Distributed Bucket Rendering Not Working

[Anonymous]

Hello, I am using 3DS Max 2017 with the most recent updates as of today installed on a computer passing required specs and running Windows 7 64 bit, however I can't seem to get Distributed Bucket Rendering to work. I have gotten it to work just fine on 2016, which is what I've used before, but when I try to start the "mental ray Satellite for Autodesk 3ds Max 2017 64-bit" service in Services to start, it gives me an error message saying "The mental ray Satellite for Autodesk 3ds Max 2017 64-bit service on Local Computer started and then stopped. Some services stop automatically if they are not in use by other services or programs." I have tried repairing it, reinstalling it, installing the SDK, but nothing as of yet seems to work. Varying from 2016, the satellite file under Plugins/NVIDIA/bin doesnt seem to have all of the raysat files, including the application and application extension, but it has rayrc and the raysat_3dsmax2017_64 batch file. Any help is welcomed. Thanks!

[Alfred.DeFlaminis · Accepted solution]

Hello @Anonymous,

I'd like to try to help you with your problem here.  This is a known issue with a known fix, and you can find more information here.  Once you get it up and running, you may find you get some errors in the render message, usually because of a firewall issue.  More info can be found on that here.  

Please let me know if these don't work for you, and I'd be glad to help you further. 

Please hit the "Accept as Solution" button if my post fully solves your issue or answers your question. This lets me know that I was effective in helping you, and thank you for doing so.

Best Regards,

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Anonymous,

Just wanted to follow up on this, did this work for you?  

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

That seemed to do the trick. I got it working now, but I still get one error saying "MI 1.0 5 MB error 121001: rayrc, line 1: syntax error" however it doesn't seem to do anything noticeable in the render. Do you think this will get an official patch at some point to fix it? I have several machines I use at home for rendering and going around doing this on each could be a pain, especially if a new update overwrites something or I have to reinstall Max. Thank you for the help!

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Anonymous,

As a support specialist, I don't have much influence or information about development schedules, however what I can do is log bugs or errors and try to find solutions for them if the problem is something I can reproduce.  (Or at least take an educated guess at.)

This error sounds a bit like a disk space error, is there a chance that the target drive is full?  If not, I can try to investigate further, especially if it's stopping you from rendering.  

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

All of my hard drives have surplus space, and the error doesn't appear in the window with code highlighting the issue, its the window that would say things less severe, and has two buttons saying "clear" and "close," but I'm not sure of the name of it. It pops up, says the error, but everything continues and finishes rendering just the same, and nothing else seems out of place.

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Anonymous,

If anything weird continues to happen, please let me know.  I don't have any notes on this particular issue and have had no success reproducing it.  Let's just keep an eye on things and since everything is working for you we'll table it for the time being.  If you have any other weird behavior, please let me know.  

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

First off I don't understand why this is marked as solved...  A hack from the community does not make it as solved.

I use distribute render in my workflow I it is extremely disappointing that Autodesk has not address this issue in any of there service updates.  Its not a new service but something that was working that Autodesk broke.  Please Fix what you break before moving on to new things.  

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Anonymous,

I understand your point of view, but my job in this forum is to get people working again.  From a developer perspective, you are right that it's not a solution.  From a support standpoint with the goal being productivity, it is a solution.  

This issue is an installer issue and it is on Autodesk.  Are you having a problem getting the workaround to function?  

This particular issue will be fixed by Autodesk in a future update, but for all future versions address your concerns to NVIDIA.  Autodesk will not be developing for these NVIDIA plugins in future versions of the software.  I will forward your comment internally.  

Best Regards,