Hi,
I’ve been trying to render a Blender scene from our server using Deadline. I submit the file, which is save is located on our server and the output path is set to a folder on the server. It goes through fine seems to be rendering etc, but when I go to the destination folder it’s empty. There are no errors and if I leave the output destination as “tmp” each of our render machines puts it’s respective images from the sequence in their own “tmp” folders, so the problem seems to be getting Deadline (or Blender) to place it’s rendered images into the folder on our server.
So I can render files locally using deadline, but I can’t save to our server. I’ve not had this problem working with any other software packages, only Blender.
Does anyone have any idea why this would be? It’s driving me mad.
Thanks
The only time I’ve had it fail is when using UNC paths. The Blender foundation is pretty adamant about not supporting those.
I’ve also seen problems with paths that were too long, where it would create some strange amalgam of the source path and part of the destination path if the destination path was longer than the source or similar (developer.blender.org/T26207).
The output problem I had years ago seems eerily similar.
Look for the ‘render argument’ and ‘render executable’ lines in the job report. That’ll show you what Deadline tried to run to do the render. If you paste those two lines, I can help you build the command to run. You can then pass that plus a test scene to the Blender guys and see what they have to say.
Hi,
Thanks for getting back to me. I don’t think it’s the length of the output destination, I’ve tried some fairly long and some very short paths, but neither work. Could be a UNC issue, I’m not sure what these are though.
I’m attaching a screen grab of the error message. Does that help?
Here is another image showing the submission window, including the intended output destination.
Having the complete log might be handy (I want to see what Deadline is invoking for this render). Try right-clicking on the report picker (top of the Job Reports window), and saving it out as a file.
We’ll be able to get the right bits from that so you or I can open a bug report with the Blender folks. If you can make a simple scene to reproduce with, that’d be great.
For reference, a “UNC” or “Universal Naming Convention” path on Windows are those paths starting as “\servername\share”. Info here: compnetworking.about.com/od/wind … c-name.htm
Here is the entire error report, I’ve also attached the submission window so you can see that I’m trying to tell to it work on the server (drive L:) but for some reason it’s attempting to put things onto the C drive:
=======================================================
Error
Unable to open ‘C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\Server\LiveJobs\blender test\server render test.blend’: No such file or directory
at Deadline.Plugins.ScriptPlugin.RenderTasks(String taskId, Int32 startFrame, Int32 endFrame, String& outMessage, AbortLevel& abortLevel)
=======================================================
Type
RenderPluginException
=======================================================
Stack Trace
at Deadline.Plugins.Plugin.RenderTask(String taskId, Int32 startFrame, Int32 endFrame)
at Deadline.Slaves.SlaveRenderThread.RenderCurrentTask(TaskLogWriter tlw)
=======================================================
Full Log
0: Task timeout is disabled.
0: Loaded job: server render test (535a9a7bc294ce1318638933)
0: INFO: Executing plugin script C:\Users\Dandelion & Burdock\AppData\Local\Thinkbox\Deadline6\slave\DNB-NODE1\plugins\535a9a7bc294ce1318638933\Blender.py
0: INFO: About: Blender Plugin for Deadline
0: INFO: The current environment will be used for rendering
0: Plugin rendering frame(s): 0-9
0: INFO: Blender job starting…
0: INFO: Stdout Handling Enabled: True
0: INFO: Popup Handling Enabled: False
0: INFO: Using Process Tree: True
0: INFO: Hiding DOS Window: True
0: INFO: Creating New Console: False
0: INFO: Enforcing 64 bit build of Blender
0: INFO: Executable: “C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\blender.exe”
0: INFO: Argument: -b “\Server\LiveJobs\blender test\server render test.blend” -t 0 -x 1 -o “\Server\LiveJobs\blender test\Server Render Test####.png” -s 0 -e 9 -a
0: INFO: Startup Directory: “C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender”
0: INFO: Process Priority: BelowNormal
0: INFO: Process Affinity: default
0: INFO: Process is now running
0: STDOUT: found bundled python: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.70\python
0: STDOUT: read blend: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\Server\LiveJobs\blender test\server render test.blend
0: STDOUT: Warning: Unable to open ‘C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\Server\LiveJobs\blender test\server render test.blend’: No such file or directory
0: STDOUT: Blender quit
=======================================================
Details
Date: 04/25/2014 18:26:14
Frames: 0-9
Elapsed Time: 00:00:00:04
Job Submit Date: 04/25/2014 18:25:27
Job User: dickon
Average RAM Usage: 2183887360 (7%)
Peak RAM Usage: 2217402368 (7%)
Average CPU Usage: 4%
Peak CPU Usage: 8%
=======================================================
Slave Information
Slave Name: DNB-NODE1
Version: v6.1.0.54665 R
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional (SP1)
Machine User: Dandelion & Burdock
IP Address: fe80::2cad:1274:3f57:feb0%15
MAC Address: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
CPU Architecture: x64
CPUs: 24
CPU Usage: 9%
Memory Usage: 2.1 GB / 32.0 GB (6%)
Free Disk Space: 361.675 GB
Video Card: Matrox G200eW (Nuvoton) - English
Looks like path mapping is changing your “L:” path into the enemy of Blender. Here’s what Deadline is giving to Blender on the command line after mapping:
0: INFO: Argument: -b “\Server\LiveJobs\blender test\server render test.blend” -t 0 -x 1 -o “\Server\LiveJobs\blender test\Server Render Test####.png” -s 0 -e 9 -a
See if you can remove that mapping without breaking any other plugins and give it another shot.
Hey,
Thanks for the advise, any chance you could clue me up on how I might go about removing that mapping?
Thanks again
Yup! Take a look in ‘Configure Repository Options’ under the ‘Tools’ menu while in super user mode.
thinkboxsoftware.com/deadlin … pped_Paths
This may break things for others though, so be wary of that and ask around. Unless it’s just you, in which case go nuts 
