SMTD Feature Request: Dual Priority submissions.

Deadline
1

I like the frames 1,10,20,2-9,11-19… submission system. But would it be possible to have a mode which submitted 2 sets of jobs for each:

  1. 1,10,20,10*n (Priority #+1)
  2. 2-9,11-19,21-29 (Priority #)

Then people could get their reference frames quickly and as a group but still have everything else all queued up.

2

Hi Gavin,
Check out the “preview job” function in SMTD.
Does exactly what you are asking?
Mike

3

EDIT: whoops thought you were talking about RPM’s preview settings.

Still no though. The Render preview job first is almost right but it’s the same priority so if I submit 30 passes I have to wait for all 30 to finish first. It also isn’t every “nth” frame. And if the previews are good I don’t want to re-render them.

I want to be able to start compositing the full range of animation. The “Everyth Nth then forward” submission mode is perfect. I just want the “then forward” after every nth to be 1 priority lower than the priority setting in a new job.

4

I didn’t realize the Preview didn’t queue up the frames in the main job. So my mistake. That part is all good. 100 priority is less good. A setting that sets the preview priority to Priority + [##] would cover all of my needs.

5

Ok, fair enough. It can be done. If the ## is high enough, anyone can get 100% if desired, and you can get 1 % more or less. I will see if I can squeeze in a spinner for a relative priority offset.

We used 100% because we wanted those preview frames immediately to make decisions whether to keep the secondary job around at all. That’s why we called them “preview” frames, they are a proof that rendering the whole is worth it.

EDIT: I added the spinner and tests show that it works. Will see when we can send you an update (as I am making some tweaks for Mike Owen, too). Also I was under the impression the second job was dependent on the first, but it looks like the priority is indeed the only thing that decides what goes first.

6

It’s creating dependencies here. You sure you’re using the latest version? :wink:

7

Funny! :slight_smile:
I must have been looking at the wrong job or something, I looked into the code and indeed it does dependencies just as I remembered it.