Messed up batch rendering

[Anonymous]

In 3dsmax0 2010, if you dare to use the same filenames for multiple batch jobs, i.e. if you need the files rendered from 400-600 and 1200-1800, 3dsmax DOES NOT save the frames (both local and over backburner).

I just noticed this after wasting rendertime for about 3000 frames without getting pics.

I JUST CAN'T believe this s**t, 3ds just messed up my current job together with the deadline.

Can someone reproduce this?

Is this that complicated to just fix bugs and introduce new features instead of introducing NEW BIG bugs?

EDIT:
it is just even worse: batch render is simply saving over and over one pic, without inserting suffix numbers.

[CAMedeck]

I just experienced this myself. I use Batch Render a lot, and never had a problem with it. But I can confirm that it will not automatically render frame numbers to files, instead saving to the same file over and over. UNLESS you add the 4 zeros to the file name! If you normally name your file "animation.png" you now have to save as "animation0000.png".

This seems to fix it. Anyone else confirm? Or is there a fix for this?

[CAMedeck]

Hmmmm.... it appears I'm wrong. I tested this yesterday, and things seemed to be working fine. But this morning after sending a job to render overnight to BackBurner, I again have one file saved even though 800 rendered. And it ends in "0000".

Can anyone else confirm this issue with BackBurner and Batch Render? Or is there a hotfix I missed that addresses this?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I have had the same problem. It happened to me on 5 batch renders overnight. The files rendered the image sequence correctly when sent to backburner from the main render interface, but when sent from the batch render dialog, the numbers are not incremented and each frame writes over the previous one, leaving me with a single file.

im using Max design 2010 SP1.

I use the batch render interface heavily in my workflow and would love to find a solution to this.

[dan.schoedel]

I too have had this exact problem. I use batch render a lot. It'd be great to get this fixed. I don't know how something that worked in 2009 doesn't work in 2010. I find myself only using 2010 if nessasary as a result. :( I've also noticed that the file output name does not represent the actual name down below. It copies the pass it was duplicated from.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I've experience this as well.
i have tried changing the names but it didn't work.
then i tried hitting the X button, ie, the delete button and it works after that.
but when my client try to reproduce that, he's having the same frame rendered and override itself.
so far there isn't a clear fix on this.
it doesn't work even if i switched off the rest of the batch and send 1 file at a time to netrender.

[Anonymous]

It is not the same but a bit similar; sometimes ago I noticed that when I render through Backburner and the Standard render stimulatingly, Backburner doesn’t save the job but render it over and over again. The Standard render works as expected. Actually it happened by rendering of big images, doing smaller test renderings in the standard render doesn’t disturb the BB job. Never found an explanation. (Max 2010 64 bit.)

ivan

[Anonymous]

Ok, so now it was my turn. Since this is the first thread I found while searching for this issue I'll post the solution here.

BUG:
It appears that even if "override preset" is on in the batch render dialog. If you have render scene dialog set to "single" the backburner job will overwrite one single frame over and over and over...
But if you set it to "range", "active time segment" or "frames" it works the same as it did in all other versions before 2010.

Unfortunately the whole point with the batch render is to let it set the range and leave the render scene dialogs setting to "single". So I guess I have many hours of wasted rendertimes ahead of me as I most likely will forget to change this.
I'm surprised so few people have replied in frustration to this thread. Are we the only ones using 2010? ...or batch render? ...or backburner? ...or max?



I'll submit a bug report.

[jf]

I have the excact same problem, this is the correspondence following my problemreport (please start from the bottom).

Hi Jose,

Please try this.

build some simple animation in the scene.

batchrender (using the batchrender-dialog from the rendering dropdown) the scene - saving the the rendered output to a sequence of jpg's. - everything should work fine and you end up with a sequence of jpg's

Now batchrender the same scene again, only this time you use the net render option in the batchrender-dialog - ie you use backburner (i just run it locally here). This time you (if you have reproduced the problem) end up with only one jpg because the filename isnt incremented with each rendered frame.

Hope this helps clarify things.



Hi,

I’m currently reading a problem report you filled out on the Autodesk site regarding network rendering. Can you provide us with some clear repro steps? This would help us better understand and reproduce the problem.



Original message:

“When batchrendering a sequence of frames using
the netrender option, the filename is not incremented with the
framenumber. Instead the first frame is overwritten with all the
frames in the sequence, leaving you with only the last rendered frame
in the end. Rendering without the netrenderoption works fine.”

[jf]

btw:

threads from other forums I've posted in regarding this problem:

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/batch-render-assistant

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=6&t=821933&highlight=batchrender

[CyberJenni]

The only thing that worked for me was to send individual batch render jobs one at a time to Backburner. If I sent more than one at a time then it did not increment the file name. That doesn't help if you don't use Backburner, but it will bypass the issue.

Jenni

[Anonymous]

I'm a bit confused about where you are all having an issue.

I'm using 2010 and haven't had an issue with regards to backburner rendering and over writing of files.

Although, each job that I send to backburner I make sure that it outputs to an individual directory.

If you aren't choosing active time segment or a series of frames then how is it expected to render more than one frame?

That said, I think I have got into the habit of saving my first file as 'filename0001.png' maybe this then prompts backburner to call the next one 0002. But I recall there being some kind of auto-increment filename check box somewhere.

I'm keen to figure out how you are creating this situation, so I can recreate it (and make sure I avoid it). It sounds annoying as hell.

[jf]

Please try this.

build some simple animation in the scene.

(this should work)
batchrender (using the batchrender-dialog from the rendering dropdown) the scene - saving the the rendered output to a sequence of jpg’s. - everything should work fine and you end up with a sequence of jpg’s


(this should create the bug)
Now batchrender the same scene again, only this time you use the net render option in the batchrender-dialog - ie you use backburner (i just run it locally here). This time you (if you have reproduced the problem) end up with only one jpg because the filename isnt incremented with each rendered frame.

EDIT:
It seems installing the connectivity extension for max 2010 fixed it for me :-)

[jf]

well now im on max 2011 and guess what the bug is still there - whats up with that! very frustrating....

[Anonymous]

I just thought I'd bump this old thread because as I found out overnight during crunch time of a very time-critical project, this is still a bug in Max 2011. Every single one of my Batch renders resulted in only one frame each. Ridiculous.

Now, I read that simply adjusting the render dialog to be either active or custom range would fix it, but I've tested and this is not the case. Perhaps if I delete and recreate my batch renders with this setting changed, it might have an effect, but as of right now, nothing I can change will make my existing batch renders output more than one frame.

I also watched as each node rendered the frames, and this is not simply a case of the machine not incrementing the filename.. Each node just keeps render frame 0. They never progress through the animation.

If you right click on the Task Summary entries in Backburner, it shows you the filename it should have been rendering to, so the Network rendering system clearly knows which frame and which filename it should be using, but somewhere it is not communicating that to the rendernodes.

This is a stupid bug that has been around since 2009 (according to this thread) and possibly even before that. Is it too much to ask that we get a hotfix for this?

[CAMedeck]

Once you change the Render Dialog to a sequence instead of a single frame, you need to hit the Render button. Cancel the render job right away, but the settings change isn't fully recognized until you tell it to render.

I just always leave it to the Active Time Sequence, then change from Production to Iterative (bottom left of the Render Setup dialog). This makes it ignore many of the settings in the dialog. Learn more about it from the Help menu.

[markus_s]

Oh man! This bug is annoying! I just wasted a weekend worth of rendering on a simple problem that has existed since Max 2010 and I'm using Max 2012 (servicepack 2)... When you choose a range of frames to render in the batch render interface you expect Max to be able to number them properly, not overwrite the same file over and over again!!!

Yes I can confirm that in the renderer common parameters it was set to single, but I didn't expect that it mattered when I used the Override Preset and used range in the Batch renderer.

Has anyone notified Autodesk through the bugreport system, or is it just posted here, and expected them to find out by themselves? Since this is an old forum thread, I don't expect anyone to read it anyways, but I will post a bug and refer a link to this thread!

[Anonymous]

Just got hit with this one myself. I might have found a workaround though.

When sending multiple renders to backburner via batch render dialog, I unchecked, then checked the "override Preset" to refresh the settings. All the jobs that was beeing sent, was active before doing this.

[Anonymous]

Hi all

I'm actually coming from Maya but this was the only thread I found about this issue. I hope I am not breaching forum rules by replying here.

The problem in my case was I had frame renumbering turned on in Render Settings with each field set to one. This caused render.exe to renumber the saved frame to 1 each time, thus overwriting the file. Turning this off solved the issue.

A simple solution to an easily overlooked (for me at any rate) setting.

Tom

[Anonymous]

Still a problem in Max 2013!!!!

Hello Autodesk.....?!?!