Hi,

I am using Vue 6 Infinite with the latest patch(problem happens on last patch too).

I have a scene I am trying to render across 2 machines. The Hypervue manager says Sending Scene and thats what it stays on, it never updates, I left it for 2 hours and still no update.

Both CPU's on the render machines are at 100% so I guess it is doing something but without actually knowing it is I could just be wasting my time. The whole scene on one computer at final took 8 hours. So I am guessing higher quality will push that time even further.

Anyone seen this problem before or know a fix?

Thanks
Jon

Mac or PC?

Sorry, its a PC, its also running Vista

Jon

Ok, I am on Mac. But when I understood it right, Vista support comes only a little later. So no wonder that you face issues, especially in networking.

Hi,

Yeah, its a pain but I can actually see the other rendernodes and send smaller scenes and get them rendered and sent back.

The problem is with larger scenes. Should have said that in the beginning I guess.

The file size is 95MB

Thanks
Jon

How much memory do you have in the Vista box? Remember, Vista is a total pig regarding system ram. If the rendercow on that box worked with smaller scenes, then my first guess would be that you have a minimum amount of ram to work with, forcing the OS to pound on the swap file; that will slow the processing a whole lot. As Vista is also new, there could be something in the scene that is tripping its DRM crapola, and degrading some part of that system. All it would take is there being a file extension it didn't like, or was 'known' to be forbidden. Hmm. How many rendernodes do you have, btw?

Hi,

My main machine runs Vista, it is a Athlon 64 3200 with 2GB of ram.

Their are also 2 other machines running XP which have 1GB of ram each.

I can see both the other machines going straight to 100% CPU use which makes me think they may actually be doing something, however both rendernodes say Recieving Scene, and the Hypervue manager just says Sending Scene

Thanks
Jon
3 Rendernodes in total including main machine, however I usually only use the 2 XP machines for rendering leaving main machine free.

Since it never gets past Sending Scene, I would suspect firewall(s) is/are blocking the transmit.  You might try temporarily disabling firewall stuff on the PCs themselves and possibly your router (not that you'd want to leave it this way, just to test).

I've never encountered an instance where the firewall in the router interfered; the cows and Hypervue are not attempting to access the net, and so don't invoke the router's 'wall. However, the firewall in Norton and XP is a different matter all together...

Hi,

The windows firewall on all machines is turned off.

The XP machines are running ZoneAlarm and the Vista machine is running Kaspersky Internet Security 6.

However like I said smaller scenes reach their target and render with no problems. The scene does have radiosity but even that wouldn't account for the apparent hang. I am now wondering whether the scene is actually rendering but just not updating the Hypervue manager correctly?

Jon

I think I read somewhere about problems with Vue and Zone alarm. But as Mac user I do not give all this a lot of notice really. Not relevant for me.

But maybe you try to switch that off for a test.

Cheers Wabe.

I will temporarily turn off all firewalls and see what happens.

Thanks
Jon

Hi Again,

Well it seemsmy facts were wrong, sorry about that

Main Machine - Windows Vista Home Premium(retail) - Kaspersky Internet Security 6
Rendernode A - Windows Vista RC1 - Windows Firewall
Rendernode B - Windows XP - Zone Alarm

Anyway Rendernode B is currently offline but I disabled the built in windows firewall on Rendernode A and it starts rendering properly, and the correct amount of tiles are showing!

On a side note, when rendering large scenes is thier any advantage in selecting the Force tile size to 64x64 ?

Thanks
Jon

Hi,

Also on a side note, does anyone know if you can shut Vue down while it is network rendering? I mean still leave the Hypervue Network Manager running but shut Vue itself down?

Thanks
Jon

Happy to help.  IMO what you want to do is configure your firewall(s) to allow all traffic between your PCs that you own, and leave the other settings alone.  If you post screenshots of your configs I can likely help you with that, although for your own safety, please make sure to obscure any exact hostname, username, password or IP address information.

Jonj1611,

As you are able to render smaller files between the machines, your firewall settings are not a factor.  I believe the problem comes from your file size. A 96MB file transferred between machines (such a simple file transfer) will take some time, now throw in the fact that it's a render program that is trying to subdivide the program between several computers and this will cause a bottleneck.  You do not specify what network card(s) you are using or your bandwidth 10/100/Gbit, but I would dare to say that what you are seeing is your main machine trying to divide the file up to each machine and those machines writing the information to the hard drive in preperation of the render.  A quick verification of this is to see if your hard drive access light is staying lit or continuously flickering.

Hi,

Thanks, I will check it in the morning, using a 100mbit network.

Thanks
Jon

Hi,

Well not sure what is going on now, another scene, this time only 5.2MB, same issue, just hangs on sending scene :(

Both firewalls are off on both machines and both machines and the router are set to allow port 5002

Any ideas
Jon

Hm. One possibility is glitching with HyperVue. I long ago got in the habit of having the manager come up with no cows detected, and then adding them to a render queue one at a time (if you're on PC's, the easiest way is to name your renderboxes something simple, and add them by name: like mine are Elsie, Betsy, Bossy, Rose, Louise, Meg, and Katie. Hey, they're cow names.... :P). Reason being twofold. It prevents your system resources from crashing out Vue (and potentially even your system, with enough data being pushed around), and prevents any networking fubars from being remembered from a previous crash, blocking communications. Another possibility is that the remote cows are not behaving themselves. Remember that they are basically just the Vue render engine with a negligible GUI and a TCP/IP interface. It has to be told to stop rendering by Hypervue, and if something prevents that from happening, it will keep on until finished, then send the call that it has data to transmit back. And will sit there waiting patiently until it gets the flag to transmit it. HyperVue can connect to it, as it isn't actively -doing- anything, but anything it sends is just wafting off into the ether....and since the cow isn't sending back the 'data received' flag.... Try shutting down and restarting the cows when you get this happening, see if that helps any. 3rd issue could be the eternal pathing issue. No matter how many new schemes implemented, if your pathnames are not correct in spelling, syntax, etc, you are shooting craps with function.

Hi,

Certainly something odd is going on, it still says the exact same message when sending the scene to the rendercow on the same computer, odd

Jon

Also make sure there are no spaces in the cow names.  I had a problem with one until I renamed it..

Hi,

Thanks Peggy, I am wondering if the problem is related to Vue itself, all the scenes I have tried rendering are using Spectral Atmospheres.

Now, from what I can gather from other threads their maybe an issue with Spectral Atmospheres and Hypervue that may stop it from network rendering.

So glad I have the "final" version :)

Cheers All
Jon

Hi,

Well problem is solved and the answer couldn't have been more simpler, I can render spectral atmospheres on all render cows with no problems.

And the answer from tech support was :

Right click on Vue 6 and run as administrator!

I am using Vista, wish they could have told me that sooner :)

But anyway working now.

Jon