and it

    seems to work fine. I know this is a pain, but hopefully it will get you

    by until a fix is available.



    Cheers,
6

Ryan,



I will try the temporary solution… if it works we could probably live

with that while there is a fix.

Thanks a lot for your help, hopefully if this works and everybody agrees we

could use deadline and upgrade all our systems.

Once there is a fix for it would be great! since everything else so far

works far better than our previous set up.



Best, and thanks again



Martin Solarte





On 10/19/07, Frantic_Deadline Listmanager <

Frantic_Deadline.listmanager@support.franticfilms.com> wrote:


From: "Ryan Russell" (rrussell@franticfilms.com)

Hi Martin,

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I tried the region rendering myself and
was able to reproduce this exact problem. It turns out that we are
trying to run a tile assembly script after the region finishes rendering
(which we shouldn't be doing because we're not doing tile rendering in
this case). I'll talk to our max submitter guru about getting this
fixed, but in the meantime there is a workaround you can do that should
work.

1) Setup the job in the max submission script as normal, but under the
"Job" tab, make sure that the "Submit Job As Suspended" box is checked.
Then submit the job.

2) Find the newly submitted job in the monitor, right-click on it, and
select "Repository Directory." Open the max_job_info.job file here,
delete the line below, and save the file:

PostFrameScript="maxTileAssemblerCommand.ms"

3) Right-click on the job again and select "Resume".


Now Deadline will no longer try to call the maxTileAssemblerCommand.ms
script file, which should fix the problem. I've tested this here and it
seems to work fine. I know this is a pain, but hopefully it will get you
by until a fix is available.

Cheers,
- Ryan

--
Ryan Russell
Frantic Films Software
http://www.franticfilms.com/software/
204-949-0070

To reply:Frantic_Deadline.4107@support.franticfilms.com
To start a new topic:Frantic_Deadline@support.franticfilms.com
To view discussion:
http://support.franticfilms.com/WB/?boardID=Frantic&action=9&read=946&fid=7
To (un)subscribe:Frantic_Deadline.list-request@support.franticfilms.com


7

Ryan,



I will try the temporary solution… if it works we could probably live

with that while there is a fix.

Thanks a lot for your help, hopefully if this works and everybody agrees we

could use deadline and upgrade all our systems.

Once there is a fix for it would be great! since everything else so far

works far better than our previous set up.



Best, and thanks again



Martin Solarte

8

Ryan,



I tried what you mention and it works fine… as you said is just that post

scrip task what causes the error, and makes the job restart.

Is there any way we can find out when this issue has been fixed? this just

affects the 3dsmax submit plugin no? are there usually updates on this

plugins separate than the main deadline platform?



Please let me know



Thanks again,



M.

9

Hi Martin,



Check out this forum thread (near the bottom):

http://support.franticfilms.com/WB/?boardID=Frantic&action=9&read=841&fid=7



Bobo just posted an updated version of the submission script today,

which includes the fix to this problem.



Cheers,

10

>Ryan,
>
>I tried what you mention and it works fine... as you said is
>just that post
>scrip task what causes the error, and makes the job restart.
>Is there any way we can find out when this issue has been
>fixed? this just
>affects the 3dsmax submit plugin no? are there usually
>updates on this
>plugins separate than the main deadline platform?
>

It was fixed and I posted an update today in the "Include Maps" thread:

http://support.franticfilms.com/wb/default.asp?action=9&fid=7&read=841

Please back up the content of your \submission\3dsmax folder on the repository, then follow the steps described in my post...