Max and NetRender Issues as well

[ddustin]

We wanted to run a test using NR for our vehicle sequence (A6 and dust).

1. We set up 5 render nodes by installing the plugin on each.
2. Launched NetRender and found one of the render nodes was not rendering the smoke (it was just one initially).
3. We shutdown the server app and uninstalled then reinstalled the plugin.
4. The offending render node, now renders the smoke (render is still in progress so that could change).
5. Each of the render nodes created frames without smoke at one point.
There does not seem to be a pattern.
6. All render nodes are running Win XP home.
7. fxd files range from 4k for frame 0 to 1,596 for frame 360 (last frame)
8. fdc file is 418,310 kb
9. All fxd and the fdc files are located on a network resource.

Any help is appreciated. We need to be able to use this pugin with NR or it will not be of any value to us.

Thanks,
david

EDIT: it appears there are sequences of 6 consecutive or 12 consecutive frames that did not render smoke, so that rules out an individual node issue.
Interestingly, the larger fdx frames later in the render all rendered fine.

[sitnisati]

Hello,

Can you please let me know how much RAM do you have on render machines and are you rendering with Illumination Map and Multiple Scattering ?

Thank you.

Kresimir

[ddustin]

All Nodes have 512Mb RAM, which has been enough for all other max and Animation Master Projects.

How do I know if Illumination Map and multiple scattering are enabled?

Is there a minimum spec for render nodes?

david

[sitnisati]

Hello,

If fdc file is 418,310 kb (it is compressed), then you need more than 418 Mb just for simulation data to load into RAM -not to mention 3ds max and Windows.

During the simulation, you can read on FumeFX status window how much RAM is used. Simulation requires more RAM than rendering, but you can halve that number to get an approximation of how much is needed for rendering.


Regards,

Kresimir

[ddustin]

Very usefull information.

So the fdc file is the only file the render nodes use?
Do the nodes have any need of the individual fdx files?

That is a large investment to upgrade the RAM on all our render nodes to 1 or 2 Gb.

Thanks,
david

[cgroman]

david, i agree that is is a large investment. but u have to consider that with 512 mb of ram, even lowres sims can take ultra long per node, just because of swapping.

if u plan many projects with ffx in the future, then its more than recomendable to increase ram.

[ddustin]

Yes it looks like we'll need to upgrade.

BTW I have been trying to get a login for cgfluids and can't seem to get one. Any ideas?

david

[Rif]

thats my fault.. spiderman is killing me.. and i have no sleep

please send me a Private message here with ur exact username .. ill add u right away

sorry

[sitnisati]

Very usefull information.

So the fdc file is the only file the render nodes use?
Do the nodes have any need of the individual fdx files?

That is a large investment to upgrade the RAM on all our render nodes to 1 or 2 Gb.

Thanks,
david

.fxd files are used for rendering, but they are much more compressed than fdc files to occupy as low hard disk space as possible. When they're loaded in RAM, they have to be unpacked. For the next version,we will definitely look into further memory optimizations.

Kresimir

[ddustin]

We ran another test with only render nodes that had 1Gb of RAM and the "smokeless frames" issue did not present itself, meaning there were no problems.

So it would appear 1Gb works well (so far).

Thanks, for your help.

david

[sitnisati]

David,

You are always welcome to post any issues you encounter in everyday work with FumeFX. We will be happy to help you.

Kresimir