Since I’m currently working on a Max 2009 project with many (over 100) scene states, I’ve noticed that Batch Render could use some updating.

For example, I’d like to add an ‘Nth’ frame support for animations.

Something else I’d like to see is an easier way to create Dependencies in the Queue Manager.  Something like RightClick and drag to create a dependency link between rendering jobs would be nice.  In the Network Job Assignment window, a toggle box to ‘wait for previous job to complete before starting this job’ since many of us use renderers to precompute lighting solutions before final rendering.

FYI, Batch Render does adhere to whatever Nth frame setting you have set in the main Render Setup.
I needed this too and was happy that it still skipped frames even though I had Batch Render set to override the frame range.

I don’t disagree that the Batch Render does need some updating though.

- You HAVE to press enter on the Name field or it won’t save your changes.
- For some reason if you make a duplicate and change the output path, it doesn’t change
(you have to click the X to remove it first and then browse and name your output)
- Nth frame override would be nice, as would more than just start and end frames
(like being able to specify specific frames)

Since I’m on the subject and Scene States go hand-in-hand with Batch Render:
I wish Scene States were able to hold something about Animation Layers.
What about object transforms for scene states?  How many of you have linked something to a light so you could use scene states to change the position of something? 
Also, I really wish when you restored Materials via a Scene State, it would check if that material is in the Material editor and use an instance of it.  So many times, I’ll be editing a material and wonder why my render hasn’t changed...oh, cuz Material Scene States create a copy. I could see why you might want it this way (variations of the same texture), but it could check to see if the material is exactly the same as one with the same name in the material editor.

findapollo 28 August 2009 02:11 PM

FYI, Batch Render does adhere to whatever Nth frame setting you have set in the main Render Setup.
I needed this too and was happy that it still skipped frames even though I had Batch Render set to override the frame range.

I don’t disagree that the Batch Render does need some updating though.

- You HAVE to press enter on the Name field or it won’t save your changes.
- For some reason if you make a duplicate and change the output path, it doesn’t change
(you have to click the X to remove it first and then browse and name your output)
- Nth frame override would be nice, as would more than just start and end frames
(like being able to specify specific frames)

Since I’m also animating multiple materials in my scenes, some scene states require Nth frame renderings, and some require sequential frames, so the toggle for each Batch Render job would be nice.  Although I just noticed that you can assign a (render settings) Preset under Batch Render.  I guess one could create a render settings Preset for Nth frame under Common tab and use that.

Anyway, creating the dependencies is killing me since I have so many.  I hope this portion gets an update.