Hello Everyone,

I am having a few problems with Poser 8 and can not post for help at Smith Micro's stupid site because the "Product" catagory has no fill field and I can not submitt the question without filling that catagory in.

Anyway, one problem I am having is with changing the background color. When I try to change it via "Display - Background Color ..." I get a black background regardless of what color I choose. Even if I try changing it back to that default grey color it stays black until I close Poser and re-open it.
Also, I still get that stupid "You are out of memory! Please save your work and quit soon." message when trying to render certain intensive images. I did manage to get through a render at lower resolution and save the image before Poser threw the warning in my face once.
Anyone have any suggestion of where I can look to get 3D settings for my system to make this message go away.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Sounds like you're having OpenGL issues perhaps. Try setting the display to SreeD (rightclick in the work area and change settings that way easily) and see if the problems continue.

More often than not, Poser's "Out of Memory" error isn't really an out of memory error but just Poser's way of telling you there was something - perhaps a texture - it couldn't find.

Last but not least: Which OS? Which specs? Did you apply SR1?

And which browser do you use? That problem with SM's site isn't one I've been having and I use GoogleChrome - and that CAN be finicky with certain sites and fields - but not on SMs . I've heard someone else mention that problem though. You can email their support as well, can't remember the email but it is listed on SM's site.

For starters;
It would be helpfull if you gave your systems specifications.
PC-MAC, Windows ? ? OS? ? Video card, drivers? RAM? Etc? ?  
Poser version? SR installed?  etc etc etc

Then we could try to help, and gladly do so.
Now we are in the dark? ?  (as your background)

Thanks for the replies and offers of help.
Firstly, yes, I just installed the SR1 for Poser 8 this morning.
Secondly, I use IE 8. Smith Micro says the lack of a field for the Products catagory may be browser related but I find it hard to believe I am the only person visiting their site that uses IE8.

I will try switching to Sree D and see what happens.

**PC (Not Mac) System Information:
**
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 (build 2600)

Processor: 2.40 gigahertz Intel Core2 Quad Q6600
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Main Circuit Board: Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5N-E SLI 1.XX
Bus Clock: 266 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD ASUS P5N-E SLI ACPI BIOS Revision 0901 02/01/2008

Memory Modules: 3328 Megabytes Installed Nvidia Memory

Slot 'DIMM_A1' has 2048 MB
Slot 'DIMM_A2' has 2048 MB
Slot 'DIMM_B1' is Empty
Slot 'DIMM_B2' is Empty

Display: NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT [Display adapter]
Samsung SyncMaster [Monitor] (24.0"vis, s/n HVLQ802402, August 2008)

Controllers: Standard floppy disk controller
NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller (2x)
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller

Bus Adapters: JMicron JMB36X Controller
Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller

Other Devices: VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
Acronis True Image Backup Archive Explorer
Acronis TrueImage Backup Archive Explorer
APC Battery BackUP
American Power Conversion USB UPS
HID-compliant consumer control device (4x)
HID-compliant device (4x)
USB Human Interface Device (6x)
HP Scanjet 3500c Series
HID Keyboard Device
Microsoft USB Digital Media Pro Keyboard (IntelliType Pro)
HID-compliant mouse
Microsoft USB Dual Receiver Wireless Mouse (IntelliPoint)
NVIDIA Network Bus Enumerator
Generic USB Hub
USB Composite Device (2x)
USB Mass Storage Device
USB Printing Support
USB Root Hub (2x)

Quote - More often than not, Poser's "Out of Memory" error isn't really an out of memory error but just Poser's way of telling you there was something - perhaps a texture - it couldn't find..

The odd thing is that I have been able to render the image in question at a lower than finished quality and everything is there - all the textures. But then Poser crashes as soon as I go back to the Pose window.

What is your min shading rate, bucket size, and the nature of your scene, and how many textures, figures, morphs ... you get the idea. Maybe you are out of memory.

I can use up all of RAM and crash Poser with a single polygon one-sided square because I know how Poser uses memory, and I can set up the worst possible case.

You may have one of the bad cases but you don't know it.

First, since you mention quality, what is your min shading rate? I bet its .05 or less. Bad move.

I have the  same issues as  mrestey and I have a similar hardware set up....  I have tried all you mentioned    setting shading rate  to  >1 , bucket size to 8  and all that  the it gives me is  a little
farther down in the window before the memory error sets in.
The scene  is quite dense and complex  in content. It renders without error in P7  and PP with
Firefly. This leads me to believe that P8 must be using more memory to accomplish the same task... Are there any caches or such  that might need clearing that might help with this situation?
I hate haviing to keep PP  on my computer just for big scenes.

image #1 is Material Room.

Maybe SM could do something with their reporting page,   it is a little confusing.

Q.  Are there any Files or other items that could be shared  by other Poser versions?
I am not very knowlegeable about these things,  but sinc I installed Poser8 I am having minor render problems with Poser Pro..

I notice that If I quit Poser Pro and start Poser 8 when a render starts,   there is a brief display of the last render from P Pro..

Update:

The problem is NOT Smith Micro's site - (sorry SM) - The problem IS IE 8.
I have installed Firefox and SM's site works just fine.

I tried Sree D and all that did was cause a different type of crash. Poser throws Windows some type of error and I get the old "explore has encountered an unknown error and has to close" error.

Bagginsbill, thanks for joining the cause. I am at present trying to find the location of the min shade rate setting. I will get back to you.

OK Bagginsbill, I checked the min shade rate and because I tend to rely heavily on Poser's Auto render setting as a base (because I am inexperienced) then I switch to manual to adjust the bucket size, I never play with the min shade rate setting. It was at .5.
I detect from your comment that I want a number higher than .5?
I will try 1 and see what happens.

Update:

I set the min shade rate to 1 and was able to render the entire picture at the finished quality level in Firefly AND then I was able to return to the pose window without a crash! Yahoo!
Thanks Bagginsbill!
But, then I added to and modified the scene and tried a re-render at the same render settings but a larger image size and the render ended real quick and I had nothing for a render but a black screen. : ( Then when I tried to go back to the pose window I go the crash.
But at least Bagginsbill has helped me a great deal. I have been trying to render this image for a long time and have not gotten this far.
So, maybe now that Poser has had it's more recent tantrum and been closed I can re-open and successfully render a larger version.

 I just bought P8 this morning.  I have been using Poser since version 2.  My issue is with any message window that pops up.  I have installed SR1, but with P6 and P7, I have never had this issue.  Anytime a message window pops up (ex. Deleting just one light with only Andy loaded) and I click either Cancel or OK, P8 just locks up.  I even switched over to SreeD to see if that would do anything, but to no avail.

Has anyone seen this problem?

Yes.  I have, but with Me it went away with SR1.

Oops sorry it has happened once since SR1.  I have reported to SM.  They must be sick and tired of Me.

 Ok, I just wanted to see if I was the only one.  I wouldn't mind hearing what SM tells you :D

They told me it is a graphics card prob.  Are You using a PC or a MAC?

I have also crashed when loading lights from the library.  Has anyone else had this happen.?

 I am running an NVIDIA FeoForce Go 7300 on a Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop with 2 gig of RAM. OS is Vista Home Premium.  I submitted a report to SM so now I just have to wait until I hear from them.

It is a weekend so we are both waiting.  Unless someone is watching here.

Great day..  Have fun with Poser..!

 Thanks.  Since Poser isn't working though, I will just surf the 'Net :D

Quote - I have also crashed when loading lights from the library.  Has anyone else had this happen.?

Yes, in fact Poser 8 crashes a lot more than Poser 7, i just recently installed Poser 8, and started to fool around with it, man, i load a scene, the program crashes when i just turn the camera around a bit, it crashes when i try to move the lights, it's a bit annoying, i guess i'm going to have to make all the work in Poser 7 and try to make the render in Poser 8 and pray it doesnt crash =/

Also, my comp specs are Intel Core 2 Duo 2.52Ghz, nVidia GeForce 9500GT 1Gb video card, 4 Gb RAM, Windows XP Pro.

Have a look at My latest image,  alyson character and Alyson skel, identical posing.

Looks really nice, the skele's feet are out of place tho...

I think SM is getting the message, i bet a patch will be out soon enough. (hope so)

Have You installed SR! ?

nope, im downloading the sr1 now, hope it fixes the issues.

Quote - > Quote - I have also crashed when loading lights from the library.  Has anyone else had this happen.?

Yes, in fact Poser 8 crashes a lot more than Poser 7, i just recently installed Poser 8, and started to fool around with it, man, i load a scene, the program crashes when i just turn the camera around a bit, it crashes when i try to move the lights, it's a bit annoying, i guess i'm going to have to make all the work in Poser 7 and try to make the render in Poser 8 and pray it doesnt crash =/

Also, my comp specs are Intel Core 2 Duo 2.52Ghz, nVidia GeForce 9500GT 1Gb video card, 4 Gb RAM, Windows XP Pro.

Believe or don't believe, but your video driver is or could be f'ed up.

Try previewing in SreeD mode - what happens?

Loaded P8 Alyson and P8 Skeleton
Posed
rendered

P8 SR-1

Quote - Not yhe same pose.. Try again.
Every other pose I have used works just fine,  go figure..

Exactly "which" pose is it?

TKS

 Bill, thanks for the driver advice.  I thought Windows update was taking care of that, but obviously not, so I went to the NVIDIA properties and updated the drivers.  The message window issue has disappeared.

Now if I can just keep the Library from crashing when I am trying to open up the folders.  I am possibly moving to fast though.

Poser 8 Content/Runtime/Libraries/Pose/Poser 8/Alyson/Action/Walking_01.p2z

One of the walking poses , The image was posted as an oddity, they do sometimes happen you know..

hmmm, going to update my video card driver now too.

Believe or don't believe, but your video driver is or could be f'ed up.

Try previewing in SreeD mode - what happens?

bagginsbill..   I do not understand how the preview mode has any effect on final render.
Please look back at the uploaded inages ,  it is the final render that is all black with several other coloured artifacts..

OK, P8 SR-1 WinVista HP 64bit

It looks like it is Ok to me.
Do you have IK "On" for the Legs?

If it is a glitchbug, then it should be reported to be corrected.

I have reported it, but I think it is just an oddity..   I am running an iMac using OS 10.6.1

 are there any preference files for the mac poser 8 version which could get corrupted and should be deleted if poser 8 is giving trouble/
Love esther

My computer has been fully checked over, nothing wrong, Vid card drivers up to date,

HD re-formatted. ALL software re_installed by an Apple tech. What else is there?

Quote -
Q.  Are there any Files or other items that could be shared  by other Poser versions?
I am not very knowlegeable about these things,  but sinc I installed Poser8 I am having minor render problems with Poser Pro..

I notice that If I quit Poser Pro and start Poser 8 when a render starts,   there is a brief display of the last render from P Pro..

The above is a question I asked earlier in this thread

 well you know how sometimes preferences for a program can get corrupted, and sometimes deleting them fixes problems.

Here's an oddity.
I had a scene - a heavy scene, that I could load into poser 8, then poser crashed when I tried to render it a few times, and now when I try to reload the very same scene (i haven't saved it or anything) now crashes on reload everytime so I never get another chance to render it, but at first I was able to load it, and I haven't changed it at all.  that strikes me as odd.

I have never saved a scene in P8.  I prefer to do a render first.  At the moment I am sticking to basic scenes  i.e. 2 or 3 figures and a background with 2 perhaps 3 lights.  P8 is not crashing every time I load from a library..  Perhaps 1 in 3..

Right now it is ten past yesterday..    Bedtime,   tomorrow then..

 sleep well.
BTW I was able to reload the scene, not by browsing to it but using the open recent menu. I don't know if that was just a coincidence though.  The scene still crashed on render despite me trying to help things with low max bucket size 8 and high min shading rate of 4
Love esther

Quote - I have never saved a scene in P8.  I prefer to do a render first.  At the moment I am sticking to basic scenes  i.e. 2 or 3 figures and a background with 2 perhaps 3 lights.  P8 is not crashing every time I load from a library..  Perhaps 1 in 3..

Wow I would never dare to hit "render" without saving my scene first. 99% of when Poser crash (IMO) it is when rendering. And regardless of whether it was a test scene or not, it's cumbersome to recreate everything just because it wasn't saved.

Save often - it will save you both hair and tears ;)

And yes, I've had Poser 8 crash on me. I haven't counted the times it has done so, all Poser versions from 4 and onwards has crashed on me from time to time. Which is why I've learned the hard way to SAVE my work. Once I'd spent the whole day on an animation, with dynamics and all (Poser 5 or 6, can't remember now) and went on to render the thing out, it crashed AND took the file with it. And I never managed to make the dynamics look as nice as they did in the initial version. Since then, I've learned to save. And if it's an important scene, I save several versions of it just in case a save file should somehow become corrupted.

And save incrementally.  Make a change and save to another file name tagged with a number.