Rendering software updates roundup June-July ‘21

Enjoy our next roundup of new updates on GarageFarm.NET render farm. Over the past two months, we've been working on improvements to the plugins for Cinema 4D, 3ds Max, Maya, Blender, After Effects, and Modo. We’ve released two version updates to renderBeamer application and many fixes and improvements for Web Manager. 

• Added CMD (command line) auto-submit option. To run renderBeamer from CMD with auto-submit feature just use  -autosubmit parameter next to renderBeamer.exe. Please keep in mind that path to scene file while using auto-submit CMD should be equal to farm paths (eg. "C:\Users\youruserhere\renderbeamer\renderbeamer.exe" -autosubmit “/pathtoproject/data/Scenefile.xxx“).
• Added password characters validation. Now all kinds of special characters are blocked in login/password text boxes.
• Added a highlight for the latest stable plugin versions (plugins tab)
• Added closing upload confirmation window after selecting the "click here to submit job" option
• Fixed return codes handling for plugin installers
  

• Fixes & improvements in V-Ray scene frame range editing options

• Now render range is checked against the data in the .gfs file (including Sketchup page ranges & whole scene range)
• Render range can be changed only in-between frame data available in the .gfs file

• Fixed issue with deleting output directories for FFMpeg jobs (audio/video/renders)
• Fixed issue with re-adding After Effects jobs. Now all output names & folders are correctly checked & replaced with new names.
• Fixed SketchUp+V-Ray 5 job submitting issues
• Fixed Modo render passes lists in Safari browser
• Fixed Modo render passes selections options. Now, only the active render passes can be turned on/off.
• Fixed default encoder settings for FFMpeg jobs
• Added "Download via web browser" to file context menu (it allows users to download individual files)
• Previous "Download" option is renamed to "Download via renderBeamer"
  

• Corona render workflow has been expanded
• Plugin UI is more similar to V-Ray now. It contains 3 modes dedicated for scene scenarios: 

• render as is - for common scenes
• camera animation - for scenes containing fly-through camera animation with GI caching
• still image - for high resolution still frames with/without GI cache

• New mode “Camera animation - bake and render”  works in a similar way to V-Rays camera modes. It creates GI cache files, and uses them for rendering.

• Caching procedure is done fully on the farm side, users can set “baking step” (frame step) for GI caching. By default it’s done every 10th frame.
  
• Fixed Corona render elements output savings issues. The issue exists when using .CXR & .EXR output formats. Now users can use the “save render elements separately” switch to get those outputs as external files. This feature works with max script.
• Fixed the issue with collecting .sbsar assets from the same folder
• Fixed the issue with failed anipack extract (Anima plugin)
• Added support for Redshift Volume asset sequence (.VDB)
• Adjusted prompt for selected "Region" option for area to render
• Added a prompt for NVIDIA AI denoiser
• Other under the hood improvements for Corona render

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This video is an overview of the GarageFarm.NET rendering service with the 3ds Max plugin & V-Ray renderer. We'll show you all options and render modes available in our renderBeamer for 3ds Max V-Ray plugin. 

• Added support for fonts. Used fonts are collected and uploaded along with the scene file. Also they are listed in .gfs.
• Added setting for bucket setup. Now bucket size can be changed directly on Web Manager. Bucket size is supported with one axis only. For example, 32 means 32x32. Bucket size is also listed in .gfs.
• Improved Redshift denoisers support
• Fixed issues with X-Particles cache files
• Fixed issues with V-Ray version saving to .gfs
• Fixed issues with copying & uploading user fonts
• Added GarageFarm_Fonts 2021 library to plugin directory on macOS
• Fixed the issue connected with Redshift OCIO settings that caused the plugin to get stuck
• Added prompt for plugin-renderBeamer connection issues
• Added prompt for the issue with creating submit directory
• Added additional info to the “Please set main render output” prompt
• Changed plugin directory layout
• Fixed plugin issues when preparing scenes created in the Redshift Demo version
• Fixed V-Ray version detection issues
• Fixed issues with fonts upload & deployment
• Exception handling improvements
• Other under the hood improvements and fixes

• Changes in plugin workflow - "renderBeamer vXX Batch relinker” option in the "Compositions" menu is now used to prepare the scene and to send it to the renderBeamer app UI.
  

• Main plugin UI is displayed directly in the renderBeamer setup tab. Here, you can set all render settings - i.e. composition render range, step, video output format, audio output switches.

• While our plugin is processing the scene file, the After Effects process thread will be waiting until the plugin finishes working
• You can cancel this process by using the "cancel" button in renderBeamer, no changes will be made to the scene in this case
• Added validation for render range
• Added symlinks workflow. Now, symlinks are automatically ON in the macOS plugin version. To use symlinks on Windows, please use After Effects with administrator privileges.
• Symlinks workflow will optimize the scene preparation process, and decrease storage usage of our /temp/ folder
• Fixed issue with closing plugin UI
• Other under the hood fixes and improvements
  

• Fixed a problem where textures wouldn't upload - UDIM sequence in Maya 2022 & copy with coding sign "–"
• Added support for Redshift strips rendering (still shots)
• Improved support for the Anima plugin
• Improved support for Redshift AOVs
• Improved support for PRE/POST Mel scripts
• Added Redshift denoiser information & setup to .gfs
• Dynamic memory limit for the V-Ray renderer is now set to 0
• Unlocked support for Optix denoiser
• Other minor improvements and fixes
  

• Fixed plugin startup issues on Modo 15. This Modo version is using newer Python (3.7).
• Added warning prompt for layers containing space at the end of the layer name
  

• Fixed random plugin crashes
• Fixed missing "Upload project with packed assets" option for Blender 2.93
• Fixed IES assets relinking
• Fixes symlinks issues