Network rendering

[kamedonski]

Is it possible to run a network render (deadline) with free version of TyFlow on machines using trial version of 3ds max (no gui)?

[tyFlow]

A license is not required for network rendering tyFlows/tyCaches.

[kamedonski]

A license is not required for network rendering tyFlows/tyCaches.

Thanks for quick reply. I am getting an error "RenderPluginException -- Error: 3dsmax: Failed to load max file: "C:/ProgramData... " when trying to render on non-gui machines. Scenes without tyflow are rendering normally. Scenes with tyflow are working on gui machines. Any idea what could be a problem? Thanks!

[tyFlow]

Did you forget to install tyFlow on those machines?

[kamedonski]

Did you forget to install tyFlow on those machines?

Of course not. Tried with both tyflow and tyflow_render, together or solo, all combinations.

[tyFlow]

What’s the actual Deadline error? Have you tried opening the file locally on those machines?

[kamedonski]

What’s the actual Deadline error? Have you tried opening the file locally on those machines?

Error: RenderPluginException -- Error: 3dsmax: Failed to load max file

Cannot open file on those machines since there is no autodesk license on them, those are render nodes only. These machines render normally without tyflow in scene. 

[tyFlow]

Can you log out of a workstation and log into a render node and open the file?

“Failed to load Max file” could be any number of things…but there is no part of tyFlow that will result in a file failing to load due to missing license. So something is wrong with the machine’s configuration.

[kamedonski]

Can you log out of a workstation and log into a render node and open the file?

“Failed to load Max file” could be any number of things…but there is no part of tyFlow that will result in a file failing to load due to missing license. So something is wrong with the machine’s configuration.

It looks like same error as if plugin is not instaled:

=======================================================
Error
=======================================================
Error: 3dsmax: Failed to load max file: "C:/ProgramData/Thinkbox/Deadline10/workers/R1/jobsData/66c3a18e625bcbaf73eb5f48/scena.max"

  at Deadline.Plugins.PluginWrapper.StartJob(String& outMessage, AbortLevel& abortLevel)

=======================================================
Type
=======================================================
RenderPluginException

=======================================================
Stack Trace
=======================================================
  at Deadline.Plugins.SandboxedPlugin.d(DeadlineMessage bgq, CancellationToken bgr)
  at Deadline.Plugins.SandboxedPlugin.StartJob(Job job, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
  at Deadline.Slaves.SlaveRenderThread.c(TaskLogWriter ajv, CancellationToken ajw)

[tyFlow]

Check read permissions on the DLO file on those machines, check that other plugins are loading from the same folder, etc…

[kamedonski]

Check read permissions on the DLO file on those machines, check that other plugins are loading from the same folder, etc…

It seems that TyFlow cannot be initialized if 3ds Max has not had one full startup. I temporarily logged into the Autodesk account on the render machine, opened Max, closed it and then logged out of Autodesk. Now this pc renders tyflow scene on network. I repeated this procedure on two more pcs, same result. Bearing in mind that other plugins are initialized without problems even if Max is never started up, perhaps this circumstance in case of TyFlow could be interpreted as a potential problem.

[tyFlow]

I have many users who run tyFlow on their farm with zero issues, and who have never run those machines in UI mode.

This seems more like a configuration issue on your farm that was resolved when Max entered UI mode, for some reason. The fact that tyFlow wasn’t even loaded in headless mode seems to demonstrate that it’s not a tyFlow issue (tyFlow can’t control Max behavior if it’s not even loaded).

One final thing you can check is the max.log file that Max always generates during startup, that contains a more verbose log than what Deadline generates. You’ll have to search your machines for that file…I can’t remember the default location. But it may contain further details about the issue.

[kamedonski]

I have many users who run tyFlow on their farm with zero issues, and who have never run those machines in UI mode.

This seems more like a configuration issue on your farm that was resolved when Max entered UI mode, for some reason. The fact that tyFlow wasn’t even loaded in headless mode seems to demonstrate that it’s not a tyFlow issue (tyFlow can’t control Max behavior if it’s not even loaded).

One final thing you can check is the max.log file that Max always generates during startup, that contains a more verbose log than what Deadline generates. You’ll have to search your machines for that file…I can’t remember the default location. But it may contain further details about the issue.

Max.log showed there is no tyflow plugin on render node. However I found out that sometimes max doesn't load all plugins from default plugin folder. Workaround is to add ADSK_3DSMAX_PLUGINS_ADDON_DIR enviroment variable pointing to default plugin folder. Issue decribed here:

https://forums.thinkboxsoftware.com/t/de...le/30409/2

Thank you very much for help!

[tyFlow]

Great, so if I understand correctly, assigning that environment variable on your machines resolved the issue?

[kamedonski]

Great, so if I understand correctly, assigning that environment variable on your machines resolved the issue?

Yes