ManFriday's Render Queue (the old one from 2019) [Commercial]

MIH_BAD

DoctorJellybean said:

MIH_BAD said:

Hey Guys,

for some reason when 1 render finishes, I 2x new DAZ3D windows. So, I am getting two DAZ3D applications open and then, of course a crash error.

I get even 2 times the small CMD with the launch script. If I am fast and closing one manually all works, else it gets clogged. 

Any help please?

THANK YOU

I think you'll may need to wait for the update, as the timeout may not be long enough.

Would WORK OFFLINE help? I don't need to be logged in all time?

THANKS A LOT

MIH_BAD

DoctorJellybean said:

MIH_BAD said:

 

MIH_BAD said:

DoctorJellybean said:

MIH_BAD said:

Hey Guys,

for some reason when 1 render finishes, I 2x new DAZ3D windows. So, I am getting two DAZ3D applications open and then, of course a crash error.

I get even 2 times the small CMD with the launch script. If I am fast and closing one manually all works, else it gets clogged. 

Any help please?

THANK YOU

I think you'll may need to wait for the update, as the timeout may not be long enough.

Would WORK OFFLINE help? I don't need to be logged in all time?

THANKS A LOT

Added tesxt now: It all started after I clicked the "Shut down" option. I was thinking it is a "Run As Admin"  solution. I will try and let you know. (thanks again for the support)

 

Kaimetsuo

ManFriday said:

Kaimetsuo said:

I seem to be having an issue with this... when it finishes a render, it shuts down as advertised, but then it does not restart the program. Any ideas why this might be happening and how I might fix it?

The plugin restarts Daz Studio as follows: It writes a batch file called "mfrq-restart.bat" into the system temporary directory (which, depending on your Windows version, should be something like C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp), then launches that batch file and quits Daz Studio. That batch file sleeps for a few seconds to give Daz Studio time to shut down and should contain two lines like this:

timeout /t 5start "" "C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\DAZStudio.exe"

The file should still be there after the restart, I am currently not bothering to remove it, it just gets rewritten at every restart. Can you check that the file is there? If so, can you try running it from the command line to check that it starts Daz correctly?

If so, one thing I have learned yesterday is that there seem to be issues with that method of restarting Daz Studio if you are currently logged into the store from within Daz Studio ("Connect" method). If the five seconds are not enough time for DS to shut down, then there may be two concurrent login attempts to the store. But I think that would be a different issue because in that case I have been reported that Daz Studio shows an error box, which does block the Render Queue progress, but is probably unrelated to your problem.

Hm. Yes, the file is there and, yes, launching that file directly starts DAZ correctly. I am not typically logged into the store through connect- I run the program in offline mode.

I am using 64-bit Windows 10 Home / Version 1809 / OS Build 17763.379

 

UPDATE: DAZ will start up just fine if I manually run the .bat file, but the .bat file is not being launched when DAZ closes.

DoctorJellybean

Kaimetsuo said:

 

UPDATE: DAZ will start up just fine if I manually run the .bat file, but the .bat file is not being launched when DAZ closes.

From what I can tell, all the .bat file does is wait for 5 seconds before launching DS. DS needs to execute the .bat file to restart the queue.

Kaimetsuo

...and DAZ isn't doing it. Curses. This is why I can't have nice things!

Further UPDATE: I double checked my antivirus and security software and even went as far as to put exceptions for DAZ and the .bat files, but that produced no changes.

Gogger

Gogger said:

ManFriday said:

Gogger said:

ManFriday said:

Gogger said:

ManFriday said:

I'm sorry, no. I haven't found a way to suppress these yet.

So, to be clear, what happens if it DOES encounter say, a duplicate formula error?  If scene 3 of 5 has such an error, does the script just skip over the error scene and go to the next in line, or hang and wait? 

The plugin cannot skip over the error. If an error message box pops up while a scene is being opened, the Render Queue will wait indefinitely until you dismiss the error message. There is no way for a Daz plugin to suppress these error messages when opening a scene file, unfortunately.

So my only recommendation is, unfortunately, to make sure the scene files you add to the queue have no errors. You can open a scene file and then the Render Queue window and press the "add current scene" button in the Render Queue window to be sure.

That works for me still - even if RQ will only render 'error free' scenes that still helps tremendously with my workflow - I'll still get all those scenes rendered while I sleep, work, or socialize, and can render the ones with issues manually when I am home.

I bought this last night and ran a handful of scenes through it as a test with no problems noted.  I have to ask though, and sorry, I am at work, away from my render machine, but is it my imagination or did the scene thumbnails all show as little square images?  I usually always render 1920x1200 and sometimes 3440x1440 and it seems like I could tell which was which just by the shape of the thumnbail.  Last night I rendered both formats and it *seems* like my thumbnails were all the same - square.  I was in a hurry this morning so could be completely wrong, but now I'll be wondering ALL DAY while at work.  :o)  

Thanks for this product - it is one of those rare game changers that will actually positively affect how productive I can be!

That is very kind of you to say, so thank you. I'm glad you like it.

Regarding the thumbnails, I'm not sure what's going on there. My plugin doesn't generate any thumbnails deliberately. I have an output directory that I use exclusively for the Render Queue, and it never has any thumbnails in it. I THINK Daz Studio generates thumbnails for directories that are listed in the "Image paths" box in the Render Settings pane, but I think those are generated dynamically when Daz looks at that directory and not necessarily when the renders are made. I may be wrong about that though.

Okay, thanks. It may just be that I am losing my mind. HA HA!   Plus I was in an awful hurry.  I'll check it out more thoroughly tonight. So far I am well pleased though!

Okay, I checked - there is no issue with the thumbnails. This script is working perfectly for me. No issues, no complaints!   

ManFriday

I have submitted an update to Daz last night that will make the timeouts configurable and has longer defaults too. Thanks everybody for the feedback!

MIH_BAD

Hey Guys.

I logged out of the store and set the slider to 10 seconds for scene to settle down and it works now (did only 1 test at the moment)

kenshaw011267

@davidt3009 look on the render menu.

I bought this and quite like it except for one thing. The program dialog is set to be always on top which makes the computer pretty much completely unusable while running. I'd prefer being able to setup a queue that will run overnight and then the next day while I'm at work. However I do check my email, DM's etc. on the PC in the morning before leaving for work and when I just tried this I had to shut the queue down just to be able to do this which meant aborting an ongoing render which will have to be redone while I'm at work.

ManFriday

kenshaw011267 said:

I bought this and quite like it except for one thing. The program dialog is set to be always on top which makes the computer pretty much completely unusable while running. I'd prefer being able to setup a queue that will run overnight and then the next day while I'm at work. However I do check my email, DM's etc. on the PC in the morning before leaving for work and when I just tried this I had to shut the queue down just to be able to do this which meant aborting an ongoing render which will have to be redone while I'm at work.

My thinking was I wanted to keep that on top so that it wouldn't be covered by the render progress window of the render that's currently going on, but I guess I can make the "stay on top" optional with the next update.

As a workaround for now, instead of canceling the entire render, you can move the plugin's render progress window all the way to the bottom of the screen so that only a bit of the title bar is visible. :-)

Thanks for the feedback!

James_H

Just run this for the first time. First render worked as expected (I used two cameras in one scene). However the second was very slow, caused by two versions of Daz running. This could be a crashed plugin or something else.

Windows 10 64-bit, latest version of Daz: I also have the beta installed but was not using it. Can give a list of plugins if required.

kenshaw011267

Another thing I noticed. The program allows me to specify a name for the render but then appends _(camera name) to the end. I see where you need this for the render every camera in the scene setting but it means I have to go through and delete that stuff from all my batch rendered files.

Also I'm fine with the dialog being on top when DS has the focus but it stays on top even when Chrome has the focus which just isn't proper bahvious for any program unless you set it for that manually, like task manager or CPU-Z which I do set for that at times.

DoctorJellybean

Perhaps an option to shut DS down when the queue is complete for the next update?

ManFriday

DoctorJellybean said:

Perhaps an option to shut DS down when the queue is complete for the next update?

I‘ll put it on the list :-)

ManFriday

jash147 said:

Just run this for the first time. First render worked as expected (I used two cameras in one scene). However the second was very slow, caused by two versions of Daz running. This could be a crashed plugin or something else.

Windows 10 64-bit, latest version of Daz: I also have the beta installed but was not using it. Can give a list of plugins if required.

I have submitted an update to daz for testing, hopefully the longer delay will fix your problem once Daz approve it. 

drayab1000_f384f6bac6

Hi, generally I love the product, but I just wanted to echo a couple complaints.

kenshaw011267 said:

I bought this and quite like it except for one thing. The program dialog is set to be always on top which makes the computer pretty much completely unusable while running. I'd prefer being able to setup a queue that will run overnight and then the next day while I'm at work. However I do check my email, DM's etc. on the PC in the morning before leaving for work and when I just tried this I had to shut the queue down just to be able to do this which meant aborting an ongoing render which will have to be redone while I'm at work.

This is my biggest complaint. It completely takes over the computer! I can't use my web browser while it's running because the program dialog can't be minimized. Please adjust so that it's not a focus hog.

 

kenshaw011267 said:

Another thing I noticed. The program allows me to specify a name for the render but then appends _(camera name) to the end. I see where you need this for the render every camera in the scene setting but it means I have to go through and delete that stuff from all my batch rendered files.

This is a mild annoyance. Unless _(camera) is needed to distinguish between multiple output files, nothing should be appended at all.

ManFriday

All duly noted. Thanks everybody!

greys

This is probably a very niche request but is it possible to configure the time between the last render finishing and the shut down?

I generally save the renders to dropbox, so they immediately synch to my editing laptop (which travels with me) for postwork. Previously I've been using remote viewing to start the next render and shut down at the end. However what I've found withthis script is the comp shut downs immediately following the final render and it doesn't have time to synch to dropbox (and my editing laptop) before the main pc shuts down. I can work around it by disabling that option and using the remote viewing to shut down but tthat leads to periods where it remains running unnecessarily, so if it's possible to avoid that it'd be perfect. 

Thanks so much for this in either case - it really helps!

MIH_BAD

Hey ManFriday,

is it possible to let us know in this forum when the DAZ3D fix is available? I am checking every day but I am not always logged in and I might miss it :)

Thanks a lot in advance

ManFriday

greys said:

This is probably a very niche request but is it possible to configure the time between the last render finishing and the shut down?

I generally save the renders to dropbox, so they immediately synch to my editing laptop (which travels with me) for postwork. Previously I've been using remote viewing to start the next render and shut down at the end. However what I've found withthis script is the comp shut downs immediately following the final render and it doesn't have time to synch to dropbox (and my editing laptop) before the main pc shuts down. I can work around it by disabling that option and using the remote viewing to shut down but tthat leads to periods where it remains running unnecessarily, so if it's possible to avoid that it'd be perfect. 

Thanks so much for this in either case - it really helps!

I see your point, didn't think about that. The new update that's in testing at Daz right now already has four levers for timings, and I could probably add a fifth, but to be honest, there is a point where the UI becomes too complex. How long does it take for the dropbox to sync? I could just delay the shutdown by a fixed amount, nobody would notice anyway since it happens unattended.

It would also have to wait for another update later, since the current update is already in testing at Daz.

ManFriday

MIH_BAD said:

Hey ManFriday,

is it possible to let us know in this forum when the DAZ3D fix is available? I am checking every day but I am not always logged in and I might miss it :)

Thanks a lot in advance

I'll post a notice here. The update will be in DIM and will be pushed out automatically if you use DIM.

Gazukull

Been using the plug daily now.  Most excellent! :D

Gogger

I'm using it right now, too.  Been running most of the morning with no issues.  Thanks again for this!

Gogger

Okay, not sure if this is something that can be addressed in the script, am guessing NOT, but will mention it.  I set up a string of renders of a G3 figure who was posed with eyes 'Pointed At' a camera. When the renders happened, he was looking straight ahead.  I KNOW this is a known thing and you just have to jiggle the scene, but it just means that we might have to manually 'Point At' in order for it to stick.  (Use 'Point At' to get the coordinates and then copy them and apply manually)

greys

ManFriday said:

I see your point, didn't think about that. The new update that's in testing at Daz right now already has four levers for timings, and I could probably add a fifth, but to be honest, there is a point where the UI becomes too complex. How long does it take for the dropbox to sync? I could just delay the shutdown by a fixed amount, nobody would notice anyway since it happens unattended.

It would also have to wait for another update later, since the current update is already in testing at Daz.

It's usually only 30secs to a minute after the file is saved. It's definitely a fairly niche use case so no worries at all, being able to only check in at the end of the queue is still a big help even if this never gets added. Is there a bat file for the shutdown I could edit? if so that might be a possible workaround, unless the bat isn't created until the final render - though even then I could perhaps do it by overwrite protecting the edited version? hmm. 

Thanks so much for your consideration! :)

L'Adair

@ManFriday I've got another suggestion, something to consider for a future update. It looks like the script is using the "id" for the camera(s) on the end of the image filename, but what if it used the "label" instead?

I tried to rename my camera so something meaningful to me would be appended to the filename, but found camera 1 appended instead.

If the script were to use the camera's label instead of the id, we could use this as a way to keep track of what the camera is doing. For example, if I have a camera for a head shot of figure, I can label it HeadShot, and if I were also doing profiles, I could have camera's labeled Profile Left and Profile Right. If there are multiple characters in the shot, I could include the names, like Landon HeadShot, Brute Front, etc.

I don't know if it's even feasible to use the label instead of the id, but if it is, I think it would be a great feature.

 

ManFriday

greys said:

ManFriday said:

I see your point, didn't think about that. The new update that's in testing at Daz right now already has four levers for timings, and I could probably add a fifth, but to be honest, there is a point where the UI becomes too complex. How long does it take for the dropbox to sync? I could just delay the shutdown by a fixed amount, nobody would notice anyway since it happens unattended.

It would also have to wait for another update later, since the current update is already in testing at Daz.

It's usually only 30secs to a minute after the file is saved. It's definitely a fairly niche use case so no worries at all, being able to only check in at the end of the queue is still a big help even if this never gets added. Is there a bat file for the shutdown I could edit? if so that might be a possible workaround, unless the bat isn't created until the final render - though even then I could perhaps do it by overwrite protecting the edited version? hmm. 

Thanks so much for your consideration! :)

A batch file is only used for restarting daz studio, not for shutting down the system, so even if that were editable it wouldn't help your case.

But I could add the option to specify a script to be run instead of hard-coding the shutdown. Then people could decide what should be done when the queue has finished. Like, I've also gotten the request that a WAV file be played when the queue is done. Or people could notify themselves via twitter. :-) That would all be possible then.

ManFriday

Gogger said:

Okay, not sure if this is something that can be addressed in the script, am guessing NOT, but will mention it.  I set up a string of renders of a G3 figure who was posed with eyes 'Pointed At' a camera. When the renders happened, he was looking straight ahead.  I KNOW this is a known thing and you just have to jiggle the scene, but it just means that we might have to manually 'Point At' in order for it to stick.  (Use 'Point At' to get the coordinates and then copy them and apply manually)

"Point at" is just broken. :-) Fixing it in the render queue plugin would be a bit of work, I'd have to iterate over all figures in the scene and find the eye nodes and fix them. I have stopped using "Point at" for that reason and use the scripts by mjcasual instead.

atenzagame

[It is a machine translation]
Set up two scenes and start, DAZ restarts when the first rendering is over,
At that time, two command prompts are displayed, whereby two DAZ are activated at the same time, and rendering is also performed in duplicate.
I always have this phenomenon.

DAZStudio 4.11 beta
Core i9 9900K / GTX 1080 / 32GB RAM / Win10 Pro 64bit

Is this a currently fixed issue?
Please let me know if you do not have enough information.

ManFriday

L'Adair said:

@ManFriday I've got another suggestion, something to consider for a future update. It looks like the script is using the "id" for the camera(s) on the end of the image filename, but what if it used the "label" instead?

You're totally right, I used the wrong API call. It won't be in the fix that's currently at Daz but in the version afterwards. Thank you!