Corona 11 / Max 22 DR Parsing Restarting Loop

[ferrarod]

Hi -

I've searched the forums for previous issues, whcih seemed to plague early Corona versions more than newer ones. At this point none of the fixes from those posts seem to have worked, but I may be overlooking something. I have the 3 logs attached here (Corona, DR, Max).

Backstory: I use my main computer and two slaves for DR. I haven't used the slaves since upgrading my main computer for Corona 11. I believe they were last used during some build of Corona 9? I updated both slaves to the same builds of both Max and Corona as my main computer. Since I've been needing to use DR the last few days, both slaves get stuck in a parsing and restarting loop. I've tried large files (1.5gb) to small files (a few MB). All paths to all drives are shared and connected. The slaves use the same plugins as the main computer. I'm at a loss at the moment.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks--

[Avi]

Hi,

Thanks for attaching the logs. According to the logs, render is failing every time followed by the following errors:

1. Render failed
2. This scene contains a Chamfer modifier from a later version of 3ds Max, which may require features not supported in this version. Loaded Chamfer version: 500; current Chamfer version: 410.
3. The Populate data is missing on your system.
4. Graphics driver requested by the user : Nitrous
5. Graphics driver actually created in the viewports : null driver
6. This scene uses legacy (pre-v4) medium/refraction resolving that is not based on geometry normals and produces incorrect results when multiple medium containers are intersecting. The scene was loaded with the legacy behavior to make the rendered result more consistent with older versions of Corona, but we strongly recommend switching to new behavior using the button below.

Here are potential solutions to fix your issue:

1. https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-forum/chamfer-modifier-error/m-p/10978248#M200095
2. https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Change-the-display-driver-options-in-3ds-Max-before-launch.html?_ga=2.52098732.447936388.1710738476-1880587083.1703151167
3. https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-forum/error-please-make-sure-the-populate-data-is-installed/m-p/5685854#M105721
4. Make sure you are using the same version of 3ds Max/Corona and all the same versions of plugins across network.
5. https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/4526291240977-This-scene-uses-legacy-medium-and-refraction-resolving

I hope this helps.

[Frood]

Hi,

1. "Render failed": This is unfortunately standard behavior of the Corona DR system if dr server is used for the first time after starting it up and loading the empty dr scene (see 6.)

2. "Chamfer versions": May be an issue, but usually is not. Except possibly getting wrong mesh topology

3. "Populate data": standard message and never an issue

4./5. "Graphics driver": standard log entry (and correct) if operating in slave mode

6. "Legacy (pre-V4)": As you might know, Corona loads an empty scene at startup which is Corona version 1.7, thus the log entry. No issue.

So only the different chamfer versions of the mentioned log snippets may be a cause and it also indicates that versions on master and slave are not exactly the same. But I don't think it would cause a Max crash, but maybe it does.

@ferrarod:

- Can you open a scene on a slave and render it there?

- DrServer reports the local IP as "255.255.255.255", that's definitely weird and indicates a name resolution issue at the nodes/your network. Or DrServer fails here to detect the local IP for another reason. It should read "10.0.0.208" in this case. Anyway, communication between master and slave seems to work in the first place, at least when it comes to file transfer.

- Additionally, the DrServer working directory is not standard: it points to the debug directory for rendered image strips, the sent scene is loaded correctly from there according to the log though

- I would try to delete "AppData\Local\CoronaRenderer\DrData\DrConfig-1.5.txt" and let Corona rebuild the defaults because of the above

Finally, a Max minidump of a slave can reveal what exactly is causing the crash. Search the temp directory of the slave for a file like "3dsmax_minidump.dmp". Hopefully there are a few.


Good Luck

[maru]

What exactly does your network setup look like? Are all computers connected to a single switch/router? Are they connected with cables or through wifi?

[ferrarod]

Thanks everyone- When I get back to it, I'll take a look at what both Frood and Avi have pointed out.

Maru- They're all connected through Cat6 and a 10port network switch.