I am working with Golaem crowd and 3DS Max through Vray and have come up against an issue when trying to render it through Deadline. In order for Golaem to render in Max, I need to have a variable setup, and I open Max through a bat file. The variable is:

:: Set Environment Variables
set PATH=C:\Golaem\GolaemCrowd-4.3.2-Maya2016\bin;%PATH%
set VRAY30_RT_FOR_3DSMAX2016_PLUGINS_x64=C:\Golaem\GolaemCrowd-4.3.2-Maya2016\procedurals;%VRAY30_RT_FOR_3DSMAX2016_PLUGINS_x64%
:: Launch 3ds Max
“C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2016\3dsmax.exe”

When I render it through Deadline, it just goes to the default 3dsmax.exe and does not render the Golaem node. How would I add this variable as a submission script before kicking it off? Is it possible?

Hello,

I think your best bet is probably to look at the Environment section of the job properties, which can be used to set specific variables.

You can also edit what Deadline considers Max’ program path to point to your batch file:

docs.thinkboxsoftware.com/produc … figuration

Thanks for the info! I will try this out tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

I tried configuring the 3dsmax plugin to point to my .bat file but Deadline doesn’t seem to recognize it as a proper executable file. Is there any way I can set the environment variables at submission time? Maybe there is an option to read the variable from the scenefile?

Hey Joel,

I’ve been warned offline that my plan wouldn’t work because of the complexity and requirements of finding the root folder for Max. That makes sense as we do write temporary files for Max based on its own plugins.ini file within the install directory. You’d also need to change your bat file to forward command line arguments. Example for mental exercise is here:
stackoverflow.com/questions/1163 … er-command

I guess for the time being… This is just a configuration stuff right? It doesn’t change cross-project. I’d set those at the system level if you can. Info on that here:
computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm

Reboot when you’re done setting it up.

I still want to try and wrap Max with a bat file…