ZBrushCentral

ZBrush freezing during ZSphere modeling

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hello all,

I’ve recently purchased ZBrush 2.0 and I must say I’m absolutely stunned at what it can do! I’m not a 3D artist and this is my first foray into the medium.

In any event, When I am using ZSpheres, ZBrush will unexpectedly hang. Usually just as I’m adding a new zsphere to the model. The application simply freezes and stops responding. The mouse is still active and I can still can alt-tab away to shut it down with task manager.

I am running the following:

Windows XP SP2
Intel 3.0gz / 1gig ram
NVidia 5950 (and yes, the drivers are the latest)
130 gig HD

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Currently I just save-save-save-save and when I crash I start over and load the tool.

Thanks!

-Robert

#2

It’s possible that ZBrush isn’t locking up, but rather is compacting memory. Look at the message bar (beneath the palette list). If it says that it’s compacting memory, then ZBrush is writing to disk and can’t do anything else until that completes.

I recommend reading the Performance Tips to get a better idea of settings that you can use that will take full advantage of your system resources so that memory doesn’t have to be compacted as often.

#3

Thank you for the advice. I did follow the performance suggestions. I don’t know if it’s compacting because I didn’t know to look for the message. I’ll keep my eye on it.

I do love ZBrush though. Even with this small problem, it’s constantly surprising me. Even though I don’t have anything to show for it…yet! :slight_smile:

Thanks again,

Robert

#4

It’s still locking up on me. :confused:

No message and I let it sit for about 10 minutes this time before killing it in task manager.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

-Thanks,

Robert

#5

Did you have this problem under XP Service Pack 1?

#6

It was installed under SP2, so I have no basis for comparison.

I also do not run the MS firewall as I’m behind a router, but that shouldn’t be an issue since zBrush shouldn’t be calling home anyway, right? Certainly not 5 or 10 minutes into a session.

The freezes are very sporadic and so far have only occured during zSphere Modeling, never during mesh painting or manipulation (at least, not yet). The freeze has ALWAYS occured within a few minutes of using zSpheres (when I say sporadic, I mean I don’t know how long it takes before it actually happens, but it always happens…It is completely reproducible if you play with zSpheres long enough.). I haven’t gotten far enough along yet to use other features, like creating textures, so there could still be more surprises waiting for me.

#7

I am having the same problem. While using ZSpheres ZBrush will lock up on me. It does not happen immediately like Mirth experienced but it does happen.

I have been using ZSpheres to work on a model for about 3 hours and ZBrush has frozen on me twice.

#8

Hello HDX,

Please provide detailed system specs. We use such information to help look for patterns, which can lead to a solution.

Also, have you noticed that the problem occurs when you try to use a specific ZSphere feature? Or have you noticed any other patterns?

The more information that you can provide, the better our chances of being able to help.

#9

I am working in Windows 2000 on a dual boot (Win/Linux) PC. Intel Xeo 3.2GHz with 3 Gigs of RAM.

I have been working with ZSpheres exclusively all day for a day and a half.

I thought the problem was related to local viewport rotation but I stopped using it and still experienced freezes.

For the second half of today I started doing mesh edits and displacment painting. ZBrush has “frozen” temporarily while compacting memory but it has not actually locked up.

#10

I am just now really getting into ZB… (Really digging it btw :D) I found this thread while looking for a solution to this same problem. It seems to happen mostly (maybe only?) when using ZSpheres… I don’t think I have to be doing anything in particular… I just now went crazy adding/scaling/rotating/moving/deleting - just trying to get the freeze to occur… never did :confused: It seems to happen after at least several minutes. But it seems to always happen given enough time.

I would love to get more info (if available) on the status of this problem, and hopefully a “fix”. Or even just suggestions of things i might try :slight_smile:

  • XP sp2 (sp2 was already installed when I bought zb in Nov.)
  • Dual Athlon 1900+
  • Quadro 700 - 61.77 driver
  • 1 GB system Ram - ZB Compact Mem set to 512
  • Using modified “defaultzscript.txt” to turn on multithreading
  • No downloaded zscripts ran or added (but I am about to start using some :sunglasses:)
  • Primarily using old pre-intuos serial Wacom w/latest drivers
  • Microsoft wireless intelimouse and driver
  • Dual Monitors (1280x1024 and 1024x768 - NVidia)
  • Using default material - no texture or displacement. Though it also happens with diplacement applied.
  • Also happens using 640x480 doc size - not leaving quick mode

Thanks for any help/suggestions :+1:

#11

I’ve been wondering if anyone else is having the same problem as this because It’s a bit frustrating wheng you’re trying to get ahead with a model and uh?..uh?.. $#!@ Nothing happens. Gotta start from when you last saved it.

Yes it’s always during Z-sphere modeling and I noticed that it always happens when I’m about 50 + Z-sphere’s into it and always when I rotate the model to face left.

I’ve tried tweeking performance options, but no use.

I would like to know which processes on my comp I could end to free up some ram but that’s an XP question. (usually 40-45 processes at any given time)

I’m using XP sp2 and specs are similar to all others who have posted.

I’ll will just keep saving my progress as I model (5-10 minutes).

See ya,

remcv8 :smiley:

#12

Hmm, I happy this subject was revived, because I thought it was my system that was faulty. I get regular freezes too when working with Zspheres: the mouse cursor generally stays in a cross form, and nothing can’t be done except killing the task.

My Specs:
3Ghz P4
1 GB RAM
Windows XP SP2
Volito 2 Tablet

I was wondering if that was due to my graphic tablet, or to the fact I activated the Hyper Threading option for the rendering.

I don’t know if a Dual Athlon allows to activate MultiRender and MultiDraw? Because all the other people who posted in this topic have certainly HT capable processors. If so, maybe it’s the source of the problem, and we must deactivate them in the options?

Bye
Michoko

#13

I have experienced similar problems, especially in zsphere modeling. I have noticed that almost everytime it froze during zsphere modeling while I’m doing rotate, pressing ‘R’ key and continuous rotate for a certain amount of time.

I’m wondering if it’s the video driver, I’m no tech guru, but it just feels like when I rotate, the memory buffer for continuous rotation 3d display ran out. I haven’t tried experimenting with using the rotate button instead of hotkey, rotate at increments, update my video driver, looking for a video driver that’s zbrush specific, if it exists and just upgrade my hardware.

I have an old system, it’s p4 2.4g, 500m ram, msi 128m video card, running window 2000. according to zbrush, the system requirement for running it isn’t high, so i’m not so sure how it’s doing 3d display, i’m not sure if it requires/accepts hardware acceleration. hopefully someone can answere this question for all of us. thanx.

#14

I’m having the same problem, running a 3.6 P4 Mobility X800 256 MB Radeon and 2 gigs of ram, this sucks! anyone found a solution yet? Hyper threading maybe? :evil:

#15

Hi guys!

I wish to apologize for reviving the dead here!

In hope to find some answers to the same freezing problem you experienced back then while working with Zpheres, I found this tread and wonders if you were given any solutions to remede it!

Either this thread was cut short due to its age or just met a dead end!?

In any case, your feedback would be well appreciated if you have a minute!

Windows XP (SP2)
2 GB RAM
Intel 2 Dual core 2.34 Ghz
160 GB of HD

#16

Hello! and no worries… the solution for me was to turn the draw size down to 1 when you have the zsphere selected as a tool. Let me know if that helps. Also have you changed any of the default preferences for memory usage etc?

#17

I’ve run into the same problem while working with ZSpheres.
The program just locks up with no memory activity indication. I’ve tweaked my Preference settings and my draw size was set to 1. I’ve been working on my laptop and my specs are not quite in the same preformance range, but I wanted to add them to the pile to help better diagnose the issue.

mobile Athalon XP 1800 1.53GHz
512 MB RAM

Windows XP (home)
Service Pack 2 (pre-installed)

Hope you guys are able to squish this one, it looks like it’s been around a while.
In the meantime, I’ll have to be more diligent with the CG Artist’s mantra:

SAVE EARLY, SAVE OFTEN :wink:

#18

Thank you guys for your feedback and sorry for the delay Luminus Anubis as I lost some account privileges after posting this thread and couldn’t reply :frowning: .

So far so good with the draw size to 1 but I did play with the preference memory settings at one point and just don’t remember what the defaults values should be to deepen the testing!? Feel free to share!

Your Mantra B3au is a must and a good reminder of what I used to do to go around it. I simply forgot about the freezing aspect and am looking for a permanent solution as it is more common than I thought.

#19

Hello again.

I’ve been working with ZSphere modeling on my Desktop machine most of the afternoon and… no freezing so far.

UPDATE I continued working on the figure and it did eventually freeze up towards the end of the process.:frowning: I had recently saved out, so recovery wasn’t a problem. It only locked up once (much less frequent than on my laptop) but by then my figure had somewhere around 100 ZSpheres.

My Desktop PC has the following specs:

HP Pavilion w/Pentium 4 3.00GHz
512 MB RAM
Windows XP (SP2)

The processor is the notable difference here- Pentium 4 vs. AMD 1800 but I was able to get a lot of work done before it did finally lock up.

I have noticed that whenever I encounter this problem, I’m usually rotating or scaling the view (alt+mouse) rather than editing any spheres directly.

Hope this helps. I’ll keep my eye on this thread and if I come across anything new I’ll post it.

Have a Happy.

#20

I am also having the same problem guys:cry:. Usually Zbrush freezes when I am rotating the Zspheres. It just completly locks up. Any ideas?

Windows XP SP2
AMD Athlon 64-Bit Processor 3000+ 2.01 GHz
1GB of RAM
nVidia GeForce FX 5200 128Mb AGP8X
DirectX 9.0