Troubleshooting satellite rendering with Process Monitor

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In this video, I take a look at what to look for in a Process Monitor log from a satellite rendering computer. If you don’t see what I’m showing, then the master is not connecting to the satellite.
http://vimeo.com/25201287

To use Process Monitor to confirm whether the master connects to the satellite:

  1. On the satellite machine, download Process Monitor.
  2. Extract Process Monitor from the downloaded file, and start procmon.exe.
  3. On the master machine, start Softimage. The master connects to the satellite at startup.
  4. After Softimage starts up on the master machine, go back to the satellite machine and stop capturing events in Process Monitor.
  5. Review the Process Monitor log (see the video for more info).

Using LUT files in Softimage 2012

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There seems to be a bit of UI glitch in the Color Management preferences PPG. If you choose From LUT File in the Source list, you cannot select a LUT file from the Filename list. In fact, the Filename list just lists No LUT.

Here’s a couple of workarounds:

  • Set the LUT file through scripting: 
    Application.SetValue("preferences.Display.color_management_source", 1, "")
Application.SetValue("preferences.Display.color_management_lut_filename", "sRGB_10bits.lut", "")
  • Use this modified factory SPDL:
    $XSI_HOME/Application/spdl/C3DPrefsDisplay.spdl
    I tested this on my own install, but still, “use at your own risk”.

BTW, this issue is already logged and fixed internally.

New view attributes in 2012

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For the Scene Layer Manager, there is a selectedlayer attribute.

For the Schematic view, there are two view attributes: AnchorPointID and Target.
Target is available for the node context menu only.

Here’s some code from the new Schematic example in the XSI SDK workgroup:

def XSILoadPlugin( in_reg ):
	#...
	in_reg.RegisterMenu(C.siMenuSchematicNodeContextID,"LogNodeInfo_Menu",False,False)	
	#...

def LogNodeInfo_Menu_Init( in_ctxt ):
	oMenu = in_ctxt.Source
	oMenu.AddCallbackItem("Log Node Info","log_info_cb")	
	return True

def log_info_cb( ctxt ):

	Application.LogMessage("log_info_cb called")

	# Returns the view object or a list with the view object and the target node (siMenuSchematicNodeContextID only)		
	target = ctxt.GetAttribute('Target')
	anchorPtID = ctxt.GetAttribute('AnchorPointID')
	# ...

Notes from here and there on the frontline

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Misc notes from frontline support…

  • Shaders disconnecting when you open scene
    Ack! This gave me a scare initially, but it turned out to be something else (not the dreaded “disconnected shaders” problem).
    The reported problem was that the Particle_Renderer node was losing its connection to the Volume port on the material.

    The actual problem was the Constant node. Nodes like Constant and Blinn are material type shaders, not textures.
    The parameters in a shader (like Color) are designed to work with texture-type shaders. That’s why plugging a material node like Constant into the Particle Renderer doesn’t work.

  • too many literal bytes for texture
    For a specific TIF texture, mental ray standalone was giving an error that looked like this:

    API 0.0 error 301098: c:\test.72.mi, line 1484: too many literal bytes for texture (null)

    xsibatch didn’t complain, btw.

    The only previous reports of that error that I could find were from 10 years ago.

    The customer converted the image to another format to get around the error.

  • Disappearing point clouds when you remove the initial state
    A customer sent in a scene where, if you removed the initial state, all the particles disappeared.
    I did find a workaround: go into the Emit from Curve compound, open the Generate Points PPG, and change the Seed value. That would force the particles to emit again.

  • Empty nodes in the render and ICE trees
    This was reported by a customer running on Linux: no text in the render tree and ICE tree nodes.

    We tried the following with no success:
    – Run cmdreg -f XSICOMDLLs.lst (the Linux version of runonce.bat)
    – Run mwcleanup
    – Remove ~/Autodesk/Softimage_2012 and /var/tmp/Mw_{username}
    A graphic card or display driver issue is my best guess; I didn’t hear back from the customer so eventually I had to close the case “unconfirmed”.

  • Combining a Syflex simulation and shape animation
    Can’t be done. The Cluster Shape Combiner is lower in the stack, so it won’t be evaluated each frame of the simulation (just once right before the simulation starts). Even if you remove the Syflex ICE tree, the shape animation won’t happen as long as the Simulation stack is there.

Displaying topics from compiled help files (CHM)

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Using an undocumented preference value, you can use the undocumented XSIUtils.DisplayHtmlHelp method to open compiled help files. To find the undocumented preference value, I had to go into the Softimage source and find the implementation of DisplayHtmlHelp().

Prior to 2012, DisplayHtmlHelp worked with CHM files, since the Softimage help itself was compiled. But as of 2012, DisplayHtmlHelp now works with HTML files by default.

// Set the helplocationtype to CHM
var tmp = Preferences.GetPreferenceValue( "General.helplocationtype" );
Preferences.SetPreferenceValue( "General.helplocationtype", 3 );

// Open a specific topic in a compiled help file
var s = "C:\\Program Files\\7-Zip\\7-zip.chm::/fm/plugins/7-zip/options.htm";
XSIUtils.DisplayHtmlHelp( s );

// IMPORTANT: Restore pref after
Preferences.SetPreferenceValue( "General.helplocationtype", tmp );