Recently upgraded to Max 2023 and Deadline 10.2 but now we have a lot of failed renders popping up, some still work though! Trying to find out what has happened between the different projects that is causing issue but I dont understand the error in the log.
Error: FailRenderException : 3dsmax: Failed to load max file: “C:/ProgramData/Thinkbox/Deadline10/workers/THEBEASTV2/jobsData/63bbd6f64f0f825ffc7fcd88/Of Possible_260 WB_Living - TH.max”
It says the log is too big to paste into the topic.
We’d have to see the log to figure out what’s amiss, usually when Max fails to load a scene file there are warnings/errors right beforehand that point out missing DLLs or other issues.
Instead pasting the log right into the topic, try attaching the task report as a file. If it’s too big for that as well, you should be able to archive the file and attach it. I’m fairly sure the forum will let you do that.
Job_2023-01-09_08-58-58_63bbd7524e40f024b0ff6dd4.zip (10.6 KB)
it wouldnt let me upload it just as .txt but its in here zipped!
Thanks!
On line 522 to 524 of the log we see this machine is missing some mental ray DLLs:
2023/01/09 08:58:54 WRN: [10428] [23732] Missing dll: mrmaterialattribs.gup - mental ray: material custom attribute
2023/01/09 08:58:54 WRN: [10428] [23732] Missing dll: mrmaterialattribs.gup - mental ray: Displacement Custom Attributes
2023/01/09 08:58:54 ERR: [10428] [23732] Error loading file C:/ProgramData/Thinkbox/Deadline10/workers/THEBEASTV2/jobsData/63bbd6f64f0f825ffc7fcd88/Of Possible_260 WB_Living - TH.max
Given those get called out right before the file fails to load I’d make sure Mental Ray is installed correctly. If that’s not the case I’d isolate the render from Deadline to see if it’s an issue with the scene itself or if it’s how Deadline runs the machine.
The troubleshooting guide isn’t great for Max isolation, so here’s a more in-depth guide. Replace $MACHINENAME with the render node having issues and $DEADLINE_USER with the user running the Worker application.
Are you able to render (not just open) this scene on $MACHINENAME while signed in as the user the Worker is running as? If you’re able to, let’s try isolating from Deadline, which for 3dsMax takes a couple of steps that I’ll outline here:
- Resubmit the job with the 3dsCMD submitter, choosing to not submit the scene file with the job, so the file paths used are simpler.
We do this to simplify the way 3dsMax is getting run. With our 3dsMax application plugin we communicate with 3dsMax by starting a socket to send commands and get output with. 3dsCMD runs 3dsMax from a command prompt which is much simpler for us to troubleshoot with. We also choose to not submit the scene file, as the temporary directory the Worker copies the .max file into will be gone by the time we go to test in step 2.
- In the first of the task reports (like the one you sent me here) there will line in the log starting with the phrase “Full Command”. The following command is what we used to start 3dsMax. Take a copy of that command and we’re going to run it from $MACHINENAME while signed in as $DEADLINE_USER to re-create what the Worker is doing.
Be warned you may need to adjust the paths used in the command, just double check it to be sure.
- Now the render will have finished. If it succeeded, the there’s an issue in how the Worker is starting 3dsMax and the environment it uses. If it still fails the issue is not with Deadline but with the scene itself, so you don’t need to focus on Deadline for the moment. If it succeeded, please send me the log you used from step 2 and the output from your command prompt test so I can compare them to see what the Worker is doing that’s causing this file to fail.
i’ll give this a go in the morning as my day is just about to end in the studio.
Regarding Mental Ray, it shouldnt even be there to be honest. I dont think it even ships with Max anymore! so i have no idea why there is a dll popping up in it.
I can also open the 3ds max file on the node machines and render fine, it’s just when submitted via Deadline an issue occurs. I’ll try dig out that MR .dll and then submit again, if that fails i’ll follow steps above!
Sounds good - as I understand Max (which may be incorrect!) pulls in modules/dlls based on the scene file it is loading in. So it might be someone’s added Mental Ray goodies to the scene file.
Welcome to correction on how Max pulls things in though!
Sounds about right I think. no doubt some 3d asset was created way back when MR was around so it’s probably clinging on to life some where 
thanks for looking through, be in touch with how it works out!
Job_2023-01-10_10-38-18_63bd4019e45fa64d70daa8e2.zip (11.0 KB)
Just used the scene converter to remove missing legacy dlls. appears to have had no change to the submission so moving on to the next step.
Hi, sorry think im lost on step 2 for this. I can see the full command line which looks something like this ; Full Command: “C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2023\3dsmax.exe” -p “C:\Users\THEBEA~1\AppData\Local\Temp\dl_323096246952.ini” -q -s “C:\ProgramData\Thinkbox\Deadline10\workers\THEBEASTV2\jobsData\63bbd6f64f0f825ffc7fcd88\maxStartup\0\deadlineStartupMax2023.max” but im not sure how im suppose to adjust the destinations to match the job i want to run. and where to then launch the above command from.
I installed the 3dscmd submitter and tried submitting from the worker but think ive confused myself! is there a slightly more detailed step by step for this?
Yeah, still seeing a single missing DLL error, which is a step in the right direction. From line 522:
2023/01/10 10:38:12 WRN: [23436] [21676] Missing dll: mrmaterialattribs.gup - mental ray: material custom attribute
You’ve got the ‘Full Command’ from a regular 3dsMax job instead of the 3dsCmd job, grab the line from the job you submitted with the 3dsCmd submitter and it’ll make much more sense.
You’ll be running the command from a command prompt while signed into thebeastv3 as user THEBEASTV3. This way you’re testing on the same computer + user pair that’s having issues.
This way we change as few variables at a time as possible. 
OK, so I log in on the Worker, open Max and submit with the 3dsCMD to get it on deadline. then wait for an error log of it running on said worker so we can grab the full command to test?
Yep! You don’t have to submit from the Worker, the important bit is running the command you’ve grabbed on the Worker.
So I submitted it using 3dsCMD and its running on THEBEASTV2 which it failed on previously… but… its working? Only difference is in the Monitor window its showing 100% while still rendering, so there appears to be no tracking on progress of the render via Monitor.
Fun! I’d be curious about the results and logs you get back. If it’s sat at 100% in the rendering state, that means the Worker saw a progress line reporting 100%, but the render application is still open.
Could mean Max is stuck open, but the logs will say for sure.
The worker stalled before finishing! Typical. Waiting for it to requeue and render again to see what happens. the log was just a stalled worker log so i couldnt grab anything.
Job_2023-01-11_09-33-46_63be82780c344b29dc5477a7.zip (2.7 KB)
image finished rendering using that submission. so must be a difference between the CMD submission and our regular submission some how?
Interesting, it’s still complaining about a missing dll, that same mrmaterialattribs.gup.
3dsmax and 3dsmaxcmd are different executables which might explain why Max didn’t fail to load the file but I think the main difference will be that the cmd test ran on THEBEASTV2 instead of thebeastv3. So it could also be that THEBEASTV2 doesn’t have whatever installation issue thebeastv3 has got.
If you want to be sure the cmd test runs on thebeastv3, you can set which Workers are allowed to pick up a job with a machine limit. I’ll add that to the troubleshooting guide template I’ve got, as it currently breezes past that part.
THEBEASTV2 was also a failing worker. to be honest all 9 workers currently fail on any job. We rendered an animation fine after the 2023 upgrade but then suddenly all renders failed. now nothing will render on the farm and I don’t know whats changed.
I can run it again on V3 as well just to double check it all.
falling back to 2021 works fine as temporary fix but the 2023 upgrade is causing issues
Gotcha, given it’s all machines failing I’d be surprised to see an improvement.
If you can either install the missing DLL or remove it from the scene in question you may be able to avoid falling back to 2021 but I’ll leave that choice to you. Especially since I’ve got no advice with regard to removing the dll requirement.