Sergey Pogosyan

Current Version: 2.0.8

Release Date: 2012-01-17

To discuss or report bug - go to blog.

BatchCam2

This is Batch Camera Render maxscript version 2 - reworked and improved version of Batch Camera Render maxscript, named BatchCam2 for convinience. The main imporvement is the ability to assing different settings to one camera, just as in standard 3ds max's Batch Render.

Description

Script's code is largely based on Batch Camera Render, so here I present the list of main differences.

Script doesn't store the render parameters in camera objects and it doesn't depend on cameras any more.

In this version there's no Light Assignment and Scripts rollouts. In future I'm planning to add (restore) Scripts rollout as it is something valuable from my point of view. I had some doubts about Vray rollout but I added it back from the 1.9.x version and main reason is that only having Vray property exposed in script you can take advantage of keywords syntax that can be used in irmaps and lightcache maps filenames. What about Light Assignment rollout, I really don't see the reason to add this rollout since in this version SceneState property works better then ever (you'll see why below).

Second main improvement is a render submit procedure. In this version along with old rendering method, additional rendering method was introduced - it proceeds in command line mode. Each time you press Render button, small .bat file (%temp%/BatchCam2Submit_scenename+number.bat) gets created and it calls 3dsmaxcmd.exe command to render the scene or submit netrender job.
This method has many advantages and it is really big step forward in script impovement. Though it has some limitation, for example vray paramteres and render element parameters can not be passed by the command line.

Advantages:

• Script doesn't modify render parameteres of the scene any more. See the next line to see why it is cool.
• SceneStates and RenderPresets don't apply to the current scene. They only applied to the scene during the rendering. That why you don't encounter strange bugs with resetted Environment maps parameters any more. And you don't have to wonder any more what is the scene state your scene is in after the render submit.
• Local render occurs in separate 3ds max process, so your 3ds max never gets locked with render!
• Now it is possible to cancel several local render jobs all together! All you have to do is close command line window. You can cancel one job at a time with Cancel button as well.
• Network jobs is now submitted much more faster as all network jobs are submitted from the separate max process.

Side effects, mostly positive:

• Before each submit the scene is saved to the current scene folder to separate max file (BatchCam2SubmitScene_scenename+number.max), this takes some time (depending on the scene size), but you benefit from the quick network job submitting and you will always have additional rendered version backup.
• Command line messages are saving to text file, %temp%/BatchCam2Submit_scenename+number_Out.tmp. It is as well can be of some help when you're searching the cause of errors.
• With command line rendering it is possible to submit network render jobs with dependencies. Moreover, it is possible to set the dependencies from the script's ui and have them saved in scene. I did some tests and I'm planning to add that feature to script.
• One problem is the time lag between getting the list of existing render jobs and actual job submission. Upon the pressing of Render button script forms the names of network jobs, but these jobs will be submitted later, by the command line tool. So it is possible that in that (rather small) time range someone could add the job with the same name to the render queue.

Future Plans

Short-term plans:

• Passing vray and render elements properties by the command line. I'm planning to use onload script callback.
• Button to easily import old Batch Camera Render settings and standard Batch Render jobs.
• Some way to customize file names and paths of temporary max file, .bat file, logs.

Mid-term plans:

• Scripts rollout.
• Render dependencies support.

License, Warning and Thanks

This version is released under the GPL v2 license.

I'm still trying to make this script more and more stable but, anyway, it may contain some bugs. Use this script at your own risk.

I would like to thank everyone who uses this script and helps me with suggestions and bugreports.