[juan]

Rusteberg, we've just sent you a private message. It seems there is something very wrong there and we need to ask you specific questions and also send you an special debug version to check what's going on there.

Thanks,

Juan

[camel]

I have some BIG ISSUES with network render in v2, I use cinema4D, but I wonder if these are not a general issue.

i had lots of errors with network rendering and textures maps last days.

The .hdri and most of textures maps were not loaded... although i didnt get an error.. Very weird.
After hours of rendering.. i noticed the image was very dark (no .hdri loaded) and textures were missing in fabric material).
I thought version2 send over missing files?? apparently NOT ALL OF THEM and no error messages!

The solution i found was use the pack and go option in cinema. and while loading a coop job. also setting the texture map path.
dont forget to include the last slash "\" or it doesn't work! (another bug i guess). quite complex method to solve something that should have been solved in version 2 as NL announced, or am i wrong here??

Something else: In 1.7.1. render region most of the time gave me crashes on network render.. well in version2 that is still not possible.
Or am i wrong here? it keeps crashing when trying to join regions.

And I have still have this question... I really would like to see what's going on. so some sort of REFRESH would be nice.
Since the nodes don't refresh.. sometimes it says "rendering" but the node is stopped.. or other way around.
anyway not updating the status at all!

Yesterday we bought 2 render nodes.. but im not so happy with them now.. as it feels like the 1.7.1 issues are still there.
If it continues like this.. i might wanna return the 2 node licenses.. and dont give me the "not possible answer", because this network render is not what you promised it would be. If it works correctly i would love to pay for it.. but not if it works like this.

sorry for the language, but im getting a bit frustrated.
anyone else having this kind of trouble?

[Bubbaloo]

anyone else having this kind of trouble?

I have done several network renders and so far I have not had 1 issue. Fortunately all of my computers are running the same OS, though. Have you tried to do a pack n go from Maxwell Studio? I think that's the best thing to do before you render over the network. I have gotten into the habit of doing this since 1.7. Pack n go to a network location.

[camel]

I use all win 32 and 64 systems. you should be able to combine those right?

And i dont use studio.. thats way to long route for me, open every mxs in studio to use network render.
Also Cinema is much easier and faster route for network render... (when it works).
it writes the mxs with autonaming png/mxi.. etc.. much easier for job adding.

do you need to set the xtra textures path? (when adding coop job?) because mine didnt work without it when i use pack and go.
pack and go seems lot different from regular. with regular it will send files over.. but with pack and go not.. i mean you get more missing files messages. kinda weird....

But I hadn't had much issues yet.. but i only tested old files from 1.7 on network render.
Since yesterday im creating new files/materials (also from online gallery, directly importing in cinema)..
it seems that since then it's going worse. previously it would auto send missing files etc.. (you can see log in console).

but last 2 days.. i get missing files, without warning.. that's a pity. Image you'r rendering for 12 hours..
and just only the small window in the top left misses one texture... that's weird.
Most of textures work.. only a few go wrong.. and dont get re-send/warning.

[Bubbaloo]

Mixing 32 bit and 64 bit shouldn't be a problem as long as the 32 bit computers aren't running out of RAM.

As far Cinema goes, I have never used it, so I can't help any on that. I use Max, export the MXS, open in Studio, pack n go, network render.

[juan]

Hi Camel,

We have contacted with a couple of people in private to debug the issues they were getting with the network. It seems that most of these issues were due problems with the FQND services mentioned here:
http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... 97#p309497
So far it seems we have fixed it but I am still waiting for news of one of them. When we are sure it's working we can upload a patch (or if you want we can send you an special build to check it's working there as well). Many issues in the networking area are more due to services that are disabled, or specific settings of each system rather that bugs in the code, so sometimes they are undetected until you run the network in a specific scenario.

Thanks,

Juan

[camel]

ah ok thanks, for the reply.

How long before the patch comes out you think?
If it's soon (few weeks) I can probably wait for that...
Otherwise maybe you can send the special built.

[simmsimaging]

I'm trying (again) to test the network rendering and I'm still having a lot of problems. I'm using 2.5 and a demo with a couple of nodes activated temporarily. For now only one slave, and my workstation are being tested.

Submitting the render from the Max dialog and opting for network render (co-op) does not work properly as the output paths seem to get lost even when I double check them in the submission dialog. The image apparently renders, but I cannot get a preview from the WS or the node, or the coop image (error receiving preview data: remote host has closed the connection). The render does finish apparently, but there is no output saved, and choosing the view the output folder via the File menu just opens the c:/ default folder, not the specified output.

If I do everything the same *except* render from Max, stop the render, and then launch it as a co-op render from inside the Monitor it will do the render, and the output gets saved in the right folder, but it still won't show a preview.

All paths are network accessible from both machines are are specified by UNC paths.

Any thoughts?

b

[simmsimaging]

I'm seeing this error in the render node window for both machines:

[10/January/2011 15:59:47] Can't rename MXI local file. Origin: \\Chronos\s\Job Working Files\TESTING\export\mxnetwork\rendernode\3-03_temporary.mxi
[10/January/2011 15:59:47] Can't rename MXI local file. Destination: \\Chronos\s\Job Working Files\TESTING\export\mxnetwork\rendernode\3-03.mxi

Not sure what that is all about, but related perhaps?

[fran.urda@charanga.es]

I also get the same error message when trying to display a preview, any solution?

[Mihai]

This can be due to a permissions issue, mxnetwork not having permissions to write to that folder. Make sure that the folder is not write protected and that Maxwell and/or mxnetwork.exe are allowed to write to it.