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crashing with zbrush 3.1 on imac using windows via bootcamp

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I am using Zbrush 3.1 in Wndows XP on my imac via bootcamp. I’m saving my sculpture every 5 minutes or so and about every 4th or 5th time I save the program crashes without saving the work I have just completed. As a mac user, I’m not used to these kinds of problems, but this seems excessive to me.

My computer has an intel core duo CPU, 3.06 GHz and 2.98GB of RAM.

In ZBrush, I’ve been setting the Mem in the Prefernce menu to 1024, but that doesn’t seem to help. I don’t have any other programs running.

Any thing I can do to stop the frequent crashes?

#2

Recommendations:

Make sure windows is up-to-date. SP2 or better.

Defrag windows partition.

Make sure Bootcamp is up to date.

Check the windows paging file (computer properties) Make sure the pagefile is in the recommended settings.

-K

#3

Don’t use Ctrl+S to save on Windows! Physically press the Tool>Save As button – or better yet, use the save button found in SubTool Master.

(This is not an issue with 3.12B)

#4

Thank you, aurick and Kerwin. I followed the advice from you both and have worked crash free for a couple days-- my computer is pausing to compact memory and access the virtual memory, but no crashing.

I hope that I am using my computer to its fullest potential. I’m working in bootcamp on an imac with 4 gb of ram, I got a program called Diskeeper to prevent defragmentation, I reset the paging file to the suggested initial size of 4578, and I’ve tried setting the preferences>mem in zBrush at 512, 1024 and 2048. I’m working on a tool that had 1.7 mil polygons a lot of layers. It would be nice (but not vital) to go up to the next division if possible. Right now the pauses are bearable, but they are too long when I subdivide.

Is there any way I could get better performance, or have I just reached the capability of this computer?

Also, I have a big screen and like to adjust the size of the document to 1500 wide to fill my working space. However, I have been keeping the preset screen size in place in the belief that this will be less taxing on the memory and improve performance, I’m I correct to think this way?

Thanks so much-- I really appreciate your help!

#5

You could put the Compact Mem setting to about 3000 with your machine.

You probably are at the limit of what your computer can do (on the PC side), given how many layers you’ve got. The Mac version has the capability to go higher than the PC version currently can.

#6

You are correct. The bigger you make the canvas, the harder ZB will have to work to fill the Pixols in that space. I find the default canvas sizes ZB picks for the geometry of your screen are close to optimal for sculpting and I only enlarge the canvas when I preping images for presentation. Work with as small a canvas as you can tolerate to keep your performance up. Aurick’s suggestion about chaning the Compact Mem setting will fix up some of those pauses.

Take note of the memory indicator that appears at the top of your screen after you’ve been using ZB for a minute. The initial amount free (before you’ve loaded anything onto the canvas) should give you a fair indication of how much “real” memory ZB thinks is avaialble to it. You’ll start reaching the “memory swap” limits once you starting taking more than that number.

Given the amount of memory in your system, you should be able to do better than 1.7M polygons (at least one more level.) Are you using XP 32-bit or XP-64bit? If you’re on 32 bit, you may be bumping up against the limitations of XP under bootcamp (often 2GB total, sometimes 3GB.) Aurick’s suggestion of switching to the Mac version would let you take more full advantage of the 4GB in your system.

-K

#7

Thank you both so much! Kerwin, I was trying to find some of your work and didn’t see any on the Lovecraft blog-- do you have anything up on ZBC or somewhere else?