Pixelplow and Stitched Renders - Very Disappointed

Started by D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet), November 13, 2017, 11:38:15 AM

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D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet)

Anyone have any experience using Pixelplow to render large Spherical Panoramas?  I just spent over $70 on two 8k renders, and they both failed to render properly.  One is slightly usable because the top half luckily looks ok.  My hopes were high for Pixelplow since doing these 8k and 16k renders on my home machine take 24hrs minimum.

Should I be pre-calculating the GI cache file on my home system first?  Mainly what failed is it looks like a couple tiles have different GI solutions.

Oshyan

First, have you been in contact with Pixel Plow about the issue?

The main thing to do is determine what the source of the differences are. Pixel Plow should be calculating a whole-image GI cache on a single machine and then using that for rendering. So unless there is something going wrong in that process (which only they would be able to tell you, they do keep detailed logs), then it should be some other issue causing the differences in tiles. Can you share the resulting images, either publicly here, or privately via email to support AT planetside.co.uk?

- Oshyan

D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet)

Yes I had contacted them right after I got the frames back and this is what they said:
QuoteThis is not a stitching failure, as there are no missing tiles.  This is a failure of the render app to correctly handle lighting (most likely GI) across the tiles in a desirable manner.  Without looking at any logs, I'm going to guess this is a Terragen scene.  If so, it may or may not handle tile renders correctly when the sun is in the frame.  As such, we can't programmatically allow or disallow tile splitting of a single frame job.  The best I can recommend in this case is to render two frames to prevent our system from tile splitting the job.  Inefficient, I know, but there are simply some scenes that TG can't tile split.

Pixelplow does have a small section about Terragen & GI here, but nothing about not avoiding having the Sun in the frame.
http://www.pixelplow.net/support/gi-global-illumination-handling-in-terragen/

I would like to be able to use and trust Pixelplow, but honestly I feel they should do more to warn customers that they don't 100% guarantee renders to properly render.  I would have done more research and testing before submitting a large 8k x 4k render.

When I asked for a refund they simply said
QuoteSorry, but there are no refunds for compute time used.

I can email you the resulting image downscaled to make it fit in an email.

Derek

DannyG

Quote from: D.A. Bentley on November 14, 2017, 06:28:11 PM
Yes I had contacted them right after I got the frames back and this is what they said:
QuoteThis is not a stitching failure, as there are no missing tiles.  This is a failure of the render app to correctly handle lighting (most likely GI) across the tiles in a desirable manner.  Without looking at any logs, I'm going to guess this is a Terragen scene.  If so, it may or may not handle tile renders correctly when the sun is in the frame.  As such, we can't programmatically allow or disallow tile splitting of a single frame job.  The best I can recommend in this case is to render two frames to prevent our system from tile splitting the job.  Inefficient, I know, but there are simply some scenes that TG can't tile split.

Pixelplow does have a small section about Terragen & GI here, but nothing about not avoiding having the Sun in the frame.
http://www.pixelplow.net/support/gi-global-illumination-handling-in-terragen/

I would like to be able to use and trust Pixelplow, but honestly I feel they should do more to warn customers that they don't 100% guarantee renders to properly render.  I would have done more research and testing before submitting a large 8k x 4k render.

When I asked for a refund they simply said
QuoteSorry, but there are no refunds for compute time used.

I can email you the resulting image downscaled to make it fit in an email.

Derek

I read all of the terms of service on Pixel Plows site, I see nothing that states they offer a %100 guarantee of a properly rendered set of frames. I don't think there should be one as there's way too many variables. Not to mention it's a render farm not a production company. They are rendering your file. Planetside is very good about support, any lesson learned here should be to start a WIP thread for input from other members or contact support for any questions (if you have TG w/ support) That way you'll get the file sorted out before sending it out to a farm.
Starting a thread throwing Pixel Plow under the bus for something they do not claim is not the correct way to do things. I hope Oshyan and or Matt gets you sorted out
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D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet)

Danny,

I feel the way I corresponded here was polite and professional.  I know it's hard to know someones feeling, and tone from a post, but I have no intention of "Throwing PixelPlow Under the Bus".  I am working with TG Support on this, and hope to use PixelPlow in the future.

Peace Brother.  ;)

Derek


Oshyan

We're all good gentlemen. We're on the case and will work with Pixel Plow to determine the source of the problem and either implement a fix, or help them add appropriate warnings or TGD modifications for tiled jobs.

- Oshyan