Standalone - official list of features not supported?

[bkirch]

Hi all,

We are using 3dsmax 2015 with V-Ray Standalone 3.1 to render on our Linux render farm. We are discovering for ourselves what features are supported and what features are not supported in Standalone. The Chaos Group Standalone page offers little information https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...tandalone+Home.

We would like to know two things:

1. is there an official list from Chaos Group of features NOT supported in 3dsmax V-Ray Standalone 3.1?
2. are the features cited below operational in Standalone version 3.4?

From what we can tell the following features that we are using are not supported as of version 3.1:

- Multimatte object id works, Multimatte material id does not.
- Animated image sequences do not work. We are using them in V-Ray Mtl shaders and also in ExtraTex render elements, both of which are broken.
- Gradient Ramp texture does not export

This is the best information I could find but it's for 3.0.
http://thinkhypothetical.com/blog/li...ay-3-0-update/


Thanks!
-Brian

[hypotheticalinc]

I'd be interested in seeing an official list too. I wrote that post you linked to (thanks!) and I'll add your list to the one I have going. My post is actually current as of Vray 3.4, I'll change that in the post as well. If anyone else has experiences in this area I'm interested to hear what you are finding!

[bigbossfr]

+1
We are doing cloud rendering but just in Maya...

[vlado]

Supported features are the same as V-Ray RT CPU (*not* GPU), and can be found here:
https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...orted+Features

The list is not exhaustive; there might be other features that we have missed. We do not have a list of UNsupported features.

In Maya, there are no limitations like this; whatever renders in Maya, renders 1:1 in the standalone.

For 3ds Max, your most robust option for cloud rendering is to run 3ds Max itself. Going through the standalone might work, but we have never tested such a workflow and unfortunately we cannot guarantee any support for it.

Best regards,
Vlado

[tronotrond]

We are working on this as well! Unfortunately we cannot run 3dsMax in the cloud, as there are no "stand alone" version of Max that doesn't need an installation, or Linux version for that matter. From what I understood it would need to be installed and patched every time the cloud server is started up. That would be fun with those 2 hours+ service pack installations!

While I am not directly involved in the development our initial tests with V-Ray standalone have proven pretty good though. We submit the jobs directly from the 3dsMax render dialog, and everything converts and copies over - and back to our network drive as the frames render. But we're also seeing the vray conversion can be a very time consuming process on large scenes. My end requirements is that this has to become just as quick and easy for the artists as sending the job to Backburner or Deadline.

[vlado]

But we're also seeing the vray conversion can be a very time consuming process on large scenes.

If you can get us some examples to support@chaosgroup.com I'm pretty sure we can optimize the process.

Also, let us know if you need other features than the three listed above; as I said we don't make guarantees, but we will try to help you out.

Best regards,
Vlado

[tronotrond]

Thanks Vlado! That would be great!
I need to get approvals send the file though. I will ask and see what we can do.

For us we'll probably get a list over functions we feel are missing at a later stage. We are happy that so far we see that most 3dsMax maps, Bercon maps, ForestPack and the plugins we are using are working fine. That was our first and initial worries. We will also keep our current render park for simulations or any other special needs.

[vlado]

Ok then, let me know how it goes. Btw the MultiMatte based on material IDs should work fine in V-Ray 3.40

Best regards,
Vlado