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ZBrush Usage Questions
#13

RAM Saver Professional 3.4

23 November, 2003
Win98/Me/NT/2000/XP

It is an easy-to-use RAM optimizer tool
that will keep your computer running
faster. It increases the operation
system performance by making more memory
available for your applications.

Main program features:

  • Defragment system memory for faster
    access time
  • Increasing the efficiency of your CPU
    and Motherboard caches;
  • Recover memory leaks from poorly
    behaved applications;
  • Temporarily flush unused libraries
    out to disk;
  • System Tray monitor;
  • Desktop RAM monitor;
  • Desktop CPU Usage monitor;
  • specialized Control Panel;
  • professional memory monitoring;
  • flexible memory optimization with
    complete statistics output;
  • RAM benchmark test;
  • monitoring and control over the
    processes which take place in the memory;
  • possibility to create “boosted shortcuts”;
  • common and advanced options;
  • automatic and intelligent optimization;
  • fast run of tools;
  • forced cleaning of Clipboard;
  • possibility to close all programs for
    full memory release by one click;
  • control over Windows uptime;
  • suppressing and fast running of screen
    savers;
  • check the presence of disk in CD-ROM
    drive in the moment of computer shut down;
  • manipulating with desktop icons;
  • forced shut down and restart of computer;
  • fast access to Control Panels;
    …

Me, I operate within Win98. This program helps a lot,
even supporting Zbrush working when my operative memory is diminished by Sound Card synthesizer.


#14

sounds interesting anatom…do they have anything more recent than 2003 info? sounds like it could either replace…well maybe not cuz i love this little utility… or compliment my FastDefrag program.

I will add it to my list of things to research. thanks for the info.

#15

:smiley: Thank You, Aminuts.
To-day I had a chance to see Zbrush working on Celeron 1.7 Gb Processor with 256 Mb memory.
Oh, I liked it!

Anatoly.

#16

Hi Gorilla, I am a newbie so I can’t offer much, but I am also a Mac user. I have a G4 933mhz with 1.25 gigs of ram, absolutley no issues (so far).

Have you tried reinstalling the application, or reverting back to the default settings? I would suggest not trying to optimize anything at first and just going with the base setup. I have only changed things like color and Doc size, haven’t touched anything in the performance area.

Good luck, post again if you are still having trouble, or figured it out.

#17

Hey thanks Sinthetic. well, What looks like probably my problem is- I had ZBrush installed on a firewire drive. I do alot of audio and video- I have seven drives three internal and four daisy chained fire wire drives and the main drive is small 20g.
So I installed both 1.55b & 2 on the main drive. But I’ve been waiting for the {{Ulicense.zul }}So until I get it, I’ll post my results, hopefully that’ll fix it.

#18

O.K. guys, finally I have ZBrush on my main drive. But, still the same problems persist. The area on top where the letters mem>" " are I noticed when I downloaded a users zscript his numbers were like 90. My numbers there stay around 47. I don’t know if that is anything.
Also, when in between a session and I try to initialize zbrush, the system is extremely slow, not even useful. Is there somewhere on Macs (OSX) where you can see virtual memory settings? I’m so disappointed. I reall want to get ZBrush running right.
Any more ideas? Ssceener how do you get to the activity monitor? I have a CPU monitor app. I also bought Norton and there’s no viruses or spyware. :frowning:

#19

Hi GORILLA,

Have you repaired Permissions and run Disk Utility on your Mac recently? I would say do that first, restart your mac. After restart go to utilities and open the Activity Monitor, you can see your ram usage there. You may need to hit Command (apple key) 1 to show the window.

After that, start up ZB2 and see what your system is using. I forgot, you aren’t on 10.3 yet, hmm I think it was called the Process Viewer in 10.2, so look for that possibly, not Activity Monitor.

There is definitely something going whacky, but it may be your sys (possibly). Fix permissions and run disk utility often (weekly even) if you are using a lot of memory intensive apps like Photoshop and Illustrator, I need to do restarts some times because I think some memory is getting left in VM or something from the Adobe apps. I have seen ZB2 act jerky, a simple restart has fixed that both times it happened.

HTH

#20

Sinthetic is right, Process Viewer in Jaguar. Applications/Utilities.
Disc Utility is in the same place. Start it and pick the drive ZBrush is on and click Repair. A lot of users do this once a month and every time they install a new Application. You can also do this from the Jaguar CD.

As for Norton Utilities, according to some Mac Forums, it can do more harm than good. I don’t think they even support OSX anymore. Besides, Macs don’t get viruses and spyware.

Some third party apps can mess with your system or other Apps.
The last few updates to Jaguar did some weird things to some people’s operating systems. Some attribute this to said Apps that place items in certain directories and are then incompatible with the updates. Update these Apps to releases that are compatible to these updates or trash them.

When you quit ZBrush, go to it’s folder and open the VMEM folder, it should be empty when the App isn’t running. If it’s full, select everything and delete it. Not sure if it helps, but the first time I ran ZBrush, it wasn’t empty. After emptying it the first time it’s empty after quiting every time.

The MEM should increase with the number of polygons your model has.

This last try at a fix is something Macs do when they are left on for long periods of time and not going to sleep.
You can do this manually, it looks a bit daunting, but it’s easy.
Restart and press Command(Apple) S.
The screen will be black with a lot of text.
At the bottom is a localhost# prompt
Type fsck -y don’t forget the space beyween the k and -
Press return
You’ll see the screen updating and when it’s done the locahost# prompt will be there again.
Type reboot
For Panther users, you type fsck -f

Is it possible to partition one of your other drives and install a fresh Jaguar without anything but ZBrush?
Upgrade to Panther?

#21

Thanks guys I’ll try all. I tried explaining to zbrush tech guy that my Mac doesn’t get viruses and spyware like my PC does. I repair permissions once a day and run Disc Warrior once a week. I have alot of audio files for my Pro Tools system. Yeah, I’ve read horror stories about Norton and I’ve already removed it as it starting causing my Pro Tools program to do strange things. I just don’t understand what is causing all this havoc. I had issues with my Wacom tablet and a Line 6(audio) program and their tech guys had my send a console/crash log and had it fixed in one day. Let me try these things, and yeah I just may have to upgrade to Panther anyways. Unbelievable. This is turning into quite an adventure…over three weeks in and I’ve yet to do a complete project :frowning:
Thanks for all the help guys!!!

#22

O.K. tried just about everything. I created a very simple sphere with two bumps for eyes. Total 8000 polygons. Saved document. Then went to initialize ZBrush and my system froze up. I attached a pic of it. It doesn’t freeze like a computer freeze. Just Zbrush program and all I can do is quit the program. Although I wouldn’t mind getting Panther and hopefully ZBrush will run on my system, it’s just that moving to Panther means I have to upgrade other programs with plug-ins that are running fine on 10.2.8 and upgrading them to Panther involves much cash. Pixolator or anyone else have any ideas? :frowning:

Attachments

PictureOfZbrush.jpg

#23

I just did what you described, even though I never initialize ZBrush manually, no problem, about 2- 3 seconds from initializing to a functional program. PowerBook 500 MG, 1 Gig ram, 8 MG ATI card, 800 to ZBrush.

Bad Ram? Try lowering the ZBrush allotment to 500 or pull a module and then another.

Why initialize? If it runs fine, save the tool every few minutes in case of freeze. Saving the document only saves the pixols, not the editable 3D tool.
Create a new document in the Document Palette to start a new project.
To clear the tool pallete, restart ZBrush. Not much longer than Initialize.

When I said some third party programs, I meant things like MenuMeters, programs that put items in the root of the operating system. Most programs sit on top of the operating system and don’t fiddle with the guts.
Most programs if incompatible with Panther will offer free upgrades for paid programs and plugins. Tiger may be a different story.

Does using a script from from users here create a freeze when you are asked to initialize ZBrush?

Short of reinstalling Jaguar, download another copy of ZBRush. Maybe it got corrupted when it was installed on your Firewire drive?
There were issues with some Jaguar updates and Firewire drives.

#24

Yipeee!!!
Finally. Well guys first I want to say thank you to everyone who has replyed with help for me here!!! Today Saturday 5th my ZBrush finally works. It’s lightnin’ fast and NO freezing or anything. A perfect program and I’m like a little kid with a new toy. I’ll be ZBrushing ALL day probably till the super bowl tomorrow.
I tried almost everyones’ ideas and after almost giving up and asking for a refund. I did what Ssceener mentioned

download another copy of ZBRush. Maybe it got corrupted when it was installed on your Firewire drive?

And Shazamm!!! That was it! My first download of ZBrush must of gotten corrupted. So this time I downloaded it straight to my main drive. Thank you once again guys! I can’t wait to start posting some stuff!!! :+1:

#25

Glad to hear you finally got it figured out GORILLA, way to go sccreener!

#26

:smiley: Glad to have helped.

#27

Oh no! Well, I thought I finally had a kiler working ZBrush. But, today I decided to play with it and low and behold the same things start again. I made a head,went to save the tool …and did. As soon as I saved it ZBrush came to a complete stop. Wouldn’t do nothing but quit. I couldn’t get any buttons on ZBrush to respond.
So I quit ZBrush and re-started it. Oh yeah, on closing ZBrush it did let me save the document. So I re-start ZBrush, and it does nothing, went to re-initialize it…still nothing. I quit again and re-started. This time I re-loaded default Zscript. Still nothing. It does nothing. Am I doing something very wrong? I don’t know if other programs I have on my computer are doing this or what. But I’m afraid my ZBrushing career has ended before it started.
Oh yeah, I do have a copy of “Introduction to ZBrush” if anyone is interested. Looks like I’ll just have to save up and buy a dedicated computer for ZBrush in the future. I’ll still be here looking at all the Awesome work !!! Thanks guys for all the help!!!

#28

When you downloaded the fresh copy of ZBrush, did you also download a fresh copy of 1.55?
Other than that, I’m out of ideas.

#29

Hi Sscreener. Yeah I did the whole routine. Zbrush 1 zulincense(temp), waited a few days then got the permanent zul license. Put it in the Z2 folder. I’m sooooo bummed. Thanks for all your help!

#30

Maybe the next ZBrush update will inadvertently fix something for you.
Meanwhile, I’ll keep your problem in mind as I peruse the Mac troubleshooting forums.
Keeps me out of trouble :smiley:

#31

I have the same problem – I have a G4 1.4 GHZ Mac and OS X 10.2.8. I recently bought ZBrush2 and have been following all of the excellent tutorials in the Practical Guide. Everything else seems to work well, but whenever I work with Zspheres my Mac freezes up also (EXACTLY as you described). Frustrating. I am considering upgrading to Tiger, but I wish there was a less costly solution.

#32

Yeah, something is definitely wrong with Zbrush OSX 10.2.8 maybe. ZBrush is awesome from what I can see people posting great results. But it didn’t work on my machine. I returned it. Hopefully when I upgrade to a G5 Tiger, I’ll buy it again and it will work properly.