Frame not advancing in animation from Geometry Nodes #104339

New Issue

Edward-Taylor · 2024-10-01T04:46:17+02:00

Edward-Taylor commented

2024-10-01 04:46:17 +02:00

System Information
Operating System(s):
MacOS (blender client)
NixOS (flamenco manager & worker)

Flamenco Version
Is Broken: 3.6-alpha4
Worked OK: N/A

Flamenco is rendering, but it doesn't advance the frame.

I am using a simulation in geo nodes for animation.
I tried baking it as seen below, but that didn't change anything:

When I render on my local machine, the frame advanced as expected.

Exact steps for others to reproduce the error

I am using the same stage.blend file I was using for the other issue:
stage.blend

Let me know if I can do anything else on my end to help.

Cheers!

**System Information** Operating System(s): MacOS (blender client) NixOS (flamenco manager & worker) **Flamenco Version** Is Broken: 3.6-alpha4 Worked OK: N/A Flamenco is rendering, but it doesn't advance the frame. I am using a simulation in geo nodes for animation. I tried baking it as seen below, but that didn't change anything: ![Screenshot 2024-10-01 at 3.42.37 PM.png](/attachments/014efc34-33c1-4399-8344-854147b4fa56) When I render on my local machine, the frame advanced as expected. **Exact steps for others to reproduce the error** I am using the same stage.blend file I was using for the other issue: [stage.blend](/attachments/2706a882-d9af-4bd4-a517-89c5784dce88) Let me know if I can do anything else on my end to help. Cheers!

stage.blend

16 MiB

Screenshot 2024-10-01 at 3.42.37 PM.png

177 KiB

Edward-Taylor added the

labels 2024-10-01 04:46:18 +02:00

Edward-Taylor referenced this issue

2024-10-01 04:48:24 +02:00

Error performing BAT pack #104338

Edward-Taylor commented

2024-10-01 04:49:02 +02:00

Possibly related to #104267?

Edward-Taylor commented

2024-10-01 04:56:42 +02:00

Okay, yup this is geometry nodes specific. When I enabled my light rotating around a null, the light still moves around.

Edward-Taylor changed title from ~~Frame not advancing [Geometry nodes?]~~ to Frame not advancing in animation from Geometry Nodes

2024-10-01 05:00:59 +02:00

Edward-Taylor commented

2024-10-01 09:54:19 +02:00

Research

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/4.2/modeling/geometry_nodes/simulation/simulation_zone.html#geometry-nodes-simulation-baking

When the result is ready to be sent to a render-farm, it can be baked to disk. This allows for the simulation to be rendered in a non-sequential order.

More things I've tried:

I've tried baking every object individually by going Physics Properties > Simulation nodes > Bake Selected, so that when I launch the blender file on my client machine, the animation is all ready to go and can jump to any frame.

Files are baked to a blendcache_ folder. I can't see that folder in the jobs folder on the server. Perhaps flamenco is not bringing those files along?

When i open the blender project in the /jobs/ folder on the flamenco server, the baked simulation is no longer in the file.

# Research https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/4.2/modeling/geometry_nodes/simulation/simulation_zone.html#geometry-nodes-simulation-baking > When the result is ready to be sent to a render-farm, it can be baked to disk. This allows for the simulation to be rendered in a non-sequential order. # More things I've tried: I've tried baking every object individually by going Physics Properties > Simulation nodes > Bake Selected, so that when I launch the blender file on my client machine, the animation is all ready to go and can jump to any frame. Files are baked to a blendcache_<projectname> folder. I can't see that folder in the jobs folder on the server. Perhaps flamenco is not bringing those files along? When i open the blender project in the /jobs/ folder on the flamenco server, the baked simulation is no longer in the file.

Sybren A. Stüvel commented

2024-10-01 10:12:27 +02:00

Flamenco is rendering, but it doesn't advance the frame.

What chunk size did you use? Are you using any add-ons?

> Flamenco is rendering, but it doesn't advance the frame. What chunk size did you use? Are you using any add-ons?

Edward-Taylor commented

2024-10-01 10:28:35 +02:00

I rendered with 9999 chunk size in hope of rendering it all on one machine. I couldn't see anything about a -1 or something else to make that happen so just went with that. I just had a test now to make it lower at 100 and it didn't make any difference.

The blender logs in flamenco aren't showing any errors or anything.

I don't have any addons that should be affecting anything, screenshot attached. It's all using native geometry nodes with a bezier curve as the base, adding and deleting points from the curve over the simuation.

I rendered with 9999 chunk size in hope of rendering it all on one machine. I couldn't see anything about a -1 or something else to make that happen so just went with that. I just had a test now to make it lower at 100 and it didn't make any difference. The blender logs in flamenco aren't showing any errors or anything. I don't have any addons that should be affecting anything, screenshot attached. It's all using native geometry nodes with a bezier curve as the base, adding and deleting points from the curve over the simuation.

Screenshot 2024-10-01 at 9.26.50 PM.png

345 KiB

👍 1

Edward-Taylor commented

2024-10-01 22:33:12 +02:00

I have tested running it with the same cli arguments that are used on the flamenco server, when run on my local client, works fine.

Edward-Taylor commented

2024-10-02 14:55:07 +02:00

I have tested it directly on the server now. The error occurs when I run blender from cli. I don't get the error if I open the desktop application and go from there.

Edward-Taylor commented

2024-10-02 15:09:53 +02:00

Okay I've narrowed in on the problem. It works fine if I copy over the blendcache_stage folder manually to be beside the blender file.
There might also be a bug in blender which causes background rendering to not calculate the simulations.

Solution:

Flamenco should copy the blendcache folder
Blender should fix the bug with not calculating simulation nodes in headless mode

Okay I've narrowed in on the problem. It works fine if I copy over the blendcache_stage folder manually to be beside the blender file. There might also be a bug in blender which causes background rendering to not calculate the simulations. # Solution: - Flamenco should copy the blendcache folder - Blender should fix the bug with not calculating simulation nodes in headless mode

Edward-Taylor commented

2024-10-02 15:35:18 +02:00

Tried to add the following python script via --python-eval to no avail:

import bpy

(obj.select_set(True) for obj in bpy.context.scene.objects); bpy.ops.object.simulation_nodes_cache_bake(selected=True)

Tried to add the following python script via --python-eval to no avail: ``` import bpy (obj.select_set(True) for obj in bpy.context.scene.objects); bpy.ops.object.simulation_nodes_cache_bake(selected=True) ```

Edward-Taylor commented

2024-10-03 00:25:50 +02:00

I've tried to figure out where I would edit code to adjust what files get collected. Maybe here?:
https://projects.blender.org/studio/flamenco/src/commit/453c57291675d7c3575e49b4db8cc41979533b96/addon/flamenco/bat/shaman.p

I've tried to figure out where I would edit code to adjust what files get collected. Maybe here?: [https://projects.blender.org/studio/flamenco/src/commit/453c57291675d7c3575e49b4db8cc41979533b96/addon/flamenco/bat/shaman.p](https://projects.blender.org/studio/flamenco/src/commit/453c57291675d7c3575e49b4db8cc41979533b96/addon/flamenco/bat/shaman.py)

Edward-Taylor commented

2024-10-10 10:48:48 +02:00

Looks like blender 4.3 might have a new feature with caching the bake inside the blender file itself. Would still be good if flamenco could create the simulation itself though.

Sybren A. Stüvel commented

2024-11-04 15:33:44 +01:00

Flamenco should not rely on packing inside the blend file, because then changing the blend file & resubmitting to Flamenco would mean it would also have to submit all the simulation caches again.

Sybren A. Stüvel commented

2024-11-04 15:34:46 +01:00

I've tried to figure out where I would edit code to adjust what files get collected. Maybe here?:
https://projects.blender.org/studio/flamenco/src/commit/453c57291675d7c3575e49b4db8cc41979533b96/addon/flamenco/bat/shaman.p

Flamenco indeed uses BAT to do the tracing, so if that's missing certain assets, take a look at https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender-asset-tracer/

> I've tried to figure out where I would edit code to adjust what files get collected. Maybe here?: > [https://projects.blender.org/studio/flamenco/src/commit/453c57291675d7c3575e49b4db8cc41979533b96/addon/flamenco/bat/shaman.p](https://projects.blender.org/studio/flamenco/src/commit/453c57291675d7c3575e49b4db8cc41979533b96/addon/flamenco/bat/shaman.py) Flamenco indeed uses BAT to do the tracing, so if that's missing certain assets, take a look at https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender-asset-tracer/

Sign in to join this conversation.