Possible Bug

[BigAl3D]

I have a project that I want to render on my small farm. I Save Project with Assets to ensure I have everything since this will be on another network.

Since this is an animation, I always like to pull up the texture manager make sure I have all green checks. Well, there are a bunch of materials that apparently didn't make the trip. I do see the word "shared" quite a bit in there. I believe every material in this scene is from the material library or Cosmos. Perhaps one or two I have a PBR set for. Nothing complex.

It is also possible that any missing textures may not be in the view of this camera, but didn't want to take a chance.

Is there a workaround for this? I would imagine this is a big problem for anyone sending their project to a real render farm.

Thanks.

Mac C4D r25
Version • 10 (Daily Build Nov 28 2022)

Just realized I have Version • 10 (Daily Build Dec 20 2022) on the remote Mac. Doubt that would cause this though.

[Beanzvision]

Hi there,

I think the issue here is the shared shader. If so, the workaround would be to ensure that nothing is being shared and it may require some duplicate shaders instead. I understand that it might be time consuming, but if that's the cause, I'm not sure of any other workaround other than it being looked into by the devs. I hope this helps for now. Fingers crossed!

[BigAl3D]

Thanks for the info. Interesting.

I do remember some discussion about shared items when sending jobs out to render farms. So in this case, I dropped the two materials in question into a new scene. In the wood material on the left, would the three nodes I have selected be considered shared since their output is sent to three places? I tried duplicating those three and linking the copied to the other two nodes, but the textures were still broken.

With my limited knowledge on this, it does not appear that the metal material on the right has any shared shaders, correct? Yet that material also breaks. Is sharing shaders only a Corona thing, or is that common in node editors? Curious if this is a Corona-only problem, or could it also be a Cinema 4D issue? Does Max have this problem too?

I have also sent The PixelLab an e-mail with this problem, but I will do a follow-up with the shared items issue. Maybe they can update the pak until a solution is found.

[TomG]

C4D doesn't have the concept of "send the same shader to multiple different locations", unlike 3ds Max. This was what we had to code for ourselves to make our Node Material Editor (and is why it remains unique and different from "node based materials" in C4D, which still don't allow the same shader to be linked to multiple places in one material/shader or certainly not across shaders or materials). Behind the scenes, a special "Shared Shader" is created to handle this. Anything connected to more than one input can only work if this Shared Shader is created.

[BigAl3D]

Knowing this issue has been around for quite a while, I have no problem finding a workaround. I know Joren from The Pixel Lab would be interested to know too. This is his first Corona pack and I don't want him to shy away from future Corona products. I'm thinking if I know what I need to eliminate from the node editor, I can set up a scene with corrected materials and be fine until a solution is found. In the attached image, and as my note indicate, it appeared there was one instance of a shared shader. I duped them and connected directly, but they still won't collect properly. I'm also confused as to why the other two shaders down below are also broken when they did NOT have shared shaders. Any insights?

Can I send this shader library to the private uploader to see if you can decipher anything wrong with the setup?

[Beanzvision]

Hi there, for the broken bitmaps, can you try using a C4D bitmap and let us know the outcome? If they are still broken, please feel free to shoot through the scene. An uploader can be found in my signature below. :)

[BigAl3D]

Well now this is a possible breakthrough. I just did two tests based on your recommendation Beanzvision.

1.  I replaced all Corona Bitmap nodes with C4D bitmap nodes. I also removed the Shared Colorizer node. Collected scene is perfect.

2.  I replaced all Corona Bitmap nodes with C4D bitmap nodes. This time, I left the Shared Colorizer in place. Collected scene is perfect as well.

Not sure if removing the Corona Bitmap nodes will allow scenes to work with dedicated render farms or not, but it makes me curious. Is it possible that the bitmap node is the main culprit and on the shared issue?

P.S. Too bad there isn't a visual difference in between the bitmap nodes. Right now, Corona and C4D Bitmap nodes appear identical until I click on each one to see it's name in the side panel. Maybe there's a setting that can be changed?

[TomG]

That's a good comment on the fact they are both visually identical - that trips me up in testing things sometimes :)

[Beanzvision]

(Internal ID=987947135)

[BigAl3D]

Just wanted to add something new I just discovered on this topic. I sent a job to the Render Queue which showed an error and listed a lot of missing assets the queue, even though they are all linked properly.

I just discovered that if you go in the Project Assets Inspector, select all your assets and hit the Consolidate Assets option, C4D will collect everything and save just the assets to a new folder. No sign of that random-named texture map I was seeing with the materials that used Corona Bitmap node.

Two caveats to this "workaround". The consolidate option did NOT collect the .vrmesh for the Cosmos model I added to this test scene or the HDRI for some reason. Still much faster than replacing materials on the other system/farm where the rendering will take place.

The last point is C4D's assets inspector will show the warning icon that the assets are there, but have the wrong path. Just a quick asset re-link and ready to render.

[jojorender]

Why was this moved to “resolved bugs”? Doesn’t seem resolved…
I only found this when searching for “Save Project with Assets” because on 2 recent jobs, that I had to send to a farm, I ran into the same issue.
I render most of my projects in-house with TR on 3 nodes and know that all textures are linked correctly. When preparing a scene to send to a farm, shared shaders and Corona Bitmap shaders textures go missing.

How was this issue resolved?

[Beanzvision]

Why was this moved to “resolved bugs”? Doesn’t seem resolved…
I only found this when searching for “Save Project with Assets” because on 2 recent jobs, that I had to send to a farm, I ran into the same issue.
I render most of my projects in-house with TR on 3 nodes and know that all textures are linked correctly. When preparing a scene to send to a farm, shared shaders and Corona Bitmap shaders textures go missing.

How was this issue resolved?

Hi, it has only been moved as part of a forum clean-up. The issue is still active in our internal reports and is being looked into. Hopefully, I will have more news on this soon. :)

[jojorender]

Thanks for the quick response.
If the c-bitmap shader finally gets the long awaited overhaul, please send devs a reminder for this issue - Internal ID=487235911

[Beanzvision]

Thanks and don't worry, we haven't forgotten about it ;)

[jojorender]

don't worry, we haven't forgotten about it ;)

Damn, that’s usually code for “we’ll never fix it”… :-(