Render gets stuck - volumetrics excessive ray weight

[CiroC]

Hi,

So basically, my renders are getting stuck.

Elaborating.

Press render, it starts rendering. Hours late I check the render and let's say is at 70 passes and 8.0% noise level.

6 hours later

70 passes and 8.0%.

Another one.

Set the render to last 24 hours.
24 hours later - it says, 17 hours elapsed. Estimated remaining: 20 hours What???

And this is happening in a lot of machines. Which is great news when you have a deadline for Tuesday.

Any solution? We are using Corona 1.5 hotfix 2

[Nik]

Only time limit is set? No passes or noise level limit?

[CiroC]

Both. With noise level, time and passes limit.

Giving an example.
Last night I left a render at 9% noise level and 47 passes. This morning was at 9% noise level and 50 passes. The CPU was at 8%.

My machine the same.

It starts well and but then after a couple of hours it seems that Corona just stops caring. I don't know if it helps, but when using time limit, the Estimated remaining time is stuck it doesn't go down.

[CiroC]

Basically I have been saving the VFB and restart the render. Which is quite fun when you have 12 machines to check.

[Nik]

This happens only in one scene?

[CiroC]

This happens only in one scene?

So far yes. But this scene is divided into different Xrefs and they are not the same for each camera.

And if you click stop the render, it refuses to stop and apply the denoising.

[Nik]

Well, the problem maybe related to Xrefs somehow.
If you want to find a reson then try to disable half of Xrefs, then check if problem is still there. If not - problem was in disabled Xrefs, so you can enable them and disable half of that half :) and so on, until you will find a problem.

And Stop in VFB should apply denoise when it's pressed. After denoise it should stop. It doesn't?

[CiroC]

That is why I don't think the problem are the Xref.

First, the render starts really well. Like after 2 hours I am already around 12%. Then when I press stop the render, the render doesn't stop and apply the denoising. Also, if I am using the time limit it starts well, so why after a couple of hours it stops working?

I think that if the problem were the Xrefs the render wouldn't even start.

[CiroC]

And it keeps doing it. Just now this render is stuck at 30% noise level.

[CiroC]

Nothing?

[Nik]

It seems for now you are the only one who had this bug.
You can share scene with all xrefs or you can try to find a reason yourself.

Did you use DR or backburner? If yes, then does bug persist if you render locally?

[CiroC]

I know, but would be nice to hear something like: "Yeah probably is an XREF that is stopping the render." or "have you try XYZ?"

 I still don't believe that the render starts with no problems and then it stops because of a XREF.

And isn't only me, is 12 other guys using Corona on our team and hear some of them saying they want VRAY back.

Not using DR or Backburner. I will be working on another project and see if the problem persists.

[Nik]

And isn't only me, is 12 other guys using Corona on our team and hear some of them saying they want VRAY back.

In one scene?

P.S. I'm using xrefs rarely but there were no problems when I did.

[CiroC]

Yes, so as you can imagine is quite a pain. Having to save VFB, close 3ds Max, open again all those Xref and resume render.

And that is what to me doesn't make sense. How is possible that only after a couple of hours the Corona stops working? And if you look at it, everything is normal. The smiley face keeps moving, the numbers keeps going up and down, is only you see the same Pass number and noise level, that you realize something is wrong. And then you press stop the render, and it simply ignores you. It doesn't stop, it doesn't apply the denoising.

[CiroC]

P.S. I'm using xrefs rarely but there were no problems when I did.

We always use Xref without any problems. The plugins we use are:

ComplexFresnel
FloorGenerator
ThinFilm
Clone

[Nik]

Well, obviously the problem is scene related.

To find a reason you can do some things (if you can't share a scene).
At first disable all Xrefs and try to render. If problem is gone - then some Xref generating it, if not - you need to reset CoronaSettings and render again.
I'm not telling that if the problem is in Xref then it's not a bug :) definetely it is. But you need to share a scene or investigate...

I know only one method to find a reason - exclude suspects. Maybe somebody heard about this issue and will post here some advice, but I didn't unfortunately.

[CiroC]

I know I am doing that. But, no I can't share the scene. Besides the scene is already 25GB, so is quite a lot. I will share here what I find. Thanks Nik for your moral support. :D

[sevecek]

Can you send me Corona logs? They should be in C:\Users\Your_Username\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\Some_Max_Version\ENU\en-US\plugcfg\corona
Is your CPU still on 100% when the render gets stuck?
It could also help to have a look at sampling focus render element, just in case adaptivity is doing something weird.

[CiroC]

Thanks seveck for replying.

I am sending the logs. The last log is another scene I rendered overnight, but if helps I can render the scene that is giving me issues tonight with the Sampling Focus render elements as you mentioned.

No, the CPU is like 8% when the render gets stuck, which shows me that Corona\3ds Max isn't rendering. That is what I find really weird.

[Ondra]

can you post a minidump of the 3dsmax process when it happens?

[CiroC]

can you post a minidump of the 3dsmax process when it happens?

Yes Sir. I will tried again tonight

[CiroC]

Some updates:

Uploaded Corona Logs

Uploaded Capture -

I set the render for 24 hours or 2% noise level. Now if you see the time of render and the Remaining time it doesn't match. Besides the Remaining Time is stuck.

Upload mini dump
Using Dropbox. It has my name on it.

[Ondra]

Some updates:

Uploaded Corona Logs

Uploaded Capture -

I set the render for 24 hours or 2% noise level. Now if you see the time of render and the Remaining time it doesn't match. Besides the Remaining Time is stuck.

Upload mini dump
Using Dropbox. It has my name on it.

Hi,
thanks for the minidump, it was very helpful. One of the rendering threads got stuck in rendering loop, where it just infinitely casts additional rays but never finishes rendering its assigned pixel. This can be caused by a bug in Corona, bad scene geometry/materials, or combination of both. This is happening only in single scene, right? Can you upload the scene to us? Without it this is nearly impossible to fix. The dropbox uploader can take unlimited data and we will keep the scene private - we are routinely handling heavily NDA debug data.

[CiroC]

Thanks Ondra. I am preparing the files for you. I still need to get authorization to upload the scene.

[SARCASTIC]It seems we are working on NSA super secrets and the supreme commander is only available next Tuesday.[/SARCASTIC]

[Ondra]

did you get the authorization yet?

[CiroC]

did you get the authorization yet?

I was away for a couple of days. I am back tomorrow and I will see if the our dear leader allows that.

[Ondra]

from the way you speak I am starting to wonder who do you work for... North Korea? :D

[CiroC]

from the way you speak I am starting to wonder who do you work for... North Korea? :D

:D Almost. Isn't far in terms of ideology and politics. Still waiting. I guess we may to sacrifice someone in order to make it

[CiroC]

Ondra I am uploading the scene. Is around 4GB.

[Ondra]

note to self:
Ciro Cardoso - M4.7z


great, thanks! Expect this to be fixed in 1.7 ;)

[CiroC]

Thanks Ondra. If you need more info let me know.

[Ondra]

should be fixed now, but I cannot verify it, the scene is too large ;)

[CiroC]

should be fixed now, but I cannot verify it, the scene is too large ;)

With the hotfix 2? I will tried it then.

[Ondra]

only in 1.7 dailies

[Lightedlines]

Hi Ondra,

Hi have the exact same problem, the render is stuck at 8 passes and refuses to stop and aplly denoising.
What was the solution ?

Regards

[Lightedlines]

And it's actually working fine with the 1.7.