HDRI Community

Hi, I'm working for a public school and I need to deploy sIBL_GUI v4.0.2 to about 200 computers on Windows 7 Ent SP1 x64. So I use these steps to do it.

1- Copy sIBL_GUI.exe to the target computer.
2- Launch sIBL_GUI.exe /s
3- Copy these folders where they must be
prefs (%UserProfile%\Documents\maya\2012-x64\prefs)
scripts (%UserProfile%\Documents\maya\2012-x64\scripts)
sIBLedit103 (%UserProfile%\Documents\maya\sIBLedit103)
4- I use a script to automatically modify the file %UserProfile%\Documents\maya\sIBLedit103\sE.ini so that the correct user name profile appears in it.
5- Copy this folder Standard_sIBL here:
(%UserProfile%\Documents\sIBL\Standard_sIBL)
6- Finally I create a shortcut in the start menu to sIBLedit.exe.

The same steps where used with version 3.5.0 and it works perfectly. Now, I discovered that with version 4.0.2 the user need to launch at least once sIBL with administrator rights before he can launch it himself with standard user rights. Is that normal? Am I missing something here?

All help will be much appreciated!

Hi Kel Solaar!, it confirm what I thought. Until it get fix I just added 3 more steps to my installation process. First, I launch as an admin sIBL_GUI.exe. Then my script waits 30 seconds. By then the user is presented with the windows popup about if he want to add some Ibl Sets. Then I just kill the sIBL_GUI.exe process. Now any user can launch sIBL_GUI without any problem.

Thanks again for the help!

Hi gboucher,

Welcome here, and thanks for this massive installation. Makes us all very proud to be used in an entire school network.

However, I recommend a shared setup.
Our IT guy just did a similar deployment script, but we opted to use a centralized database so it can be managed by the lighting TD for everybody.

- mount the shared network folder as L: drive (which is our asset library)
- modify the sIBL shortcut link on each installation's desktop by adding

-d L:\SmartIBL\database -r

- save all the default sIBL sets on the same server (but a different subdirectory than the actual database file, for example L:\SmartIBL\default_collection).

My machine does not have the -r in the shortcut, which means  the database is not write protected for me and I have the glorious task of housekeeping it for everybody.


PS: The administrator login trouble was also biting us, but in the 3dMAX script that launches the OLE server for the first time. Would be awesome to see a solution for that.

there is maybe a way to avoid the OLE Server:

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/tutorials/how-to-create-a-self-updating-max-sc...

dunno ..maybe it still needs admin rights. (?)

have a look at this discussion ..maybe a new way to use tcpi/ip?
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=98&t=1082271