I have a project I’m working on that uses CAT rigged people.  The main scene has several xref scenes, one of which is the people.  All of the CAT rigs have had their animation collapsed to a single Collapsed Animation layer, and each rig has a single mesh with a Skin modifier.  When I submit this render to Backburner, I get an Unexpected Exception.  Even if I trim the people xref down to a single CAT rig, it throws this exception.  If I merge the people xref prior to submission to Backburner, it renders fine.

Has anyone seen this before?  Why does having CAT rigs in an Xref cause max to crash?  I can render it locally with the people in an xref and it works fine, but the moment I submit it to Backburner the Unexpected Exceptions start popping up on every machine that tries to render it.  It’s not a RAM issue, the scene only uses about 2GB.  I’ve tried it in Max2009 x32 and Max2009 x64.

Help.

Ray Collett - Technical Director - Newlands & Company Inc.

I have no issues with x ref cat models on my render farm. Do you have cat installed on all of your render nodes?

Far Star 20 November 2009 05:06 PM

I have no issues with x ref cat models on my render farm. Do you have cat installed on all of your render nodes?

Far Star 20 November 2009 05:06 PM

I have no issues with x ref cat models on my render farm. Do you have cat installed on all of your render nodes?

I sure do.  It renders fine through Backburner if I merge the scene Xref into the main scene.  It’s just completely broken as a scene Xref.  We’ve got two different projects underway here and in both cases we have to merge the people Xref into the main scene or we get Unexpected Exceptions.

< rant >
Can’t Autodesk give us more detailed errors than Unexpected Exception?  I mean, really.  Can’t it tell me what it was even trying to do, or which object is at fault, or anything?  This error is nearly useless to me!!!
</ rant >

Ray Collett - Technical Director - Newlands & Company Inc.

I now understand what you are talking about using X ref scenes not just x ref models in a scene. I can confirm this issue you are having I am getting the same thing. I know it blows my mind Cat cannot handel being x ref very well.

Just wanted to let you know I got CAT to work with x ref scene and to render on back burner with no problems. You will need to save out your cat rigs as a .RG3 rig and use the add part feature to reference the model. Hope this helps

Far Star 08 December 2009 01:22 PM

Just wanted to let you know I got CAT to work with x ref scene and to render on back burner with no problems. You will need to save out your cat rigs as a .RG3 rig and use the add part feature to reference the model. Hope this helps

Hey FarStar,
So I understand how to load and save rg3 files, but I don’t understand what you mean about adding the rg3 as a reference.  The only thing I see that resembles ‘add part’ is the Extra Parts button, and since that just allows you to pick other scene nodes I’m sure that’s not what you are talking about.

-Ray

Ray Collett - Technical Director - Newlands & Company Inc.

Yes correct use the Extra parts button to add all of your models mesh to the rig file. So now when you add your model into a new scene that will later be x refed it will be your complet model and not just a rig.

Maybe this will help.

1. save out hero model and cat rig as a .RG3 rig in the catrig load save.
2. Make a new scene call it hero model animation but this time bring in your hero model via the catrig load save.
3. open up a new scene and call it master scene and then X ref in the hero model scene you just made.
4. check net render and render with back burner

I’m getting nowhere with this.  Crashes every time.

1) Create a CAT rig, align it to a mesh and apply a skin modifier to the mesh, then add the mesh as an Extra Part.  Save the rig as a RG3 called MyTest.
2) In a new scene, create a new CAT rig, selecting the newly created MyTest default.  Add a CatMotion layer and turn on the green Play button. Save the Scene.
3) In a new scene, attach the scene from step 2 as a Scene X-Ref.  Submit a render to Backburner.
4) Watch every slave crash with an Unexpected Exception.

If I don’t apply any animation layers to the CAT rig, it renders fine. (but then, what’s the point?) If I render locally, it renders fine. If I merge the Scene Xref into the main scene before submitting to Backburner, it renders fine.

Ray Collett - Technical Director - Newlands & Company Inc.

when you save the rig are you sure you are not saving it as the default .rig Go to were you saved your rig on your system and see if you see the .RG3. Reasone I asking is that this is the issue I was getting when trying to use the .rig but one I saved out rig as .RG3 it is all working perfectly.