Displace modifier error in backburner?

I've added a "Displace" modifier to a mesh object. As the modifier's
"Image" 
I use a tile map with a bitmap as the tile texture. The object renders fine 
on the host machine but when I try to render it in backburner2.3 & 3.0.1, 
I get this error msg:

Error using bitmap file: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3dsMax8\images\

The bitmap that I use as the tile texture is in the local maps folder on the 
server. This error occurs even if I hide the displaced mesh object (it goes 
away when I delete the object, however). Any help appreciated. 

"Paul Domzal"  wrote in message 
news:276327.70005@chello212186156063.chello.pl...

> I get this error msg:
>
> Error using bitmap file: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3dsMax8\images\
>
> The bitmap that I use as the tile texture is in the local maps 
> folder on the
> server. This error occurs even if I hide the displaced mesh object 
> (it goes
> away when I delete the object, however). Any help appreciated.

When you say there's a copy of the file in the local maps folder on 
the server, do you mean it's in

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3dsMax8\images\

on the server? Probably won't work unless your server has exactly the 
same folder structure as your design machine. Sometimes Max will look 
for maps in the server's map paths list, but it may not if a map is 
used outside a material, as you are doing. As a quick solution, copy 
your displacement map to *exactly* the same location on the server as 
it is on your design machine.

But anyway, you should really (for reliable results) never, ever refer 
to a local file if you intend to network render. Avoid these problems 
by keeping all your maps on one machine on your network only, and 
refer to them all by UNC names ( like 
\\myworkstation\maps\woods\oak1.tga ). Quick example - wooden teapot - 
let's say your design machine is called \\myworkstation, and for 
convenience you wish to keep your textures on that machine (many 
choose to keep shared files and textures on one of the servers to 
avoid slowing your work machine down while you're using it) -

1. On your design machine, share your maps folder out on the network 
(right-click it in Windows Explorer, choose Sharing, give it a simple 
name like "maps"
2. Create your max scene. When texturing the teapot, hit the Diffuse 
Map button as usual, but instead of navigating to your C:\Program 
Files\...\oak1.tga, instead type \\myworkstation into the Open file 
dialog, and navigate to the file from there. Although it's really the 
same file, Max will record it in the scene as 
\\myworkstation\maps\woods\oak1.tga which means any machine on the 
network will be able to find it.
3. Avoid using any of Max's out-of-the-box library of textures 
completely, unless you are 100% sure that Max is installed in exactly 
the same place on all your machines.
4. Network render with abandon.

5. For best results, read through 
http://www.visualz.com/free/down_on_the_farm.pdf (complete guide to 
network rendering by Gary Davis mentioned elsewhere in this newsgroup, 
unbeatable and free)


Sorry, hope this doesn't sound too patronising, but I've recently 
become a hardcore network rendering evangelist, it's made my life 
soooo much easier that I wish I'd known about it when I first started 
with Max. Tell the world!

h 

Yes, Howard, all you say about network rendering is true.

In this case, however, all the maps are the same on all server machines. 
(There are no maps in the folder listed in the error msg.) I think this error 
is not related to texture bitmaps but to some displace image automatically 
generated by Max8?

The error also happens when I run the backburner server on the host machine, 
which renders the scene just fine in the host (non-network render) mode.

Thanks for response, any help apprciated.

"Paul Domzal"  wrote in message 
news:276427.70005@82-36-17-46.cable.ubr01.smal.blueyonder.co.uk...

> In this case, however, all the maps are the same on all server 
> machines.
> (There are no maps in the folder listed in the error msg.) I think 
> this error
> is not related to texture bitmaps but to some displace image 
> automatically
> generated by Max8?

In that case you'd expect Max would be using a path mentioned in 
3dsmax.ini at the very least, so I'd start having a poke around 
there... however:

> The error also happens when I run the backburner server on the host 
> machine,
> which renders the scene just fine in the host (non-network render) 
> mode.

... weird. At this point I suppose you could do a File>Archive and 
have a look at what's collected, but otherwise I'm out of clues :o/

Best of luck

h