Content Directory for Network Rendering

#1

I’m finding that when I copy my project files over to my network render drive so that I can submit them to my farm, even if I set the content directory properly, Layout is … for lack of a better way to put it … getting lazy and still trying to look for it’s assets on my local workstation instead of on the network render drive. Here is the process I’m following:

  1. Let’s assume I have a finished animation that’s ready to submit to the farm. It currently resides on my workstation. Let’s also assume that my render controller (Butterfly Net Render) is set up properly and works perfectly, which it is and does.

  2. I copy my project root folder to my network drive. This has all the necessary subdirectories, including my images, objects, and scenes folders.

  3. Once the project is transferred, I open Layout on my workstation, set the content directory to the project root that resides on the network render drive. I’ve mapped the network drive as a drive letter on all computers here, so I don’t have to go through the full UNC path every time.

  4. Once my content directory is set, I open the scene file in Layout. At this point, Layout should have retrieved it’s assets from the images and objects folders on the network drive, but it’s not, it’s still grabbing them from my workstation. Anyway, I confirm that all my camera and render settings are bullet proof, set my render directory to a folder on the network drive, Save All Objects, then re-save the LWS.

  5. I submit my job to the farm, and lo and behold, I get either blank frames (ScreamerNet can’t find LWOs), or rendered geometry with no texture maps (ScreamerNet can’t find maps), depending on at what level the link is incorrect which varies from case to case.

The only 100% way I’ve found to avoid this is to temporarily rename the local version of my project root before I perform step 4. That way, if Layout is still trying to be lazy and grab assets locally even though I’ve set the content directory to the network drive, it will have to ask me where its assets are located, and I get the opportunity to tell it to look on the network drive.

That’s a lame workaround though. Any ideas as to how I can keep Layout from being such a lazy bum?

Thanks,
Dustin

#2

Bueller…Bueller…

#3

Sorry, I can’t help you there (but I did read through your post! :wink: ) - I just keep everything on the server.

It doesn’t sound right though… do you change the content directory often? If you open your scenes in a text editor, are the paths correct (if they are it means that Layout is doing an o.k. job and you can concentrate on finding the issue in Modeler)… just speculating here…

Cheers,
Mike

#4

I actually discourage my guys from working over the network. I ask them to work locally, then copy finished files to the file server. We have a 10/100 network so opening scene files accross it can be a real time waster, and it also crushes the network speed for anyone else trying to do something.

I’ll check out my scenes in notepad and see what it says, thanks for the suggestion.

  • Dustin Brown
#5

YOU SHOULD USE THE CONTENT MANAGER & USE EXPORT…WHAT IS HAPPING WITH YOU THAT YOUR SCENE FILE IS POINTING TOWARDS YOU LOCAL HARD FOR OBJECTS & IMAGES & ETC…
YOU CAN SEE WHAT I MEAN IF YOU OPEN THE SCENE FILE IN ANY TEXT EDITOR…
THE EXPORT OPTION WILL SAVE YOUR SCENE WITH ALL LINKS FOR OBJETCS & EVEN IMAGES SEQUENCE TO THE DIRECTORY YOU PICK ( THIS SHOULD BE ON YOU NETWORKED HARD WHICH Z:\ DIR FOR ME…I CREATE A prj_XXXX & EXPORT MY SCENE TO IT…)

#6

ouch I thought those had died a quick and (hopefully) agonizing death 5 years ago :wink:

Cheers,
Mike

#7

H_Molla is correct. Your LWS scene file that you saved is still pointing to your workstation harddrive where you originally saved the scene file. Opening up your scene file in a text editor will prove it to you.

What you can do, is in that text editor, manually change where LW is looking for your objects. You’ll also need to make sure that you are using the same directory structure for images, textures, etc. and that the scene file is pointing to the correct drive and directory. Simply changing the Content Directory without changing the LW scene file will not work.

With our situation, we have a network drive only for textures with our scene files and object files on local workstations all mapped the same. It’s easy to transfer an entire project over to any machine and it will automatically (well, most of the time) find the correct directories.

Good Luck!

#8

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