SteveSayer
12-10-2010, 01:41 PM
Hello everyone, I hope someone out there can help me.
I have been using Maya for many years, never had a tech problem as intractable as this.
I recently upgraded my system when my motherboard died. So before I was using Maya 2008 on Windows XP (32 bit), and now I'm on Windows 7 (64 bit). I've also installed the Maya 2011 trial. The 2011 trial seems to work fine, but 2008 just refuses to batch render. (And I'm careful to distinguish between the two versions of the renderer--see my long-winded list of different things I've tried, below.)
When I try to start a batch render, either within Maya or from a command line, whether Maya Software or mental ray, it says that it's starting but then just hangs. Within Maya, I get "Rendering with Maya Software..." and then nothing. (Or "...with mental ray" if I choose that, but still no progress.) I can cancel it fine using the 'cancel' command. From the command line, I get "Starting [2008 path]/mayabatch.exe" ...and then nothing.
I notice that one of the four cores on my machine seems to max out processor usage while the rendering hangs; my total system processor usage stays fairly steady around 25%. From the GUI, I can see Maya create a temporary scene file in the appropriate directory, and if I cancel the render, it deletes it when it's done.
I am really at a loss here. I have seen threads about similar problems here and there online, but nothing with a solution that works for me. I'm running as an administrator. I have made sure I take ownership of the project folder and the render output folder. I have set Maya's MAYA_APP_DIR environment variable. I have allowed all Maya-related executables access through the firewall--I have also tried disconnecting from the network, and turning OFF the firewall. Nothing produces even the slightest difference. I have tried rendering from my usual project folder, as well as from the default project folder. I'm using a simple test scene that just contains a single sphere.
From a command prompt, I can run both 'render -?' and 'mayabatch -?' and get the appropriate help messages printed out, so paths are all correct. I've tried using explicit paths just in case... still nothing! I've tried limiting the render to just one processor, with no change.
Maya renders single frames just fine. I've written a quick MEL script that uses the GUI to "batch" render by doing one frame at a time and then saving out the result, but that's a horrible workaround.
In a couple of days, I will uninstall the 2011 trial and, if that doesn't fix the problem, will also try reinstalling 2008. But I hope someone else has some suggestions I could try, too--this issue is truly maddening.
Thanks in advance for anything anyone can offer.
-Steve Sayer
I have been using Maya for many years, never had a tech problem as intractable as this.
I recently upgraded my system when my motherboard died. So before I was using Maya 2008 on Windows XP (32 bit), and now I'm on Windows 7 (64 bit). I've also installed the Maya 2011 trial. The 2011 trial seems to work fine, but 2008 just refuses to batch render. (And I'm careful to distinguish between the two versions of the renderer--see my long-winded list of different things I've tried, below.)
When I try to start a batch render, either within Maya or from a command line, whether Maya Software or mental ray, it says that it's starting but then just hangs. Within Maya, I get "Rendering with Maya Software..." and then nothing. (Or "...with mental ray" if I choose that, but still no progress.) I can cancel it fine using the 'cancel' command. From the command line, I get "Starting [2008 path]/mayabatch.exe" ...and then nothing.
I notice that one of the four cores on my machine seems to max out processor usage while the rendering hangs; my total system processor usage stays fairly steady around 25%. From the GUI, I can see Maya create a temporary scene file in the appropriate directory, and if I cancel the render, it deletes it when it's done.
I am really at a loss here. I have seen threads about similar problems here and there online, but nothing with a solution that works for me. I'm running as an administrator. I have made sure I take ownership of the project folder and the render output folder. I have set Maya's MAYA_APP_DIR environment variable. I have allowed all Maya-related executables access through the firewall--I have also tried disconnecting from the network, and turning OFF the firewall. Nothing produces even the slightest difference. I have tried rendering from my usual project folder, as well as from the default project folder. I'm using a simple test scene that just contains a single sphere.
From a command prompt, I can run both 'render -?' and 'mayabatch -?' and get the appropriate help messages printed out, so paths are all correct. I've tried using explicit paths just in case... still nothing! I've tried limiting the render to just one processor, with no change.
Maya renders single frames just fine. I've written a quick MEL script that uses the GUI to "batch" render by doing one frame at a time and then saving out the result, but that's a horrible workaround.
In a couple of days, I will uninstall the 2011 trial and, if that doesn't fix the problem, will also try reinstalling 2008. But I hope someone else has some suggestions I could try, too--this issue is truly maddening.
Thanks in advance for anything anyone can offer.
-Steve Sayer