Author Topic: A7.1 distributed render - environment map issue  (Read 5903 times)

2014-08-27, 17:20:22

krassnoludek

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Hello coronauts,

I'm having an issue when rendering distributed (progressive/bucket - does not matter).


Wihtout environment map everything works fine.
When I use HDRi or any other map in the environment map slot(F11)  I get different colors, the ones from the slave slightly darker.....this results in a "border" (see attached image).
Anyone had this issue or knows what to do? Any help very much apprechiated.

 Thanks!

« Last Edit: 2014-08-27, 17:37:02 by krassnoludek »

2014-08-27, 17:34:00
Reply #1

snakebox

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How many passes is this after?  It normally corrects itself after a few passes. If you use 10 nodes you will see strips down your render as each node is given a section to focus on (it seems so), but after a few passes it all blends perfectly.

2014-08-27, 17:36:01
Reply #2

krassnoludek

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Hello snakebox, thanks for your answer, but no, waiting did not help.
I think I just found a solution.

As mentioned in another thread:

a copy of the map into the "drData" folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Corona\DrServer\drData) of the slave machine helps.



2014-08-28, 09:47:37
Reply #3

naikku

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I have had the same problem. Even wrote about it to one thread in here but no one answered to it (?)..
Thanks for the help

2014-09-05, 19:30:38
Reply #4

z8er

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I am still having a similar problem. When I use an HDR in the environment slot with Distributed rendering, I either get these strips like this or everything is equal but the exposure/gamma is gradually gets darker and darker... Any help?
CG Director @Related Grey

2014-09-05, 19:38:52
Reply #5

krassnoludek

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Have you tried to copy the HDRI into the "drData" folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Corona\DrServer\drData) of the slave machine?


2014-09-05, 20:07:03
Reply #6

z8er

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Thanks for the reply! I have tried this, same problem.

What I'm discovering currently, is if I enable the DEBUG{retain EXRS] option and then open them in Photoshop, they are completely black. So my issue does seem to be the slaves are not seeing the Environment map and are rendering black. I've tried using a network location that all slaves can see, and also putting the map in the drData folder. Any other ideas? Thanks!
CG Director @Related Grey

2014-09-05, 21:12:20
Reply #7

z8er

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I believe I've fixed my problem! There seems to have been two issues.

First was resolving the HDR map path to the UNC Location (Asset Tracking). Second had to do with the startup of DRServer. I had it running as a scheduled task at log in. I had it set to run under all admins, but changing that to run as the correct User seems to have fixed the issue. Working great so far!
CG Director @Related Grey

2014-09-06, 17:45:35
Reply #8

krassnoludek

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Ok that is interesting, thanks for the info!

2015-03-07, 00:53:01
Reply #9

modern_babylon

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Hi guys,

I'll be checking out both these options on Monday as I have had the same issues with both 7.1 and now 1.0. Setting up UNC paths is a good start and this helped me with the issue of maps being dropped (even when the maps are stored on a network drive that all nodes can see).

The banding/gamma issue when using an HDRI in the environment slot has been an ongoing issue though. We managed to address the banding issue by loading the HDRI as a bitmap, but obviously this method is not ideal to retain the best control over the HDRI. I guess like a lot of people, we have used the vray HDRI loader to control the HDRI within the scene until now and this method always produces the dark banding when using DR (it renders perfectly on all stand alone machines), So this leads me to believe that DR has an issue reading the correct gamma (or reading the HDRI at all if loaded as an HDRI into max's environment slot.) I'm looking forward to a corona version of the VrayHDRI that gives the same kind of control with rotation, inverse gamma and so on in coming months but until then I will try both suggestions mentioned above.

If anyone has a confirmed DR workflow using and HDRI in the environment slot please feel free to let me know :)

Have a great weekend everyone.

MB