Problem regarding the renderlayers

[ciboulot]

Hi all,

I have a problem when rendering layers. I select everything that will be in the layer and then create the layer. It has the camera, the geometry and the octane sunsky.

Problem, each time I open the scene again, I have the same issue. It doesn't find the camera:

editRenderLayerMembers -noRecurse POSITION _CAM_PL0340:CAM_PL0340_101_175;
// 1 //
// Error: ...cameraMaskChange(unifiedRenderGlobalsWindow|rgMainForm|tabForm|OctaneRenderTabLayout|OctaneRenderCommonTab|scrollLayout|commonTa //

// Error: Invalid use of Maya object "CAM_PL0340_101_175". //
// Error: ...cameraMaskChange(unifiedRenderGlobalsWindow|rgMainForm|tabForm|OctaneRenderTabLayout|OctaneRenderCommonTab|scrollLayout|commonTa //
// Error: Invalid use of Maya object "unifiedRenderGlobalsWindow|rgMainForm|tabForm|OctaneRenderTabLayout|OctaneRenderCommonTab|scrollLayout|commonTabColumn|rgRenderableCamerasFrame|renderableCamerasSW|mayaSoftwareCameraLayout|columnLayout8096|columnLayout8097|columnLayout8098|checkBoxGrp452". //
// Error: ...cameraMaskChange(unifiedRenderGlobalsWindow|rgMainForm|tabForm|OctaneRenderTabLayout|OctaneRenderCommonTab|scrollLayout|commonTa //
// Error: Invalid use of Maya object "CAM_PL0340_101_175". //
// Error: Octane: Could not find the camera in layer "POSITION". Octane render stopped. //
// Error: Octane: Could not find the camera in layer "POSITION". Octane render stopped. //

I try each time to reconnect but it doesn't work... Is it maya related or octane related?

Thanks for your concern.

[JimStar]

At which moment do you get this error, when you open the scene or when you start rendering?
Can you give me the scene?

[ciboulot]

Hi, I'll get back to work on monday and will pm you the scene.
When I open the scene, there is no error. But, when I select a RenderLayer, this message appears. No renders were done, it was open in a fresh maya:
// Error: ...cameraMaskChange(unifiedRenderGlobalsWindow|rgMainForm|tabForm|OctaneRenderTabLayout|OctaneRenderCommonTab|scrollLayout|commonTa //

// Error: Invalid use of Maya object "CAM_PL0340_101_175". //

After that, when I tried to render, and the message previously posted appeared.

I'll get back to you on monday,

thanks.
CIboulot

[ciboulot]

Jimstar,

I just PM'ed you the file.

Thanks

[JimStar]

I tried to reproduce it on your scene, but I can't - as the scene has a lot of external references to other scenes...
But I have investigated the Maya's scripts which are giving you this error: it seems that it may be some issue of Maya's UI scripts logic... As this message appears when Maya's standard scripts are trying to fill the standard Maya's UI element on standard Maya's global settings "Common" tab - when filling in the "Renderable Cameras" rollout with cameras present in scene...

Can you try to disable the OctaneRender plugin in this scene and try to load the scene without it?.. Will you get this error when OctaneRender is not enabled in this scene?..

[ciboulot]

Hi Jimstar,

THank you for the answer. We are in the middle of the rendering process and we got to one simple conclusion:

Maya 2012 renderlayers are shit. And I'm trying to remain calm and polite. As far as we could get, it seems that the maya renderlayers don't want to update during the rendering process. An example:

I have 6 renderlayers:
1. Color (direct light, diffuse, override layer checked)
2. Z_depth (info channel, Zdepth, override layer checked)
3. ID (info channel, ID, override layer checked)
4. Position (info channel, Position, override layer checked)
5. Normals, etc
6. Wireframe, etc.

Each time I try them in the maya renderview I have no problem. But I get to batchrender via deadline 5, One of the four PCs running, doesn't update the renderlayer, and so renders the color channel all along. So the Z, the normals, the ID gets turned into COlor! Unusable and HUGE waste of time machine....

Fortunately, I did the geocache, so I can split my renderlayers via multiple scenes without having to update each scene when the animation changes.Pfiou....
The renderlayers render fine as long as there is only one active in the scene. I don't know if it is a OCtane or a Maya problem, but I strongly supect MAya 2012....

After all we found a solution, so it is better you work on integrating the latest kernel, wich looks fantastic, in our shitty software

Thanks for the hard work.

PS: do you know if there is a schedule for integrating image planes, displacement and embended rendering passes into one file?

Ciboulot

[JimStar]

One of the four PCs running, doesn't update the renderlayer, and so renders the color channel all along. So the Z, the normals, the ID gets turned into COlor!

If there is only one machine with this problem, and others work fine - it is rather not OctaneRender problem (as it always renders the same way what is given by scene data)... Perhaps some scene settings differ between different machines...
You need to find the difference between this machine and the others to catch the reason, as if you got it once - it can occasionally interfere with your future work too. If I will be able to reproduce it - I can make some workaround to eliminate it in future (or pop-up some warning-message to the user with description what exactly may be wrong in the scene).
And the detailed description of how the scene, layers, rendering process, etc are configured will be very helpful for catching the reason...

[ciboulot]

Hi Jimstar,

For the multiple computers batch render: I spotted the faulty one, and did a reinstall of Maya on it. It now works like a charm. Apparently, it is better to get the service pack 2 to resolve these problems.

The detailled description of our configuration:
Render Scene references Camera, Octane shaded and lit model. A geo cache is imported and applied to the model.
The model is a high definition one and is shaded, textured, and lit in a separate file. It doesn't have renderlayers
The renderlayers are done in the render scene in last with the referenced models, and cameras. "use namespaces" is active on the referenced files, resolving by the name.

Concerning the // Error: Invalid use of Maya object "CAM_PL0340_101_175". // problem firstly mentioned. We still have the error, but it does not stop the rendering anymore. IT renders normaly.
We just re-referenced the scenes, and made super sure the cameras were in the renderlayers. Octane doesn't render if the camera is not in the layer. IS that a bug or is it normal. I'm asking to make sure we elaborate the correct render pipeline for Octane in advertising-productions.
I did not have the time to test if the warning still appeared if the plug-in was unloaded, I will try this week and keep you posted.

Hope this helps. Thanks for the concern.

Ciboulot

[JimStar]

Thank you for report!

Octane doesn't render if the camera is not in the layer. IS that a bug or is it normal.

This check was made intentionally, Octane plugin checks before the render if the camera is present...