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

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  • hansolocambohansolocambo Posts: 649
    edited March 2020

    For those having issues with Daz not restarting, I guess here we're mostly talking about renders over night right ? So why playing with small 15 seconds or 30 seconds values for the timeouts / settle down / waiting periods ? Just put them at 180 seconds or more and it'll work. I set most at about 90 seconds and so far it seems to be enough. What are a few minutes over one night ? 

    I had and still have issues with the choice nb.1 to restart the "normal" way, but choosing option 3, the script, it works like a charm. I rendered over night. Went to sleep at 2AM, woke up at 8:15AM, all renders were done. And the computer was OFF. What a great plugin ManFriday ;) On top of that, because I render when I'm not on the computer, I took the liberty to set the max samples of my Iray renders a bit higher than usual and it's amazing the difference. No need to play with Photosop denoise or dust and scratches filters, the renders were spotless clean. 

    Like many others, I'm hoping for a next release that supports animations. Render Queue would definitely be even more ultimate. If we set, before saving the file, that the animation on Camera X runs from frame 0 to frame 25 for example, it should be possible for the pluging to grab that data and wait for the calculation of 26 frames before closing DAZ. But I'm not a coder at all and I surely can't begin to fathom the complexity of integrating such an update ;)

    Cheers. 

    Post edited by hansolocambo on
  • hansolocambohansolocambo Posts: 649
    edited March 2020
    ManFriday said:

    What has changed with 4.12 is that DS refuses to open multiple instances unless you use special command line parameters. The result is if you try to start Daz Studio again while the invisible background process is still cleaning up, it just refuses to start.

    Surprising statement as I'm sure you over tested that. I can start multiple instances of DAZ (4.12.0.86 Pro 64Bits) withtout any issue. Even if I'm rendering a scene with one and working on another one. I don't remember ever having such an issue with 4.12 or any earlier version.

    Post edited by hansolocambo on
  • ManFridayManFriday Posts: 549
    edited March 2020
    ManFriday said:

    What has changed with 4.12 is that DS refuses to open multiple instances unless you use special command line parameters. The result is if you try to start Daz Studio again while the invisible background process is still cleaning up, it just refuses to start.

    Surprising statement as I'm sure you over tested that. I can start multiple instances of DAZ (4.12.0.86 Pro 64Bits) withtout any issue. Even if I'm rendering a scene with one and working on another one. I don't remember ever having such an issue with 4.12 or any earlier version.

    I'm sorry, I misstated the version number. Multiple instances are still possible with 4.12 stable (version number 4.12.0.x) and earlier. Daz changed the behavior for the "public build" beta (version number 4.12 1.x). So your version is still behaving as previously.

    Post edited by ManFriday on
  • I love the concept but for some reason no mater what is saved in my scene render settings it only renders a single still image then moves to the next queued item. 

    Any idea how to resolve that? 

  • Anyone have any ideas why the render queue wont render type "Image Series" no matter what I do it always renders Still Image (Current Frame) No matter what I do. 

    This product would be amazing for rendering animations but I cant seem to get more than frame 0 out of it. 

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049

    Anyone have any ideas why the render queue wont render type "Image Series" no matter what I do it always renders Still Image (Current Frame) No matter what I do. 

    This product would be amazing for rendering animations but I cant seem to get more than frame 0 out of it. 

    It is designed to only render still images. As you see, it will not render animation.
  • Somehow Render Queue had been disabled for some time now despite my efforts to reactivate it, but tonight it is back - WOOHOO!!!  I just set up about 15 scenes to render while I sleep. AWESOME is BACK, BABY!
     

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    Gogger said:

    Somehow Render Queue had been disabled for some time now despite my efforts to reactivate it, but tonight it is back - WOOHOO!!!  I just set up about 15 scenes to render while I sleep. AWESOME is BACK, BABY!
     

    That's strange. Did you update the beta and update and merge menus to get it back, or something?
  • barbult said:
    Gogger said:

    Somehow Render Queue had been disabled for some time now despite my efforts to reactivate it, but tonight it is back - WOOHOO!!!  I just set up about 15 scenes to render while I sleep. AWESOME is BACK, BABY!
     

     

    That's strange. Did you update the beta and update and merge menus to get it back, or something?

    TBH I went to use it one night, after having used it successfully for a while, and it would not open the RQ window, but if I tried to click again, anywhere, my pc would just make a DING sound until/unless I pressed Escape on the keyboard. Checked Daz Studio Plugins list and it showed, but was not active. Tried to activate it but no luck. Couldn't be bothered to spend hours troubleshooting so just carried on. Last night on a whim I gave it a go and was delighted when it worked! I love this product and it makes me incredibly more productive.

  •  It would be really awesome if it maybe said that somewhere in the product page that it only renders a single still image per scene, and not image series / animation. 
    For anyone looking for one that will do animations I found this one:
    https://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/batch-renderer-for-daz-studio/110993

    It unfortunatly doesnt shutdown your computer or daz when its done but it does allow you to specify a range of frames so it does indeed support image sequences for animation output. 
    I hope they build this sort of thing into Daz for the next version consiering how long rendering takes it would make studio a lot better. 

  • LoonyLoony Posts: 1,798

    Hey a question, is it possible, that the software use one scene and jump after a render to the next Camera? I create 1 scene with mainly 3-5 cameras to give a ncie view from all angles (I will try to make 360° turnables in the future).

    My problem is, when I have a pokethrough and see it in my render, then would I have to fix this with meshgrabber in every scene file, instead of just in 1 scene and then use spotrender, thats why it would be important for me, that thee Script will not load savefiles, it should jump after a render to the next camera.

    I don't own the software now, but that would be a reason to buy it.

  • jesusaramenesjesusaramenes Posts: 176

    Hello :)

    I'm using a translator, so I apologize for the mistakes.

    just to be sure there are no options to define a render settings ? it only uses the settings saved with the files ? if this is the case it's really a shame because it implies to have to modify each file individually (if necessary), which can be very long, I use another batch render but there are some problems sometimes (smoothing modifier)

     

    thank you ;)

  • LoonyLoony Posts: 1,798

    Hello :)

    I'm using a translator, so I apologize for the mistakes.

    just to be sure there are no options to define a render settings ? it only uses the settings saved with the files ? if this is the case it's really a shame because it implies to have to modify each file individually (if necessary), which can be very long, I use another batch render but there are some problems sometimes (smoothing modifier)

     

    thank you ;)

    But... thats how you render always and I mean, thats how it always works, and its good, so you dont have to load render settings always new, it saves them when you reopen the file.

    And if you have 2 different scenes they have theyre own render settings, it would be stupid to have General render settings for ALL, each scene needs it own adjusted settings.

    So I dont see there a problem for you. You create your Scene, adjust the Dome and all that stuff and make a little preview, then you save it and... done?

    What want you other?

  • jesusaramenesjesusaramenes Posts: 176
    edited May 2020

    everyone works differently, I test each of my renderings to check that there are no errors, during my tests my renderings are saved and tested in 1920x1080, my final renderings are rendered in 3840x2160, I work on series of renderings which have the same settings, lights etc...(50,100,etc...)
    currently I use batch render which has two options "use saved scene settings" or "use selected render settings duf files" which is very useful, but sometimes there are problems on the renderings, what interests me in the one created by Manfriday is the waiting time to load correctly the smoothing modifiers.

    Post edited by jesusaramenes on
  • LoonyLoony Posts: 1,798

    But I still dont get it, whatever you do... you will have to load the savefile for that render Queque, so when you prepare it to save it "final", just make sure you also have all render settings saved, I mean... you do precheck them, before you put it in the queque, so... I absolute dont get your problem ;)

    And No in that point does not work everyone different... when you press save (and you have to do that!) then you will automatic also save the render settings, you dont like the settings?

    Create a render preset, load it for that scene and thats it, then you press save, why judging the script when its made by you?....

     

  • jesusaramenesjesusaramenes Posts: 176

    it's so frustrating not understanding and not knowing how to speak English... to make a long story short, it's a huge, huge huge time saver

  • pazlenpazlen Posts: 25

    Anyone else having issues with the queue not advancing in 4.12.1?  The queue will load, render one scene, shut down Daz, then nothing...

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    pazlen said:

    Anyone else having issues with the queue not advancing in 4.12.1?  The queue will load, render one scene, shut down Daz, then nothing...

    No. How long did you wait? What are your settings for how long to wait to shut down and to restart? Look in Windows task manager. Did DS really shut down or is it still in the list of running processes. Do you have Octane Render plugin installed? People have had problems with DS not shutting down when Octane plugin is installed. In 4.12.1, DS will not restart until it is completely shut down. If it is still active in Task Manager, you cannot start it again without creating a special script to create a separate DS instance.

  • pazlenpazlen Posts: 25

    I usually set the renders to run overnight, when I come back in the morning Daz is completely shut down (not in the TM).  Also, not running Octane.  Tried 2 nights in a row now with the same result.  One render complete, daz shut down.  

    If it's not the software it must be something I am doing, I'll have to figure out what Im doing wrong on my end.  Thanks for letting me know it's still working! 

  • DoctorJellybeanDoctorJellybean Posts: 7,845
    pazlen said:

    I usually set the renders to run overnight, when I come back in the morning Daz is completely shut down (not in the TM).  Also, not running Octane.  Tried 2 nights in a row now with the same result.  One render complete, daz shut down.  

    If it's not the software it must be something I am doing, I'll have to figure out what Im doing wrong on my end.  Thanks for letting me know it's still working! 

    Try the following Queue options in Render Queue:

    Seconds to wait before loading scene: 30
    Settle-down period after loading each scene: 30
    Kill DazStudio.exe process
    Delay before shutting down ... : 30
    Delay in batch script .. : 30

  • notsram_827a4d215enotsram_827a4d215e Posts: 21
    edited May 2020
    pazlen said:

    Anyone else having issues with the queue not advancing in 4.12.1?  The queue will load, render one scene, shut down Daz, then nothing...

    I've been having this issue too, as well as many other problems. I LOATHE this update... Anyway, are you using the script that allows you to run more than one instance of Daz? The render queue doesn't appear to work properly with that. I've found that if you run Daz from the script, it'll do one render from the queue, then restart Daz BUT load the vanilla version of Daz rather than the scripted one, along with whatever renders you had queued up from the last time you used that version of Daz.. As these renders have already been completed, it never continues beyond the first render, as it thinks the queue is finished.

    Make sure you're running the unscripted version of Daz when you set up your render queue and it seems to work more often than not.

    *edit* This 'update' is driving me insane. No matter how many times I allow the render process through my firewall, restaring Daz through the render queue throws up a load of warnings and prompts for confirmation. Presumably as it's creating a new process each time...

    Post edited by notsram_827a4d215e on
  • ManFridayManFriday Posts: 549
    pazlen said:

    Anyone else having issues with the queue not advancing in 4.12.1?  The queue will load, render one scene, shut down Daz, then nothing...

    I've been having this issue too, as well as many other problems. I LOATHE this update... Anyway, are you using the script that allows you to run more than one instance of Daz? The render queue doesn't appear to work properly with that. I've found that if you run Daz from the script, it'll do one render from the queue, then restart Daz BUT load the vanilla version of Daz rather than the scripted one, along with whatever renders you had queued up from the last time you used that version of Daz.. As these renders have already been completed, it never continues beyond the first render, as it thinks the queue is finished.

    Make sure you're running the unscripted version of Daz when you set up your render queue and it seems to work more often than not.

    *edit* This 'update' is driving me insane. No matter how many times I allow the render process through my firewall, restaring Daz through the render queue throws up a load of warnings and prompts for confirmation. Presumably as it's creating a new process each time...

    I can confirm that problem. I'm investigating and will release an update if necessary.

  • ManFriday said:
    pazlen said:

    Anyone else having issues with the queue not advancing in 4.12.1?  The queue will load, render one scene, shut down Daz, then nothing...

    I've been having this issue too, as well as many other problems. I LOATHE this update... Anyway, are you using the script that allows you to run more than one instance of Daz? The render queue doesn't appear to work properly with that. I've found that if you run Daz from the script, it'll do one render from the queue, then restart Daz BUT load the vanilla version of Daz rather than the scripted one, along with whatever renders you had queued up from the last time you used that version of Daz.. As these renders have already been completed, it never continues beyond the first render, as it thinks the queue is finished.

    Make sure you're running the unscripted version of Daz when you set up your render queue and it seems to work more often than not.

    *edit* This 'update' is driving me insane. No matter how many times I allow the render process through my firewall, restaring Daz through the render queue throws up a load of warnings and prompts for confirmation. Presumably as it's creating a new process each time...

    I can confirm that problem. I'm investigating and will release an update if necessary.

    Great to hear that. I absolutely love this utility. Huge timesaver!

  • ManFridayManFriday Posts: 549
    edited May 2020
    ManFriday said:
    pazlen said:

    Anyone else having issues with the queue not advancing in 4.12.1?  The queue will load, render one scene, shut down Daz, then nothing...

    I've been having this issue too, as well as many other problems. I LOATHE this update... Anyway, are you using the script that allows you to run more than one instance of Daz? The render queue doesn't appear to work properly with that. I've found that if you run Daz from the script, it'll do one render from the queue, then restart Daz BUT load the vanilla version of Daz rather than the scripted one, along with whatever renders you had queued up from the last time you used that version of Daz.. As these renders have already been completed, it never continues beyond the first render, as it thinks the queue is finished.

    Make sure you're running the unscripted version of Daz when you set up your render queue and it seems to work more often than not.

    *edit* This 'update' is driving me insane. No matter how many times I allow the render process through my firewall, restaring Daz through the render queue throws up a load of warnings and prompts for confirmation. Presumably as it's creating a new process each time...

    I can confirm that problem. I'm investigating and will release an update if necessary.

    Great to hear that. I absolutely love this utility. Huge timesaver!

    Well, here is how that went. A few days ago I wanted to render a few scenes overnight and like you described, the queue rendered one image, restarted Daz Studio and then didn't load the second scene. Then I changed the settings to what you can see in the attached screenshot, and I have been unable to reproduce the problem since -- I've had it render 30 scenes in three overnight sessions without problems.

    Now, maybe I've made some changes in my code since the release that have had an impact on this, but could you give that a try? The most important one is a long delay in the last slider ("delay in batch script before starting daz studio again"). Feedback would be much appreciated.

    I have one theory what might have gone wrong here and maybe on your system too. One thing that will definitely confuse the Render Queue is if you use multiple instances, both under the old Daz Studio behavior and under the new 4.12.1+ behavior with the -instanceName command line arguments. If that doesn't ring a bell, just make sure that only one dazstudio.exe is running when you start the Render Queue. If you do use the new command line arguments, you should use the Render Queue only in the first instance (started without -instanceName). The Render Queue stores its queue (the list of scenes that you see in its dialog) in the Daz Studio application settings, and those are now kept separate between instances. That means that if you configure the Render Queue in an instance other than the first and then it restarts Daz Studio, the newly started copy will not see the queue settings because they have been stored in the settings of the other instance.

    One thing I have in mind after further testing is to add checks to the Render Queue that no other copy of Daz Studio is running and that no -instance command line argument is currently being used. I think I have also found a way of properly waiting for Daz Studio to shut down, however long it takes, instead of relying on dumb timeouts.

    For the record, I have two Daz Studio program icons on my Windows taskbar, one without any command line arguments that I used most of the time (and for the Render Queue), and another one that I use when I temporarily need a second instance for quickly looking into an other scene. For that second icon I use -instanceName # -copyAppSettings . -copySessionUI . -cleanOnExit true which I have found to work best a while ago.

    Long story short, could you try the attached Render Queue settings, make sure you have only one instance active and see if the problem goes away? It would also be helpful if you could post your exact Daz Studio version number as see in "Help" -> "About Daz Studio". The current Public Build seems to be 4.12.2.6, the stable build 4.12.1.117. Both of these should exhibit the new instancing behavior. Thank you!

    win_screenshot_1589712983.jpg
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    Post edited by ManFriday on
  • I just got a new PC, and decided to split my Daz content to another HD.

    I needed to reinstall the render queue, so I downloaded it and ran the installer. When I start DAZ ,I don't see the Queue. It's ca sort of seperate program, though, so it should not care where my content library is, would it?

  • ManFridayManFriday Posts: 549

    I just got a new PC, and decided to split my Daz content to another HD.

    I needed to reinstall the render queue, so I downloaded it and ran the installer. When I start DAZ ,I don't see the Queue. It's ca sort of seperate program, though, so it should not care where my content library is, would it?

    Step 1 would be to see if it was installed correctly. The Render Queue is a Daz Studio plugin, not a script, so it doesn't get installed to your content library, but to the Daz Studio program directory. You should have a file C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\plugins\MF_renderq.dll on your disk.

    Secondly check that you can see "ManFriday's Render Queue" in the list of plugins shown by "Help" -> "About Installed Plugins" in Daz Studio.

    If that exists, then there should be a "Render" -> "ManFriday's Render Queue" menu item. If it isn't there please check the Render Queue's readme PDF for hints how to get it back. You can find the readme by pressing F1 in Daz Studio and looking at "Plugins" -> "Render Queue" -> Documentation, or by going into C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\docs\Plugins manually.

    Hope this helps!

  • katjesartskatjesarts Posts: 17

    Honestly, I am quite disappointed. When I bought the product I thought that it would help my workflow. The opposite is the case. The only thing I get is frustration and wasted rescources.

    First, I got issues with re-opening DAZ Studio after rendering the first or sometimes second pic. I changed the settings and it seemed to work.

    Now it renders all the pictures, but is only saving the last picture out of three. It happened yesterday during the day and the same happened over night. This issue happened out of nowhere

  • ManFriday said:

    I just got a new PC, and decided to split my Daz content to another HD.

    I needed to reinstall the render queue, so I downloaded it and ran the installer. When I start DAZ ,I don't see the Queue. It's ca sort of seperate program, though, so it should not care where my content library is, would it?

    Step 1 would be to see if it was installed correctly. The Render Queue is a Daz Studio plugin, not a script, so it doesn't get installed to your content library, but to the Daz Studio program directory. You should have a file C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\plugins\MF_renderq.dll on your disk.

    Secondly check that you can see "ManFriday's Render Queue" in the list of plugins shown by "Help" -> "About Installed Plugins" in Daz Studio.

    If that exists, then there should be a "Render" -> "ManFriday's Render Queue" menu item. If it isn't there please check the Render Queue's readme PDF for hints how to get it back. You can find the readme by pressing F1 in Daz Studio and looking at "Plugins" -> "Render Queue" -> Documentation, or by going into C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\docs\Plugins manually.

    Hope this helps!

    The problem seems to be that for some reason it never installs. I ran the manual installer and it never puts that dll where it says it's suppossed to. Thank fully I have the original and just copied that to the directory. Seems to work fine then.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049

    Honestly, I am quite disappointed. When I bought the product I thought that it would help my workflow. The opposite is the case. The only thing I get is frustration and wasted rescources.

    First, I got issues with re-opening DAZ Studio after rendering the first or sometimes second pic. I changed the settings and it seemed to work.

    Now it renders all the pictures, but is only saving the last picture out of three. It happened yesterday during the day and the same happened over night. This issue happened out of nowhere

    @katjesarts One problem I have seen is that if your scene file name has a period in it, Render Queue truncates the saved image name at that point and appends the camera name (if you have chosen to do that). So if you have scenes named Scene 1.1.duf, Scene 1.2.duf, Scene 1.3.duf, you might end up with them all being named Scene 1_camera_name and overwriting each other. Could that be what is happening to you? Perhaps @ManFriday could make the file name parsing algorithm  more robust to avoid that problem. 

  • ManFridayManFriday Posts: 549
    barbult said:

    Honestly, I am quite disappointed. When I bought the product I thought that it would help my workflow. The opposite is the case. The only thing I get is frustration and wasted rescources.

    First, I got issues with re-opening DAZ Studio after rendering the first or sometimes second pic. I changed the settings and it seemed to work.

    Now it renders all the pictures, but is only saving the last picture out of three. It happened yesterday during the day and the same happened over night. This issue happened out of nowhere

    @katjesarts One problem I have seen is that if your scene file name has a period in it, Render Queue truncates the saved image name at that point and appends the camera name (if you have chosen to do that). So if you have scenes named Scene 1.1.duf, Scene 1.2.duf, Scene 1.3.duf, you might end up with them all being named Scene 1_camera_name and overwriting each other. Could that be what is happening to you? Perhaps @ManFriday could make the file name parsing algorithm  more robust to avoid that problem. 

    Oh that's an interesting observation. Maybe i got something wrong with dots in the filename. Does the problem go away if you don't use dots but something else like dashes? I'll have a look too. 

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