[Novaz_nz]

I don't know if this is directly related, but I have set up the Network rendering using Win XP 32bit on 3 machines, via the "workgroup" network setting. I also have 2 seemingly different versions of Windows - one allows file sharing properly, while the other gives a simple "allow network users to change my files" check box.

In my case, each machine picks up the files from a common shared drive, and render to completion ok. Then, each one does a bit of merging, and one writes the final MXI file.

The problem I'm having seems to be that one machine writes to the shared drive, one writes a "final MXI" to it's own temp dir, and one appears to do nothing (at least nothing shows in the manager). All 3 end up reporting a success.

The problem I am having is that the two simple machines are denying each other access to the "user/local settings/temp" directory. I have reset the shares now to allow full access to every temp directory, and will report what happens tomorrow morning (have a render in the oven now).

[messire]

Tom,
Your video is making things really clearer...would u be kind enough to provide the end of it ( stopping, merging files etc)
An image is worth 100 words....and network is a bit tricky for the weaks

thnx
Nils

[Novaz_nz]

OK, my network rendering issues have been resolved!

As stated above, network rendering worked ok for me apart from the merging at the end - basically the "merged" MXI was only the result of one machine's work, which is why the resulting SL looked low.

To resolve, I shared the "documents and settings/username/local settings/temp" folder on each computer, to allow write access from the other computers.

Also, I checked "system properties -> advanced -> environment variables" and edited the System Variable "TEMP" to point to "%USERPROFILE%\local settings\temp" just to make sure the Maxwell files were being put in the right place (one computer was using C:\Windows\Temp, which was causing even more headaches as this folder can't be shared on this XP version)

Hope this helps someone out, because the network rendering is awesome when it's working - and a major frustration when it's not!

[Peter Cernak]

Aaaaaaaaaaa, finally.

Sure it helps. Thank you thank you. That’s exactly what I needed to know. I tried to share all the temp folders a couple of days ago but it didn’t help. So in my case the problem may have been in the system variable. I didn’t know how to change it. Now I know. Thanks.

P.

[tom]

Sharing temp folders has nothing to do with the problem and absolutely not something necessary because Maxwell doesn't use them while making the transfers during merge operation. Currently, we have a merging issue and it will be fixed in the next update. You can try currently coop merging doesn't fail up to 3 computers but more. So, better don't waste time with altering your system parameters because it won't help. We're just working on it.

[b-kandor]

Hi tom,

Are you saying that coop works fine with 3 computers or less? Because I could easily drop my slowest (dell m70 - which smells a bit like burning plastic when rendering ).

I've been doing ok just by watching the sl level of the merged mxi. If it isn't higher than the sl reached by my fasted machine then I just keep opening coop.mxi files in the temp folders until I find a higher sl. So far I always have....

Thanks,

Kandor

[b-kandor]

Hi Tom,

I tried a network render with just 3 machines and the high sl mxi file ended up in the temp directory again. The specified mxi was actually a copy of the slowest machine.

[tom]

Could be absurd but I really need a movie capture of such a failing workflow because I can never reproduce it with 3 machines. They produce me higher sl as output as expected with a successful merge.

[b-kandor]

I could send you all the temp mxi's as well as the final. When you open them you see that the final is sl 7.4 and the coop.mxi on the manager computer is sl 11.8.

I'll see if I can screen capture something.

Meanwhile, I'm having a real problem with uv set channels in studio - they are not working with triangle groups properly... I'll start another thread somewhere.

[tom]

Well, imagine what you say is very unclear. You need to tell what you do and what has happened step by step. It's not possible to understand when you only talk about the result. A video capture of all progress like my example would be very helpful. If you're not able to do it, you can tell what you exactly do one by one and provide screenshots from beginning, during the progress and final look. When you hit stop, what was the SL for each server line? Where did you save merged mxi, what was the name of the file, did you load it into viewer and what SL was it showing? You say you check coop mxi on manager temp but maybe that file is from a previous session. I need to know more and step by step because I am 101% sure 3 nodes on windows working here precisely perfect in 10 of 10 tests.

[b-kandor]

Ok, I will do a screen cap, but in the meantime:

1: The temp/coop.mxi on the manager is not from a previous session (written at the same time - also, it's the correct scene)

2: So far I cannot recreate this problem (with 3 machines) if I run the manager and view on a win32 machine - so far this problem happens only when running manager/viewer on win64.

My normal setup is:

1: manager computer is winxp64
2: also on winxp64
3: on winxp32

I tried last night:

1: manager computer is win32
2: win64
3: win32

and it worked.

So, I will go back to 64 for manager/viewer and capture what I'm doing.

Thanks,

Kandor

[tom]

Meanwhile, the bug about more than 3 nodes is eliminated and the fix is ready for the next update. We also have a very rare "lines on image issue after merge" but it's very coincidental. But of course, we are trying to fix it too.

[b-kandor]

I had that 'lines' issue once, I'm glad to hear the >3 issue is fixed.

What do you think about the fact that my issue with saved mxi's sl versus temp folder mxi's sl seems to be focesed on winxp64?

[Maxer]

When are these updates going to be available?

[tom]

It's not possible to make an update after every single patch. So, we will release it when the targeted fixes reached.