Sorry--just need to vent. I have four computers. One of them, my main Bryce box, cannot render a Bryce 5.5 image. I've tried all the updates, I've tried uninstalling and re-installing--nothing works. Not only that, but Bryce 5--which I never uninstalled--won't render without crashing either! Aside from venting, though, I'm wondering if anyone else was getting similar crash errors and found a way to correct it. The file was a lighting test rendered at 256 rpp, no lights, soft shadows, blurry reflections. I've never wanted to kick a program's @$$ so badly in my life. Yes, it's true. I admit it. I want to kick Bryce 5.5's arse!

Maybe your Ram could be the problem? Try removing sticks to see if anything changes;)

"256 rpp, no lights, soft shadows, blurry reflections." No wonder. Why would anyone render at 256 rpp. that is insane you just love to wait long periods of time for your picture to be done. Let alone soft shadows and blurry reflections. You need to manage your resources more effectivly. I guess you get a lesson in that when you are an old timer like me and at one time rendered on a 6800 series processor in Bryce 1.0. Go down to 32 rpp you probably won't be able to tell the difference. If you get rid of the soft shadows and blurry reflections then you can go down to 4rpp.

why is 256 rpp included then?

I have the same RAM I had before I initially installed Bryce 5.5 and didn't have this problem--Bryce 5 ran like a dream. However, if I render at 36RPP or higher it crashes--I was using 256 to push the software. It didn't take as long to render as you might think--I got a few renders out of it before I tweaked the render settings and BOOM. Interesting, though--if you look at the error message the problem seems to be caused by the way Bryce 5.5 is doing the calculations, not my system. Then again, I could be wrong about that. Anyone else get anything like this? Any ideas?

Message edited on: 07/28/2005 06:59

Even if your system ran fine before with the same RAM, does not mean the RAM is not bad. RAM does go bad from time to time. I would check on that. If U uninstalled, updated, upgraded, did everything U can think of, then the next step would be hardware. Just remove or change the RAM temporarily and see what happens. I get those errors sometimes, and its not cause of the system, but cause of the way I made the render, lights and textures. One time I had a problem where the bryce 5.5 would not render with this one texture for the heck of it. Once I removed that texture and replaced it with a similar one, bam, no more crash in THAT scenery. Change your RAM Temporarily, and see what happens.

I've rendered images on 256 RPP before in Bryce5 and no crashes. I have 1GB RAM. I think it's insane that you should have crashes with such a simple scene; the more I hear about it, the more Bryce5.5 disgusts me. I'm glad I didn't waste my money on it.

That's what's really getting to me. The scene is set at 256RPP, but there are no lights. And whatever issue is causing Bryce 5.5 to crash has "migrated" over to Bryce 5!I'll try the suggestions about changing out the RAM. Hmph. Maybe 5.5 replaced a DLL that Bryce 5 was using with a sucky one?

Message edited on: 07/28/2005 20:53

I have problems with Ctrl+Z! When I go back two many times or too fast, oops! There it all goes. Damn those coders!

Ummm... LOL ... umm I'm embarassed to ask this having been using Bryce 4 for over 6 years but what the heck is RPP?

rays per pixel :)

I've been getting this kind of thing too and I know how you feel about kicking a little program's ass. lol 8) I don't think it's a matter of what ram you use or anything else related to what components are in your box. All other 3D software I use on the same machine works fine so it's definately a glitch with 5.5. I just hope that when DAZ get Br6 out they'll give a discount to all us beta testers who had so many problems with Br5.5. Catlin

What is the difference in ray's per pixel as opposed to DPI, dot's per inch? Sounds like something I should learn about.

Rays per pixel refers to the number of rays Bryce uses when rendering. Dots per inch is a printing term. You've probably heard that 300 DPI is the minimum recommended image resolution for printing.

Hopefully my last stupid question: Where do you set RPP in Bryce? Version 4 or 5 only.

Not a stupid question! To change the default render settings for Bryce, click the arrow next to the render button (see image). Choose your Quality Mode, then your Rays Per Pixel. The best way to see results, in my opinion, is to render your image in default, change your settings, then use the plop render to re-render certain areas. When I started playing with settings I would, for example, split a face in half so I could compare results. Of course, the more rays per pixel you use the longer it will take your image to render.

The one drop down arrow I've never clicked on of course! LOL! So much to learn so few hours in the day.

Now you will have plenty of hours in the day, rendering that is;)

If the problem has "migrated to Bryce 5" I'd be more likely to look at a hardware/RAM problem if the two versions are on the same computer. Especially since the two programs are independent of each other.

Thanks for the input and suggestions. Much appreciated. The two programs are TRULY independent of each other? They don't share any .DLL files--possibly one that the 5.5 version replaced?

Not that I'm aware of if you installed them to separate directories. I can check for sure though, may take a few days to get a reply.

Thank you. Much appreciated! :)

Oh I can leave Bryce rendering for days and day's on my 1 ghz dinosaur while I spend all my time in my 1.9 ghz dinosaur with Poser 6. ;)

I just finished rendering an image on one of my other computers. It took almost four days--but this one has a light dome and a lot of reflections. In the screen capture above, the time is three days, eighteen hours, and so on. I'm not happy about the wait, but that's how I get the results I like. :)

Is that a human figure exported from Poser that I see? I need to learn more about getting the skin tone to look right on imports like that. Mine always look washed out in Bryce.

The render time is why I've got a 2.4GHz machine which is for renders only which means I still have my 64 bit machine for the hard work, Poser. lol 8) Catlin

Mizrael, there are tutorials on using Poser skin textures in Bryce, but if your skin tones are looking washed out, check the settings in the Materials Lab. The settings for your lights factor into this issue--you have to get Diffusion, Ambience, and Specularity to work with the lights, and so these three may need to be adjusted. Try lowering the Diffusion in increments of 10, drop Ambience to under 10, and Specularity to 5 or less.

Thanks again Jack! I'll look for those tutorials too.