Azure Batch Render Xgen path error

Pasan Madusanka 21

Hi,
When I do Azure batch render with Vray & Maya my Xgen search paths changes back to relative paths resulting in missing files. I always set the Xgen paths to use absolute paths using Xgen path editor but somehow when rendering in the cloud it get changed. Other paths such as source images, nCache works perfectly. Local renders work fine too.

Please help!

prmanhas-MSFT 17,906 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2020-09-11T14:24:25.397+00:00

@Pasan Madusanka Apologies for the delay in response and all the inconvenience caused because of the issue.
I have reached out to our internal team on the issue and once I have an update will keep you posted on same.

Thank you for your patience over the matter.

Thanks.
Pasan Madusanka 21 Reputation points

2020-09-14T16:12:10.337+00:00

Thanks for the response. Glad you are looking in to this problem.
We have around 6000 frames to be rendered. Hope you guys can figure out a solution soon.

Thanks
Pasan Madusanka 21 Reputation points

2020-09-16T04:55:38.667+00:00

Hi, anu updates plz?

Accepted answer

prmanhas-MSFT 17,906 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2020-09-16T12:43:27.047+00:00

@Pasan Madusanka The log file for that frame specifies the assets that were not found. It also looks like the redshift plugin is needed as well. If so this will be needed to be installed via an application package or start task on the pool.

Have the missing assets below been uploaded into the file group?
If they have, then I would check where these files are referenced from in the scene.

Error: line 1: RuntimeError: file <maya console> line 1: Plug-in, "redshift4maya", was not found on MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH.
Error: XGen: Cannot copy file from: G:/Temp/New_Project//assets/RIG_Enemy1_V1__collection.xgen
Error: XGen: Failed to find Hair/paintmaps/hair_mask/Vi_ch_02.ptx
Error: XGen: Failed to find EyeBrows/paintmaps/Eyebrow_densty/Vi_ch_02.ptx
Error: XGen: Failed to find Beard/paintmaps/Beard_Dens/Vi_ch_02.ptx
Error: XGen: Failed to find Beard/paintmaps/lengthdesn/Vi_ch_02.ptx
Error: XGen: Failed to find UpBeard/paintmaps/upbeard/Vi_ch_02.ptx
Error: XGen: Failed to find downBeard/paintmaps/Downbeardmask/Vi_ch_02.ptx
Error: XGen: Failed to find SmallHair/paintmaps/maskDD/Vi_ch_02.ptx

These missing files will be why the render is not as you expect.

Hope it helps!!!

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Pasan Madusanka 21 Reputation points

2020-09-16T16:38:00.977+00:00

I cleaned up some unknown nodes. so following errors are no longer shown.

Error: line 1: RuntimeError: file <maya console> line 1: Plug-in, "redshift4maya", was not found on MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH.
Error: XGen: Cannot copy file from: G:/Temp/New_Project//assets/RIG_Enemy1_V1__collection.xgen

And I have already uploaded the ptx files which are missing in to the file group. But it seems Maya is not able to find them.
I have uploaded the project file as well as new logs if it is of any help.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16igX-ASG6Bd91DsEh9f8PhbrKrOv4v88?usp=sharing

thanks.

prmanhas-MSFT 17,906 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2020-09-17T07:15:10.687+00:00

@Pasan Madusanka Unfortunately xgen has not been tested before and is not formally supported.

The xgen files are being loaded onto the render nodes @

$AZ_BATCH_JOB_PREP_WORKING_DIR/<filegroupname>/xgen/collections/collection

But the search paths in the log provided are of the form:

G:/Project_Nero_Trailer/With fur/CH_Enemy1/xgen/collections/collection/SmallHair/paintmaps/maskDD/Vi_ch_02.ptx (Part of path doesn't exist)
D:/Users/PoolAdmin1725865654/Documents/xgen/SmallHair/paintmaps/maskDD/Vi_ch_02.ptx (Part of path doesn't exist)
C:/Autodesk/MayaIO2018/plug-ins/xgen/presets/SmallHair/paintmaps/maskDD/Vi_ch_02.ptx (Part of path doesn't exist)

So you would need to work out a way to instruct Maya to look for the xgen assets in the file group folder above.

We don't have any further inputs on same.

Hope it helps!!

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Pasan Madusanka 21 Reputation points

2020-09-17T18:59:06.7+00:00

Finally it worked!
Thank you very much for your support.

Like you have mentioned I changed the Xgen path through Xgen tab-> collection -> edit path

and put $AZ_BATCH_JOB_PREP_WORKING_DIR/xgen/collections/collection_name

Now it clearly finds the missing paths.
Thanks again!

prmanhas-MSFT 17,906 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2020-09-18T05:49:42.8+00:00

@Pasan Madusanka Glad to hear your issue is resolved!!!

Have a good day :)
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prmanhas-MSFT 17,906 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2020-09-16T07:38:04.767+00:00

@Pasan Madusanka Firstly, apologies for the delay in responding on this and any inconvenience this issue may have caused

After discussion with our team internally I got the below response:

There's a lot of missing context here such as what are you using to submit to Batch, specifically Maya plugin or BatchExplorer - and if BE then what version of what BE template, if Maya plugin then what version of the plugin.

As it is, absolute paths are generally a bad idea.You should look to structure your scene and Maya project (if submitting from Maya plugin) to use relative paths first before trying ANY distributed render, and particularly before rendering in the cloud.

Each Batch Task has a specific working directory into which the rendering assets are deployed.

I believe an attempt is made to rewrite the paths to relative in order to make things work, but this won’t be 100%.

Hope it helps!!!

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Pasan Madusanka 21 Reputation points

2020-09-16T08:47:55.197+00:00

Oh I think I messed up relative and absolute paths in the question. I was using relative paths the whole time. Not absolute paths. I have mistakenly swapped the two words. Extremely sorry about that.
Here are some additional information.

I use Batch explorer version 2.7.0-stable.418 to submit jobs.
Template - Render Maya/V-Ray scene on Windows
Maya version 2018
Vray 3.60.04

How I prep my scene locally :

1.Set project in maya
2. Edit Xgen path as - ${PROJECT}xgen/collections/collecton_name
3. Export patches for batch render (xgen windows)
4. Save and close
5. Upload the whole project structure including scenes, sourceimages, xgen, cache,assets etc. In to a file group using batch explorer.
6. create a pool and submit job.

Please refer the following link for render images and log.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16D2KIPL-s1qDLGj_-8epIhorZ-5_jd3d?usp=sharing

prmanhas-MSFT 17,906 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2020-09-16T08:50:40.7+00:00

@Pasan Madusanka Thank you for the clarification.I will reach out to team with your inputs and will keep you posted with updates.

Thanks

prmanhas-MSFT 17,906 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2020-09-16T12:42:45.443+00:00

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Azure Batch Render Xgen path error

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