arnold on Deadline Thinkbox render farm, can't open texture error

[thomas4K5GA]

Hi there,

 I am suddenly running into a problem where I cant render shots on the farm anymore because I think the nodes are trying to access the same texture? or try to all convert it at the same time. 

I render the scene fine on my computer, it concerts the EXR the first time and then renders fine. On re-render, it doesnt need to convert the exr and its just all works as expected. It also renders on any of the nodes cinema4d installation.

Once I launch it through deadline they all fail with the same error. I make sure my c4d is closed so there should be no filepointers to the texture. 

2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4657MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_1_color: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Invalid image file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr": Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4658MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_1_color: Invalid image file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr": Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4658MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_1_color: Invalid image file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr": Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4658MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_1_color: Invalid image file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr": Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4659MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_1_color: Invalid image file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr": Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4659MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_1_color: Invalid image file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr": Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4659MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_1_color: Invalid image file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr": Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4659MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_1_color: Invalid image file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr": Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4659MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_1_color: Invalid image file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr": Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4659MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_1_color: Invalid image file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr": Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4659MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_1_color: Invalid image file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr": Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4659MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_1_color: Invalid image file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr": Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4659MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_1_color: Invalid image file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr": Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4659MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_1_color: Invalid image file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr": Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4659MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_1_color: Invalid image file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr": Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4659MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_1_color: Invalid image file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr": Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"
2024-03-07 01:14:45:  0: STDOUT: [c4dtoa] 00:00:02  4675MB WARNING |  Aborted by user:  received abort signal

[thomas4K5GA]

any thoughts?

[peter_horvath]

Seems like the sky texture is not found on the farm. Is it in the project's tex folder which is accessible from the farm?

As a test you can try to define the texture with an absolute path and see if that removes the error. You can also add the texture's folder to the Texture Search Path in the render settings.

[peter_horvath]

Or maybe you're right and it's related to auto Tx generation. You can test that theory by running a test render on the farm with Tx generation turned off.

[thomas4K5GA]

I'm sorry. Yes, I should have clarified that textures are 100% accessible on all nodes. I am loading other textures, and they come through. I'll try your suggestions. 

[Stephen.Blair]

Looks to me like we're looking in the current working directory. There's no path in that message, just the file name.

 Could not open file "Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr"

[thomas4K5GA]

its still the same. I also generated manually a tx file and linked that one in the sky but it still doesnt work.
again renders fine in c4d but not on the farm. also we dont have this problem with other renderers. here is the scene https://www.dropbox.com/t/aKJJvgbsmKMytwtx

[thomas4K5GA]

c4d normally always looks in the ./tex folder and doesnt append it to the path

[thomas4K5GA]

also interestingly its only with these heavy EXRs that it fails / or the sky only. normal basic tex works well. ITS NOT just this file though, the file is not corrupt

[peter_horvath]

What's your Cinema 4D and C4DtoA version btw? Is the render farm on the same OS than your local workstation and using the same plugin version?

So any textures in the Arnold Sky behave like this? In your original post you mentioned that it started to happen recently. Did you update Cinema 4D or the plugin or tried different scenes with different textures before?

What if you add this same texture (Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr) to a shape for instance, just to check if the error is related to the sky somehow or a more generic error with the texture.

[Stephen.Blair]

I don't think heavy matters.

The Arnold log message will use the full path that was given to Arnold. 
With the uploaded scene, it's "./tex/Ultimate_Skies_12k_0041.exr"
If that file does not exist, then this is what I get:

[c4dtoa] 169:53:41  4639MB ERROR   |   [texturesys] /Arnold_Sky_color: Invalid image file "./tex/Ultimate_Skies_12k_0041.exr": Could not open file "./tex/Ultimate_Skies_12k_0041.exr"
Could not open file "./tex/Ultimate_Skies_12k_0041.exr"

[thomas4K5GA]

@Anonymous
I know how to load a texture. It's not the PATH. Of course, if you remove the file, it won't work. its not missing. there are two textures in my file, one works on the farm, one doesnt. BOTH work in c4d in the app. My very first message states that everything works in the c4d app. 

[thomas4K5GA]

it works with an older version I had still lying around. Not sure which version it stopped working. 

[Stephen.Blair]

---

@thomas4K5GA wrote:

@Anonymous
I know how to load a texture. It's not the PATH. Of course, if you remove the file, it won't work. its not missing. there are two textures in my file, one works on the farm, one doesnt. BOTH work in c4d in the app. My very first message states that everything works in the c4d app. 

---

I'm not saying you don't know how to use Cinema 4D or C4DtoA. I'm saying that the log message tells us exactly what path Arnold is trying to use. And that message from the render node says "no path at all"

I removed the exr on my machine to get the specific message.

If you don't think that information is relevant to the troubleshooting, that's ok.

[thomas4K5GA]

thanks @Stephen.Blair since you are arnold support its important to me you feel inclined to see why arnold is coming back with that message rather than keep iterarting thats expected behaviour. Thats what bugs are after all. See message above its fine on older versions suggesting its a problem with Arnold.

[peter_horvath]

Let me summarize where are we at the moment, because it's easy to be lost in the conversation.

Everything works locally, but on the render farm, the sky texture is not found. Other textures in the scene, which are are also defined relatively (the same way), work fine. Older version of the plugin works fine.

Questions: All textures are in the same folder, right? In the project's tex folder. What's the path to the tex folder on the farm? Have you tried changing the path to an absolute path? Or adding the folder to the Texture Search Path in the render settings? What if you specify a full relative path, such as 'tex/Ultimate_Skies_12k_0025.exr'?

It's also not yet clear to me from the conversation that the issue is specific to the Arnold Sky or to the texture. Do you get the same error, no matter what texture you use in the sky?

The logic to resolve relative paths in the plugin supposed to be the same everywhere. It should not matter if it's the Arnold Sky or an image shader or something else. That's why it sounds a bit strange to me that only this texture fails. Is the texture animated in the sky by any chance?