I have deadline setup on this machine and it renders Nuke just fine. I cannot seem to get houdini working on it. I have Redshift working on another machine through deadline. Am I missing something? I’m using a Pythin 3 version of Houdini 18.5.633.
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Error
FailRenderException : Error: Caught exception: The attempted operation failed.
at Deadline.Plugins.DeadlinePlugin.FailRender(String message) (Python.Runtime.PythonException)
File “C:\ProgramData\Thinkbox\Deadline10\workers\DSVFX3-sim\plugins\61231226e855aab33498e21e\Houdini.py”, line 427, in HandleStdoutError
self.FailRender(self.GetRegexMatch(1))
at Python.Runtime.Dispatcher.Dispatch(ArrayList args)
at __FranticX_Processes_ManagedProcess_StdoutHandlerDelegateDispatcher.Invoke()
at FranticX.Processes.ManagedProcess.RegexHandlerCallback.CallFunction()
at FranticX.Processes.ManagedProcess.e(String di, Boolean dj)
at FranticX.Processes.ManagedProcess.Execute(Boolean waitForExit)
at Deadline.Plugins.DeadlinePlugin.DoRenderTasks()
at Deadline.Plugins.PluginWrapper.RenderTasks(Task task, String& outMessage, AbortLevel& abortLevel)
at Deadline.Plugins.PluginWrapper.RenderTasks(Task task, String& outMessage, AbortLevel& abortLevel)
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Type
RenderPluginException
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Stack Trace
at Deadline.Plugins.SandboxedPlugin.d(DeadlineMessage bfi, CancellationToken bfj)
at Deadline.Plugins.SandboxedPlugin.RenderTask(Task task, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
at Deadline.Slaves.SlaveRenderThread.c(TaskLogWriter ajm, CancellationToken ajn)
I think the actual error is not shown here in this trace, but I see “The attempted operation failed.”. This comes from Houdini, and it could be an issue with your scene.
You can try running the same command line (you can see it in the job log) locally, and see what happens.
This is not really a Deadline issue - the render script threw an error from Houdini.
Why does Deadline throw such a huge stack trace when it’s the app that croaked? This giant furball of an error message (which always seems like it’s related to some Regex problem) really distracts from the actual problem – the app croaked. Case in point: a user is asking on this forum what’s going on when they should have been able to easily tell that the front fell off!
It seems that DL should report one of 4 things: the render ran, the render ran with exit code, Houdini or the render crashed, or Deadline crashed. 
If I see a stack trace like the above I’m apt to think there’s some deep seated issue with Deadline when in reality it’s 'cause the front fell off!
Is it my imagination or did Deadline have more sensible error reporting a couple of years ago?
Hah thanks that was a good laugh.
Well, yes and no. The information could be shown in a way that’s more useful. Also I suppose the real error was swallowed by the plugin - this could probably be solved by adjusting the regexes inside the plugin.
On the other hand such stack traces are useful when things do go sideways. And you cannot always differentiate such cases in advance.
Out of curiosity, why can a plugin control what happens with STDOUT and STDERR? Shouldn’t the plugin just be responsible for launching the app with the right parameters, and then get the heck out of the way once the Popen() is used to launch the subprocess? That output from a subprocess can mysteriously disappear seems like a serious design flaw – in recent memory I’ve seen at least 3 posts on this board that would have been a lot easier to solve if there weren’t information missing from STDOUT and STDERR.
Well, it’s called a “managed process” for a reason. The plugin needs to know the status of the subprocess, whether it encounters errors, etc. Check out the code for a plugin e.g. Nuke or Houdini to see what kind of concerns this addresses.
It is not the best method of communication though, something like RPC would be way better and more structured.