Right click on the secene file was it?

Yep,
Is that what's called batch render?
I remember reading somewhere there are some things it can not do... could this be the problem in this case?
Benny

A batch render is a render that just does a batch (say all the frames for animation)

Rendering like what you did of form the command line just frees up system resource. The render should be based on the scene settings in the render globals form the last save.

... I just thought so because the process in the task manager is called mayabatch.
When I render a scene from within Maya with the same render settings I get a MUCH better quality...

Oh cr*p, I've just seen for the first time after a few happy years a BSoD when I tried to render through Maya...
Not so long ago the computer stopped while rendering(twice) and I had to restart it. I guess the BSoD is an epilogue.

Here is a comparison:
Maya closed | Through Maya
http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/2418/tempmf1.png

Oh well, No comparison because my computer just stopped twice more while trying to render that scene through Maya.
This is getting on my very last nerves :angery: :headbang:
Any ideas?
Benny

:attn:
Reinstalled Maya, this time with sp1, and I managed to render that scene:
http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/919/tempbr3.png
I'll try another render with Maya closed now to see if there's any difference...
(Edit: no, no difference...)
Benny

It stopped because it probably ran out of memory. And the other render looks like a Maya software render. I thought this tut was useful
>>>>Command Line Rendering by Peter Stratton<<<<

Thanks Genny, I think I know what's the problem - It probably didn't use Mental Ray for the render...

I've got another problem though - I can't use the cmd to render because
The tutorial doesn't say anything about that and I tried to follow it word by word...
Do I need to import something first or something like that?
Help please,
Benny

At what point do you get the problem, if yo open the cmd and type render -h you should get all the flags. But I dont know where you get the problem

at any point in which I try to use 'render' command...

I doesn't make seance to me that using 'render' in cmd will work just like using 'ping' for instance... maybe I just don't know how windows works well enough though...
Benny

Create a .bat file and then execute it from there

I tried that too - it's the same result.
It shouldn't be anything different anyway...
Benny

Theres a quite a few tutorial on doing it, google them.
I use the methond from maya the complete reference, works like a charm

Nvm... probably just my computer...
It won't accept ping and ipconfig commands as well, giving the same error...
I think I'll need to reinstall windows...
Thanks anyway,
Benny

i love these errors don't you?

you get this because 'render' is not a command you can use (on anyones computer, not just yours)

to be able to use this command you need to add stuff to your class path.

I assume you're still using XP (works the same with vista anyway)

Go
Control Panel > System > Avanced tab > Enironment Variables (button)

A new dialog appears with two box things (i forget what they are called)
One should be called "System variables"

Scroll down until you see the variable "Path", double click and add
to it.
Well... add the address of the bin folder of your maya directory and type semicolon ; after it

and you will be able to use the command "render" from any location, because in that bin folder is the render.exe


Maya adds itself to the classpath when it installs so i have no idea why it's not there for you.....



if that fails then you can't use the exe files in the bin folder from the command line :p

Hey Benny any luck with that command render at all?

Thanks a lot Chirone... it finally makes sense...
@ Genny - I'll try it now ( :zzz: )
here's a render I left overnight:
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/7214/tempwd9.th.jpghttp://img291.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif

I liked the first one better... there's something crazy going on with the reflection of the murky figures...

Benny

No... still no luck...
I looked into Path and it was already there. the files themselves (Render.exe, ping.exe etc) exist but It won't use them for some reason...
Benny

try opening the comand prompt in the bin folder (or if you dont have that ability just type in the command prompt cd <adress-of-bin-folder>) and see if you can use the 'render' command



if you don't want to type in the entire adress just highlight the adress in the folder, copy that and right click in the command prompt and click paste

I tried that as well... No luck...
I really need to reinstall windows...

:attn: :attn: :attn:
Managed to run a Mental Ray render with Maya closed:
' "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya8.5\bin\Render.exe" -r mr D:\Benny's\Maya\Projects\Chess\Figures5.mb '

I tried this before without the quotes... my brother told me today that I should put the .exe address in quotes and it worked :attn:
Now I just need to wait and see what comes out :)

Here's an update:
http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/3360/tempwv3.jpg
Improved the murky glass...
I'll improve the lighting and do another test render.
This time no background...

Edit: this time the render works fine, though I had to look for the output file for a pretty long time. Found it under 'My Documents\maya\projects\images\...'
also found other cool forgotten stuff... ( see first post thread in members lounge)

Benny

:headbang: :headbang: :headbang:
I found out why my cmd commands weren't working:
this is what was in 'Path'
I have no idea why it was written that way. maybe some stupid program added itself to Path and f***ed it up in the process?

I didn't notice it before because I've never seen how it should look. Though something was a bit funny about it.
A quick search in Google and I found out how it should look.

Funny thing - I was trying to learn some c and Visual Studio told me "can't spawn cmd" as an error. Problem is the 'cmd' command was giving the same error as 'render'...

Benny

interesting.... wonder where all the ; went....

you should be able to just type
render -r mr Figures5.mb
in the command prompt provided you have the cmd open at the
D:\Benny's\Maya\Projects\Chess\
location

if you find the powertoy for xp to open the cmd from any folder then that would make it easier for you since you just have to type that line instead of typing out the whole adress (ok, you'd only do that once but if you accidentally close the cmd then you have to do it again)

Nah, now that it's all running properly it's not a problem at all...

Update:
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/6268/tempyx5.png
*Changed the intensities of the lights
*Increased light radius from 0.3 to 7 (Mental Ray != Maya Software...)
*Got a new sky pic for the sky dome - I like this one a lot. Nice reflections on the marble and you can really see the Fresnel effect in this one.
perhaps I need to lower the intensity though.

- Even after installing Maya with sp1 I can't load a file onto the 'out color' of a surface shader without invoking a fatal error... sky dome is therefore a lambert.
does someone have a better idea for it?
Benny

EDIT:
I'll start another final and go to :zzz: soon...

Dude that's a really lame error lol did you google that? I'd find that very hard to live with.

I don't :D
Perhaps I would have if I ever used it... As I barely know what it does that doesn't bother me as much as receiving fatal errors with no obvious reason and having to open the scene and Maya over again.

Didn't find (Google) anything useful about that.
perhaps I'll check that error later....
Good night
Benny

Oh well, I guess there's no escape from reinstalling Windows...
The render I left overnight didn't do anything. so is a test render I just lunched, and waited half an hour for something I later rendered through Maya in 17 min:
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/4375/tempks3.jpg
Benny

Firewall blocking it maybe?

No... I don't use firewalls :attn: (router)
How can a firewall block a render?

I'll try it again this night. this time I added a flag for the output file so I don't go looking for it again.

Together with lots of other stuff, search feature got f***ed up - I can't find anything in My Documents (maybe in a larger area, but in D:\ it works fine) even if when I run a search inside a folder with one item for that item...
Benny

It's possible that a firewall could block any program that uses network facilities. Even if it doesn't connect to another network and just uses the local network. (sockets)

Oo, OK...
Apparently this render with Maya closed does work:
Here's what it did overnight:
http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/6631/tempwq5.th.jpg

I just noticed that the white king is on the wrong spot...
(I had this kind of problem in all of the renders so far...)
I tried to fix it by re-rendering that region but it left seams for some reason.

C&C please, before I re-render the whole thing this night
(not just because of the king. Other small issues as well...)
Benny

how come it takes so long for your renders?

I think you should have some shadows in the scene. :)

It's a combination om my old PC, the high quality and the huge resolution. The last render through Maya took ~ 9h
I don't know how much it takes with Maya closed...

I do have shadows, they're simply very weak. They were weak before but now that I increased the light radius and decreased the intensity of the key light the shadows kind of disappeared.
They would've disappeared completely only when the render time will go down by 1-2 h :)

I'll see what I can do about it... Thanks for the advice :bow:

Benny

Modifications...
 

http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/6758/tempxw2.png
Shadows are still a bit too weak...
C&C please,
Benny

i like the faint shadows. :)

The board still looks like its floating. Also, you're not doing yourself any favors by making the renders such a high res and waiting hours unless you're completely (and I can't stress this enough) completely satisfied and now you're doing a final render.

Well, I'm not COMPLETELY satisfied but I've got nothing better for the computer to do overnight so why not? I see more details and stuff I need to improve that way...
Any advice for making the board look better? I can't think of anything that'll help...
Thanks for the replies :bow:
Benny

Haha sorry for the hassle :p

nvm it.

I'm going to sleep now... Another render overnight I hope...
Holiday's over :shakehead - I've got school tomorrow. Some tests as well soon...
I expect to slow down for a while. No other big holiday in almost two months :(
Benny

Another test render:
http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/5115/tempbe6.png
Shadow annotation raised to as high as it gets. shadows are a bit darker but still not as much as they should be...

Another full sized render I left overnight:
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/8...ess2yq1.th.jpghttp://img406.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif

I think that's it for this project... It lasted far longer then I intended it to.

Thanks a lot to everyone who helped me through it :bow:
Couldn't have done it without you
Benny

I guess its about that time to move on. Well you stuck with it and you finished it.:p