First frame fails due to missing maps

twuelfing · June 23, 2010, 10:55pm

Two behaviors experienced,
first the check box to ignore missing maps doesnt seem to actually cause missing maps to be ignored.
also we are getting a behavior where an entire job will render fine except the first frame which throws an error about missing frames and fails to render
the error is below

Error Message
Exception during render: An error occurred in RenderTasks(): RenderTask: Unexpected exception (Failed to render the frame.
2010/06/23 15:52:01 INF: Loaded C:/Documents and Settings/1069676-adm/Local Settings/Application Data/Prime Focus/Deadline/slave/jobsData/FishingBoat_loaded_up_03.max
2010/06/23 15:52:02 WRN: Q:\LIBRARY\Pre_Sets_Library\Max\Character_Studio_Animations\With_Weapon\M16\Idle_relax_1_m16.bip This file format is obsolete. Please re-save the file.
2010/06/23 15:52:07 INF: Job: C:/Documents and Settings/1069676-adm/Local Settings/Application Data/Prime Focus/Deadline/slave/jobsData/FishingBoat_loaded_up_03.max
2010/06/23 15:52:22 WRN: Map file \apfs\projs\conops5\01_PROJECTS_CURRENT\XXXX_2007\01_Pre\03_Models\XXXXInsurgents\BobbysInsurgents_3.fbm\BDUAcces.tga is missing.
2010/06/23 15:52:22 WRN: Map file \apfs\projs\conops5\01_PROJECTS_CURRENT\XXXX_2007\01_Pre\03_Models\XXXXInsurgents\BobbysInsurgents_3.fbm\BDUPAntsGreen.tga is missing.
)
at Deadline.Plugins.ScriptPlugin.RenderTasks(Int32 startFrame, Int32 endFrame, String& outMessage)

Slave Log
alization\HVSS_2010\02_Prod\01_Enemy_Boat_Attack\Max\Renders\Render\boat_test_0000.png
0: INFO: Lightning: Rendering 0 render elements
0: INFO: Lightning: Setting up render parameters
0: INFO: Lightning: Rendering camera node Camera001
0: INFO: Lightning: Checking multipass info for frame 0
0: INFO: Lightning: Opening renderer
0: INFO: Lightning: Multipass disabled
0: INFO: Lightning: Rendering 1 passes
0: INFO: Lightning: Checking output paths
0: INFO: Lightning: Checking default actions
0: INFO: Lightning: TYPE_MISSING_EXTERNAL_FILES = IGNORE
0: INFO: Lightning: TYPE_MISSING_UVWS = IGNORE
0: INFO: Lightning: TYPE_MISSING_DLL_FILES = IGNORE
0: INFO: Lightning: TYPE_MISSING_XREF_FILES = IGNORE
0: INFO: Lightning: Calling renderer
0: INFO: Lightning: CallCurRendererRenderFrame returned code 0
Scheduler Thread - Render Thread 0 threw an error:
Scheduler Thread - Exception during render: An error occurred in RenderTasks(): RenderTask: Unexpected exception (Failed to render the frame.
2010/06/23 15:52:01 INF: Loaded C:/Documents and Settings/1069676-adm/Local Settings/Application Data/Prime Focus/Deadline/slave/jobsData/FishingBoat_loaded_up_03.max

2010/06/23 15:52:02 WRN: Q:\LIBRARY\Pre_Sets_Library\Max\Character_Studio_Animations\With_Weapon\M16\Idle_relax_1_m16.bip This file format is obsolete. Please re-save the file.

2010/06/23 15:52:07 INF: Job: C:/Documents and Settings/1069676-adm/Local Settings/Application Data/Prime Focus/Deadline/slave/jobsData/FishingBoat_loaded_up_03.max

2010/06/23 15:52:22 WRN: Map file \apfs\projs\conops5\01_PROJECTS_CURRENT\XXXX_2007\01_Pre\03_Models\BobbysInsurgents\XXXXInsurgents_3.fbm\BDUAcces.tga is missing.

2010/06/23 15:52:22 WRN: Map file \apfs\projs\conops5\01_PROJECTS_CURRENT\XXXX_2007\01_Pre\03_Models\BobbysInsurgents\XXXXInsurgents_3.fbm\BDUPAntsGreen.tga is missing.

)

at Deadline.Plugins.ScriptPlugin.RenderTasks(Int32 startFrame, Int32 endFrame, String& outMessage)

Error Type
RenderPluginException

Error Stack Trace
at Deadline.Plugins.Plugin.RenderTask(Int32 startFrame, Int32 endFrame)
at Deadline.Slaves.SlaveRenderThread.RenderCurrentTask()

MikeOwen · June 24, 2010, 9:28am

Hi,
This is typical Max for you in network render mode! The first frame has always been sensitive to missing maps/incorrect asset paths in your Max scene. Typically, there is a troublesome path somewhere in your 3dsMax scene. Are you clearing the material editor slots during submission? Deadline SMTD has a feature to enable this. Even with “ignore missing maps” enabled, 3dsMax will still get upset at frame 0. We resolve this issue, by running a comprehensive private sanity check that enforces ALL paths are valid BEFORE submission, which 99.9% of the time, resolves this issue for us.
Mike

rrussell · June 24, 2010, 2:02pm

Thanks for that info Mike! I should just mention that Deadline is telling Max to ignore missing maps correctly, that’s why they are prefixed with WRN instead of ERR:

However, Max reports back that the render still failed, which is why Deadline fails the render. Hopefully the information Mike provided will help!

Cheers,

Ryan

twuelfing · June 28, 2010, 3:17pm

We did not experience this behavior in any version of Max until 2011.

What has changed?

twuelfing · July 12, 2010, 3:17pm

We are actually experiencing this failure on any job with missing maps and on any frame.

We cannot render anything if it has a missing map.

is there a way to extract the error max is passing to deadline that is failing the render so we can approach Autodesk with the problem?

we are in desperate need for a fix to this.

rrussell · July 12, 2010, 3:25pm

Basically, Deadline calls this max sdk function:

CurRendererRenderFrame

If it returns a non-zero return code, that means that something went wrong, and we report that error message (“Failed to render the frame”). Other than the warnings about the missing maps, there is also this warning:

Not sure if that could be causing any problems. Also, I noticed that you have all the “Ignore Missing…” options enabled:

Obviously, you want to ignore missing maps in this case, but maybe try not ignoring the other 3. Maybe something else is missing on the nodes (like a plugin) that is going undetected right now.

Finally, have you tried opening this scene directly in Max on one of your render nodes and seeing if you can render a frame that way? If something goes wrong, maybe Max might give you a better error in workstation mode.

Cheers,

Ryan