Got a huge Rendering problem.

[tokanohanna]

I have a pretty large file that I have completed for my final, when i try to batch render, 10 seconds later the script editor reads render completed. Its driving me crazy. Have no idea why my scenes wont render. When I test render a frame, everything works, but when i batch render, maya wont render. I tried running render diagnostics and I got errors that read that there were some geometry that didnt have shading networks connected will not render, I connected shading networks manualy and it still didnt work. I tried rendering in passes also but that didnt help. Anyone can help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[oldhippie_tom]

Just a thought, as I am not any type of expert on Batch Rendering. Are the files being created in the folder you have them going to when it says 'Render Completed'?

I am sure yo must have.

[tokanohanna]

I have my project set to my rendered scenes folder, so thats not the issue. my problem is that it takes a minute to render each frame and I have a couple hundred to render. when I try to batch render within seconds it says render completed.

[McGergs]

Could you send us the stats on your computer hardware.

You might be getting a memory dump with mental ray.


What type of surfaces are you rendering? Polygon or nurbs?


It all depends on how much geometry is in your scene and how much memory mental ray is using to calculate the scene. This usaully can happen with a batch render because one camera angle can require much more calculation than another. Also try to use command line rendering instead of batch rendering in Maya so you save system resources.

There are many ways you can try to fix this.

1. First try turning up you memory limit in Render Globals for mental ray. The default is 800MB. If you have 2GB of Ram switch it to 1200MB.
2. Also try to switch to "Large BSP". This helps prevent a render from tanking that require large memory calculations.
3. Try to use the new render layers in Maya 6 and above. This makes it so you can render out certain passes and composite them back in later.

Hope this helps.

[iceangel89]

i am not a pro yet and i had a similar problem, all my frames are the same. i think baking your animation might help. although my didn't work.

[tokanohanna]

Im using polys, and my harddrive is 250 gig, its pretty big. well I will definetely try those options you have given me. One thing though is that im not rendering in mental ray, Im using software.
How do i do command line rendering? How do i switch to Large BSP?, I will also try rerendering in layers with those adjustments. I'll try again later today and get back to you, thanks for your help.

[colicoid]

It sounds like the renderer encounters some kind of problem and stops.
Im no expert but here is what I would have done.

Delete the prefs folder and restart maya, chose to rebuild preferences. (you will loose all your settings and custom shelves so make a backup first)

You could try a "divide and conquer" strategy to finding the problem.
1. Delete half of everything. If it works the problem is somewhere in the stuff you just deleted.
2. Keep deleting half until you have found the problematic piece.

If you find a problematic piece of geometry you could just remodel it or try to fix it. You can also try to delete all your lights and see if they are causing it, delete all shaders etc...

[tokanohanna]

Well I tried deleting my lights and all my shaders. My scene still wont render. I tried bumping up my memory and using mental ray instead of software, and also rendering in passes. I dont know how to comand render, I did see an error message in the editor that read "warning: cache is not open. it is not saved.", has anyone seen that before?

[tokanohanna]

I want to thank everyone for the input, I finally figured it out, it was a texture problem. some of my textures was unusually causing a problem that seemed to be interfering with the shading networks, I basically deleted all my textures and re-assigned them from scratch and broke everything up in render layers. It renders fine now. Thanks again