BUCKET ISSUES

There are multiple reasons which can cause bucket issues. Bucket issues need to be investigated in a logical and reductive approach. They can either be general issues - things that relate to problems with the farm or individual machines, scene specific issues - problems that relate to something in the scene, or a mix of the two. Here are several key steps that can be taken to identify the issues.

General render node issues:

• restart the farm and/or the DR machines.

• check network drive availability

• add a vray_dr_bucket element, switch off vray VFB and render the image in order to find if specific machines are causing the problem and what they are. Check here for details

• once machines are identified discuss with people dealing with IT to see if there might be a software issue with these specific machines - could be any of - broken installation, missing SP, missing plugins. Work with IT to identify the problem.

• IT - check that max is installed correctly with all plugins and service packs. Service pack mismatch is a very common problem. Here is how to check the service pack version through Deadline. 

Scene specific issues: 

• check your maps are all available on the P drive. if your maps are on R: drive check they are accessible in all locations UK, BG, AT

• are you using any exotic plugins that might not be available on other machines. Be particularly mindful of Forest Pack

• do you have modifier stacks with settings that are only affected at 'render time'. read here for more detail on modifier stack dependencies. 

• do you have any body objects. this is related to the previous point

• overlapping geometry - very common cause for bucket problems

• any shaders and maps NOT supported by v-ray. Normal Bump is the latest culprit. Click here for detail on how to troubleshoot shader issues using Modifier Zorb script. 

• check any geometry for issues like bad verts, overlaps, animation etc. For best practice click here.