I'm crashing way to much

[Master chief]

ok this may be something im going to have to deal with but my AM has started crashing a lot , mostly when im making materials or saving rendered animation , is there something i should set to fix his?

[robcat2075]

mostly when im making materials

tell us what specific step does this

 

or saving rendered animation ,

 

animations are rendered to a file automatically. You chose a file name when you started the render.

 

What are you doing when YOU are "saving rendered animation"

[John Bigboote]

Mac or PC...and which V?

[heyvern]

... my AM has started crashing a lot...

 

What changes have you made to your system recently? New software? New hardware? Do you have power outages in your area? Any that happened recently? If so do you have a UPS? My power went on and off 3 times within ten minutes early this morning around 3 am... who knows why. If I didn't have a UPS it would have wreaked havoc on my system. Years ago before I had a UPS the power would flick off like that and trashed my system. I had to reinstall both the OS on my Mac and my PC. If the crashing just recently STARTED then this would indicate some change has occurred. Reinstall AM, do some kind of check on your ram and your OS. AM doesn't have some kind of April 1st "start crashing" bug I'm sure.

 

-vern

[Meowx]

Years ago before I had a UPS the power would flick off like that and trashed my system. I had to reinstall both the OS on my Mac and my PC.

Jeez, that sounds more like a job for the Ghostbusters.

[heyvern]

There is nothing more important for a computer than a UPS. A sudden power outage or surge can really do nasty things. When my power went out this morning my computer didn't even blink. I have a really big UPS that keeps two monitors and two computers running for about 30 minutes. Plenty of time to save files and shut down. This is about the second or third time since I got my UPS this has happened. In the past every time this happened I would spend at least an hour fixing things and getting back up and running. The Mac was even more prone to problems with sudden shut downs.

 

A UPS is worth every penny. You can get some for pretty cheap. You can even hook them up so that it shuts down the computer automatically when the power goes out.

 

-vern

[robcat2075]

I don't think this is a power supply problem he is having.

 

I do recall one piece of advice about materials, which is to just have that one window open when you are working on them. Or at least don't have lot's of windows open.

 

I haven't had a problem with that, but I don't do much with materials.

[Master chief]

System: vista premium 64bit

Proccessor: 2.4 giz quad

memory: 4.1 gigs

HD 1 tera +

GPU: can play crysis at max detail nuff said

 

 

1sts cause : tweaking a mat file will cause the program to stall then crash on a pretty large basis

 

2nd cause : applying/rendering of mats when on models themselfs

[robcat2075]

1sts cause : tweaking a mat file will cause the program to stall then crash on a pretty large basis

tweaking? that could be anything.

 

post a sample PRJ where you can make this happen and tell us the exact steps to do it.

 

Make sure everything we need is embedded in that PRJ.

 

 

 

2nd cause : applying/rendering of mats when on models themselfs

 

Applying and rendering are two different things. An example you can make do this is what we need.

[John Bigboote]

I think Rob touched on this earlier, but--- if you are tweeking a material that is already been applied to a model, you should close down any windows (model, action, pose, chor) where that material is actively being displayed. Also, you could benefit from switching from OpenGL to Direct3D...or vice versa...maybe?

 

You told us all about your screamin' gamin system(nice!)...can you tell us which version of Animation:Master you are using when the trouble occurs?

[heyvern]

Sorry but I have to disagree about closing the windows when editing materials. What I do is apply the material to the model or group and do a "progressive render" (shift+Q) around a section of the model in the model window and then tweak the material and watch it update. I've been doing this since v15c and I'm using v15e.

 

I'm still not clear on if this problem has "just started" or has been an issue all along? If it just started maybe one of those "screamin' game" installations has mucked up something that AM relies on for displaying materials? Maybe reinstalling AM would help? Aren't games notorious for installing "gizmos" or changing settings in the system for display?

 

-vern

[rusty]

Absolutely with Vern... I always watch the material (or hair or decals or particles or surface properties) in a window doing a progressive render while I adjust it... never any problems.

 

You definitely have a 'kick ass' system. Did you say which version of AM you are using? What about the type of video card?

 

In my experience crashes are usually caused by:

1. an older video driver or you've purchased a real high end card which simply does not work with AM (a problem I had)

2. the pc is squeezed in between stuff and is over heating (crashes occur after the pc has been running an hour or more)

3. you're low on disk space

4. defective memory (run one of the free memory checkers)

5. defective disk (run scan disk)

6. you have installed a current version of AM then installed a previous version and things have gotten messed up

7. you are going too fast and trying to do things before AM has finished the previous operation

8. you mesh is screwy or in some way corrupted (try a simple test on simple geometry)

 

If the PC is new (less then 4 months) you can scratch out much of the above. I've had cases where I've used materials created in older versions of AM which caused crashes.

 

I avoid materials... they kill render times and almost always you can use an image instead. We really need a small example of what you are doing... the material and your settings and what else, if anything, is being applied with the material.

 

I feel for you cause I've been there. Presently I crash about once ever 3 months.

 

Rusty

 

Edit: Thinking about this more, you should take the following steps:

1. The first thing to try is creating a single patch in a new project, applying the material and see if it renders

2. Next, in the same simple project file try tweaking the material and see if it crashes. Then save the simple model.

3. Back in your original project file, make a copy then completely remove that property and see if it renders

4. Next, using the project file from step 4, import the model from step 2, insure that the property imported correctly then, try to render.

 

This will tell you a lot about the problem and give you a starting point for troubleshooting.