#No mouse
11 messages in this thread
Hi,
We've got a render farm set-up with six 64MB 100 MHz Pentium systems connected
to the Novell the network. One monitor and keyboard are shared between all six
systems.
Occasionally, 3DS stops network rendering and displays a prompt, e.g. do you
want to go through the partially recorder FLIC?
Why this message appears is for another time 🙂
However, when the message appears, 3DS tries to display the mouse cursor. If
you haven't got a mouse connected, it crashes with an exception error.
Is there a work around? I thought about trying to see if there was a little PC
utility that emulated the mouse via the keyboard. This would probably work.
Regards, Rob @ Mirage Ltd.
Rob,
I have seen errors like this when the mouse is removed from a system, but you
can start 3D Studio with no mouse connected at all, and it shouldn't cause a
crash.
Is the mouse active when you start 3DS from the switch box? You might try
removing it temporarily when you start the slave session.
-Brian
Hi,
The switch box doesn't have mouse connections – just video and keyboard. No
mouse driver is loaded. 3DS loads fine without the mouse – it just crashes when
it tries to exit slave mode (I think). It's not *that* much of a problem – the
crash is usually a big problem anyway so we have to reboot the PC anyway. It
was just the page fault that worried me.
It's a while since I set up the render farm – I'll have another play.
Regards, Rob @ Mirage Ltd.
Rob:
For the message that appears which you are saving for another time:
/_______________________From your message________________________\\
Occasionally, 3DS stops network rendering and displays a prompt, e.g. do you
want to go through the partially recorder FLIC?
__________________________________________________________________
It wasn't clear from your description if you sent this flic entry to your NET
QUEUE to be processed on one or several machines. FWIW, flics cannot be
directly rendered to the net queue for processing on several machines. You
could have several machines create the .tga files and then recompile them into
a flic but this recompile (via an
ifl file) would have to be done on only one machine.
Bob
Hmm.. When we first set-up the render farm, I'm *sure* we tried using the net
queue to render a FLIC on -ANY- machine. What happened was that all the
machines started rendering the same FLIC which, as you say, won't work due to
the FLIC file format (I guess).
However, recently, we've been starting the same type of renders to ANY and only
one machine picks up the project and renders the whole lot. If it fails part
way through (and our renders often take several days…) then a simple CLEAN
allows the same or another machine to pick it up where the failed machine
finished? Is this how it should work?
It works fine when producing single images but the artists tell me that glueing
this lot back together takes ages. I want to follow this one up.
On the subject of net rendering and the queue… (forgive me, I'm not a 3DS
user BTW, I'm a techie 🙂 If you queue a render on a single machine and it
fails (marked as FAILED in the queue), then why does CLEAN remove job entirely?
It usually fails because the machine either crashes or looses it's network
connection. I would have expected it to allow the same system to carry on. We
seem to have to restart the render which is a pain.
Also, most of our large FLICS use a medium palette. Once again, my knowledge is
a little sketchy here. I believe this means that the render produces FLICs
contain individual colours per frame. At the very end of the render, the FLIC
is then processed to find the best single 256 colour palette which is then
mapped to all frames.
In this case, the EDIT QUEUE display is incorrect. The process is marked as
finished when the last frame completes – not when the colour process has
finished.
Thanks for your assistance BTW.
Regards, Rob @ Mirage Ltd.
P.S. Sorry for posting in the wrong section.
Don't forget to check out 3DSNET.TXT. It talks about this subject in detail.
When slave rendering, only one machine can render FLC files at a time. If you
want more than one machine to help with the rendering, it is usually best to
render to TGA or GIF files, and then compile them together into an FLC when
they are done. The time you save having more than one machine rendering should
far outweigh the extra time it take to compile the images into a FLC file.
<<On the subject of net rendering and the queue… (forgive me, I'm not a 3DS
user BTW, I'm a techie 🙂 If you queue a render on a single machine and it
fails (marked as FAILED in the queue), then why does CLEAN remove job
entirely?>>
CLEAN should not remove the job, only the failed machines.
One exception to this rule is if you had only selected only one particular
machine from the network queue entry list, and that one particular machine
fails. When you clean that entry, it is removed from the list. To prevent this,
rather than choosing a particular machine from the Queue list, choose ANY (even
if you are only going to have one machine render.) That way, when you clean the
process, there is still a posibility of another machine comming back on line
and picking up the render job, and it won't dissapear.
-Brian
>Don't forget to check out 3DSNET.TXT. It talks about this subject in detail.
Is that on-line somewhere?
>they are done. The time you save having more than one machine rendering
should
>far outweigh the extra time it take to compile the images into a FLC file.
I'd agree but the artists don't for some reason – I'll bring it up again.
>One exception to this rule is if you had only selected only one particular
That's a shame. What the artists tend to do (and once again, I might disagree)
is assign one or more of the render machines to themselves. Then therefore kick
off the render on that machine.
What would happen if you selected ANY put then ticked off all other machines?
Regards, Rob @ Mirage Ltd.
<< Is that on-line somewhere?>>
Sure. 3DSNET.TXT is in the 3DS library of this forum. You could also search for
the file using Compuserve commands.
<< >they are done. The time you save having more than one machine rendering
should
>far outweigh the extra time it take to compile the images into a FLC file.
I'd agree but the artists don't for some reason – I'll bring it up again.>>
The only case where it wouldn't be faster to render to individual frames and
then composite is if you had a very short flic. The more frames you have, the
more time you save.
<< What would happen if you selected ANY put then ticked off all other
machines?>>
Selecting ANY is almost always the preferred way to render. That way even if
all the machines die, you can fix them and bring them on line without loosing
the render job. If ANY has been selected, the project will stay in the queue
until you delete it or it finishes.
-Brian
Thanx – I've found 3DSNET.TXT and very useful it is too.
From a non-artist point of view, I'd agree about rendering individual frames.
I'll have a go at suggesting it to the lads.
Regards, Rob @ Mirage Ltd.
Rob:
Rendering a FLIC to ANY machine will give the problematic results you describe.
If you render to sequential .tga files all of your problems go away.
When you clean a failed machine, that machine will be available to process the
next available frame of the animation which failed or it will start on the next
item in the net-queue. In your case, you have described a scenario that I
haven't experienced – rendering to only one machine on the net-queue and
cleaning that entry due to some failure.
When rendering a flic the palette options actually create different
intermediate files for the final flic file. Low uses the first frame's 256
color palette, medium stores a separate 256 color palette for each frame and
then picks the best palette at the end of rendering as you've described. High
actually creates 24 bit .tga's which get compiled at the end of rendering.
Have you tried Custom? This can save you a bunch of time and keep you flic size
down a bit.
Personally, I like to render to .tga's for all of my flic work. I usually do
the compile at the end with an .ifl file and a Custom Palette. The Net Queue
always gives reliable information and I can easily rerender a bad frame or a
missing frame as long as I go to
tga's.
Bob
Thanks for the info. I'll discuss the possibility of using custom with the
artists.
Regards, Rob @ Mirage Ltd.