ZBrushCentral

Instability and multiple crashes

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Well I am not a zbrush basher on the contrary I love the sculpting tools and the premise behind how zbrush is supposed to work. I purchased 3.1 and have been trying to learn how to use it ever since, with moderate success.

However, I am not at all happy with the stability of zbrush on a 32 bit platform PC. I have nothing but crashes and error messages (which I do submit) For example I work on creatures primarily and most of my modeling was done in 3D Studio Max prior to zbrush but when I saw Pixologic advertising 3.1 and watched what this program claimed it was capable of I jumped on the band wagon and began to model primarily with it. But I’ve had nothing but issues with pipe lining back to max etc, with producing textures and other maps in zbrush and how to bake them on low poly models, how to work on high detail models and then generate low poly ones from that, and how to use tools such as decimation master and projection master. I’ve done all the tutorials online most are geared for Zbrush 2.1 and the program has changed so much and added so many new tools which are not self explanatory to use. I guess I’m becoming frustrated.

I am working on creatures right now in Zbrush that I really would like to get high detail on and read somewhere in a tutorial that I should get as much in as I can up to around a million poly then switch to HD sculpting and add a few subdivisions to the model which brings the model to between 25 and 30 million poly’s! My computer wasn’t cheap I spent 5k when I bought it a few years ago its got a 32 bit Win XP Pro OS but I’ve never had the crashes like I do using 3.5 r3 of Zbrush.

I suppose I’m just venting a bit and hope there are some helpful users out there of the latest version that might update some of the tutorials to include the new tools and give precise from front to back directions for for using them in a pipeline specifically in zbrush not max or Maya or what have you, that really works up to Zbrushes capability

I also hope Pixologic gets a stable 32 bit version working in the near future I’m sure most large companies can update to 64 bit or macs or whatever but not all of us can, still would be nice to be able to do what the program claims we are supposed to be able to do with clear steps explaining each tool and function in zbrush in layman terms.

#2

In support of my frustration ranting above I will post issues I have with Zbrush here from now on. Also note I use 3D Studio Max and Modo as well those programs run without a hitch on my PC. With that in mind here’s some for now I will record error messages etc and post them here as well.

  1. When using Merge/Append under the Sub-tool palette the resulting pick sub-tool menu does not show all tools available.

Needs to update in real-time and show all tools stored under the ztool folder.

  1. Active point counter needs to be reposition-able or made to floating toolbar since it is off-screen when using 1024x768 resolution. Also the point term is confusing is this counter a vertice counter or Poly counter? If poly’s it should say that.

  2. Zbrush crash when trying to merge visible sub-tools.

  3. Light-box windows controls such as view controls or slide window to right, which are located in the upper right of the light-box window when it opens are bunched up and hard to read and use. There is a UI issue there that needs to be fixed. Also this seems to be a much weaker version of the previous plug-in “texture and alpha browser”, I would like to see customizable tabs and a more intuitive drive and directory browsing feature.

  4. Zbrush crashes when clicking on crease.

  5. when using the deformation sliders in the sub menu they do not stick in position and controlling the desired effect of the deformations is chance and inaccurate unless typing in a number value but also in doing so it is not intuitive as to where to click to finalize your new number entered there needs to be a set button in there and the sliders need to be sticky in increments to offer accuracy.

  6. Several crashes when clicking new from UV check option under Texture Map drop-down menu. Zbrush just doesn’t like the texturing tools, at least for me. New from poly-paint is hit and miss for stability, also crashes periodically but not as much as UV Check.

  7. Crashes and instability when trying to switch to HD subdivisions with “A” key. Zbrush crashes frequently. Tool is at 1.5 million poly’s regular subdivisions with 25 million on HD. All other sub-tools turned off.

  8. after having retopologize character several times in Max to finally get something of a clean mesh in zbrush and having sculpted her several times as well as making her outfit I am still running into texture map crash errors. If it’s procedure causing the crashes let me know, I’ll list them below.

a) Base character mesh was created in MAX at around 25k poly’s, cleaned up to minimize any triangulation (Tessellation). Any triangles there are were in inconspicuous areas on the model.

b) The model with eyes as separate layers was exported out as an .obj from max.

c) The newly created .obj was brought into zbrush and was fairly low poly at this point. I brushed in some areas needing ground level improvements. Then subdivided the model another level adding more detail and doing some smoothing as well. Still another sub-D until I was at around 4 subs and 1.5 million active points, added finer detail then added one HD sub-D to get the wrinkle details etc 6.7 million points with the HD sub-D. The main character is one tool and one poly group her cloths are however subdivided into separate sub-tools with the minimum subdivisions needed to get the detail I wanted. Her hair will also go in as a separate tool.

d) Main character sub-tool all one piece was then assigned a UVW map by using 4096 with PUVTile and flipped vert, map border at 4 and at lowest sub-D. Next texture map was created using new from poly-paint as character had already been painted with detail and sculpting at this point, set at highest sub-D.Texture was cloned and then exported just in case I wanted to refine it a bit later. Next the displacement map was attempted to be created at one sub-D lower than the highest regular sub-D on the tool which was 4, so I used three. The settings are adaptive, FlipV, and 32 bit map then create dispmap is pressed. Zbrush crashes.

I’ll add more as they happen in particular the error messages as well.

#3

I’d check your ram. Run memtest86+.

http://www.memtest.org/

Flakey memory can cause all sorts of issues if programs are hitting it hard.

#4

Also, providing some notion of your system configuration (CPU model & RAM amount at a minimum) will help others troubleshoot your problems. It’s possible some of the crashes and instability are due to hitting memory limits (or bad memory), but without at least the info above, there’s just no way to know.

#5

Howdy, Yeah I was a DELL Technician, I ran PSA+ extensive memory tests as well as all components and everything passed with flying colors, I reseated all on-board devices Including memory modules (notebook PC) and I am reasonably certain any issues I’m having are not due to PC issues.