I just downloaded and installed SR-1 a couple days ago. Since that time, I've spent more time fighting with Poser than actually using it. When I try to take a render (no matter if it's draft or higher quality), it will get to the end of the render, then lock up. All I can do at that point is ctrl-alt-delete, and start it over again. If I try to do another render, the same thing happens. It will do this for a while, then for no apparent reason, start working again. After 10-12 renders, it will start the lockup nonsense again.

I've looked at Smith Micro's website and not found much useful information there. I've set the DISPLAY>PREVIEW DRAWING to SREED as recommended by SM. I've updated the driver for my video card. Nothing seems to help. I didn't have this problem prior to installing SR-1, which was 'supposed' to improve the stability of Poser. It seems like it did just the opposite.

It's pretty discouraging to try and learn how to use Poser when all I end up doing is repeatedly having to restart it, or reboot my computer to get it to straighten up and work right.

I'm running Poser on a Quad-core CPU at 2.4 ghz with Win XP SP3, 4gigs of RAM, with an Nvidea GeForce 7600GT card, with two 320-gig drives, so it should be able to handle the load - and as I stated earlier, it did not exhibit this lockup issue before SR-1.

Now, it seems to be working again. But who knows for how long......

Any ideas? Anyone else having this problem?

Thanks..

Was able to make ONE render since my last post. Tried every setting I could think of, both in Poser, and in my Nvidea control panel.....

Render - lockup
Render - lockup
Render - lockup

.....and on and on.....

It's pretty much useless now. :-(

Nevr had exactly that problem.
When using IDL the progress bar races forwad and then stops,  waits awhile then races forward again.
During render it does it again.  But in the final row of render it seems to pause for up to five minutes.
I still get a completed render though..

NoelCan unlike previous versions of Poser, P8 breaks the buckets up based on the number of threads you give it. So if you have a character with transmapped hair in the scene it seems to hang as you describe on the hair. But while your screen is not updated it has gone ahead and rendered the buckets past the head where the transmapped hair isn't. That is why you see the pause, rush ahead, pause. rush ahead. Why the last row seems to take longer then others I can't explain.

Try rendering a new scene with just the basic model (bald).  If it renders then load the problem render, model stripped, does it render, add the clothing, does it render, add the hair, does it render, if it fails, there is something wrong there.  Eliminate hair portions until it renders, then add until it fails, that may be your problem or try another hair piece.

I don't have Poser 8 yet (its coming--someday).  I have Poser 5 and the same thing happened to me and it was a certain part of the hair that did it.  When I deleted that part, everything worked. 

Just because a scene render perfectly, when saving it, it may not save stuff in the same place on the disk that it did.  Computers use the- throw -stuff- in- the- attic, closets, etc, there is a visitor coming method and it may have problems collecting all the stuff again.

Jan

Plutom's suggestion is very valid.  It comes down to how extensive and complicated the scene you created.  Transmapped hair used under raytraced lighting is the worst offender.  And transparencies is the next.  However, these seem to be improved with the SR-1 release.  Open each scene object in the material room and check the complexity of your nodes.  Bump and Displacement mapping settings will add to the render time significantly; important for closeup viewing but wasted if objects are part of the background.

 IF everything else fails, installing the hotfix once more is said to roll back the installation to its pre-SR1 state. 

You should probably see if you can make SR1 work though as it has fixed a lot of things "under the hood" - but of course it shouldn't make Poser totally unusable.

Rod, it sounds like you have a pretty sturdy system spec. Hair can seriously bog a system down. You should research some threads about rendeing and IDL in Poser 8 and get some render settings, then create a series of different render settings; basic, mid and final.

I'll often get everything set and bring the hair in last as it's the render hog (imo).

Thanks for the feedback - everyone here is great!

When I experience this problem, it doesn't seem to matter what I try to render - I tried to do a render of the blue mannequin guy, and it did the same thing - rendered until the progress bar reached the end, then just stopped. Last time it did this, I just left it alone for a couple hours to see if the render would finish - it didn't.

Then for some unexplaiable reason (at lest so far, it's unexplainable :-O), the darn thing will start working again for a while. It's freaky.

I did see something on SM's website about deleting the pref files, and letting Poser rebuild them - they could be corrupted. I'll try that tonight.

I really want to get this thing working right - it's just too cool when it works!

Thanks, everyone :-D

Quote -
When I experience this problem, it doesn't seem to matter what I try to render - I tried to do a render of the blue mannequin guy, and it did the same thing - rendered until the progress bar reached the end, then just stopped. Last time it did this, I just left it alone for a couple hours to see if the render would finish - it didn't.

Then for some unexplaiable reason (at lest so far, it's unexplainable :-O), the darn thing will start working again for a while. It's freaky.

I really want to get this thing working right - it's just too cool when it works!

Thanks, everyone :-D

Ditto to all in the above quote..  Poser is still My  #1 program but the F factor is depressing..

(F  :-  Failure, F**kup, Frustration,  etc.)

I seem to be having a similar problem. The render dialog box just disappears part way through a render.
Uncheck Separate Process and see if the render completes. It does for me when I start experiencing the stopped render issue.
Has only been doing this since installing SR1. Doesn't do it with every scene, just some.

RodS:

Have you opened task manager to see what Poser and FireFly are doing (Processor usage, etc.)?

lmk

 Rod, I have the same problem. I contacted Smith Micro and they gave me a number of things to try... nothing worked. Then they had me do a benchmark render test using a program called CINE-something (I've since lost it in a system crash).

Everything is fine as long as I render with one thread. However, anything more (2,3,4) locks it solid after about a quarter of the render.

Bottom line: My computer lock up any time I put a severe graphics load on it. IT's not Poser! You might want to do a benchmark test and see if it locks there. At least you know if it's your machine or Poser itself.

I have a AMD 6400+ Dual Core on an ECS A780GM-A Motherboard, with 8 Gig Ram, a Radeon HD 4650 Card with a gig of memory, driven by a 700watt power supply. I've swapped out the video card and the ram since all this started. The old card had to be plugged up to the power supply... the new one does not. Much less demanding of power. 

Anyone have any comments or suggestions? I hate to have to shell out for another mobo/processor combo.

Quote - Rod, it sounds like you have a pretty sturdy system spec. Hair can seriously bog a system down. You should research some threads about rendeing and IDL in Poser 8 and get some render settings, then create a series of different render settings; basic, mid and final.

I'll often get everything set and bring the hair in last as it's the render hog (imo).

Hey, Ray! Good to hear from ya!

If I ever get these problems ironed out, I've got a cool idea for Dark Rain.....

I've been dorking around with this for a couple days, and have just about come to the same conclusion a couple other folks have - it's not really a problem with Poser, per se. I've installed Poser on my HP laptop running Vista Home Premium with 3 gigs of RAM and two 250-gig HDs. It renders a little slower than the system described above, but so far it does not exhibit the same lockup problems. I've done a few renders of The Girl at about 2000 pixels with no problems. I'll be trying a few more intensive things next week during my vacation.

I'm thinking I may end up doing a reformat-reload of my quad core sustem. It's been a little over a year since I built it, and it's probably time for a reload - it's acting a little squirrely on other applications as well.

Thanks, everyone for your input!! If anyone has further ideas or input, I'm all ears (or eyes..)

Rod

 Reformat/Reload will not help. Thought of it... did it... didn't help.

Been there ...  Done that  ...  Didn't change a thing..

Re format,  re-install,  that is where I have been.  And Done..

Agree, reformat, reinstall should not have to be done ever--unless your computer was attacked by a virus etc.  I had a computer still do that I purchased in 2002 and never even thought about a re-format.  Formatting is done if your disk drive goes belly up and you have to purchase a new one with no operating system on it.  Then it's days to get everything back to normal.

Jan

Well, I've spent another couple hours fighting this issue - I tried setting the render thread to 1 instead of 4 - didn't help.

I'll hold off on the reformat - I'm not terribly squeamish about doing a format/reload, but it is a pain in the butt to spend a week putting everything back on afterwards. And since some of you are saying it did not resolve the issue, it seems like a waste of time.

I've just opened a ticket with SM - we'll see if it does any good.

For the moment, I have Poser on my laptop, and so far it seems to be working OK - even with SR-1 installed. I gues I'll just have to use it on the laptop until this gets resolved - if it ever is.

I am very impressed with what Poser is capable of, but less than enthusiastic about my experience over the last week.

Did your try unchecking "Separate Process" in the Render options dialog? The same dialog box that has the number of threads selection.

 While render threads = 1 works for me, that's not the solution I want.

I've tried separate process both watys... no difference.

I've ordered a new CPU for my mobo. Going to see if that solves it at my end. Will report back.

Of course not... however if you are in a bind to finish a render, my solution may get it done for now.
This issue for me seems to be related to scenes created in P8+hotfix without SR1 and then when SR1 was added, the issue started.

 Well, there may be several things going on here.

Smith Micro had me try a benchmark for multiple thread rendering, and it locks up, too. That makes me think it's my hardware. Sounds like you may, indeed, have a poser issue.

Have you pinged SM on this?

I have opened a ticket with SM. They have responded with a laundry list of information I need to send them in order to figure out what the heck is going on. I'll do so, and keep everyone posted.

For some reason, last night the crazy thing started working. I had previously set the render threads to 1 rather than 4, and it did not seem to affect the lock-ups. The 'seperate processes' was unchecked already (can't honestly remember if I unchecked it or not.... :-P), so I checked it again. Tried a render, and it worked! It was slow with only 1 thread, but a slow render is better than no render. It continued to work for the rest of the evening. Who knows what it will do tonight. Depends on the alignment of the galactic plane..

To be continued....

 Sounds like your system is behaving EXACTLY the way mine is.

Once I determined the lockups occurred in programs other than Poser, I stopped bothering SM. They did make one suggestion that made no sense: they suggested my power supply was not up to the job. Ahem. It's a 700-watt!

Let me know if you learn anything.

 I just received a Phenom 4 core processor and installed it in my machine. Loaded the worst case pz3 I had on the disk and it rendered like a champ!!!! All cores engaged.

It WAS the cpu! Now the question becomes, was it something wrong with my particular unit, or is there some design flaw that makes some cpus not handle the demands of a graphics environment. I'n not enough of a computer genuis to answer that one (being only a BASIC wiz!)

At any rate, it was not Poser at all.

My $.02 and $189 for the new cpu.

Most of the time my P8 just goes poof.....and it`s gone.Went back to Poser pro but getting frustrated and am probably build a machine to run max or maya  or cinema or something that I can actually use for 3d animation.....

Quote -  I just received a Phenom 4 core processor and installed it in my machine. Loaded the worst case pz3 I had on the disk and it rendered like a champ!!!! All cores engaged.

It WAS the cpu! Now the question becomes, was it something wrong with my particular unit, or is there some design flaw that makes some cpus not handle the demands of a graphics environment. I'n not enough of a computer genuis to answer that one (being only a BASIC wiz!)

At any rate, it was not Poser at all.

My $.02 and $189 for the new cpu.

Well, that's certainly something to consider. I'd happily cough up the 189 bucks on a Phenom if it will keep me from pulling any more of my hair out! I don't have that much to spare :-D

John Csaky at SM has been working with me for the last couple days trying to get this resolved. Unlike a lot of companies I've dealt with, SM is really trying hard to help get this resolved.

Last night, I downloaded and ran the CINEBENCH benchmark test per John's suggestion - my system seemed to cruise through it without even breaking a sweat. I've sent the result to John, so we'll see where it progresses from here.

As a side note, I loaded P8, with SR-1 onto my HP laptop (AMD Turion 2-core CPU, 3gig RAM, two 250gig HDs), and it's running just fine, at least so far. I've thrown it a couple hi-res renders @ about 2400 pixels (1 figure), and it's rendered them with no problems. It's noticibly slower than my quad-core system (when it worked), but at least it completes the renders!

So, I dunno - it could be some wierd compatibility issue with certain processors, I suppose. There's a galaxy of variables out there, and unfortunately - and frustratingly - none of it is an exact science. We'll just have to see what happens the next few days.

To be contiuned.....

 Ah, a difference.

Cinebench locked up my machine.