Re: Pb with satellite rendering - RJJ Shaders - (RESOLVED)

wireframex · Post by **wireframex** » 08 Mar 2010, 19:16

Hi,

I am trying to use RJJ textures with my little render farm but it doesn't work at all with the satellites.

All the others shaders presets who are in my network sharing workgroup are rendering fine.

RJJ render is ok with the master computer but not for the satellites

Can you tell me how to do ?

Program used : Softimage 2010
OS : windows 7 x64 Ultimate (all computers)
CPUs : i7 860

Thanks
Phil

xsisupport · Post by **xsisupport** » 08 Mar 2010, 22:44

What kind of problems do you have with those shader?
Error messages? Incorrect results?

wireframex · Post by **wireframex** » 09 Mar 2010, 18:15

When I use Quick render I saw only the master buckets render not those from the satellite.

With all others shaders it works well but not with RJJ

Phil

xsisupport · Post by **xsisupport** » 09 Mar 2010, 18:47

So, no error messages in the history log?
Turn on Information and Progress messages (Diagnostics tab of the mental ray preferences)

wireframex · Post by **wireframex** » 09 Mar 2010, 22:21

There is the message I have :

PHEN 1.11 error 051011:shader"EXSI_ColorScalar" not found

The workgroup is here:

\\QUAD-CORE-1-64\XSI_netrender

And the shaders are here :

\\QUAD-CORE-1-64\XSI_netrender\Addons\Enhance_XSI\data\DSPresets\Shaders\Texture\Utilities

All others shaders works perfectly except RJJ and satellites are ok (when rendering all CPU are at the maximum)

Phil

xsisupport · Post by **xsisupport** » 09 Mar 2010, 23:15

Often that error is caused by a missing dll, such as msvcr70.dll (which should be in the C:\windows\system32 folder). So your satellite computer may be missing a dependent DLL.

Rork · Post by **Rork** » 10 Mar 2010, 09:42

there's a neat little tool called 'Dependency Walker' that will show you what dll the shader is using.

rob

wireframex · Post by **wireframex** » 10 Mar 2010, 19:44

xsisupport wrote:Often that error is caused by a missing dll, such as msvcr70.dll (which should be in the C:\windows\system32 folder). So your satellite computer may be missing a dependent DLL.

in the satellites I have msvcr70.dll in c:\Windows\System32\
and c:\Windows\SysWOW64\

Phil

wireframex · Post by **wireframex** » 10 Mar 2010, 19:46

Rork wrote:there's a neat little tool called 'Dependency Walker' that will show you what dll the shader is using.
rob

I have a look to it

EDIT : mmmh have seen nothing bad ...

xsisupport · Post by **xsisupport** » 11 Mar 2010, 11:13

With satellite rendering, do you get errors just with that specific shader, or with any shader?

If you have a network license, can you try starting xsi.exe or xsibatch.exe on the satellite machine and then render a frame? Does that work or do you get a similiar error?

wireframex · Post by **wireframex** » 13 Mar 2010, 10:23

xsisupport wrote:With satellite rendering, do you get errors just with that specific shader, or with any shader?

I have the pb with all shaders from RJJ only ...

xsisupport wrote:If you have a network license, can you try starting xsi.exe or xsibatch.exe on the satellite machine and then render a frame? Does that work or do you get a similiar error?

I don't have any network license.

I tried the migrate preferences form XSI 7.01 but this is the same.

Satellite rendering works well with others shaders but not with RJJ ...

Thanks for your help

Phil

wireframex · Post by **wireframex** » 13 Mar 2010, 22:07

INCREDIBLE !!!!

I found the pb - it was not about my installation ....

I just turned off the WINDOWS 7 USER ACCOUNT CONTROL (UAC) !!!

Now all is ok

Hirazi Blue · Post by **Hirazi Blue** » 14 Mar 2010, 15:38

Luckily, you found the answer in the end!

Was this a case of turning off UAC on your host or on all the slaves too?

rant: What those friendly folk at Microsoft were thinking, when they introduced the "UAC", is still beyond me... One of the first things I did, when I starting using Vista, was to turn it off completely. But my workstation doesn't have any internet connections, so "security" isn't all that tight...(i.e. "don't try this at home, kids!")

wireframex · Post by **wireframex** » 14 Mar 2010, 15:56

Hirazi Blue wrote:Luckily, you found the answer in the end!
Was this a case of turning off UAC on your host or on all the slaves too?

Yeah found it !!

I turned off the Host the first time and it worked but after I turned off also the satellite.

Hirazi Blue wrote:rant: What those friendly folk at Microsoft were thinking, when they introduced the "UAC", is still beyond me... One of the first things I did, when I starting using Vista, was to turn it off completely. But my workstation doesn't have any internet connections, so "security" isn't all that tight...(i.e. "don't try this at home, kids!")

Strange thing is UAC ... I was lucky to think about it but I will never give up ;)
I have internet connections for all computers but I use a soft and a hard firewall to protect all.

Thanks for all

Phil

Rork · Post by **Rork** » 15 Mar 2010, 08:33

rant: What those friendly folk at Microsoft were thinking, when they introduced the "UAC", is still beyond me

Despite the somewhat annoying implementation by MS, UAC is overall a -good- thing. Like all other OS's (Linux, Unix, OSX etc.) removing the user from area's where they can do serious harm is good. After Vista and now W7, companies that still program apps that need admin rights to run properly should be avoided. They had plenty of time to fix their applications.

There's no need to turn off UAC for day to day use of your pc, and the only times you will see something pop up is when you install apps, drivers or change something in the system.
And this is a -good- thing. If it's doing it when running apps, or out of the blue, be cautious to why this is happening as the system is trying to -tell- you something. Don't go clickedyclick OK>OK>OK...... ;)

Sorry to say this, but anyone who advises to turn off UAC has 1. no full understanding of the concept 2. will contribute to botnets, rootkits, viruses etc. in the long run.

Going back to the shader issue. It's really odd to get the shaders running only when turning off UAC. That would mean the shaders are trying to write in a system or protected folder where they don't belong. E.g. the Program folders area, the C:\ drive outside the user folder etc.

You might contact the writer of the shaders to see what's going on, as this is -not- the solution to go.

my two security cents rant of the day,

rob

Hirazi Blue · Post by **Hirazi Blue** » 15 Mar 2010, 08:43

Rork wrote: Sorry to say this, but anyone who advises to turn off UAC has 1. no full understanding of the concept 2. will contribute to botnets, rootkits, viruses etc. in the long run.

Hope you didn't misunderstand me: I didn't want to advise anyone to turn off the UAC (that's what the "don't try this at home, kids!" remark was for). I don't know about Windows 7, but in Vista (and obviously merely IMHO) the UAC is just plain wrong. Not as a concept, I'll give you that, but in it's implementation... I do my utmost best to keep any file that goes to my offline workstation as clean as possible and do not want to be constantly annoyed by the UAC whenever Windows decides I don't know what I'm doing... (while I certainly do MOST of the time) ;)

If you're still on Vista and not willing/able to turn off the UAC completely, this blog post on ZDNET might be helpful: Fixing Windows Vista, Part 2: Taming UAC But again, before someone complains, "Use at your own risk!!!"