We’ve always had hard-coded into our Deadline Submitter a function to turn off the VRay VFB automatically at submission time and turn it back on again afterwards. This avoids multiple issues for us… but I want to start using it for a number of reasons. I’ve just tested with Deadline 7.1 RC…
) Vray VFB on, Separate channels unticked, render elements active, render output is set from the render common tab, not the “Vray raw image file” saving to EXR but not including elements, no warnings and only get the RGB in one EXR file. I’d expect a sanity check warning telling me that the render elements aren’t going to be saved. (or for the outputs to be set up automatically during submission)
) Vray VFB on, separate channels ticked, no path specified for the separate channels = CRASH on submission, no sanity warning
) Vray VFB on, separate channels ticked, path specified… renders to separate EXRs but doesn’t use sub-folders for render elements like we’re used to with the VFB off.
Also it uses the Naming conventions of the VRayVFB but I’d like an option to use the names given in the render element list so it doesn’t matter if you render with VFB on or off (just incase freelancers turn it off from habbit).
We customised our output settings a while ago so it’s renderElementName_RenderName_0000.exr which works better for us in Photoshop as you can see the element name easier rather than the name of the render first.
We can add a sanity check for this. I’ll add this to the ToDo list for v7.2, as v7.1.1.4 (the latest, shipped yesterday and now replaces v7.1.0.35)
Is already done. (IIRC, you reported this a while ago. Also added same check for empty raw path) Did you have Sanity check enabled in SMTD? Sanity Check docs have been overhauled and updated recently: docs.thinkboxsoftware.com/produc … nity-check
By design, we respect the naming convention of VFB if it’s being used, as users will expect this. I think beyond that, users should use State Sets or a render pass manager to control, custom workflows.
Yeah I had the sanity check on, I think it’s safe to pull the current output path from the main max output for this in my opinion. Or it should stop submission, I never want to see the SMTD dialog crashing.
Hmm can you verify this for me? I can’t seem to see a way to make render elements frames going into their own folder for each element. Without VRay VFB it works, but from looking at the Python code in 3dsmax.py I can’t see where it would pick this up otherwise.
I’m fine with customising our output but at the moment the only way I can see to get the rendering from the VFB to match our previous output standards is to hack the 3dsmax.py, which I’m happy to do but I’m amazed other people haven’t asked for this as it seems to me to be an obvious advantage to use the VRayVFB whilst rendering but even with this release there are bugs involved with doing it.
Question to anyone else that is reading this… Are you using the VRayVFB during rendering or have you also been in the old habits of turning it off?
More replies after further testing. Hopefully, this stuff will all get into beta 1 of v7.2…
Turns out a sanity check isn’t required as this was already fixed internally in SMTD code as part of v7.2.
Turns out this sanity check was actually reverted last minute out of v7.1 release. (It was part of a much bigger commit, which will now be in v7.2). This explains why even with sanity check enabled, it wasn’t stopping the crash for you. It’s also hard-coded internally to side-step the crash, if a studio isn’t using sanity check system.
All seems to be working for me here. Essentially, it all depends on which of the “Pathing Options” you have enabled: docs.thinkboxsoftware.com/produc … render-tab
“3ds Max Pathing Options”
If a particular combo of settings isn’t working as it does locally, can I get a step-by-step report of what settings you are using both here and in V-Ray Render Scene Dialog and I’ll try and reproduce. So, far, we respect what V-Ray does locally, or at least that is the intent.
Note, v7.1 already includes the new feature to ‘override renderer Frame Buffer’ (V-Ray VFB / Corona FB, etc) in SMTD, which also falls under the usual sticky/defaults system. docs.thinkboxsoftware.com/produc … render-tab
@bibi5000 - Please can you provide a context to what you are saying, reproducible steps, a demo scene file and full log reports so we can examine what is wrong here, as most of this thread was resolved in later versions of Deadline.
Sorry for having been so blunt (and hijacking this thread). I meant that we also have the problem that the render elements are not written to subfolders if the scene is submitted with the vray VFB on, no matter what settings are used in the Deadline 3dsmax pathing options. Works fine with the standard max save dialog.
I understand this has been resolved within Deadline 7.2. If you can confirm this I will get this to our Admin to upgrade the existing Deadline installation.
But I think I am doing something wrong. Could you point me to the right steps? I attached a simple example (3dsmax 2016, vray 3.20.03) where the output is written into the same folder if I use the Vray VFB. If I use the standard VFB, the render elements are written neatly into subfolders. simpleSample.zip (131 KB)
Thanks for the notes. I’ll make a note that we need to test this and report back. Could you also confirm what your VFB settings look like? A screen-grab would be perfect of just the VFB rollout within the Render Scene Dialog. (I’m interested to understand if you are using raw/split render channels). Also, I assume this issue happens with normal VRay still/animation rendering jobs in Deadline (ie: it’s not anything special like tile, region, jigsaw, batch, state set, etc?)
We are using the Separate render channels dialog to save out .exr files. Plain, standard animation rendering with a beauty channel and 37+ render element channels.
To re-iterate this, having just had lunch with Pete from Nexus, there needs to be an option to say use ‘VRay Naming Convention’. This would make Deadline use the VRay naming convention for render elements whether or not the VRay VFB was switched on.
Having this option off with the Vray VFB on would save the render elements in the sub-folders and with the conventional naming.
The main reason for this as the moment we hard-code the Vray VFB off, if we allow users to submit with or without it some people will turn it off from habit and we’ll end up with jobs being rendered with different naming conventions.
