Roads maps broken on farm

[Fer]

Hello,

I realized that the whole Roads section of the library it's broken when rendering with a render farm, the farm pc's can't find the maps, I'm guessing that during the installation process as a Render NODE the paths are not getting configured since when I added one of the roads to my scene I got the popup window to automatically add the path, hope this makes sense, if not I'm attaching some screen captures that hopefully will help clarify the issue.

[Michal Karmazín]

These paths should be added to 3ds Max's configuration (accessible by Customize - Configure User Paths - External files) stored in the 3dsmax.ini file. It's possible to copy the 3dsmax.ini file with the correct paths to all of the involved computers. Just let me point out that apart from the [BitmapDirs] section, there are several other 3ds Max settings saved in the 3dsmax.ini file, and it's not always a good idea to replace them with "another computer's settings". Anyway, if these computers are always used just as render nodes, there shouldn't be any problem.

Let me add that generally, we recommend resolving all references used by Forest with the Asset Tracker to absolute UNC paths. It's not necessary, but usually, this way you avoid any texture path issues while using distributed rendering. The "default" file handling is controlled by 3ds Max and could be adjusted under Options - Preference Settings - File Handling - Convert file paths to UNC. This way, all your scenes should use UNC paths.

I hope that helps you, and please let us know if that's all working fine or if you are still facing trouble with it. Thanks in advance and have a great day.

Best regards,

[Fer]

Hi, thanks for the recommendations,

I edited the 3dsmax.ini and I also went one by one into all the maps folders under the different categories and found out that there are maps in several other locations that are not getting setup when doing a Node install. I think this inconsistencies should be dealt with in future updates

c:\Users\spare-viz\AppData\Local\Itoo Software\RailClone Pro\lib\default1\Architecture\Building types\Supermarkets\Groceries\maps
c:\Users\spare-viz\AppData\Local\Itoo Software\RailClone Pro\lib\default1\Architecture\Exterior\Fences\Masonry\maps
c:\Users\spare-viz\AppData\Local\Itoo Software\RailClone Pro\lib\default1\Civil Engineering\Pavements\Roads\maps
c:\Users\spare-viz\AppData\Local\Itoo Software\RailClone Pro\lib\default1\Civil Engineering\Street Lights\maps
c:\Users\spare-viz\AppData\Local\Itoo Software\RailClone Pro\lib\default1\Civil Engineering\Traffic\maps
c:\Users\spare-viz\AppData\Local\Itoo Software\RailClone Pro\lib\default1\Landscape Architecture\Park\maps

All this paths I had to add to the 3dsmax.ini file and now everything is working properly, but if in the future new maps are added to a different category then the issue will be back.