ZBrushCentral

Unable to read virtual memory file

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I get this message now every time i try to crank up the mem preferences. i’ve 3gb ram and i need to set it to the polygons of at least 10mio because my model is around that amount. i also dont exceed over 2400mb in the mem prefs.

then i tested many things in order to evaluate the problem. i found out that by removing the UIStandard.cfg file the error wouldnt appear again but my problem is that without the ui file the zb3 ui is blank. even when i loaded other uis the problem still occured. so i’m not sure if it’s some kind of ui issue or not that causes this virtual memory error.

even if i set it to only 6mio instead of the default i still get the error.

its really annoying. i cant do anything because i need to work in subd-level 6 to finish the fine detail.

any suggestions?

#2

You should not modify files that are located in the ZData folder or any other files that are included with the ZBrush installation!
Modifying the ZData directory will - at best - result in an unexpected behavior.

When posting in this forum, please follow the forum guidelines

#3

i didnt modify the folder, except just testing it without the standard ui cfg file.

but its occuring anyway.

which is really bad because it prevents me from doing serious progress.

and i already searched this forum for this issue but there was no real solution that i found so far.

i made sure there’s enough disk space, i have 3gb of ram, i defragmented the disk, everything seems ok. its even weird that sometimes i get this message when putting a value only slightly above the default mem prefs.

if anyone has some suggestions i’d love to know.
thanks!

#4

Use the tool:small_orange_diamond:texture>Disable UV to reduce memory use.

#5

By the way Aurick, what is the proper mem setting for a 2GB RAM machine with WinXP 32?

#6

Compact Mem should be at about 1700. MaxPolysPerMesh shouldn’t be higher than 12. A value of 8 would be better. (You technically can go higher, but can start running into performance issues. It’s really better to split the model into subtools rather than try cranking the whole thing up to a high poly count.)

#7

but what if you need to do one seamless model then subtools isn’t really a solution (?)

#8

Sure it is. After you split the model into your subtools, crease them. This will prevent them from pulling apart when you subdivide them. You can now work on each part independently, but they will appear as a single continuous model in the viewport.

The bottom line is that no matter how powerful ZBrush 3 is, it will still be limited by your computer. So if you reach the limit of what your computer can handle you either need to get creative with ways to work around that (such as splitting the model into groups, using HD sculpting, etc.), or buy new hardware. Tweaking the performance settings in ways that will virtually guarantee instability by trying to make your computer do more than it can is not a viable solution.

#9

I didnt’ tweak any settings and this awful dialog keeps popping up “MEMORY ERROR Unable to read virtual memory file”. Don’t you think it would be better to warn the user once, give them some kind of instructions on how to proceed?

Not only that but isn’t the whole point of Virtual Memory so that you can work with very large files without putting everything in physical ram? That was a rhetorical question.

I am guessing that there is something hosed with the memory mapped files index information and the undo actions just dont’ know what is going on. This only occurs when I try undoing back very far. The state data for ZB must get corrupted somehow, which is a real bummer since it makes me lose changes that I would otherwise have rolled back to.

#10

the funny thing is that when i work with zbrush under parallels (via mac os-x) i never get any of these memory error messages, even though less ram is allocated because of the virtualization.

so why do i get this error when natively in windows (via bootcamp) with full ram power (3gb)?

#11

I’ve also been getting this error message at my workstation in the studio I work at.
At home, I have a similar machine (same amount of RAM, same size of pagefile etc.), and ZBrush runs with the same settings.
At home it hardly gives this message, while at work it… well, it doesn’t stop doing it with certain files :slight_smile:

So if it’s not the size of the memory or the ZBrush settings, why is the same file responding differently on two computers?

Me thinks it time to get another 2gb.

#12

Opeth, you’re discovering something that network administrators have known for years: machines have personalities. Two exactly identical machines with nothing other than the operating system installed can actually behave differently. (And we’re not talking about just with ZBrush here.) As each machine is used, has programs installed and uninstalled, etc., they drift even farther apart.

Because ZBrush is so tightly integrated with your system’s resources, it is possibly more vulnerable to these individual computer personalities. But ultimately you have to understand that no two computers are ever truly identical. Even with the same exact hardware and software, they can still behave differently.

#13

I was having this error message as well, when I tried to compact my memory I would get the message “unable to read virtual memory” several times and I would have to close down zbrush and restart. Then I finally got it working by closing down AVG free Edition Ant-Virus and viola it worked no error messages. All other things like defragmenting and shutting down all other apps didnt change it only changed when avg was off.

#14

Yes, AV programs can cause all sorts of problems with memory hungry apps.
Thanks for the headsup on AVG, I find it to cause far fewer problems than say macafee, but it’s good to know to turn it off if I get problems.