Gear rendering issue over Render Farm - plugin not installed

[Jon Hunt]

Hi List,

I am having an issue when submitting my scene via Royal Render.

My rigs are breaking.

Unfortunately I don't have the the time/knowledge to cache the animation

Rendering the scene locally is fine.

I initially had the Gear rig installed local to the machines.

I have now tried connecting them all to a workgroup over the network but with the python libraries still being local (environment variable pointing to python libraries on the C: drive)

However my rigs are still breaking.

Has anyone got any ideas how to sort this?

below is part of the log file from Royal Render.

I have also noticed that I am getting an warning about my delat on the rig also. However the scene works fine.

Thanks in advance,

Jon 

R 43| ' ERROR : 2356 - This plug-in is not installed: gear_PSet

R 44| ' ERROR : 2356 - This plug-in is not installed: sn_curveslide2_op

R 45| ' ERROR : 2356 - This plug-in is not installed: sn_curvelength_op

R 46| ' ERROR : 2356 - This plug-in is not installed: sn_squashstretch2_op

R 47| ' ERROR : 2356 - This plug-in is not installed: sn_ikfk2bone_op

R 48| ' ERROR : 2356 - This plug-in is not installed: sn_inverseRotorder_op

R 49| ' ERROR : 2356 - This plug-in is not installed: sn_rollsplinekine_op

R 50| ' ERROR : 2356 - This plug-in is not installed: gear_Mirror

R 54| ' WARNING : 3000 - Cannot apply Delta , because the target model CHARACTER.Delta is invalid.

[Angus Davidson]

Had a similar issue. Finally ended up exporting the animated character  to alembic and then reimporting that so I didn’t have to deal with the rig at all. 

Didn’t unfortunately have the time to try and fix / match the settings on the local / render machines.

Kind regards

Angus

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[Mirko Jankovic]

Is gear installed with workgroup or localy to each machine?

and do they all have access top modules folder and setup PYTHON PATH as well?

Probably checked those but just in case...

[Cristobal Infante]

"Unfortunately I don't have the the time/knowledge to cache the animation"

Learn how to cache stuff, you will gain knowledge (it's super easy) and gain time!

Plot > Cache Manager (Read/Write) : choose pc2 for geo.

[Cristobal Infante]

save time I meant!

[Jon Hunt]

Hi,

Thanks for all your replies.

Mirko,

The machines environment variables are pointing to the Python libraries which are on each machines c: drive. I am unsure whether I should set this centrally to a network location?

I have a workgroup set up for royal render but am unsure where and which gear files put in the workgroup structure:

RoyalRender Workgroup:

render_apps\renderer_plugins\softimage\workgroup_2014 - three further folders:

\Addons

\Application

\Data

Cristobal, I agree with you but I am far down the line with the project and think it may be a simple work group issue!

Thanks,

Jon

[Mirko Jankovic]

If you install addon not by drag and drop but over file->addon install, and then select addon fiile and workgroup it will put all addon needed files to their right place.

if all computers are connected to workgroup located on network reachable but all computers it should be fine.

As for modules folder it is good as long as they all point to location they can reach.

[Jon Hunt]

Hi Mirko, 

I am using the GEAR_mc-1.0.15 (should of mentioned this!) and it doesn't have an addon file.

This is what's confusing me I think.

Thanks,

Jon

[Mirko Jankovic]

aaah, sry I'm still on "old" gear. hopefully someone else with experience with mc can chime in

[Christian Freisleder]

hey,

This might be a stupid question, but does Royal Render know about your
workgroup? there is a config file in the RR datastructure where you tell
RR where the workgroups are. Did you set the workgroup path there for
the SI version you're using?
Just guessing, as the workgroup seems to work on your local machine,
which indicates that everything is installed correctly and just RR
doesn't find it.
Christian

[Jon Hunt]

Thanks Mirko anyway,

Hi Christian,

No such thing with a stupid question with me!!!

I haven't pointed any RR config files to my workgroups. I previously was running gear locally until now. The only workgroup I am running is the RR one.

I am unsure of the best way to work. Should I be installing gear inside the RR workgroup or create a new one.

I have tried both and the gear toolbar is showing and working in Softimage. 

It errors and breaks my rig when running local or from a workgroup. It crashes when installed in the RR workgroup....

Thanks,

J

[Personal]

I have a small farm, using gear_mc. Got it going..

I had your problem, essentially gear_mc can't find all your modules to run those scripts.

Fix: copy the modules to, or assign, the correct system variables.

I have each node with the gear_mc workgroup installed/connected via network paths, or mapped network drives (to the server). I then have the "\gear\modules" that come with gear_mc copied to a local PYTHONPATH or PATH system variable. I typically have it in the the C:\Python26 modules folder.
You could do it to the network, but I didn't have success with that..

So essentially you just need to connect gear_mc workgroup on each node, and have its "gear" modules in a working system variable. Oh, and don't forget to install python 2.6 correctly - reinstalling if needs be.

You can test if the gear modules are working just like you'd test gear with python, using the import command in a python prompt.

The modules you find are within the download package, along with the workgroup folder. The gear_mc folder is NOT the workgroup/modules folder.



Hopefully that can fix it for you.



But for safe keeping, cache using the cache manager. Choose the objects you want to cache, run it, let it save as pc2 (as a cache library if needs be), then load the cache libraries/files for the correct objects and then... Mute the envelope. Or else your mesh will explode like in a horror show. It's easy one you get it, you can find documentation in the help file.

I had a vibrating neck with gear (old) that I hope to eliminate with this workflow. Also any character with empty animation mixer tracks post or prior to having an animation clip will vibrate on the farm, also with gear_mc. So.. . Yeah caching, or having full tracks at all times, at least with an empty animation clip filling the gaps or linking/linked to with transitions - a quick fix to the vibrating gear rigs (rendered live).


Hope this helps.

-Draise

--- Original Message ---

[Jon Hunt]

Hi Draise,

I managed to get the rigs working. I'd literally had done as you suggested, just before I read your mail. 

ie. copied the modules within my RR workgroup as I noticed they were missing when looking in the workgroup manager.

I dont trust it fully though!!

I haven't installed re-installed Python, which frustrates me a bit as I have no admin rights on our computers.

As for the caching I had a quick play and got some results fromk what yourself and Crristobal suggested.  I wont rule this out, its just I've not done it before on a job and haven't factored testing time etc.

I know its should be part of my workflow from next project onwards though ;)

Firing a test render through now.

roll on the vibrating neck issue!

thanks, for your replies.

Jon