Vray standalone translate + deadline

Deadline
1

Hi,

We currently have Vray for maya standalone 1.5 sp1 and Deadline 5. I notice when i send a job to the farm that the vrscene translate phase only uses 1 core of 1 node. Is there anyway to have multiple machines/cores used during this phase?

2

I checked the Maya plugin code, and it looks like we aren’t passing the “-threads” parameter to Vray when doing an export job (only when we do a render job). We haven’t tested yet to see if that makes a difference, but assuming that the export process can use multiple cores, that’s probably the missing piece of the puzzle.

We should be able to test this out during the 5.1 beta, and if that solves the problem, we’ll ship the update with 5.1.

Cheers,

  • Ryan
3

We ran some tests with the “-threads” parameter when doing an export, and it didn’t seem to make a difference. If we set it to 4 on a 4-core machine, the process still never got above 25%. Maybe our test scene just wasn’t “big” enough. Maybe you could try running the test on your end. Here is the command line that you can use to do the export:

"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2011\bin\Render.exe" -r vray -exportFileName "//path/to/file.vrscene" -noRender -threads 4 -s 1 -e 1000 -b 1 -rd "//path/to/output" -proj "//path/to/project"  "//path/to/scene.mb"

Of course, replace the paths, the start and end frame, and the thread count as necessary. Based on the documentation, the “-threads” parameter might be for rendering only. I couldn’t find any info saying if the export process could be multithreaded or not.

Cheers,

  • Ryan
4

In Deadline it says there is only 1 frame/task when doing the translate is it possible to split up the tasks at least to the full range of frames so more machines/cores can can split up that way?

update: we’re using vray for maya 2.x not 1.5 sp1

5

Theoretically, that would work. A simple test would be to submit the export job in the suspended state. Then from the Monitor, right-click on it and select Modify Frame Range. Change the tasks per frame to something smaller so that there is more than 1 task. If everything exports fine, we could consider using the frames per task setting in the Maya submitter when setting up the export job.

Cheers,

  • Ryan
6

What I meant was when submitting the job there is one only 1 frame in the frame list regardless of how many frames are in the render range. Obviously I can’t change the frames per task to lower than 1.

We have a new office in Toronto and we’re using our LA locations pipeline setup. Unfortunately, they have the setAttr “vraySettings.misc_eachFrameInFile” 0;( writes out a vrscene per frame) somewhere in the submission script that the pipeline uses. I tried copy/paste the the submission command with setAttr “vraySettings.misc_eachFrameInFile” 1; but I’m getting an error of some kind when I type that into the cmd prompt :stuck_out_tongue: . Am I using the right flag/command to enable this feature?

7

Are you guys using a custom submission script and/or Deadline plugin to do the export? Just curious because my test shows the full frame range for the single task.

EDIT: I checked, and misc_eachFrameInFile is the property that controls if a vrscene file is exported per frame.

8

Yes, we are using a custom submission script. Unfortunately, I don’t have the permissions/ability to change the script. I copied and pasted the deadline submission command from the script editor and pasted it into the CMD prompt with an alteration. Instead of -frames 1 , I changed it to -frames 1009-1059. This created a single translation job which now shows the correct range and creates 1 vrscene per frame. Now the problem is that each vrscene task renders the same frame (1028, the frame my timeline is set to), additionally each frame gets its own job. Again, all rendering frame 1028.

Thanks in advance. hope that makes sense

9

That makes sense. Can you paste the submission command you’re using here? That should ensure we’re on the same page, and should help us see why you’re getting these results. :slight_smile:

Thanks!

  • Ryan
10

deadlinecommand SubmitCommandLineJob -executable //WORK/app_config/release/maya/scripts/pipelineTools/plugins/vrayTools/remoteRender.bat -arguments “X:\snw-2114\010\pr0070\3d\lgt_CG-Lighting_workarea\Alexandre_scott\maya\ X:\snw-2114\010\pr0070\3d\lgt_CG-Lighting_minorVersion\snw_010_pr0070_lgt_CG-Lighting_v001-019_asf.mb Alexandre.scott” -frames 1 -pool hugo_maya -group all -priority 100 -name batchRenderTranslation_091038 -department LGT

11

Here is the submission script as well.
layerManager.zip (23.8 KB)

12

Thanks for the command line. I should have mentioned before that setAttr “vraySettings.misc_eachFrameInFile” 0; is melscript, so that’s why adding it to the command line isn’t work. This line in the submission script is changing an attribute in the Maya scene file itself before submission, so you won’t be able to override that with the submission command line.

It also looks like you’re rendering with a custom batch file as well (//WORK/app_config/release/maya/scripts/pipelineTools/plugins/vrayTools/remoteRender.bat), which I’m assuming you also don’t have permission to modify?

I think at this point you need to discuss your requirements with the person(s) who originally wrote these scripts for you. :wink: If you can’t get permission to modify the scripts, maybe you can make copies and edit then as necessary? I just don’t think you can achieve what you want simply by editing the submission command that your submitter uses.

Cheers,

  • Ryan
13

Argh…alright ill keep you posted!