ZBrushCentral

texture crash

ZBrush Artworks
#1

I have asked and asked about ZBrush crashing once I add a texture to a model and then continue to tweak areas. I added Zbrush to another computer…hoping that this might solve the problem. Now the crashes happen on this computer.

I had a four hour modelling session on the go, I saved as I went, that is for the first three hours…I had a perfect model of the artist Frazetta…now I have to redo the last hour and hopefully get it right. I am not happy to say the least.

Why am I unable to get an answer to this problem of Modelling on a textured model?
Both computers are Hewlett Packards…is it just this make of computer? So far every version of ZBrush has had this problem for me. Is it because I model an object at max resolution? Is there even a probable answer?
ANy suggestions? Pertinent ones thanks folks.

No wonder I keep giving up on texturing.

Thankyou.

pentIII 933
384meg ram
win me
32 meg graphic card
20 spare gig on hardrive
zb ver1.23b

#2

by any chance is the texture your adding being imported?
reason i ask i had download a bunch of jpg and gif and i used a batch converter to convert them to a .BMP for my texture well come to find out i had FOUR texture that would crash me i dont know why sooooo i took the same pic and open them up in internet exployer and right click them and saved it as a .BMP and never had the problem again.

#3

Have you tried modeling while the texture is turned off, then reapplying the texture to “check”?

I rarely model with the texture applied. Too much math is running at that time (my 2cents)

I haven’t had any crashes or problems at all while doing it, I just don’t make it a practice anymore.

PIII 750
512RAM
Win2KPro
Z 1.23b
Annihalator II Ultra 64 video card
(2drives/ one 15, the other 40) not that it matters but I thought I’d match your spec post

#4

Thankyou EZ and kathy…

No Ez I make my textures in ZB, export as a bmp, then import with texture import.

Kathy…The programme cost me a weeks wages $850 odd. A lot of money compared to the US price…it would be nice if it worked on either computer as it should.

Your suggestion is certainly a work around, and I thank you, but when I decide to model or paint realism…it is perfect…and I need/like to see instant changes…and I am not receiving that view at present…

I still believe in ZBrush, even though it and my computer seem to have a number of issues with each other. And, there seems to be no answer to my problem…except saving files every 3 mins.

The only other thing I can come up with…is to close the programme down and reboot every hour or so.

This post is not a negative piece…it is a hopeful plea…and an honest one…

#5

argh! sorry to learn about that lost session, Ed! i hope you managed to redo it from where you had saved it (and let us see your Frazetta-art ;)) i sure hope there is a solution for your trouble or at least some explanation for why you are crashing that often soon… and i wonder, if it would be possible that in an upcoming version the automatic script-recording of a session could be a workaround to recover sessions - something similar (?) to the virtual memory file, a kind of protocol that is saved to disk and wont get lost, even when z-brush is not “closed the proper way” :mad:… and could be renamed prior to starting zbrush the next time and loaded as a script.

good luck next time and please, let’s see Frazetta the Atom-way asap, Ed!

  • juandel :smiley:
#6

ed, i have learned the hard way that saving every couple of minutes (maybe even more often) is very crucial, especially when working with graphic apps. I use Painter 7 a great deal and even in that prog i need to save every few minutes. I just am extra cautious sinse loosing hours of work before in other applications from crashes. so your best bet is to save often, and rebooting your system before openning an app or after some hours may somehow help stability and purge the hard drive-- refreshing it. I am growing to really like Zbrush and hope pixologic will only make a neat product even better, which they seem to be fairly responsive and on top of it :+1: .Zbrush has crashed on me here and there, but luckily i am paranoid about saving work anyways :slight_smile:

#7

Hi Ed. I hate to tell you this, but I think it might be your OS. Since I switched from Win ME to Win 2000 I have cut my crashing problems down about 99% from where they were. Not just with Zbrush but with EVERY program that crashed on me.

TRASH M.E. Unstable piece of crap. At least my system was.

By the way, that idea of doing Frazetta is a great one! I’ve always LOVED his work!

#8

ok im going to Give you a few pointers but make sure you read in your window help file to double make sure or threw the internet.
you said you Re boot every hour or so.
the reason that help it boost up your system resources which you need when runing zbrush for a long period of time.
ok HISTORY that another area that eats up alot of space on your comp most OS are pre set to 20 days what that mean is every were you go it log junk URL for that many days and that can add up BIG time there is adjustment for how many days you want to store history.
ok TEMPORARY FILES another are that stores HUGE files of garbage.
ok START UP MENUE alot of people download stuff and they have it runing in there startup and what that does it eats up ALOT of RAM well knowen to be using 40% of your comp Ram there are things you can uncheck or put back in if you want but make sure you read before doing any of this thats why im not going to write a tut on this but look in the area’s im talking about.
im not saying this is your problem but this helps me out alot.
your runing other program eating up RAM and runing zbrush for a long time yes you can crash…
all these setting are adjustable so read in your window help files

#9

Although I agree with the “startup” menu to some degree, the History and Temp Folder have nothing to do with the problem.

His stated RAM should be sufficient to handle a normal startup.

My money is on the fact it’s the OS. ME has an enormous overhead in and of itself. I agree with Nikko. ME was a failed attempt at a value added upgrade. :stuck_out_tongue:

#10

i Dis agree when you have a lot of temporary files and history files, your system has to manage all of them…this takes up system resources.
you ever get a error to close down a program because your system resoures are to Low then it crashes you…
i bet alot of people have all most 1 GIG of trash on there comp and dont even know it…
try defrag all so it might help out a bit.
yeah his RAM should be sufficient but if he runing alot of programs on the start up and all so using other program RAM at the same time and he runing zbrush for a LONG time guess whats going to happen.
he said I had a four hour modelling session on the go… four hours is a long for a few programs sharing RAM.
Yes it could be his OS then again it might be some thing very simple i would go the short way then to change OS. ed_the_atom i would check in on this before gambling any maybe loseing every thing you have because you changed os

#11

Sorry to hear about the lost modeling. :frowning: I’m as knowledgable as George Washington when it comes to this kind of problem…
but I would look into getting Win2K. I used ME for about two days once, then upgraded. I couldn’t run some sowftware, and that that did run really crashed a lot. In Win2K the OS hardly ever crashes, and program crashes are definetly cut back. The upgade is a worthwhile investment even if it doesn’t solve this problem. :slight_smile: Good luck!

#12

I haven’t had any problems with any software using the ole’ DELL with Win2KPro…
ZBrush has worked fine from the time I got it, (and getting it was an accident…I added a couple of FireWire ports, and got Win2K thrown in…)

#13

Crikey…

Thanks people for all your advice…

EZ…I have always run Zbrush…with no other programmes in the background…certainly good advice alround. I will also add that too many fonts…over 500 can slow things down a little on older systems particularly.
And yup four hours is a long time with a heavy memory using programme…lucky I got that far probably…but a warning as to danger level of memory usage from the programme would be nice, as one tends to become involved within ZB and forget the time.

The common theme here seems to be…change of Os…I tend to agree…but $1000 here I think for win2000…and that’s a big ERRRRRKKKKK!!! at present.

Again I thank you all…an EZ…the information you posted here will certainly help the computer novice…your time at the keyboard here has been well worth it.

Cheers all

#14

I beg to differ EZ as far as the TEMP folder and History folder.

I consulted a 6 year veteran MSCE who begs to differ with you.

A 5 year hardware/OS guru begs to differ.

And 3 MSCD types disagree with you as well as a .NET/VB/SQLserver/C++ programmer.

I do agree it’s a good idea to manage those files (hell, it’s a good idea to manage all your files) and defrag.

But it’s not part of the RAM problem.

#15

you said (it’s a good idea to manage all your files) correct but Not files that are trash.
when you consulted your friends about the temp&history you should of consulted about ED main problem.
yes temp&history can slow your comp down sorry but it dont take much to figure that one out i think the word RAM has the word SPEED in it and if you got some thing slowing it down your knocking down the performance.
i know it probley a small part on his problem but it could help.
ED have you had this problem from day 1 since you download zbrush.
sounds like some one trying to fix ED car with out looking under the hood as any guru would.
sooooooooooo lets look under ed hood.
ok ED pop the Hood
1.you said it crashes on you on texture and your friends comp or your other comp does this only do it on texture does your freind have the same OS if both do the same sounds like a (bad plug wire) sooooo probley bad OS maybe slow currupted download.
2.so you said you re boot and it help WELL right there tells me your system resources are low(LOW on Gas)run zbrush right click "MY COMPUTER"then properties then system resourses look at the PERFORMACE tab and see re boot and look again.
3.now lets look at ED (carberater)are you sure your not runing any programs you can be running other programs that use RAM but dont even know it sooooo go to the bottom left to your START tab then “RUN” type the word MSCONFIG go to your start up tab see how many check mark are checked aught O (bad Gas filter)carberater needs RAM i mean GAS but it can’t get threw.
4 lets get in ED car and start it ok now go to MY COMPUTER and click the C drive how much space do you have left? aught O all most full maybe.
now if every thing above is correct like i said your going to be putting down the road because your plug wire are not using all 8 cylinder your not going to move to fast because you have bad gas and being in the fast lane=RAM and going slow your going to crash because you ran out of gas and got rear ended.
sooooo ED go get you a tune up before blowing $1000 bucks to make sure.
and your tune up will be e.mail http://hp.com and ask there tech support because hewlett packards are differnt then most comp some can be upgrade able some cant some might not take differnt OS very well i know i have one. i use factory spec CD window 98 S,E…
have you added any RAM before? sure it will read it a exsample would be i have 2 slot for two stick of ram and i put in 2 stick at 256 a peace sure my comp will read it 512 BUT its not using it BECAUSE my spec say 2x128 of ram. check your model SPEC at HP.COM it will tell you.
i personly think any thing you Buy for your hewlett packard buy or use the same brand name or parts or what ever hp is very differnt… if you put in another OS you better ask first or you might be trying to spin your wheels with out no drive shaft

#16

Hey Ed I got a few tips for ya i left out if you wish to correct your problem as with 384 megs of (RAM) you shouldn"t be having that problem.
1)Right click on My Computer on your desktop> click Properties, and then click the Preformance tab.
Click the Virtual Memory button. Select the 2nd radio button> which lets you manage your own virtual memory.
Change the MINIMUM number to 400. Leave the MAXIMUM number alone. Click DONE. You will get a scary alert saying 'this may adversely affect your computer BUT don’t worry about it.
Reboot so the settings will take effect.

What this does, Ed is prevents Windows from drawmaticly resizing your virtual memory(swap file) on its own…which is VERY ineficient.

2)You now need to edit a system file Ed. This will make your PC use as much REAL RAM as possible before dipping into virtual memory(swap file again, lol). In Notepad, open up the file C:\Windows\System.ini for editing. Scroll down until you find a line with this text:

[386Enh]

When you see that line, look in the imediate following lines for this Ed:

ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1

If you see that line Ed, then you are fine and no editing is neded. If you see that line, but it has a value of 0 instead of 1, then change the 0 to a 1. If you DO NOT see that line at all, then add it. Add it on a line by itself Ed. Save your changes. Reboot so new settings will take effect.

3)You may have MANY other apps running in the background that you are not awaire of Ed. These can rob you of system resources, and as many peopol may believe ((system resources are NOT directly related to RAM.)) My girlfriend has 256 megs of RAM, and yet when her computer booted up, her system resources were sitting on 62%. lol She wasn’t aware that she had 17 apps running when her PC booted up.

Before doing this Ed, we need to run a test. Reboot your computer. Right click on My Computer> then click Properties, and then click on the Performance tab. Take note of what the System Resources displays. Close the panel.

Click Start, then Run, and type in (msconfig) and click OK. This opens up the System Configuration Utility. Click on the Start Up tab, Ed. What you will see is a list of programs with a checkbox to the left of each listing. Each box that is checked Ed, is what starts up when you boot your machine. Take note that all anti-virus software uses takes up VERY MUCH resources. You may wish to uncheck these to free up resourcs. I can tell you this ED…if you are running Windows ME then this is all that you must have checked:

ScanRegistry
SystemTray
LoadPowerProfile

Also if you wanna play it safe> you can always just write down everything that is originally checked before making your changes. After you make your change, click “OK” and you will be prompted to reboot.
Reboot> and then go look at your System Resources Ed. You will be surprised.
have a good one buddy and GOOD LUCK.
and make a copy of C:\Windows\System.ini and stick it on your desk top to be on the safe side.

#17

Thanks EZ…a lot of what you say I have the misfortune of knowing…although I have forgotten all about the swap file info…I shall be trying that out tonight…I shall see how I go.

As a side note…I do agree with you on the history and temp files…as resource hogs…but only if one has been on the internet…for a long period, closes connection…and then continues to use computer for other programmes…tis better to reboot.