Need Help plz : V-Ray for Maya Distributed Rendering and Batch Render

[GregoryStark]

Hello, Chaos Team and all users,

I need your help, I have a problem with the "batch render" and " distributed rendering" for render an animation.

Let me explain: everything works like a charm when I use the VFB and the "Distributed Rendering" to make a single image. All CPUs are used 100 % for all "slaves" and for "master" - 1 mn after hit render button the job begin for all computer.

But when I run a "Batch Render with Distributed Rendering" nothing moves, V-Ray informs "Rendering with V-Ray..." CPUs still waiting à 0%, nothing happend, I wait 2h without result.

Infos :
- I did not use the render pass
- All firewall and anti-virus is disabled.
- Rendering :
* Prim : IMap
* GI : On
* Second : Light Cache
* Preset : Medium Anim
* Color mapping : HSV Exponential
* Sampler : Adaptive - Min 1 / Max 70 / Threshold 0.005
* Dynamic memory limit : max
* Use distributed rendering + Transfert missing assets

Someone can help ?

Thank you !

Greg ^^

[tashko.zashev]

Hi Greg,

What OS and V-Ray/Maya version is this?
Would it be possible to attach the Maya log from the batch rendering job (mayaRenderLog.txt) to check for any errors or warnings ?

By the way this is the PDPLayer forum section, for Maya issues it's better to use the Maya sections instead.

[GregoryStark]

Hi Tashko,

Thank you for your prompt response !

I think I found my problem, but I can not really explain why.

My config : Maya 2016 - V-Ray 3.10 - Windows 10 64Bits Pro

When rendering launch with batch render and distributed rendering, V -Ray will cache all images, I have 2400 pictures to calculate. I have in my scene animated thunder done with the "Paint effect" (V-ray render them great without Batch R and distributed Rendering, with the VFB!) but caching all images with batch render take long time ! 1mns by frame, so for my animation caching all images need 2400mns ! I remove the thunder and then everything goes well, caching is done quickly.

I noticed when I have a complicated animation in my scene, caching is very very long when you use batch rendering and distributed rendering. Any solution?

Sorry for posting in the wrong section, I have not found how moved the post.

where can I find (mayaRenderLog.txt) ?

Thank you for your help !

Greg ^^

[ivaylo.ivanov]

Currently the DR system is designed to pre-export the whole scene before the rendering is started. This is why it may take so long before rendering. 2h for 2400 frames means that it took 3 sec for a frame to be exported and sent to the render slaves, which is not that much for a heavy scene. The biggest issue is with dynamics that require extra time to calculate, sometimes even minutes, so the export may take even a day without caching. We will redesign this in future, so the frames are sent incrementally which will be a bit more faster and interactive. Until then, you may consider to export such long animations directly to vrscene. So if anything goes wrong, you can at least skip this pre-export stage and directly re-render.

[GregoryStark]

Thank you for your advices Ivaylo !

To send my "vrscene" file I have to go through the "V-Ray Standalone Command Line" obligatory? or is there an alternative way because I know nothing about code like.... john snow ^^

Is it possible to import the file "vrscene" directly in the Maya Render Setting?

I exported my scene as "vrscene" file and I got :

name.vrscene = 52KB
name_bitmap.vrscene = 1ko
name_geometry.vrscene = 12GB
name_lights.vrscene = 1mb
name_materiels.vrscene = 7KO
name_nodes.vrscene = 65MB
name_textures.vrscene = 3mo

Knowing that my Maya scene is 50MB, why the "name_geometry.vrscene" is he so heavy?

Thank for your help !

Greg

[tashko.zashev]

To send my "vrscene" file I have to go through the "V-Ray Standalone Command Line" obligatory? or is there an alternative way because I know nothing about code like.... john snow ^^

The procedure is very simple and doesn't require any coding skills.
Just open the V-Ray standalone tool and type:
vray -scenefile=c:\scenefile.vrscene
Where "c:\scenefile.vrscene "is the path to your "name.vrscene"
For all additional options like DR enabling, Transfer assets enabling, Frame range, ... please refer to our documentation:
http://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/V...d+Line+Options

One more example command line rendering :

Is it possible to import the file "vrscene" directly in the Maya Render Setting?

Unfortunately there is no way to import Vrscene in Maya at this point.

Knowing that my Maya scene is 50MB, why the "name_geometry.vrscene" is he so heavy?

All mesh deformations are exported for each animation frame and this may result a quite big file size.

[GregoryStark]

Hi and thank you Tashko for your help and your advice, I'll try with the command prompt !

Have a nice day everyone

Greg