Trying to render C4D R17 and Deadline 8

rambutan · September 15, 2016, 1:06am

Hi all, I have a Deadline farm running with After Effects perfectly and now trying to get C4D R17 working.

Is there any special setup I need to do? I have the full install of C4D installed on 2 slave machines, I can virtual into these machines and do a test render of a scene in C4D, but whenever I try to submit a job it eventually fails, here’s what the logs say:

=======================================================
Error
=======================================================
Error: Monitored managed process "Cinema4DProcess" has exited or been terminated.
   at Deadline.Plugins.PluginWrapper.StartJob(String& outMessage, AbortLevel& abortLevel)

=======================================================
Type
=======================================================
RenderPluginException

=======================================================
Stack Trace
=======================================================
   at Deadline.Plugins.SandboxedPlugin.a(DeadlineMessage A_0)
   at Deadline.Plugins.SandboxedPlugin.StartJob(Job job)
   at Deadline.Slaves.SlaveRenderThread.a(TaskLogWriter A_0)

=======================================================
Log
=======================================================
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  BEGIN - RFS011\wxrender
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: Executing plugin command of type 'Initialize Plugin'
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Executing plugin script 'C:\Users\wxrender\AppData\Local\Thinkbox\Deadline8\slave\rfs011\plugins\57d9f0ed6b7e9524c0793cf1\Cinema4DBatch.py'
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: About: Cinema 4D Batch Plugin for Deadline
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: The job's environment will be merged with the current environment before rendering
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: Done executing plugin command of type 'Initialize Plugin'
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: Start Job timeout is disabled.
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: Task timeout is disabled.
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: Loaded job: AUSTIN CHAIR DESKTOP.c4d (57d9f0ed6b7e9524c0793cf1)
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: Executing plugin command of type 'Start Job'
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Start Job called - starting up Cinema 4D Batch plugin
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Not enforcing a build of Cinema 4D
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Cinema 4D socket connection port: 62368
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Parameters:  -nogui "-DeadlineConnect 62368 646266249385"
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Starting monitored managed process Cinema4DProcess
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Stdout Redirection Enabled: True
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Stdout Handling Enabled: True
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Popup Handling Enabled: False
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Using Process Tree: True
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Hiding DOS Window: True
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Creating New Console: False
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Running as user: wxrender
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Executable: "C:\Program Files\MAXON\CINEMA 4D R17\Commandline.exe"
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Argument:  -nogui "-DeadlineConnect 62368 646266249385"
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Full Command: "C:\Program Files\MAXON\CINEMA 4D R17\Commandline.exe"  -nogui "-DeadlineConnect 62368 646266249385"
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Startup Directory: "C:\Program Files\MAXON\CINEMA 4D R17"
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Process Priority: BelowNormal
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Process Affinity: default
2016-09-14 17:57:06:  0: INFO: Process is now running
2016-09-14 17:57:07:  0: WARNING: Monitored managed process Cinema4DProcess is no longer running
2016-09-14 17:57:07:  0: Done executing plugin command of type 'Start Job'

=======================================================
Details
=======================================================
Date: 09/14/2016 17:57:09
Frames: 0-99
Elapsed Time: 00:00:00:04
Job Submit Date: 09/14/2016 17:53:01
Job User: grbahm
Average RAM Usage: 6102458368 (18%)
Peak RAM Usage: 6102458368 (18%)
Average CPU Usage: 1%
Peak CPU Usage: 7%
Used CPU Clocks (x10^6 cycles): 542
Total CPU Clocks (x10^6 cycles): 54161

Any ideas why C4D would be terminating? Any way to see C4D logs?

TNKS!

Geordie

eamsler · September 15, 2016, 2:27pm

I’m fairly sure batch mode does not work with the CommandLine executable. It’s a bit odd, because I’ve seen other clients with an actual error about that in the logs, but here C4D is fairly silent about it.

You can either turn off batch mode in the submitter, or change the plugin config to just have the main C4D executable.

rambutan · September 15, 2016, 6:25pm

Thanks for the reply Edwin.

I can’t actually get Deadline to NOT use the commandline.exe. It doesn’t matter if I choose “Use Batch Plugin” or not, and I can even remove the reference to C:\Program Files\MAXON\CINEMA 4D R17\Commandline.exe from the Cinema4D Deadline plugin configuration but the Deadline slave still tries to use commandline.exe

UPDATE: Solved this part, can get Deadline to use Cinema 4D.exe but still getting errors listed below

rambutan · September 15, 2016, 6:27pm

Though it is failing on a different error now, from the Deadline job log:

Error: Renderer returned non-zero error code, -1073741515. Check the log for more information.
at Deadline.Plugins.PluginWrapper.RenderTasks(String taskId, Int32 startFrame, Int32 endFrame, String& outMessage, AbortLevel& abortLevel)

Which log is that error message talking about? Ive checked C4D’s C:\Users\wxrender\AppData\Roaming\MAXON\CINEMA 4D R17_8DE13DAD_bugreports folder but it’s empty. I’ve manually rendered from the command line using commandline.exe and CINEMA 4D.exe on that slave and it worked fine on the same scene I’m submitting through the Deadline Monitor.

In fact I just copy-pasted the commandline Deadline was feeding to C4D on a slave into a batch file and ran it on the same slave and it rendered without errors.
“C:\Program Files\MAXON\CINEMA 4D R17\Commandline.exe” -nogui -render “\networkpath\DeadlineTestScenes\C4D\SimpleTest.c4d” -frame 0 19

eamsler · September 16, 2016, 3:02pm

I think you tested that well. That giant exit code usually means that C4D wasn’t able to check out a command line license, or that the machine needs a reboot after installing C4D. That’s just past experience, so we might be faced with a third problem.

What problem did you hit when using non-batch with the CommandLine application? It should have provided an exit code as opposed to “has been terminated”. If it was -1073741515, check to see if there are available command line licenses.