#Command line rend HELP!
11 messages in this thread
Is it not possible to specify a path when rendering from the
command line??? Its late and I'm probably doing something stupid, but
the frames end up in my 'image' path no matter what I do. AARRGGHH!!
I wanted to batch render 1600 frames overnight, and I thought it a
good idea to do a little test first (lucky I did). Here's the batch
file….
d:\dps_par\pardrv cd\3ds3 3ds set=comrend.set render flgtst.prj
/dnull /on /sg /#0,10 /iE:\tests\flg.tga
I tried rendering to two different drives, I tried changing the image
path in the set file and in 3ds, I changed the image path in 'configure' and
saved the prj file, but the frames are dumped in the same place. It has to be
me, so what am I missing? (so much for getting that stuff out tonight…. I
think its time for bed)
David
Why are you using batch commands when you could be using the built-in
queing functions inside of 3DS? As the section in the docs about
net-rendering discusses, you can use the network queue on one machine
to effectively eliminate the need for command-line batch rendering.
>>Why are you using batch commands when you could be using the built-in queing
functions inside of 3DS?
Ummmm…. Good question. Since I only have one machine I never
bothered reading the network section of the guide. Guess I should,
huh? I'll do that, but do you have any ideas on what was happening
with the command line thing? I'm really curious to know why that was
happening.
Thanx,
David
Give the built-in queue manager a shot. It makes figuring out all those arcane
batch commands a thing of the past. I wouldn't even begin to speculate on what
you were doing, without your file and system environment here.
– G
But I _LIKE_ batch line rendering; it's my friend! :^)
Couldn't follow you batch file, but I do this almost every night and
it works great for me. I set up the batch files so that I can render
several different sequences and/or so I can take the lock home and
runs tests of other stuff while the real machine is rendering at
work. Here is an example, assuming that all necessary map paths are
identified in your 3DS.SET file:
3ds render c:\data\seq1\model /ftc /ic:\data\seq1\modl /dnull /8h /n /#0,300
3ds render c:\data\seq2\chem /ftc /ic:\data\seq2\chem /h486 /w512 /a1.266
……
The only suggestions that I can even come up with for you is: 1) if you have
batch messages OFF in your 3ds.set and your path doesn't exist, you might get
the rendered images dumped in the default "images" directory, or 2) never
mind…this one is stupid.
By the way, either way kind of machine do you have or how big is the mesh so
that you could run 1600 frmaes in one night? Wow!
Actually, I'm going Gary's route and using the net queue,
which will work great for rendering multiple files in one shot (I
guess it wouldn't work for you if you had to pull the lock). Hopefuly
I won't have to deal with the command line problem, because it had me
baffled. I tried rendering to different drives and directories, but
the files always ended up in the image sub directory, even when I
changed the default in both the set file and project file.
1600 frames in one night? To complicate things, its a single
shot and the original mesh file is almost 22 megs, but this rendering
is just a final motion test done full res, G shaded and no
antialiasing or maps and works out to 25 sec/frame or 11 hours total.
Even with 40 megs RAM, it had to be broken into 5 separate files to
keep from paging. And storage? I'm rendering straight to a PAR drive,
so thats not a problem. Whats going to be real interesting is the
final render's requirements with 3-4 VP layers (tons of storage…. I
can easily clear up about 1.5 gigs HD space, but even with that my
little Colorado 250 is going to be seeing alot of use), and I
estimate about 120 – 140 hours rendering time. It would be real nice
to have more than one machine at times like these, of course, I
wouldn't mind a house or… lets say… a million dollors either! <g>
David,
<< Actually, I'm going Gary's route and using the net queue, which will work
great for rendering multiple files in one shot (I guess it wouldn't work for
you if you had to pull the lock). >>
Sure it will. Send your jobs to the queue. Quit 3ds. Turn Off your
machine. Take off the lock.Turn on the machine. Type 3ds slave
and go home…:-) Model to your hearts content at home.
jonas[adesk]
Now all we need is a little phone in option so that we can see if the thing is
going to be done by 8:00 am or if I can continue playing into the wee hours and
then sleep in <g>!
Jonas,
>>Sure it will…. Type 3ds slave ….
One of these days I'll read all the manuals cover to cover… one of
these days.
David
Sorry I couldn't help. Still don't understand why it won't work for you. Like
I said, I live by both this method and the Network slave method. In fact, I'm
in the process of writing a batch file generator to render (or drop) several
sequences of stuff (including holds and gaps) to my EVO-9650 so I can let it go
all weekend.
Good luck with the network method.