AWS Thinkbox Discussion Forums

SMTD Stereo Camera Jobs

Hi Bobo,

Thanks for the update, we’ve tried the CenterEyeTag as suggested, it seems to work. I’ll be honest though we’d actually just prefer a tickbox to disable the whole function so that it’s not batching the jobs up or changing any of the naming/camera etc. It’s a nice feature but it’s getting in the way at the moment and it’s breaking the pipeline when it’s changing things on submission and the artist is not aware of it. Is this possible?

Thanks

Nick

It should be possible. It was like that in the beginning when we started adding the feature.
I will have to figure out why we had to change it and removed the Off option from the drop-down list.

Can you confirm the exact version of Deadline you are running right now?

Yes, we’re on version 8.0.2.1 I think but I can bring it right up to date if we need to.

Nick

I will use the 8.0.3 files to give you something to test. Then I will roll it into future builds.

Ok, give this one a try:

  • Navigate to your Repository
  • Go to \Submission\3dsmax\Main folder
  • Back up the file “SubmitMaxToDeadline.ms”
  • Replace with the attached one.
  • Launch SMTD in 3ds Max
    RESULT: You should find a new “Disable Stereo Submission” option at the bottom of the drop-down list with the Eye selection.
    When that option is selected, SMTD will submit like before, whatever the camera is in the viewport, without adding prefix to the output etc.

However, that drop-down list is sticky by default, so if a user has selected an option from it, his local INI file will enforce the setting.
Thankfully, SMTD lets you control the stickiness and defaults via the Repository, so you can force all SMTDs on all workstations to switch to Disable Stereo Submission by doing the following:

  • In the \Submission\3dsmax\Main folder, open the file “SubmitMaxToDeadline_StickySettings.ini” and add the following under the existing [JobSettings] category:

[JobSettings] StereoCameraMode=false

  • Save the file.
  • Open the file “SubmitMaxToDeadline_Defaults.ini” and add to the same category the line
[JobSettings]
StereoCameraMode=off
  • Save the file.
  • Restart SMTD on any machine.
    RESULT: The Stereo option should now have a * next to it, denoting it is not sticky between sessions anymore, and it should default to the Disable option…
    SubmitMaxToDeadline_StereoOffOption.zip (89.4 KB)

Hi Bobo,

Yep that works brilliantly. Thanks for the fix and the thorough instructions!

Nick

Thanks for the feedback. This has now been added to our working 8.1 internal branch of Deadline for future release.

Hi,

We’ve just updated to 8.05.01 and this option has disappeared again, you’ve said this will be added to the version 8.1 so can I just reapply the same fix again or will the SubmitMaxToDeadline.ms file have changed since the last version?

Thanks

Nick

What version did you update from? 8.0.2.1? If so, various SMTD code tweaks/bug fixes are regularly made to SMTD as per doc release notes:
docs.thinkboxsoftware.com/produc … notes.html

You can always just copy wholesale your backup copy of the last working version of your SMTD submission scripts from:

“<your_repo>/backup/mostRecent/submission/3dsmax/Main”

back into:

“<your_repo>/submission/3dsmax/Main”

Hi Mike,

I think its was 8.0.2.1. I did a check on them, not much difference in anything other than the stereo camera change, certainly nothing that should affect us. I’ve reloaded the other file.

Thanks

Nick

Hi,

It appears that this has broken again when I’ve updated to version 8.0.9, this is becoming incredibly frustrating! The 3ds max submitter is set to use “Center Eye Only” and Deadline has added “CE_” as a prefix to all my outputs and changed the camera to the left camera even though I have the line CenterEyeTag= in our defaults file! I really need this not to keep happening everytime we update Deadline please.

Thanks

Nick

Hi Nick,
This new feature was added to 8.1 as per my previous reply whilst we only push bug fixes into our 8.0 “service packs”. Would you like to join the beta?
Email to beta [at] thinkbossoftware [dot] com for the NDA to sign.

Hi Mike,

I’ll be honest, I don’t see how this is a new feature, but is more of a fix. We don’t really want to be on the beta, we can’t have the instability in the renderfarm and there seems to be something new that causes me an issue even on the incremental updates. I’ll just have to put the fix back into the new files, I’m guessing this is the same for the fix with the concurrent tasks not saving frames for 3DS Max as well?

Thanks

Nick

Today is Canada’s Thanksgiving (public holiday), so I will check tomorrow with the guys, but we can look at back-porting these few lines into 8.0 to stop this being a ball buster for you between Service Packs. Not sure, what you mean by this?

Can you reference a ticket/thread? or elaborate?

Hi Mike,

No worries, it’s such a small thing but it throws a massive spanner in the works! :frowning:

The other fix is this one:

forums.thinkboxsoftware.com/vie … 11&t=14739

Thanks

Nick

Right. The CPU affinity fix for V-Ray was already included in 8.0.8.1:

docs.thinkboxsoftware.com/produc … s.html#id5

and Deadline 8.0.6.5:
docs.thinkboxsoftware.com/produc … .html#id21

fixed this issue:

so, I think you are good from 8.0.8.1 onwards with the exception of the Stereo Cam mode - disable, which as I said, I will try and get that merged into the 8.1 branch to ease your pain.

Thanks Mike, I’ve loaded it back into the submitter now so we’re working for the time being. I’ll make sure it’s in the release notes before we do any more updates! :slight_smile:

Nick

Hi,

I’m having issues with controlling the defaults for Stereo Cameras again since updating to Deadline 10. I’ve copied across the defaults we use from the StickySettings.ini and Defaults.ini files (see below) and I’m now getting an error whenever I open the submitter.

StickySettings:
StereoCameraMode=false

Defaults:
StereoCameraMode=off
CenterEyeTag=

The error seems to be on line 694 in SubmitMaxToDeadlineFunctions.ms and says --No ““toLower”” function for #off

It would be good to resolve this as it always causes me an issue when it overrides the camera we expect to use.

Thanks

Nick

Hi Nick,

Terribly sorry for the new bug :blush: , and thank you for reporting it!
Can you please make the following changes and try again?

  • Navigate to your Repository\submission\3dsmax\Main\ folder
  • Open the file SubmitMaxToDeadline_Functions.ms for editing
  • Navigate to the offending line and change it to this:
local theIndex = findItem mapList (toLower (theValue as string))
  • Save the file.
  • Reopen SMTD on your workstation.

I have made this change internally and will commit it so it becomes part of future builds. Once again, sorry for the inconvenience!

Note that the Sticky Settings and Defaults logic has changed significantly in Deadline 10. The Defaults and Sticky Settings only apply to NEW scenes (either existing scenes that have not been submitted to Deadline yet, or actual new scenes you just created). If you open the SMTD UI and then save a MAX file to disk, even if you don’t submit the scene to Deadline, the active SMTD settings will be stored with the MAX file, and will be restored next time the scene is loaded, even if it is years later. This ensures that you can pass MAX scenes between users, and all relevant Deadline settings will stick with the scene, making it significantly easier to resubmit without guessing what the right values would be. Of course, we offer tools under the File menu of SMTD to reset the settings to the startup defaults. This makes it is easy to force an existing scene to appear as new, with all the current Stickiness and Defaults taking over, as well as revert back to some or all of the latest MAX file settings in case you modified or reset the SMTD settings, and decided it was a mistake.
We believe the new system is significantly more user-friendly, but please feel free to let us know if it does not behave the way you expect it to.
An additional INI file lets you exclude any setting from scene storage, so it is technically possible to set up Deadline 10 to behave like earlier versions. But it would be a step backwards…

Hi Bobo,

That’s great thanks! Working as expected again now, I appreciate the quick fix. :smiley:

Sounds useful to keep the settings saved and I see you’ve implemented a few other things as well so i’ll have a look at that.

Thanks

Nick

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