Questions & Troubleshooting for ZBrush 4R4

[aurick]

Use this thread to post questions regarding any issues you might encounter with ZBrush 4R4. Please be sure when posting about unusual behavior to follow the forum guidelines found here: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/announcement.php?f=101

This initial post will also be updated with answers for the most common issues regarding upgrading to ZBrush 4R4 as well as installation and activation. It will be updated as necessary. Should you encounter any problems with installing or activating 4R4, please check this list before posting in the thread or contacting Pixologic Support.

Email/Serial Number Error Getting Your Download Link: Please first check to ensure that you have entered your email address and serial number accurately. Your serial number is the same one used for ZBrush 4, 4R2, 4R2b and 4R3. However, due to the extremely high server traffic as people are upgrading to ZBrush 4R4 it is possible that you will receive an error even with accurate email address and serial number. Try again after an hour or two. If the error persists after several tries, please submit a Support ticket. Note: There were XML and “404 Not found” errors taking place for several hours. Those have since been resolved. If you were affected by this, go ahead and try the web form again. You should now be successful.

Too Many Downloads Error When Trying to Get the Upgrade Link: Some users have gotten this error despite having not downloaded 4R4. If that happens to you, try again a few minutes later. It should go through fine. If it continues to occur, submit a Support ticket and we will get the upgrade to you via an alternate method. Be sure to include your serial number so that we can quickly locate your account.

Is it safe to uninstall 4R3? Yes and No. If you use GoZ you will be best off uninstalling 4R3 BEFORE installing 4R4. The reason for this is that both versions use the same public folder for GoZ communication. If you uninstall 4R3, that folder is removed and 4R4 will not have access to it. As a result, GoZ won’t work. If you have already installed 4R4 and don’t mind the extra disk space being taken by 4R3, we recommend leaving that version in place. If you do want to remove 4R3 after having installed 4R4 be aware that you will need to reinstall 4R4 after doing so or GoZ will not work.

Using 4R4’s New Features: Be sure to read the PDF’s included in your ZBrush 4R4 installation’s Documentation folder. Also check the ZClassroom for tutorial movies as they are released.

Jittery Strokes on OS X For some reason, processor priority appears to not be being set correctly for ZBrush or Wacom. We’re looking for a solution. Here is a workaround for now:

1. Download and install this application, http://www.atpurpose.com/atMonitor/
2. Launch ZBrush
3. In the atMonitor application click on ZBrush.
4. At the top you will see renice, click it
5. Change the Priority to 2 and set that. (If you wanted to keep this setting then you would do the Set and Remember)
6. Now go into ZBrush and the stroke issue should be gone.

(Windows) Missing DLL error when starting QRemesher: This can happen when your installation of Microsoft C++ is missing components that it normally has. The 4R4 installer tries to detect such problems, but there are times when Windows doesn’t cooperate. Go to your ZBrush 4R4\TroubleshootHelp folder and run the vcredist installers found there. This should fix the issue.

(Windows) Reading files with HD, created in 4R3: An update has been released for Windows users, allowing 4R4 to open files created in 4R3 with HD levels. Use the ZUpgrader application found in your ZBrush 4R4 folder, or launch ZBrush and check for updates vial the ZPlugin>>Auto Update menu.

[satin]

Hello, I just wanted to make sure I understand the instructions before I install my upgrade 4r4.

Step 1: Deactivate ZBrush (Only applies to users of ZBrush 4, 4R2 or 4R2b.)
Launch your existing copy of ZBrush 4.x and use the Zplugin >> Deactivation >> Web Deactivation button to deactivate it. This is not necessary if you are upgrading from version 4R3 or from a version that pre-dates ZBrush 4.

I originally started with ZB 4.0 then came 4r2 - 4r2b - 4r3. So do I deactivate because they were in upgrades and not purchased as ZBrush 4r3 only or do I just go ahead and install 4r4 with no deactivation.

Hope I havent confused anyone but I just would like to make sure.

Thanks for any help.

[johnchen]

lightbox still loads automatically on startup. I still cant disable this…
Also have problems with custom ui / menus, assigned buttons are replaced by random buttons. managed to solve this by recording a macro.

EDIT: scratch that, still having problems loading custom UI. my Symmetry buttons on my custom menu disappears and is replaced by random buttons…

[hotknife]

HI - just hit the download. I’m guessing that the download site is getting hammered at the moment which is understandable but I’m looking at a 22 hour download speed. Usually a 700mb file like this would come down in 1/4 hour - is there not a better way to distribute these rollouts ? mirror sites - multiple servers or is this another problem ?

[Teyon]

Well, I still haven’t been able to get my download link and I had a support ticket in since yesterday (it was before you pointed us to this thread, sorry). I’m going to keep trying but I am curious as to why it’s not working for me while people I’ve informed about ZBrush 4R4’s availability (after my failure in trying to get a link) were able to get in and download with no problem.

[johnchen]

Custom UI is very buggy. If you are using custom UI currently, I wouldnt upgrade… Im pulling my hair out trying to get my UI to look and work like my previous ui. sigh…

[asecbrush]

When doing several mesh inserts with a connection, the mesh regularly gets screwed up.

I believe this has something to do with symmetry because it seems to start happening when you insert a mesh in the middle with X-symmetry on.

Solution:
A way around this seems to be to only have that polygroup visible that is used to attach the insert, so when the mesh gets screwed up then undo and hide all other polygroups before doing the mesh insert.
After having done this once the problem seems to be gone until you insert again at the middle, in that case redo the above steps …

Windows XP 64 bit SP2
NVidia Geforce 9600 GT
8 GB Ram
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 @ 2.66 GHz

[aurick]

Hello, I just wanted to make sure I understand the instructions before I install my upgrade 4r4.

Step 1: Deactivate ZBrush (Only applies to users of ZBrush 4, 4R2 or 4R2b.)
Launch your existing copy of ZBrush 4.x and use the Zplugin >> Deactivation >> Web Deactivation button to deactivate it. This is not necessary if you are upgrading from version 4R3 or from a version that pre-dates ZBrush 4.

I originally started with ZB 4.0 then came 4r2 - 4r2b - 4r3. So do I deactivate because they were in upgrades and not purchased as ZBrush 4r3 only or do I just go ahead and install 4r4 with no deactivation.

Hope I havent confused anyone but I just would like to make sure.

Thanks for any help.

You do not need to deactivate. It’s not the version you bought, but the version that you currently have which matters.

[asecbrush]

When doing several mesh inserts with a connection, the mesh regularly gets screwed up.

I believe this has something to do with symmetry because it seems to start happening when you insert a mesh in the middle with X-symmetry on.

Solution:
A way around this seems to be to only have that polygroup visible that is used to attach the insert, so when the mesh gets screwed up then undo and hide all other polygroups before doing the mesh insert.
After having done this once the problem seems to be gone until you insert again at the middle, in that case redo the above steps …

A similar problem seems to exist when using the replacement feature with the Topology Brush near X-axis with X-symmetry on.
Again seems to be a symmetry problem.
Have not found a way to avoid or remedy this …

Windows XP 64 bit SP2
NVidia Geforce 9600 GT
8 GB Ram
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 @ 2.66 GHz

SOLVED :
My mistake I guess : with symmetry you have to make sure that the parts of the mesh that are visible are 2 visible pieces and not 1 visible piece.
So if you lasso select 1 part in the middle, then also lasso hide the middle of that mesh piece so that there are 2 visible pieces.

BUT another problem : when pressing Shift for a straight line ZBrush crashes a lot.

[marcotronic]

I’ve installed the new ZBrush 4R4 update and tried to get GoZ running with my modo 601 installation on the Mac but I didn’t have any success so far. I tried everything possible so far but when I try to call modo from ZBrush (goZ button) nothing happens at all and when I try to call ZBrush from a model in modo, modo just crashes. I’ve tried to manually uninstall all the stuff that was there and manually as well as “force re-install” from ZBrush - no luck at all.

Anybody successfully running GoZ with ZBrush 4R4 and modo 601 (SP2) on a Mac (Lion)?

Thanks
Marco

[Type-W]

I have Maya 2013 installed on different Drive H
Also I have ZBrush 4R4 installed on a different Drive S
the Z setting is on Drive C
the install button for GoZ in Zbrush is missing
I’m using Windows 8

Is this a Environment Variables path issue?

Attachments

[aurick]

lightbox still loads automatically on startup. I still cant disable this…
Also have problems with custom ui / menus, assigned buttons are replaced by random buttons. managed to solve this by recording a macro.

EDIT: scratch that, still having problems loading custom UI. my Symmetry buttons on my custom menu disappears and is replaced by random buttons…

Symmetry buttons have never worked as part of a custom UI. Most likely you had a plugin or macro in an earlier version of ZBrush that acted as symmetry buttons, but haven’t brought those over to 4R4.

You can certainly create a Macro (or multiple Macros) that enable symmetry. Those can then be put into your custom UI and can be assigned hotkeys.

[harbottle]

I can’t seem to get R4 to load up with my custom material. I always get the default red wax even after I create a new startup doc. A small thing, to be sure, but I’m really used to seeing everything with my familiar material, and it is irritating. Any ideas?

[wayniac]

Had my first crash on save. It seems to have corrupted the saved .ztl as well, which will not load in ZB4r3. Says error loading .ztl and aborts. Upon trying to load the .ztl in 4R4 i get Out of Disk Space. Virtual memory file cant be used until more disk space is made available. I have ZB set to use 4096 in the prefs and i have boatloads of RAM and freely available disk space for ZB to write to so not quite sure what the problem is. It says that there is a recovery file but when I go to look in that directory it is saved as .zzz extension. I tried to rename that to .ztl and reload and zb threw the same error about Out of Disk Space along with

Error while reading m_pLinksModList OBject. and up top on that window it says Internal Error :\Mash3DDXF.cpp Line:17149.

Unable to read a subtool Object Extract 4.

When I went to save the file initially it stated something about cant allocate cppmem because there isnt enough cppmem or something to that effect. If I get that particular error again I will be sure to write it down. Any ideas on what might be the prob or a work around on getting this file open?

[wayniac]

Hey Will,
I’m not sure what you did but I was never able to change the red wax from being the default material previously! Care to share how you did that??

[harbottle]

I did it a very long time ago, so I don’t remember exactly, but it has come along with every new update in the form of the zstartup doc. I just copy this to the new version. I did notice that R4 saves the startup doc in a new location, but replacing this one still didn’t help.

As far as creating a startup doc goes and saving the material, I think you just paint a dab of the material you want in the corner and save as a startup doc. I’m sure Marcus or someone else will give us more info.

[zber2]

I can’t seem to get R4 to load up with my custom material. I always get the default red wax even after I create a new startup doc. A small thing, to be sure, but I’m really used to seeing everything with my familiar material, and it is irritating. Any ideas?

I just tried this and it still works. The only difference is where it says at the end "Now press the Save As button in the Document Palette and save the document as StartupDocument.zbr", don’t do that, just click the “Save As Startup Doc” button instead.

I was using the plugin from TVeyes but it doesn’t work in 4R4.

Edit: I should also mention, for anybody else reading this, if you do the above and you still want the RedWax MatCap available then save a copy of the RedWax to your ZStartup/Materials folder by clicking on your Material icon and then “Save”. If you decide you want things back the way they were, then just clear your document (Ctrl+N) and click “Save As Startup Doc” button in the Document menu and restart ZBrush.

Edit 2: It would be nice if TVeyes could update his plugin to work in 4R4. That was a really handy plugin.

[NBreslow]

Hi,

Could you clarify the process for setting up the new ‘ZbrushData’ folder? I am wondering the following:

1. There is still a ‘zstartup’ folder in the Zbrush 4R4 installation directory which is where we traditionally added custom materials, macros, etc. Should this be left stock and should we recreate the folder structure in the new ‘ZBrushData’ folder? Currently there are only two folders - ‘ConfigFiles’ and ‘Hotkeys’ and neither is populated while their ‘zstartup’ counterparts are. Kinda confused as to what exactly to put in the ‘ZbrushData’ folder?

2. The documentation mentions that it includes configuration files, custom interfaces and hotkeys - what about plugins, macros, etc.?

3. Is there some order of preference that ZBrush uses to determine which file to load? For instance, if there are two files with the same name, but different settings, in both the ‘zstartup’ and ‘ZbrushData’ folders which will take precedence?

Thanks!

-Nick

[aurick]

I can’t seem to get R4 to load up with my custom material. I always get the default red wax even after I create a new startup doc. A small thing, to be sure, but I’m really used to seeing everything with my familiar material, and it is irritating. Any ideas?

Does your Startup Document have any pixols containing that material? If not, the document won’t retain that info. All you have to do is draw even a single pixol on the canvas with your custom material. When you save the Startup Document, that material’s info will be saved as well.

Alternatively, create a Project and just load it every time you start ZBrush. You could even create a Macro that will load that project automatically. Then you only need to press whatever hotkey you’ve assigned to the Macro or you can drag its button out into your custom UI.

[harbottle]

Hi Aurick!

Thanks for the quick reply! As I mentioned in a later post, I have tried putting a dab of the material on the document and saving as a startup. This has worked with all previous versions, but not with R4. And saving a project does not convert the images in my subtool menu to the new material. It’s just the same as manually changing the material. Before, all the subtools in the too pallette would take on my custom material. Maybe I’m wierd, but after all these years, it annoys the heck out of me to see all that red wax over their on the right! I don’t even recognize my subtools all red like that. When you work with something for 12 hours a day for all these years, you just get used to things being a certain way, I guess.