Distributed rendering "tyCache"

[Williams]

Hi guys

I have a problem with my distributed rendering using PFlow. If I render with my local machine it works fine, but if I use DR it doesn't render. I have exported and rendered the particles with tyCache. I activated "strict determinism" on a particle Bind parameter, but it didn't work. Also I am looking for my problem on the blog and did some of the possible solutions but it still doesn't work. I attach a screenshot of my scene.

Hope you can help me.

Thank you      

[tyFlow]

Have you installed tyFlow on all the DR machines?

[Williams]

Hi

Thank you for your response. Yes, in both machines are installed TFlow.

[tyFlow]

Are both machines able to see the tyCache path? If you open the file without making any changes on the other machine and hit render locally, do you see the water drops?

[Williams]

Hello

I have moved the max file and the folder with the cache files to the other pc without modifying anything and do the test. The render appears empty without the tyCache and has no particles.

And this is the path to my tyCache files, 2 levels below my max file.
   

[tyFlow]

Well, you're rendering from a local folder so likely the other machine can't find the cache. You can move the max file and cache but that doesn't matter unless the path is EXACTLY the same on both machines.

DR doesn't send any data other than instructions to 'open this file and render this bucket'. It doesn't send cache data over. Both machines have to have full access to cache data, either locally or on a shared network drive. Unless 'C:\users\stalin\desktop\human....' is a valid path on the other machine and also the location of the cache, it won't work.

An exception to this rule (of ENTIRE paths having to be identical), is if you enter a relative path as the cache location. For example, if the cache on both machines, relative to the max file, is: "[maxfile]\cache\blahblah...." you can enter ".\cache\blahblah..." as the cache location (the ".\" - or just '\' - at the start of the path denotes a relative path). Then you don't have to worry about the entire path being identical...just the relative folder structure.

[Williams]

I was reading this, I didn´t notice before. Maybe is the solution of my problem.     

[tyFlow]

Yes, you can use those symbols, or relative path methods mentioned above, or a combination of both.

[Williams]

Thanks, I will try this, I will let you know if it works or not.

Regards

[Williams]

Hi

I was working with the project and solved the problem. I picked up all the files with the archive, opened this *.max file and rendered this (without touching anything) now the DR recognize the tyCache files. The problem was as you mentioned the location of the tyCache path.

Thank you

[tyFlow]

I think I did testing a long time ago to consider speed of writing directly to target location vs writing to local temp storage and then copying to target location. There wasn't much of a difference if I recall....I was using reasonably fast drives though. If your network storage is very slow I could see a benefit to writing locally first...

[tyFlow]

Hi Juha,

Those settings control the in-memory cache. That is different than the disk cache. The in-memory cache allows fast scrubbing back and forth on the timeline. The disk cache allows you to save your simulation to disk for playback later. Disk cache can be created with an Export Particles operator, whereas the in-memory cache cannot be saved to disk and will not survive if you close and re-open Max.

[tyFlow]

I'm not really sure what you mean...

[tyFlow]

tyCaches are only generated by pressing that button, yes. Phoenix won't generate tyCaches. If you run your Phoenix sim to interact with tyFlow and are happy with the results, then you can hit the generate cache button in your Export Particles operator and write them to disk.