Is Zbrush most crashy/unstable software in the universe ???

[kirkl]

I constantly see forever frozen white faded screen in Zbrush once I reach 1.5 mil for each sub-tool on many routine operations. I save the tool in every few minutes. With every new release it’s getting a bit worse than before. (perhaps just out of more detailed things I am doing now)
So I am a bit amazed how people do all those so detailed works in Zbrush. I have never been able to reach anything close to that just because It starts to freeze like crazy.
Is it a thing I should make myself accustomed ( already did so actually) or is there something I missed, a memory setting or something?

ps. Maybe I need a new pc? I have q6600 5gb now.

[system]

Your right ZBrush is the most unreliable piece of software ever created, if anything actually works its a pure lottery.

[darxx]

disagree. zbrush is a ton better than most 3d software. in my experience. I would look at testing on differently built workstations if you’re having serious issues

[kirkl]

disagree. zbrush is a ton better than most 3d software. in my experience. I would look at testing on differently built workstations if you’re having serious issues

While other 3d soft are also not so stable on my pc, especially 3ds max, at least I can predict its behavior. Zbrush is absolute champion in that sense. It doesn’t crash actually it just shows me a faded frozen screen and no any specific messages almost every time I do something calculating expensive on tools higher than 1 mil: projection, decimation, merge, split, dynamesh. Sometimes it turns back to normal in a few minutes, other time it just freezes forever with a very few cpu loading so I kinda pray each time I forget to save a tool beforehand.

I have other pc and a notebook but they are too old to work there. My work pc still satisfys me for most of the tasks.
So before buying a new one or even replace parts I would like to learn whether it’s a hardware problem or perhaps Zbrush just can’t work well with tools subdivided more then 1 - 1.5 mil and I need to change my approach? Can you project a tool higher than 1,5 mil onto other surface (also 1,5mil) without a problem?

Does it work better on Win 8 ?

[Cryrid]

For reference, my only machine is more than 5 years old now (32bit, Core 2 Duo @ 2.20 Ghz, 3GB of Ram), and I can still project a 3.033Mill point Remesh skin onto a 3.646 Mill point demohead without problem

[chrono1081]

I have to agree with the OP here. I adore ZBrush (I bought a license and I don’t even work in 3D) and I love Pixologic but in my experience ZBrush is very crashy especially on higher subtools.

I too wonder how people get all this insane detail since when I subdivide for polypainting or high res sculpting everything crashes.

I have a beasty system too.

[MentalFrog]

While other 3d soft are also not so stable on my pc, especially 3ds max, at least I can predict its behavior. Zbrush is absolute champion in that sense. It doesn’t crash actually it just shows me a faded frozen screen and no any specific messages almost every time I do something calculating expensive on tools higher than 1 mil: projection, decimation, merge, split, dynamesh. Sometimes it turns back to normal in a few minutes, other time it just freezes forever with a very few cpu loading so I kinda pray each time I forget to save a tool beforehand.

Sounds like it could very well be your hardware. It might not be good enough. It might be running a lot of bloatware. Or it might just be dying on you. I had a computer that would crash when I ran 3d graphic programs and games. It ended up being a faulty memory chip.

You need to post your full specs here, cpu, ram, video card, operating system, etc… If you need help finding this info just post asking and I’ll post some quick easy directions on how to find it. Although I would need to know your operating system first. Also if you’re running windows XP that could be the problem. Zbrush is no longer supported on XP.

[kirkl]

For reference, my only machine is more than 5 years old now (32bit, Core 2 Duo @ 2.20 Ghz, 3GB of Ram), and I can still project a 3.033Mill point Remesh skin onto a 3.646 Mill point demohead without problem

Thanks for the info, I actually can project such amount too . Just get a frozen screen too often while doing so. Especially when I use mesh inserted details.

[kirkl]

Sounds like it could very well be your hardware. It might not be good enough. It might be running a lot of bloatware. Or it might just be dying on you. I had a computer that would crash when I ran 3d graphic programs and games. It ended up being a faulty memory chip.

You need to post your full specs here, cpu, ram, video card, operating system, etc… If you need help finding this info just post asking and I’ll post some quick easy directions on how to find it. Although I would need to know your operating system first. Also if you’re running windows XP that could be the problem. Zbrush is no longer supported on XP.

My pc is cpu-q6600(quad 2,4Ghz), 5gb ram , GF 9800 GT, win7 home 64bit. Not sure about bloatware. I use Norton security suite. My memory chips are different. I added them through few last years. Tested them although with a memory test from Fedora live cd and everything looked fine.

[zber2]

If your ‘Compact Mem’ setting in ‘Preferences>Mem’ is not set at ‘4096’ then set it to that. Also, low ‘free hard drive space’ could be a factor.

[zber2]

Memtest86 is really good software to test your ram and it’s free. I would highly recommend you download and try it.

[kirkl]

If your ‘Compact Mem’ setting in ‘Preferences>Mem’ is not set at ‘4096’ then set it to that. Also, low ‘free hard drive space’ could be a factor.

It’s set that way on my end and I think the Fedora memtest is basically the same. No problem reported.

Not completely sure but it seems to me that the stability somehow depends on the scale of the model. Do somebody know if I should follow a certain scale/size of the things to be imported into Zbrush? What units? I use centimeters in 3ds max as system units.