Cant open file for reading system cant find the file

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Symptom

You are rendering a scene in two different scenarios, either from the SoftimageXSI interface, or through xsibatch –r. The render process is distributed, therefore tile-based, so you are using other systems on the network as render slaves to help out with the rendering job. When the render process is started from the interface, SoftimageXSI crashes, and when invoked through xsibatch –r, the process halts and the following message is printed in the xsibatch shell :

INFO: "IMG 1.2 error 101003: c:TempmyClip.pic : can't open file for reading (system can't find the file)</FONT>
INFO: IMG 1.2 fatal: file error, exiting</P></I> <P>Here is some background information concerning the scene. The scene references image clips saved in a shared folder located on the master machine, with the correct file permissions, and each image clips’ <I>Image Management</I> properties are set to the <I>Use from disk (Clip FX disallowed / Sends image to render slaves</I>) option. There are also more than enough licenses to go around. So, based on this setup, why is the render process not working.</P>

Cause <P>Here are a few facts to consider :</P>

  1. The <I>Share</I> folder MUST be accessible to ALL users. It is possible that the shared folder is not accessable from one or many render slaves.
  2. When the distributed rendering slave starts the render, it starts as the user <I>SYSTEM</I>. Since <I>SYSTEM</I> could not access the shared location, then the render process stops, and that is when the aforementioned error message appears.



Solution <P>Set the <I>ray3xsi3_0</I> service on ALL the machines to start as a user, so it would have access to ALL the image clips stored in the shared location. By default, more often than not, the <I>ray3xsi_3.0</I> service will be set to <I>Administrator</I> (i.e. <I>Local System account</I>), and in this case, one has to change the permissions to the local User. To do so, follow these easy steps :</P>

  1. Open the <I>Control panel</I>.
  2. Open <I>Administrative tools</I>.
  3. Open <I>Services</I>, and locate the <I>ray3xsi_3.0</I> service.
  4. Open the ray3xsi_3.0 property window and go to the <I>Log on</I> tab; enable the <I>This account</I> option, and fill-in the <I>user</I> and <I>password</I> fields, as follows:

    Image:Ray3xsi3_0_server.jpg

  5. Then click on the <I>Apply</I> and <I>OK</I> buttons to accept the changes (there is no need to restart the system).
    6. </OL>

    <P>Result : Now the next time you invoke the distributed render process, either from the interface or through <I>xsibatch –r</I>, the render process will complete successfully.</P> <P>

    <TBODY> </TBODY></TABLE></P>



    References

    Sources:

    Bruce Priebe & Pierre Duranleau, 3D Graphics Support - Escalation Team, at Softimage/Avid.

    About distributed rendering :

    SoftimageXSI-Rendering</I> document : chp 5, starting at page 159.

    </FONT>



    Applies To: XSI 3.0.1 on NT,Win2K

    Posted: 2/4/2003

    Note</B> : If you are rendering a scene containing .map files (i.e. mental image format), along with Image management-Broadcast (Clip FX disallowed / Sends image to render slaves) properties, then make sure that the Render options-Photon-Final Gathering Map-FG Map path is set to a UNC style path such as in this example :

    </FONT>\mySystemmySharemyImagesmyFGmap

    </FONT> 

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