3dx plugin prevents V-Ray DR in 3ds Max 2010

[Spacer001]

After several days of insane frustration trying to figure out why V-Ray distributed rendering was not working in 3ds Max 2010 using the V-Ray Spawner, I finally isolated the cause to the presence of 3DxStudio.ms and 3dxstd.dlu on three different render slaves. Once removed, the rendering buckets started flowing at last.

Note that this problem does not occur in 3ds Max 2009, so there may be something specific to the plugin for 3ds Max 2010 that causes the conflict. Also, regular network rendering without V-Ray does work in 3ds Max 2010.

Although removing the two files is easy enough on my render slaves, in other work environments where a render slave is also an actively used workstation with a licensed installation of 3ds Max 2010 and a 3dconnexion device, this could be quite an annoying problem.

Note that completely uninstalling the 3DxSoftware drivers, rebooting, and then reinstalling v3.7.16 did not resolve the issue.

Going forward, I will be sure to disallow the installation of the 3dx plugin in 3ds Max on a PC that is also used as a render slave. If I have to transfer a 3ds Max license to one of those PC's, however, I'll also have to remember to reinstall the 3dx plugin and script in order to use the device.

Please add this to the bug list. Thank you.

System info:
SpaceBall 5000 USB
3DxSoftware v3.7.16 (3DxStudio 2010 4.8.1)
V-Ray 1.50 SP3a
3ds Max 2010 SP1 (no different without SP1)
Windows XP Pro 32-bit SP3 (no different with SP2)
Intel D975XBX2 motherboard
4GB RAM
nVidia Quadro FX 3700 / GeForce GTX 260 / GeForce 9800GTX / GeForce 8800GTS (in four different PC's - 1 client and three servers)

[Strob]

I had a relly hard time with this bug too. Now I'm forced to uninstall 3dx everytime I render with vray.

I haven't try yet the latest 3dx, I hope they solved that problem.

[mbonk]

Hi Spacer001, Strob,
Sorry to say this is the first we have heard about the issue with 3ds Max 2010. Could you have max generate a log file?

Markus

[mbonk]

We cannot reproduce any issue with 3ds max 2010 and the autodesk backburner. I suggest you contact chaosgroup about issue with the V-Ray renderer.

Markus

[Strob]

It is not with backburner, it's with vray distributed rendering (rendering a single image with many computer via networking).

What happen is when vray spawner try to start a job on a computer, the 3dconnexion startup plugin prevent it from responding to the server. I already told that to chaosgroup, but it seems 3dConnexion and chaosgroup should consult each other to resolve the matter.

in max 2010 we have to remove these 2 files for vray DR to work.
3DxStudio.ms in the \Scripts\Startup directory.
3dxstd.dlu in the \stdplugs

[ngomes]

Hi Strob,

What happen is when vray spawner try to start a job on a computer, the 3dconnexion startup plugin prevent it from responding to the server. I already told that to chaosgroup

You say that you have contacted chaosgroup about this issue. What was their response? Did their analysis indicated an issue with 3Dconnexion's plug-in?

From our perspective, the "backburner" is a similar sort of solution as chaosgroup's. We don't see our plug-in affecting that code.

[jelmer85]

Is there a solution to this propblem yet?

I keep renaming the 2 files all the time, since I work on my PC and laptop, making either one or the other the render slave.
It starts to annoy me a bit.

I am sure this must be a 3d connexion problem (not Vray), as any other plugin doesn't create such problems.

[jelmer85]

Maybe it is interesting to test what happens if both the render slave and master have a 3d connexion mouse attached. It might work then?
I can test it, if you send me an extra space navigator.

[NicolasC]

Hello there

We've got the same problem here, my coworker and I, both using a SpaceExplorer and 3dsmax 2012x64. This problem drove us mad until we found the solution, like told above, removing 3DxStudio.ms in the \Scripts\Startup directory and 3dxstd.dlu in the \stdplugs folder.
Again, this doesn't concern BackBurner at all, but only VRay's distributed renderer ...
Please please please fix this !! because of that, we've now found simpler to put our nice and expensive Space Explorer aside to use VRay DR without hassle ... that's not serious

Thanks in advance for your help !

Regards.

[NicolasC]

Hello there

We've got the same problem here, my coworker and I, both using a SpaceExplorer and 3dsmax 2012x64. This problem drove us mad until we found the solution, like told above, removing 3DxStudio.ms in the \Scripts\Startup directory and 3dxstd.dlu in the \stdplugs folder.
Again, this doesn't concern BackBurner at all, but only VRay's distributed renderer ...
Please please please fix this !! because of that, we've now found simpler to put our nice and expensive Space Explorer aside to use VRay DR without hassle ... that's not serious

Thanks in advance for your help !

Regards.

Hello,

2 months have passed now, and not a word from 3dConnexion ... come one, that's not serious

[NicolasC]

Good morning,

Is there ANY chance to EVER get some feedback from 3DConnexion on that point ??

Thanks,

[ngomes]

Hi NicolasC,

I think we have made our position in a couple of posts above: we cannot see an issue using Autodesk's own Backburner solution.

Our recommendation is to ask Chaos Group why there seems to be an issue with their product but not with Autodesk Backburner.

[NicolasC]

Hi NicolasC,

I think we have made our position in a couple of posts above: we cannot see an issue using Autodesk's own Backburner solution.

Our recommendation is to ask Chaos Group why there seems to be an issue with their product but not with Autodesk Backburner.

Sorry, but do you ever read ?? who talked about BackBurner ?? from the beginning, it has always been about VRay distributed rendering (via VRay Spawner app), but never about BackBurner ...

[ngomes]

Hi NicolasC,

We do understand that you've reported the problem being reproducible in VRay distributed rendering. My apologies if that wasn't clear.

We do not have access to to VRay but we do to Autodesk's (Backburner) and we find no issues with the latter. The significance being that both are competing products and offering similar functionality.

[BoldMax]

Hi NicolasC,

We do understand that you've reported the problem being reproducible in VRay distributed rendering. My apologies if that wasn't clear.

We do not have access to to VRay but we do to Autodesk's (Backburner) and we find no issues with the latter. The significance being that both are competing products and offering similar functionality.

Good evening! So strange to write something new in tow years old topic. But, as i undersand, nothing changed. So.

ngomes, to say, Vray Spawner is native Vray DR solution. So there is nothing compete with. This is only way to fully use Vray DR functions. So we realy need it!
And it would be so nice of you just to try to solve the problem. I'm sure, gays from Chaosgroup will be happy to help you. This a question of hours of work, not days.
But only if you will do it together - no like now, when everybody says "that's not our problem".