Hello,
A while back we had an issue where vray elements were being placed into the diffuse pass folder and overwriting frames. Also we’d end up with duplicate element folders with strange double names. This was fixed by ticking ‘restart renderer’ and unticking two options in the max pathing options. (update render elements’ paths & permanent RE path changes)
We’ve kept working this way even after upgrading to Deadline4. I wonder if the issue with the elements overwriting the master pass has been resolved in Deadline 4 so I can untick ‘restart renderer’ ?. With large files it really slows down render times as the entire scene has to be opened at every frame.
Cheers
ben
Hi Ben,
Using Restart Renderer is still required in 4.0. I should note that this option does not restart 3dsmax and does not reload the scene. It only releases all vray memory and creates a new instance of the vray renderer between tasks.
There is a “Restart 3dsmax” option under the Job tab, so make sure that you don’t also have this option enabled. Just make sure you only have the “Restart Renderer” option under the Render tab enabled. I just submitted a test scene here with this setup and watched the render node. I confirmed that 3dsmax did not restart and the scene did not reload.
Cheers,
Of course, thanks ryan that’s clearly me being a dope.
No problem we’ll stick with the ‘restart renderer’ tick box.
Out of nerdy interest what’s the problem with the vray elements ?. We’re having countless issues with embedded elements randomly not appearing in files on some stereo research we’re doing and I’m trying to narrow down the causes from various machines not having the full connection extension pack and using the old splutterfish EXR plugin, RP Manager’s stereo camera support and general vray / deadline strangeness.
cheers
ben
If we knew, we’d have fixed it by now, hehe… 
Funny coincidence, but I actually revisited this problem yesterday. I didn’t have time to dig in too deep, but I’m hoping over the next couple of days I can narrow something down. Of course, I’ve said this to myself before, so who knows.
If I do discover anything, I’ll definitely give you an update here.
Cheers,
Thanks Ryan, it’s not a huge issue now it’s somewhat tamed. But I’m constantly having to remind crew to set those check boxes when I see them looking crest fallen when they’re watching back their evenings renders that are filled with random flashes of MatIDs and Zdepths.
Do you guys use the Sanity Check option in the submitter? There is an explicit check here for this option if vray is the current renderer. Often, simply clicking that Run Now button before every submission can help eliminate some common mistakes.
Cheers,
no we don’t currently use sanity check, I’ll look into that,
thanks
ben