Maya Arnold - Error qt platform plugin could not be initialized.

[MrEddie]

Getting this pop up all the time. I am rendering in backburner on the same machine. Single user license, I believe I have 5 nodes included in my license so it should render fine in the back ground. 

The popups keep coming and the frames are not watermarked, yet every now and then it decides to watermark one of them! Also - I found this solution and integrated it into my Maya.env and restarted. Still getting the pop up error messages.

QT_QPA_PLATFORM_PLUGIN_PATH=C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\AdskLicensing\Current\AdskLicensingAgent\platforms

I also logged in and out of my Autodesk licensing and checked connection to the Arnold licence, all ok.

  Any help appreciated.

Thanks 

A

[MrEddie]

Found this help page...

https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/This-application-f...

[MrEddie]

Still not working, we updated the following and restarted.

Autodesk Licensing service

Autodesk Single Sign-On Component

Autodesk Identity Manager component

We then manually uninstalled and reinstalled Autodesk Licensing service, restarted.

I am running maya 2024.

We checked for Windows Environment variables to do with QT, none showing. 

Everytime we render in the background, watermarks and this pop up! 

[Stephen.Blair]

The parent process is loading some other version of the Qt platforms, and that is conflicting with the Autodesk licensing. 
The QT env vars won't always help, because some processes are loading specific versions of the Qt platform no matter what. 

What is running Backburner? Or maybe it's to do with the account that is running Backburner?

[MrEddie]

Hi Stephen, thanks for the reply.

It is just running on localhost to batch files locally.  I tested normal batch render from Maya, and the popups and watermarks exist etc, so don't think anything to do with Backburner. I will test the Process explorer thing next as I saw in one of your other posts.  This is incredibly laborious for me (no Admin on my work PC) as I have to message IT and wait a week for them to update my licensing, and again to run process explorer etc.

I was asking chatGPT for help - it said to run.

kick -licensecheck

Could not find any license files, please check the license server, the license may be expired
Please contact licensing@solidangle.com

environment:

solidangle_LICENSE = (null)
RLM_LICENSE = (null)

I have an active single user licensing active in Maya. AFAIK I have access to 5 background nodes for rendering or has this changed?

[Stephen.Blair]

If you have an M&E Collection, that comes with 5 x Arnold.
A Maya subscription by itself does not include Arnold.

Looking more closely at the error dialogs, it looks like the Licensing Agent is looking in the right place. And the Agent install does include the "windows" Qt platform, the one that it says it cannot find. And somehow Maya is getting a license? Maya would be using the same Licensing Agent

kick -licensecheck doesn't work with Autodesk licensing. licensecheck is for RLM licenses, which is what Arnold used before Solid Angle was acquired by Autodesk.
For Autodesk licensing, you would use the Arnold License Manager (File > Diagnostics). 

[MrEddie]

Thanks I'll check the diagnostic. I have the M&E license. Feel like it could be some conflict with something else installed. Will report back on this thread.

Thanks for coming back. 

[MrEddie]

Hi Stephen,

If you have time at all I included the arnold_diagnostics.log and relevant info from the mayaRenderLog.txt

Ill do that check next with processExplorere.exe, but I have to wait for admin rights to use it.

Further checks this morning.:

Maya 2020 is on same machine - loaded same scene and ran batch successfully no errors. 

Maya 2024 - cleared all my prefs folder to default, no plugins etc. - same error popping up- and watermarks.

If it is running in Maya 2020, perhaps there is somthing I can compare/contrast in 2020vs2024 to find what is causing the problem?

Thanks for your help.

Alan.

mayaRenderLog.txt

Warning: WARNING | rendering with watermarks because of failed authorization:

00:00:35   905MB WARNING | rendering with watermarks because of failed authorization:

00:00:35   905MB         |  [clm.v2] timeout before callback was called

00:00:35   905MB         |  environment variables:

00:00:35   905MB         |         ARNOLD_LICENSE_ORDER   = (not set)

00:00:35   905MB         |         ARNOLD_LICENSE_MANAGER = (not set)

00:00:35   905MB         |  [rlm]  solidangle_LICENSE     = (not set)

00:00:35   905MB         |  [rlm]  RLM_LICENSE            = (not set)

00:00:35   905MB         |  [clm]  ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE  = (not set)

00:00:35   905MB         |  [clm]  LM_LICENSE_FILE        = (not set)

[MrEddie]

Hey there, 

Getting a bit closer I think. Looked at Dependency Walker (I am a novice with this so not quite sure what I am doing).

Lots of missing paths to do with QT.

The above file is here:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\AdskLicensing\Current\AdskLicensingAgent

and NOT in
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\AdskLicensing\Current\AdskLicensingAgent\platforms

Does this shed any light ?

Maybe we need to do a full uninstall of all licensing  (Autodesk Licensing service) again. ? 

[Stephen.Blair]

Maya 2020 is using the older AdSSO service for managing sign ins, while Maya 2024 is using the newer Adsk Identity Manager

In general, it's normal to see lots of missing things in Dependency Walker, Dependency Walker doesn't have the same environment as an actual running process like AdskLicensingAgent.  Also, those missing Qt DLLs are in the same folder as AdskLicensingAgent, so the Agent can find them after the Agent loads QWindows.dll

[MrEddie · Accepted solution]

Hi Stephen,

Phew problem solved eventually. 

What we did: 

1.Followed this advice / page   tech article 

2.Reinstalled Licensing Service, AdSSO, Identity manager.  (Not working)

3.Removed Maya 2020 and AdSSO (Not Working)

4.Tried all the QT_PLUGIN and QT_QPA_PLATFORM_PLUGIN_PATH environment variables issue as per your article.

QT Environment Variables   (Not working)

5.Checked for conflicts in cmd.exe, nothing showed up overriding those variables.

6.Updated  Maya 2024.0.1  to 2024.2   Working

So no idea what exactly was causing it, but at least it's working now.

Thanks for your help.

Alan.