Hi,

We’re experimenting with using concurrent tasks on our newer render nodes. We’re running into an issue with 3DS Max and Vray though whereby one of the tasks seems to intermittently not save the frames back to the server. The task is completed successfully so it’s very hard to debug this, especially if it’s replacing existing frames. Is this something anyone has come across before? I wondered if it has something to do with the fact that it saves the frames locally before uploading them to the server? Is there a way to check that it’s copied the files properly?

Thanks

Nick

The Deadline-3dsMax job log reports are very informative and should help narrow down any issues is there is one. Generally speaking, all paths local are made to be unique to the job’s thread currently being processed, so we shouldn’t be experiencing any file clashing here. However, the logs would pinpoint anything untoward here. I should mention, that 3dsMax as an application absolutely hates to co-exist with another instance of 3dsMax on the machine, both attempting to render through the same render engine at the same time, using all threads by default. This might end up being just something to avoid, specifically in the case of 3dsMax.

Hi Mike,

It’s possible that it won’t work, but I’d like to see if it can. It would allow us to fully use the machines for heavier jobs if we need to rather than splitting it into two separate slaves.

Below are the last few lines of two completed tasks for the same job on one slave. The first one completed fine and saved the frames to the server, the second completed fine and then failed to save the frames back. It clearly completed the render for both tasks but then failed to find and save back the frames one of the tasks. It doesn’t look like it’s a 3DS Max issue but is very similar to an issue we had with Deadline not finding the frames for V-Ray when we first switched to Deadline 8.

Thanks

Nick

Hmm…couple of things, just to double-check?

1. Exact version of Deadline?
2. This slave is actually called: “render-07-162”? Just checking as that just happens to be the frame number as well. Probably just coincidence.

When this job is rendering, what does the contents of this local directory look like on your slave:

C:\Users\Render\AppData\Local\Thinkbox\Deadline8\slave\render-07-162\jobsData\57dac0629b8eea7ce8cfe892\

there should be 2 x directories starting with: “VRayLocalOutput_temp…”, do they both contain the required rendered images, once 3dsMax has rendered them?

Hi Mike,

Versions, sorry! Deadline is 8.0.7.3, 3DS Max is 2016 and Vray is 3.40.02. I’ll try and watch a frame and see what happens but it doesn’t always do it…

Thanks

Nick

ok, I think I’ve worked out what is going on. Can you send the FULL 3dsmax log reports for both concurrent tasks (0 and 1). Just like the logs you sent last time, but I need the full log. You can zip and attach to the post if that is easier.

Hi Mike,

Logs as requested.

Nick
Concurrent_Tasks_Logs.zip (19.9 KB)

ok, fixed it I think. Unfortunately, the 3dsmax plugin has undergone a major refactor between 8.0 and 8.1, so trying to merge just the bits for you, is proving pretty tricky. Before I burn time trying to do this, do you fancy just joining the 8.1 beta program? If so, can you send a request to beta [at] thinkboxsoftware [dot] com requesting it. Make reference to this thread.

Hi Mike,

How long do you think before 8.1 is released? I’d prefer not to run the beta, we’re pretty stable on this version at the moment. I can just run it as 1 task per slave for the time being and test again once 8.1 is out.

Thanks

Nick

Ignore my moaning. Let’s try this for your 8.0 version, to see if it actually fixes your issue now. See attached.

(Do a backup first just in case)

Unzip and overwrite the same named file in:

<your_repo>/plugins/3dsmax/3dsmax.py

and let us know if that helps?

3dsmax.py.zip (31.9 KB)

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the quick response. I’ve put that in, I’ll let you know if it works.

Nick

How’s the testing going?

Hi Mike,

All seems to be working here. It knocked out a fix that we’ve previously applied for making 3ds Max respect CPU affinity but I’ve just checked with the artists and they haven’t seen any missing frames this morning.

Thanks

Nick

Great! Thanks for the feedback. Not sure, why a previous fix would have been knocked out, as the version I sent you was based on latest 8.0.8.1 branch. I will ask around.

Hi Mike,

I think Edwin fixed it for us but was only going to put it in the 8.1 release? It was a small thing, along the lines of this problem where we wanted multiple slaves running with Studio Max on one machine.

Thanks

Nick

Hi Mike,

Sorry I’m opening this one back up because it doesn’t look like this is working in the latest version. We’re certainly getting problems again and comparing the 3dsmax.py files there’s a lot of differences all relating to the VrayLocalRenderFolder…

Nick

Correction. I just missed the latest 8.0.9.1 release so it has already been merged in, so it will be in 8.0.10.x (SP10) when it is released. Are you ok to manually merge my previously provided patch zip file into your running version?

Hi Mike,

It looks like it’s the only change in the file so I’ll just replace it.

Thanks

Nick