System Information
Operating system and graphics card
Wind7 64bit, GeForce GTX

Blender Version
Broken: example: 2.70, 2.72a.73f5a47

Short description of error
Using an armature to deform a mesh and using the mesh to deform a curve with the mesh deform modifier gets displayed correctly in the viewport. But as soon as you switch to rendered viewport or render the image the mesh deform modifier gets ignored.

Exact steps for others to reproduce the error

1. Extrude the default cube so it forms an L shape
2. Create an armature that follows the shape
3. Parent the cube to the armature with automatic weights
4. Create a bezièr curve
5. Manipulate so it is inside the L
6. Set extrude of the curve > 0, so it gets rendered.
7. Use the cube as the target object for a mesh deform modifier on the curve
8. Bind
9. deform the armature (gets shown correctly in the VP)
10. Render (Mesh deform is ignored)
    MeshDeformBug.blend491 KBDownload