Author Topic: Animations and Parsing times and issues  (Read 904 times)

2023-04-03, 12:17:42

shortcirkuit

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Hi guys - i wrote to the corona team and im also seeking some input here (also along with documenting this in a forum) - however doing an animation while using DR is a bit of a pain.  Heres my issue.

I'm using Max 2023.3 and the latest Corona Dailyt

I have a 5995WX as my main master pc and a 3970x as my render node.  Im using the DR feature within the corona settings (not backburner.)   It works well for still images, but for DR, when i set the render size to 1920x1080, my active machine (5995WX) does it each frame in 2 mins, however by the time the DR does the parsing, the current frame is rendered by the main PC and then it starts all over and the NODE starts the parsing again, so it actually never renders.

Is there a better workaround to this?  I feel this isnt optimised for DR work - especially for faster workstations.  The only way i see this working, is if i increase resolution output for instance, and force a longer render time and by this, i give the DR a chance to kick in.

Any input here is much appreciated.
« Last Edit: 2023-04-03, 13:22:51 by shortcirkuit »



2023-04-03, 13:57:59
Reply #3

Frood

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Hi,

BB or Deadline or similar, yes. BB runs here since decades (as windows service), so I'm not sure how hard it would be to set it up from scratch. Or my selective memory possibly refuses to remember :) When I install any new render slave, it usually takes only 2 minutes to set up the service.

Immediate solution could be: split the job "manually": start rendering of frame 0-99 on node1, frame 100-199 on node2 and so on...


Good Luck


Never underestimate the power of a well placed level one spell.

2023-04-03, 14:03:09
Reply #4

shortcirkuit

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Thx... For BB to work, it's not like the corona DR it needs all scene assets network mapped?  If so I'm doomed.  Is there a guide you know if?  I've struggled to find something decent


Hi,

BB or Deadline or similar, yes. BB runs here since decades (as windows service), so I'm not sure how hard it would be to set it up from scratch. Or my selective memory possibly refuses to remember :) When I install any new render slave, it usually takes only 2 minutes to set up the service.

Immediate solution could be: split the job "manually": start rendering of frame 0-99 on node1, frame 100-199 on node2 and so on...


Good Luck

2023-04-03, 14:08:49
Reply #5

shortcirkuit

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Also, would U know if the corona team are doing anything about this?  I guess I'd like to know if I should have hope for a fix for this or just suck it up and move on

2023-04-03, 14:38:26
Reply #6

Frood

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it needs all scene assets network mapped?  If so I'm doomed.  Is there a guide you know if?  I've struggled to find something decent

Imagine opening your scene on a BB node with 3ds max. If you could render the scene there without missing assets, then a BB node also can. However, you cannot use mapped drive letters when running BB server (or any other application) as windows service. But if you start BB server.exe as a user that has the required drives mapped, then everything should work. Same applies for batch rendering, so why not just try a

"3dsmaxcmd -v:5 -frames 0-5 c:\temp\YourAnimScene.max"

on a node and see if everything works.

And you will never be doomed. If everything goes wrong, collect all assets into a single directory and relink them at once in (SHIFT+T) asset tracker to any UNC path or wherever you want. In case of Backburner: there is an option "Include Maps" when submitting a scene, sending the entire bunch of assets to the BB servers for that scene so that the nodes access them locally.


Good Luck


Never underestimate the power of a well placed level one spell.

2023-04-03, 14:48:01
Reply #7

pokoy

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I'd also simply go with BB, you are losing quite some time by having 2 PCs doing the same task (loading up max file, loading assets, parsing) even if your DR setup worked the way you'd like it to.
You might run into the problem where a BB server (your 2nd PC in the network) can't connect to the manager but this can be solved by disabling ipv6 protocol in the network settings on your machines. This is a win10/win11 problem and doesn't necessarily occur, if it does this mostly does solve the problem.

2023-04-04, 03:38:04
Reply #8

shortcirkuit

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thansk all for your input - i discovered Pulze Render Manager - makes it so easy.