renderStacks can write a log file for each pass while it renders locally. The log is written live, one line at a time, so it survives even if 3ds Max crashes in the middle of a render.
This applies to Local Render and Local Seq Preview only. Network submission and Generate Batch do not write logs.
Options
Render Check dialog
- Save local render log to file – turns logging on.
- Log Pass Activation – when on, everything renderStacks does while activating the pass is written to the log as well. Turn it off if you only want the render itself.
Preference dialog – Render Log File
The log file name is built from tokens. The default is:
<RenderFolder>/<SceneName>_<PassFullName>_<YY><MM><DD>_<Time>.log
Right click the field to insert tokens. Hover over it to see the path resolved for the current pass. Two tokens were added for this feature: <YY> (2 digit year) and <Time> (HHMMSS).
How It Works
One log file is written per pass, so rendering five passes gives you five logs. The file is created before the pass is activated, and every line is appended to disk as it happens rather than being held in memory and saved at the end. If Max crashes mid render, everything up to that moment is already on disk.
Each line is stamped with the time and the seconds elapsed since the previous line:
14:32:07[000.00] Teapots - render start
14:35:22[195.30] frame 0 rendered
A log contains the pass activation detail (unless you turned it off), a LOCAL RENDERING START marker, the camera, resolution, frame range and output paths actually in effect, one line per rendered frame, and the render duration at the end.
While the log is being written, the same lines are also echoed to the MAXScript Listener.
Notes
- By default the log is written next to the rendered images, because the default token starts with
<RenderFolder>. Point it somewhere else if you would rather keep logs together. - If the token cannot be resolved – for example the pass has no render output set – no log is written for that pass and the render carries on.
- The elapsed time in brackets makes it easy to spot which frame or which step was slow.