AWS Thinkbox Discussion Forums

SMTD Stereo Camera Jobs

Hi,

We use a camera rig in 3DS Max that has the ability to be either stereo or mono. This is basically just a stereo rig with centre camera as our mono camera. Unfortunately this means if we’re using it to do mono rendering Deadline picks up the fact that it’s stereo even if we say Center Eye Only it adds a prefix to the outputfilename on submission. This is incredibly frustraing as it breaks our pipeline. Is it possible to have an option to disable this or for the “Center Eye Only” option to not change the outputfilename please so we can ignore the stereo rig.

Thanks

Nick

There are two approaches we could look into.

The one is a workaround - you can simply go to your Repository and change the default prefix for Center Eye to be “” instead of “CE_”. So Left Eye and Right Eye would still add “LE_” and “RE_” prefixes (or whatever you have them set up to), but the Center Eye will always use the unmodified file name.

The alternative would be for us to add a checkbox that, when a “XXX Eye Only” option is selected, tells the system whether to apply the prefix or not. So you could select “Center Eye Only” and uncheck the option to add a prefix, and then your output would use the regular file name. But then you could also render a Left Eye exactly the same way without a prefix (possibly to a different path) if you selected “Left Eye Only”. However, this could be dangerous because you could end up overwriting outputs if you forgot the option unchecked.

So I think the workaround above would be the simpler solution - you just postulate that in your company, center eye never has a prefix, but Left and Right Eyes do. If that works for you, you can

  • Navigate to your Repository
  • Go into the \submission\3dsmax\Main folder
  • Locate the file “SubmitMaxToDeadline_Defaults.ini”
  • Under the category [JobSettings], add the Center Eye Tag definition with nothing after the = sign:

[JobSettings] CenterEyeTag=

  • Save the file
  • Restart SMTD
  • Try submitting the Center Eye Only - it should render without a prefix.
  • If you render Left, Right and Center, it should still render left and right eyes with prefix and center without.
  • If you want your prefix to be something else, you can add keys to the same INI file like LeftEyeTag=LeftEye or RightEyeTag=StereoRight or whatever you want. The underscore between the tag and the rest of the name is added automatically.

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

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