AWS Thinkbox Discussion Forums

Modo - multi channel EXR problem (random V-Ray error on non

Deprecated Deadline 7 Bug Reports
#1

Hi,

We randomly get this error:
Error: Missing function vray.render. Please make sure V-Ray is installed.

V-Ray has never been installed with Modo on the submitting client or any render node! I double checked that it wasn’t ticked in the latest submission scribt for Modo.
It seems to be connected to different render passes/outputs from Modo and especially with tile rendering!

I have attached 2 errors and 1 log from a successful job.

Best Regards,
Henrik Mark

Client OS: Windows 7
Render node OS: CentOS 6.6
Application: Modo 801 SP3
Deadline: 7.1 release candidate 5
ModoTileRender_log.rtf (146 KB)
ModoTileRender_error2.rtf (14 KB)
ModoTileRender_error1.rtf (14 KB)

#2

I was getting the same error messages. They seemed to go away after I set “Enable Path Mapping” to False under Configure Plugins->Modo->Path Mapping (For Mixed Farms)

#3

Being in a mixed OS environment that’s not a possibility for us. But maybe a bug sneaked in when creating this feature - which was a great improvement for Modo cross platform rendering with Deadline!

When you got the error, was it in combination with tile rendering?

Best Regards,
Henrik Mark

#4

Hmm… Wonder how far back you have to regress to get the modo rendering to work. I think the issue also existed in RC4.

Hopefully this will help thinkbox track the bug down and get it patched in the next RC.

#5

Weird thing is, that some renders seem to work fine. We did a 120 frame animation test without problems, but tile rendering a single frame gives this error 80-90% of the time.

Best Regards,
Henrik Mark

#6

Thanks for reporting this! The problem is that the error message isn’t being set properly. You can see what the actual error is at the bottom of the render log:

This is basically indicating that the render has crashed. Unfortunately, there isn’t any additional information in the log to indicate why it crashed. Since it appears to be random though, it might be memory related (not running out of memory, but memory corruption during the render).

The misreporting of the actual error message will get fixed though.

Cheers,
Ryan

#7

Hi Ryan,

Since it happens with some Modo scene files and not with others i guess it’s related to the scene setup?
If a specific Modo scene gets the error it gets it on all tasks spread over 16 blade servers, so i guess a hardware problem is out of the question…

As i wrote earlier on we tried an animation which ran through without problems also on all 16 blade servers. I will try to tile render some frames from that and see what happens!

The failing scene renders correctly locally.

We will test further and get back with a status!

Best Regards,
Henrik Mark

#8

Hi again,

We did some testing yesterday and the render crash/memory problem seems to be related to render multi layered EXR from Modo:

Test#1 - WORKS
x1 render output / pathed in modo / no output overrides in DL / saved as 16bit EXR / path translation in plugin configuration set to TRUE
Single beauty pass working

Test#2 - ERRORS
x4 render outputs / all outputs pathed in modo / output override in DL / saved as layered EXR / path translation in plugin configuration set to TRUE

Test#3 - ERRORS
x4 render outputs / no paths in modo / override in DL / saved as layered EXR / path translation in plugin configuration set to TRUE

Test#4 - WORKS
X4 render outputs / all individually pathed in modo / no output overides in DL / saved as 16bit EXR / path translation in plugin configuration set to FALSE
This scene produces the passes as separate file sequences, not a multi channel EXR file

Test#5 - WORKS (but incorrect output)
x4 render output / x1 path in modo / no output overrides in DL / saved as 16bit EXR / path translation in plugin configuration set to FALSE
Beauty renders but no channels

Test#6 - ERRORS
x4 render output / overrides in DL / saved as layered 16bit EXR / path translation in plugin configuration set to FALSE

Test#7 - WORKS (but incorrect output)
x4 render output / overrides in DL / saved as 16bit EXR / path translation in plugin configuration set to FALSE
Beauty renders but no channels

From this test i think we can say that:

This error is related to trying to render multi channel EXR from Modo.

Path translation seems to work on Modo output paths no matter if the plugin configuration is set to true or false.

Anyone got multi channel EXR out of Modo using Deadline? (we tested it on another render manager, that could do it, but it had to many other bugs and missing features)
If so - how is your recipe for getting it to work?

@Thinkbox
I am happy that the path translation is in place, but why does it seem to work no matter if it’s set to true or false?

#9

The path mapping setting in the modo plugin configuration is only meant to apply to the scene file. When it’s enabled, we need to create a local copy of the modo scene on the render node with the updated paths, and then render it from that location. This isn’t always ideal, especially if the scene is using relative paths, which is why we give the option to disable it.

We’ll run some tests to try and reproduce this problem, but if you could upload a test scene, that would help.

Also, just to confirm, are you submitting these jobs from the Monitor or from within modo?

Thanks!
Ryan

#10

Actually, don’t worry about the test scene, I’m able to reproduce.

What’s strange is that Layred 32 bit EXRs and Layered PSDs seem to work fine…

I’ll keep looking, but would using 32 bit EXRs be an option for you?

#11

Figured it out! It was a syntax error in the modo plugin. To fix, just unzip the attached file to \your\repository\plugins\Modo and overwrite the existing modo.py file. That should this open exr 16 bit bug, and the misreporting of the vray errors (which was already fixed in RC6).

Try it out and let me know if this works!

Cheers,
Ryan
Modo.zip (8.15 KB)

#12

I’ll try it later today and post a status here :slight_smile:

We are by the way submitting directly from Modo!
Could you also explain to me what difference the plugin path translation set to true or false means in a Windows/Mac OS X/Linux environment?

Cheers,
Henrik

#13

If it’s set to True, then path mapping will be done on the contents of the modo scene file (for texture/clip paths). If set to False, then it won’t be done.

In either case, path mapping is always done on the path to the scene file (if it’s not being submitted with the job), and on the output file paths.

Cheers,
Ryan

#14

Hi Ryan,

After dropping your attached modo script on the repository everything renders perfectly!

Cheers,
Henrik

#15

Awesome, thanks for confirming! It’s unlikely we’ll do another release candidate before 7.1’s release, but this fix will make it in to the public release of 7.1.

Cheers,
Ryan

#16

I’ve been having the same issues and so far what’s worked for me is to set an Output Filename only on the Final Color Output and not on any other layers. I set it to 16bit multi-channel exr and in deadline I did not use the “Override output”.

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