Multi-platform OCIO and Maya problem

Deadline
1

Hi there,
I’m just implementing an OCIO config for a vfx house and have come across a problem that I’m not sure quite how to resolve.

We set the OCIO environment variable to point to our OCIO config. Maya picks this up fine. Our renderfarm is Linux, our workstations are Windows. I can translate the OCIO path from windows to linux during submission(as a deadline job environment variable), but it appears the Maya scene has the windows ocio path baked in and as a result, it errors on the farm as the linux machines aren’t translating the path to a linux path.

I’ve ensured the maya scenes are .ma to allow deadline to do its path mapping magic but it doesn’t seem to be changing the ocio path either.

This is the error Deadline is reporting on starting up Maya:
STDOUT: Error: Missing OpenColorIO configuration file: Z:/jobs/JOBNAME/config/colour/ocio/win32_config.ocio

Have any of you come across this issue in multi-platform environments?

Is there something obvious I’m missing or a possible workaround I can implement?

Thanks in advance for your help!
Cheers
p.

2

Are you sure the OpenColorIO path is baked into the Maya scene file? If its ASCII based, if you open a simple Maya scene file once saved, is it present? I thought this ENV VAR was more likely to be present on the Windows OS machine at either machine/user ENV VAR level?

Assuming you are using the “MayaBatch” plugin (and not the “MayaCmd” plugin), then there shouldn’t be any need to save to *.ma (taking up valuable disk space) as path mapping can happen via the “dirmap” option; assuming you have this enabled in the MayaBatch plugin config:
https://docs.thinkboxsoftware.com/products/deadline/10.0/1_User%20Manual/manual/app-maya.html#mayabatch

See: “Path Mapping Mode” setting (and of course it is enabled for path mapping)

If I’ve misunderstood here and thta *.ocio path really is contained within the saved Maya ma scene file, then path mapping (assuming it is enabled) and your repo configured path mappings are correct, then path mapping should be working for you. If that’s the case, then maybe share your path mapping rules you have configured as perhaps you are missing something here, and its not catching on the ‘find’ path: “Z:/jobs/” <- it could be something silly like lower/UPPER case or forward/back slashes?

3

We recently had a project which used an OCIO config. Same thing for us. Workstations Windows, rendernode Linux.
The ocio config path is showing up in the error log as a windows path, not being remapped correctly.

4

Did you figure out a workaround? I’m having to have 3 config.ocio’s one for each platform.

5

It looks like the MayaBatch allows you to use Path Mapping, but is this possible with Redshift Proxy Files that also have the OCIO path set?

6

Hello @markl

Looks like the OCIO is handled by main render application. Can’t it pre baked in the RS Proxy file, like it can be used other than an OCIO file.

I need to take a look at the archived jobs (RS Proxy job + Main job) to see how is OCIO translated into the RS proxy job. Or if you know off the top of your head please elaborate.

Please share the archived jobs here or directly message me.

7

I’m running into this same issue now and trying to track down the issue. I’ve had the team export to .ma so I could view the ASCII file. The Windows machine that generated this .ma has <MAYA_RESOURCES>/OCIO-configs/Maya2022-default/config.ocio set. That translates to D:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2024\OCIO-configs\Maya2022-default\config.ocio.

Below is the snippet from that .ma confirming that path is not hard coded anywhere.

select -ne :defaultColorMgtGlobals;
	setAttr ".cfe" yes;
	setAttr ".cfp" -type "string" "<MAYA_RESOURCES>/OCIO-configs/Maya2022-default/config.ocio";
	setAttr ".vtn" -type "string" "ACES 1.0 SDR-video (sRGB)";
	setAttr ".vn" -type "string" "ACES 1.0 SDR-video";
	setAttr ".dn" -type "string" "sRGB";
	setAttr ".wsn" -type "string" "ACEScg";
	setAttr ".ovt" no;
	setAttr ".povt" no;
	setAttr ".otn" -type "string" "ACES 1.0 SDR-video (sRGB)";
	setAttr ".potn" -type "string" "ACES 1.0 SDR-video (sRGB)";

What is weird, there is zero reference to any Windows paths within the .ma, but when the file bounces to a linux node, it attempts to find the OCIO file in the D:\ path rather than the replacing <MAYA_RESOURCES> with /usr/autodesk/maya2024/resources.

I’m confused where the linux nodes are even getting the D:\ path when it’s nowhere to be found in the .ma file. Where do I even to start looking?

8

Adding some log files showcasing it using the Windows pathing from this .ma file.

Form_streamedlog.txt.zip (9.2 KB)

9

It looks like it’s VRAY looking for the OCIO file and not Maya itself, maybe that path isn’t being passed properly from Maya to Vray.

10

Hello @PatrickLahni

There is an option in Maya plugin configuration to set the path mapping mode 'Text Replacement (.ma files only)'. Enable that from Deadline Monitor> Tools> Configure Plugins> MayaBatch> Path mapping mode.
Add the path mapping rule for MAYA_RESOURCES to point to Maya 2024.