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Zbrush 3.1 Crashing to an unusable degree. Please, please, someone help.

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi all,
I have a new-ish computer and here is the spec: Intel celeron 2.80GHZ, 1.87 GB of ram, 500 gig HD (449 gig free), Geforce 7100.

I’ve turned off DEP, the settings within Zbrush are untouched, I’ve ran vcredist_x86 from the troubleshoot file, but Zbrush keep crashing, and crashing and crashing. Even within 5 minutes of starting and doing something simple as changing the x-axis on a 3d sphere.

I’m really starting to run into trouble here as I’m trying to get a children’s book illustrated and I’m falling so far behind that its starting to make me feel ill. I really, really, dont know what to do.

The event always look something like this: (there’s a lot of them) Faulting application Zbrush3.exe, version 3.1.0.0, faulting module zbrush3.exe, version 3.1.0.0, fault address 0x0015adc.

Or just to pick up some other fault addresses from the huge number of crashes I have : 0x0015ad8c, 0x0061c8e9, 0x0068be72, 0x0174f217, etc etc etc

As you can see from my screen-capture the crashes can be within 2 minutes of each other.zbrushcrash.jpg

Can someone please help? I’m starting to get a bit desperate.

M

#2

what are you mem settings inside Zbrush?

#3

Hello there,

My memory settings are:

Compact mem 256
Doc undo 4
Tool undo 4
Max poly 5.62
Hd preview 3.75

I’ve never touched these, so I’m guessing they are standard for Zb?

#4

Have you installed any plugins?

How much RAM does your system have and which version of Windows are you running? If it’s a 32-bit system, set Preferences>Mem>Compact Mem to be 256 less than your system’s RAM or 2000 (whichever value is lower). If you have a 64-bit system, set the value to be 256 less than your system’s RAM (up to a max value of 4096).

Also make sure that the drive where ZBrush is installed has plenty of free space. ZBrush writes its virtual memory to that drive, rather than using Windows’ swap file. That drive must have at least 15% free for Windows to work well, and it should be kept defragmented on a regular basis. Failure to defragment the drive can result in a case where there’s lots of free space but none of it in big enough chunks to be usable.

Run a good virus scan and also a spyware scanner. Viruses can corrupt installed files, and spyware can sap your system of essential resources.

The other thing that you should do is download and run a RAM diagnostic tool. If one of your RAM chips is going bad, ZBrush will generally be the first to show it.

#5

Also, just in case:
never use CTRL+S for saving, use SaveAS or Subtool master, also if you just appended a subtool and try any deformations on it this will cause a crash, just rotate the tool in the viewport right after appending then do your deformations.

#6

Thanks for the replies,

No plugins, as my 3.1 is standard, I havent played around with the memory settings, so its still set at 256, despite having almost 2 gigs of RAM.

I’ve been running memtest for the last 2 hours and there are no errors (sadly, at least that would be a bit of ‘hope’)

ZB is installed on a newish drive with 449 gig free and as the computer is quite new, there is barely anything on there. Everything has been ran through a virus scanner since day 1 and is completely clean.
I tried running ZB with all the virus protection off, but there was no change.

For saving (if I ever get that far) I always do it through the interface and not the shortcut.

I’m completely at a loss. Completely. :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

#7

I was hoping there might be some clue in the fault address :cry:

#8

Can someone please tell me if these settings are correct or not?

vm.jpg

#9

i’m not sure what support will say, but i’ve always read you want to set virtual memory at 1.5 of your ram, and to set the inital size and maximum size the same so it doesn’t have to keep changing the pagfile size.

#10

Hi there,
Thanks for the input.

My RAM is 1.87GB, so if I 1.5 x 1870 that gives me a setting of

Initial: 2805
Maximum: 2805

Is that correct? I’ll try anything to sort this out.

So what would my memory settings be within Zbrush?

Any help much appreciated.

#11

This is probably completely useless information for u, but considering that its very urgent, maybe u can translate it into something usefull, for i had the same problem, completely useless zbrush was due to extreme instability. I own an older amd dual core machine, and in some obscure part of the internet i found a post saying to update the cpu drivers of that type, i got the drivers from the manufacturers website and it worked. from there on out it hasnt crashed once, and have been using it constantly for the past month.

Dunno if its usefull, but u never know. :frowning:

#12

Hi Tycane,

Thanks matey - I checked up on my CPU drivers, but sadly my drivers are up to date :frowning:

I’ve even tried re-installing twice this afternoon, but still the same.

Havent got a clue, but the last thing I did try was installing ZB 3 and not 3.1, and it seems to work better. Of course, all my z-docs, z-tools, materials… wont work because of the “this was created with a later version of z-brush thing”

I’m also assuming that none of the new plugins will work with V3.

Any help from support would be greatfully recieved.

#13

:b4: Support? are you there?

So here’s where I am.

All my files are in format 3.1 and I’m now running V3, because as you know, V3.1 stopped working for me on this computer.

Is there anyway of opening my 3.1 files on V3? as all my work for the current children’s book is in 3.1, and its an expensive amount of work to be sat around in an unusable format. Is there anyway around this at all? There must be.

Its been a few days since I first put this problem up and phone-calls are starting to filter in with people asking where concept work and drafts are. As I’ve pretty much stopped sleeping now, I need to be able to resolve this, somehow… otherwise, I’m really really screwed. You know that heavy, knotted felling you get in your stomach before something dreadful happens or you have an extremely important exam? Thats where I am.

M

#14

i think you should file a ticket to support if you haven’t already.
also its strange that 3 is working but not 3.1.
depending on what you need, the best you can do is have open 3.1 and export your models as objs, along with their textures.
for the canvas. export as psd, for color info, using flat material, and do an alpha grab and export that.
have you tried another machine? and a fresh install of 3.1?

#15

-Thats a really good idea Spaceboy - I’ll get exporting straightaway, as long as I can keep 3.1 open long enough to open and export them in the first instance.

The only downfall is that a lot of my materials were custom and will need recreating. Perhaps if I open them and write down all the values, I’ll get them somewhere near…

Thank-you for that, really appreciate it.

Havent tried another machine, I’ve only got the one sadly - my old one completely died. Hasnt been a good couple of months for me! :slight_smile:

#16

Are both 3.0 and 3.1 installed to the same folder? If so, that’s bad news and may well be affecting 3.1. If not, what is different about 3.0’s installation compared to 3.1? The answer to that question may be the key to figuring out what’s happening here.

Also, you said you reinstalled 3.1. When you did so, did you COMPLETELY delete the ZBrush folder after uninstalling? If not, please try that. The uninstaller leaves a number of files, and if a corruption there is causing the problem then it won’t be resolved until that corruption is gone.

#17

Hi Aurick,

When you say 3.0 and 3.1 installed to the same folder I’m not sure what you mean.
After I install 3, isnt 3.1 a patch that doesnt have the option to install to a different folder?

And yes, I manually deleted the entire file after I had performed the uninstall.

#18

…been reading this thread. But I’ve still not much idea of ‘when’ ZBrush is
crashing. Is it just random? Is ZBrush idle at the time? Still starting up?
Model on screen? Are you trying to do something specific when it exits?

As Spaceboy has observed ZBrush is known to flip out on certain operations.
Part of learning to use it seems to be learning to avoid those paths, or
using certain incantations beforehand :wink:

G.

#19

if you have a second hard drive, i would attempt to do a dual boot OS, and install zbrush on that one, so you’d have a clean OS. that way you could figure out if its hardware or software.
btw which version of windows are you running? 32 or 64bit?

also were you getting the crashes while not using your files? for instance, just playing with the default ztools?
oh and glow material will cause crashes sometimes, if you have one of those in your scene.

#20

Hi there,

The crashing is random - it can be as little (I think I mentioned this early on) as changing the axis on a standard Z-spere (with nothing else on screen) or importing a complex .dxf after having a screen full of them.

I have a second hard drive which at the moment is attached via an external HD reader, I could try installing a new, clean version of windows on there. This computer is fairly new though and all I’ve got installed on it is Paint shop pro, Z-brush and the usual bits and bobs that come with an off the shelf PC.

I think, spaceboy that I’ve got a 32 bit as there is no reference to 64 in the system properties (via the control panel).

A couple of times I noticed that when elongating something quite standard (A sphere or ring etc) in the preview window it would suddenly tear apart with jagged edges, and then it would follow up with the inevitable crash. I got the glow material thing, I learned that one fairly early on! - thanks for mentioning it though. There also seems to be a problem with transparencies if you have more than 2 layers, is that just my version or a common problem?