Has anyone ever used a stable version of vue?

I have tried 2 different versions across 2 different systems and the ratio of crashes and errors to normal use is about 60/40 in favour of crashes.

Just want to know if anyone at all has any  luck with it. The only person I can imagine would be a professional studio with dedicated machines for it. Perhaps I'm being naive in thinking it's for home use?

cheers.

I use it rather a lot for business purposes, and I find that the later versions are very stable.    It really does depend rather a lot on drivers and hardware though in my opinion.

Which version(s) are you trying and what setup(s) are you trying it on? 

I have Win 7 64 bit with 12 gig of ram and many programs on my machine (probably too many) and I have had very few crashed with Vue 10 Infinite.

I have win7 64, i7 processor, 8gb ram, vue 10 xStream (brand new laptop).

my first day with it was great compared to my last latpop. No crashes in about 8 hours, I was very happy. Then I had one crash in a scene and since then I think a) the file, somewhere along the lines, may have corrupted or b) the scene has just become heavy enough to cause my system to be stretched to the point of instability.

My recent crash was that Vue starting making a constant windows 'ping' sound over and over like an alarm. I tried to save my work and it said I didn't have enough space on my hard drive (yeah right) and then it just died.... !?

really not practical to carry on with such issues.

Are you rendering an animation using a dense forest as your scene?  That always kills my 32-bit 2GB RAM system.  Otherwise, Vue 10 Infinite works great on my computer (except for the logic bugs that I have e-on stamping out right now for me).

Vue 10 Infinite now is a rather stable version of Vue. 
I use a Quad Core with Win 7 64 and 8 gigs of Ram.

Most of the crashes I have experienced were due to:

• display problems with my former video card. The display driver would sometimes stop to work and leave me with a black screen  
  Hopefully these are gone with my new Quadro 2000 card.
• large ecosystems. When I populate large terrains with dynamic or classic ecosystems, I sometimes go beyond what my system can take and Vue eats all available memory, which reduces my PC to a crawl.
  e-On should perhpaps add some feature that stops processes that do this when it reaches 95% of the available memory?

Apart from that, Vue 10 renders very fast and has some interesting features.
 

well this is exactly what I suspected.

my graphics card is nvidia gt555m and i have an i7 2670qm processor. Anyone have an opinion on those? I use a dell laptop see. So I think that combo might not be ideal and in fact my card doesn't appear to support opengl which could be a main factor?

you're dead right about not letting vue eat ALL resources. At the moment, if i have just about any size eco system, every click causes vue to stop responding for a few seconds until one click causes it to stop for good.

in this regard, what would be the difference between xStream and Infinite?

That card really should support openGL...

The following suggests it runs opengl 4.0 so you should be fine.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-555M.41933.0.html

Make sure (i guess you already have) all drivers are up to date etc etc, and have a look in the general options of vue and make sure that you are using openGL.

yeah it's odd. I can tell it's not working because specular highights don't work in the terrain editor which i assume is down to opengl.

if i select 2.1 and restart it says "your video card is not compatible" etc. and it always reverts to software.

drivers are up to date. Someone suggested nvidia not updating the opengl for that card so as to sell a newer card - something like that. Who knows.

2.1 has been about for quite a while though and thats a brand new card from the latest generation.   Might be worth opening a ticket to e-on?

When you click "video board info" what message do you get?

Could be that your laptop is reverting to a discrete video card rather than the gt555?

Check which version of OpenGL you have installed with GLView

With my former gaming video board (GTX 260), sometimes OpenGL would not work at all. GLView would announce that I had only OGL 1.1 installed, whereas the drivers should have installed OGL 3.

If there is something wrong with OGL, I would suggest to remove video drivers entirely (I use Driver Sweeper) and then reinstall the latest version, downloaded from Nvidia.

it says "you are currently using the fixed engine pipeline. vid board info: GDI generic (GL version 1.1.0)"

and software is selected in the list of 3 display options.

does that tell you anything?

cheers.

EDIT: thanks for the info offrench, i'll check that now.

Attached Link: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1733353

You probably need to specify that that program uses the main card, but im not sure how, let me look into it..

This is taken from a game forum, but i guess its the same issue...

Instructions: If you're using a newer laptop that you know has an NVidia graphics card, try checking your Optimus settings. Open the "NVIDIA Control Panel" from your start menu. On the lefthand side, under "Select a task...", open the "3D Settings" tree, and select "Manage 3D Settings". Now on the righthand panel, click the "Program Settings" tab. Under "1. Select a program...", click "Add", navigate to your Steamsteamappscommonmagicka directory and select "Magicka.exe". Under "2. Select the preferred graphics...", choose "High-performance NVIDIA processor", then (VERY IMPORTANT) click "Apply" in the bottom right.

obviously change the game .exe for the vue one!

yeah, GLview says i have 3.1 installed.

thanks a bunch Rich, that would be awesome.

Let me know if the "solution" above does anything.

damn. Done ALL of the above suggestions and nothing works.

I choose opengl and vue restarts twice. Each time knocking back down to a lesser option until it forces software mode.

thanks for the suggestions. I guess I need a different graphics card or wait until vue has better integration.

i dont think its vue or the gfx card thats the problem! its windows thats deciding to use a powersaving mode instead of full power for the gfx card so its using the gfx card with is integrated in the board rather than the gt555 hence why you cant use openGL becuase your integrated card does not have gl2.1

Whats the exact model of your laptop? it will help me finding you a solution (if i can!)

Thanks again rich, most kind of you.

It's a dell xps L702X, windows home premium.

so would you say that if I try playing a game that widows would be doing the same? If not, my next question would be why vue. How is windows choosing if that's the case.

cheers!

i suspect possibly its that vue might not have been coded for this or isnt on the recognised list of high use applications for your card/driver etc.

check this thread...

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3519/p/19385116/19892300.aspx

cheers rich,

damn, appears there's nothing i can do then as the fix they're suggesting i've already done.

i'm trying 3ds max now to see if that's bad too. I'm currently getting 2fps on a 500k poly scene. Not sure if that's good or not.

doesnt sound it, try playing a video game or something.   Might be worth giving dell a ring as well, and try sending e-on a ticket they have probably seen this a billion times before...

might be worth trying to go through all the steps again, just in case :)

If it's your "on board" graphics causing the issue, all you need to do is disable it under device manager, the OS will have to use your card then..

blwyddyn newydd dda.

Thanks, i shall try that.

I had to do it myself on an old computer some time back. It was using the onboard graphics instead of my new Nvidia card. I disabled the onboard in Device Manager and it just switched to the Nvidia no problem. Not saying it's your problem, but it may be..

And:

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda i Chi..

say, further problems. I tried this and my display went black.

rebooted, hoping it would force the nvidia but it was just in display safe mode. So it refuses to accept the nvidia card.

the onboard is Intel HD Graphics Family.

Ideas??

Ok, have a look in Device Manager and see if it sees your Nvidia card in there. If it does then go into it's properties and make sure it's enabled. Then disable the onboard one, see if that works.

If device manager isn't seeing your Nvidia card then I'm not sure why..It should be seeing it...

No, it does see the gt555m card and says it's working properly.

my only guess is that the Intel HD card is required for the Nvidia to work!? But it does not like me disabling the Intel. Seems like if i do, then it can't find the Nvidia.

Hmm, that is weird..

Maybe a daft question, but have you clicked on properties for the Nvidia card in Device manager and made sure it says "enabled"....This device is working properly isn't the same as it being "enabled".

If it is enabled then I'm sorry, that's the limit of my knowledge..

yeah all that. It's this problem here:

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=204072

it's very very common and as far as i can tell there is no solution.

According to that topic, it was a motherboard issue, have you looked at that as a possible fix?

Maybe try Microsoft for a solution too..

Sorry I can't assist further, hope you get it sorted..

Just wanted to conclude this thread as it's been most enlightening.

thanks to all who helped!

the problem is thus:

modern systems don't just have one default graphics card that stays 'on'. They have a kind of power save function of only switching on when certain applications need them.

you can set a notification of this in the nvidia control panel where an icon in your sys tray shows whether your card has kicked in or not. You can also specify what apps use what graphics chip.

my issue was that vue10 refuses to accept my card as it's probably not supported. Vue is a pile of crap if it's not fully happy with all system fundamentals being quick and plentiful.

next mission is to see if there's anything i can do about that but I doubt it.

I have mine built for me to my spec which largely avoids this problem that you speak of. I tell them what Mobo to use and all the other bits too. I do this at each new change, I guess I'm fortunate in having a good set of guys locally who do this..

The box I'm using now is 4/5 years old now but it's still way above spec of some new ones from the likes of pc world and Dell...

I find Vue to be a dog for stability and its not my computer or my drivers or any other crap you can suggest, its Vue full stop.

I would like to see how anyone can say its my system when every single application from 3D max to Crysis 2 runs flawlessly and has never crashed when the only application that does is Vue.

I was hoping with Vue 10 that they would have pulled out all the stops and rebuilt it from the ground up rather than releasing a version with a couple of extras that never should have been marked as a major release.

So here's hoping Vue 11 will be a marked improvement.

And no I havent become a vue hater, I really like Vue, I have created some nice images with it and will continue to try and upgrade when I can.

Quote - Has anyone ever used a stable version of vue?

YES ! Many, many years ago I used a version VUE d'ESPRIT 4 which was the stable.

From that time VUE unstability (crashing no reason) is almost legendary.

But I LOVE this software therefore I'm user-maniac.   

Lol, Vue 4 was the last stable version for me too lol. Oh they were the days ha

Quote - I find Vue to be a dog for stability and its not my computer or my drivers or any other crap you can suggest, its Vue full stop.

My computer has not changed over the years since using Vue 6.  Each update of Vue has had its own quirks that caused crashes.  E-on worked on a better scene recovery scheme with each update, but the crashes were still happening.  I could not load the stupid C3D Willow tree in Vue 9 without crashing to save my life.  I was told that the tree file I downloaded was defective. What?  I downloaded it again and poof crashing scenes everywhere that had the Willow tree (in camera shot) in it.

Vue 9.5 didn't have any problems with the same Willow tree.  Either does Vue 10.  So I know e-on fixed the problem because I haven't changed anything on my system other than uninstalling previous versions of Vue as I buy new versions.  But Vue 10 has new bugs in it.  Stupid ones that shouldn't be in it.  These are bugs that computer programmers just don't do.  But maybe e-on has cats walking on their programmer's keyboards while they are at lunch?  This is the kind of typo I'm talking about that they have in their code.  I complained about it pretty loud to them when their filter (the person that looks for the bugs on their end) kept telling me that it was my system.  Why would window scrolling not work in one update, but work in the next then if it's my system to blame?

Anyway, e-on's filter (after a year (two versions worth of Vue in that time) of nonsense talk from e-on's little helper) is seeing the bugs now and is passing the info along to the programmers and fixing them ASAP so I don't have to buy Vue 10.5 to see if they were fixed yet.  I would like to stick with a working Vue 10 for awhile and get some use out of what I paid for up to this point.  Vue 10 has only been out for 1.5 months and the forums are nearly dead.  Just the 20 or so regulars continue posting.  Go to CGSociety and there is nothing there.  Go to e-on's own forum and there is nothing there.  C3D...  Ghost towns.  But all terrain software is hurting for new users in these times.  Disposible cash is not as common as it used to be.

I had an odd problem in Vue 10 recently, ok standard terrain with an ecosystem, and the underlying material also had an ecosystem, tried painting the underlying ecosystem and oh dear, the cursor kept changing between an arrow and a brush and would not stop lol, I had to restart the machine to get it to stop lol

vue 4 was never that stable for me.  I used to find if i moved something too quick it would crash (on my mac)

I'm on vue 10 now and it is bizzare how certain things will crash it.  I have a scene called The Island and I even reinstalled the scene from the original zip, but everytime the render completes (after zooming the camera in) the scene crashes.

Love esther

Mine never completes a render esther, crashes before it gets to the end :/

r u on mac too?

No, PC.

gosh mine will render in certain circumstances sometimes.

Love esther

Well while I could have kept silent I am going to have to put my hands up on this one, yes I still get stupid crashes in Vue when doing the simplest things but I ran Prime95 recently and it crashed the PC after 20 minutes.

So to cut a long story short my rock solid overclock on the PC went tits up, its been running at 3Ghz for 2 years and no problems rendering, even 3D Max is ok, but Prime crashed it so I have upped the voltage on the CPU and has been running Prime for 24 hours so seems stable enough, looks like it was the overclock that was causing the crashes, so anyway, going to try another render and see what happens

I can render to disk but not to screen..  I can render in main camera view too.

But I crash if I render to screen.

My render that kept crashing is currently actually rendering, so looks like the voltage increase has helped, but I do still get silly things happening like vue will freeze and the cursor changes to 2 different things then just stays like to I reset the machine, have you tried tech support?

I had a couple of crashes with vue pioneer but that was after I updated to the latest nvidia driver the 285 something. I have a 8800 gts card and I looked on the e-on web site and it said do not use drivers past 190.38. so I downloaded the 190.38 and did the unistall thing with the 285 and reinstalled the 190.38 and all is well now. render times good and no crashes so far.

System seems happy now. Which makes me happy.

Paul J

Jonj1611,

Over-clocking would have been my last guess as to why your Vue crashes.  My first rule for being a computer guy is "do no harm".

I overclocked the cpu about 2 years ago, as found 4 cores at 3Ghz rendered a lot faster than at 2.4Ghz which is the stock speed. However I guess over time and wear and tear on components has meant it needs a bit more power to keep the overclock stable.

The processor is cooled by a Titan Fenrir in a HAF932 case, at full load after 24 hours it never gets above 50 degrees c, at idle its about 30 degrees c. And after 2 years the last thing I would have expected was the overclock had become unstable :/

I've been in contact with tech support last week.  I am a maintenance member too, but I haven't heard anything from e-on as yet.

Love esther

Yeah must admit I have sent about 8/9 problems in the last couple of weeks and only one is actually being looked into. The others I havent heard anything about like why does Vue crash when I click the render button lol