C4DtoA | Drivers custom path - Render queue

[cdordelly09]

Hi all!

I'm having some troubles to render with render queue when my scene has multiple drivers with relative paths and $prj token.

I have this path in my drivers:

If I do render with picture viewer (shift+r) the render works perfectly. But, if I add this scene to the render queue I get this error when it try to start to render:

C4DtoA | 00:00:00 2449MB ERROR| [driver_exr] c4d|crypto: can't create file "./C4DtoA_Drivers_Output_doubts/C4DtoA_Drivers_Output_doubts_crypto_000.exr": OpenEXR exception: No such file or directory.
C4DtoA | 00:00:00 2449MB ERROR| [driver_exr] c4d|info: can't create file "./C4DtoA_Drivers_Output_doubts/C4DtoA_Drivers_Output_doubts_info_000.exr": OpenEXR exception: No such file or directory.

What I'm doing wrong? I need to change something if I'm going to use the render queue? I attached a simplified scene file with this. Thanks!

c4dtoa-drivers-output-doubts.zip

[peter.horvath6V6K3]

You've got this error because the folder C4DtoA_Drivers_Output_doubts does not exist, so the driver can not write the file.

Relative paths are tricky. The ./ means relative to the current working directory, which is not defined in Cinema 4D. I suppose when you render to the Picture Viewer, the project root is used, however when rendering via the Render Queue then the working directory points to something else.

If ./ in C4D always mean relative to the project root folder then it would make sense to follow this in the Arnold Driver object in a next release. Currently you have to use an absolute path, or you can use an environment variable in the path.

[cdordelly09]

And why if I create the folder "C4DtoA_Drivers_Output_doubts" the drivers still can't write the file?
And yes in C4D the ./ always mean relative project path. Now I have a new doubt about how can I use correctly the environment variable path in the custom path field?

I assigned a environment variable to my desktop: %desktop% but, when I try to set the path to "%desktop%/$prj_info_###.exr" the driver automatically put the ./ at the start of the custom path:

If I try to deleted it's come back automatically, I can't delete the ./ and I still get the directory error because the driver try to render in the project path + my desktop path.

Thanks!

[peter.horvath6V6K3]

As I said the driver is relative to the current working directory, so if you create the folder in the project root, but the working directory is something different when rendering via the Render Queue, then it keeps failing.

The syntax for environment variables should be: $desktop or [desktop]. However you're right, since R18 there's this stupid thing that C4D automatically adds ./ to the path. This makes it useless.

I'll find out something for the next release.

[cdordelly09]

That means there's nothing more I can do for this in this moment right? Or is there any way that the variables can work?

[peter.horvath6V6K3]

If adding the ./ automatically is just a UI thing, then maybe you can write a script to setup the path without it. (I have not tried it.) Otherwise I'm afraid there's no other way at the moment, just the absolute path.

[cdordelly09]

Ok I'm going to try with a script. Thanks a lot for your help, if I don't get luck with the script I'll be waiting the next release. Have a nice day! 🙂

[cdordelly09]

I didn't get luck with the script, the ./ still appears. So nothing more to do, thanks again, cheers!