Im relatively new to Poser and have Poser 4 with ProPack. My problem is that if I cram much more than one figure and a few necessary props into a scene, I cant render. The program simply freezes up. Is this a memory problem? I have a 1000Mhz processor and 480 Mb RAM.

Attached Link: http://www.sams3d.com

Welcome and your answer, your computer sounds fine, it should render. Sharen

Are you sure it freezes? Or is it just reaaaaaalllly slow? If it is freezing, memory would be a good bet, I only haeve 512k but I can do multiples and props no problem, just slowly.

and JDexter is right, it might just be going slow. Sharen

Funny, I've had the same problem recently! I don't think it's because there are too much props and stuff, since I've experienced that with just 1 character and no props at all. Also, it happens that Poser renders only half the picture and fills the rest with garbage :( I'm not quite convinced it's a memory problem, since I have 512 Mb RAM. Or is it? Gosh, HELP!!

Thank you for the replies. My problem is exactly what ethertwist describes - the render stops halfways and the rest of the picture is just horizontal lines. Only sometimes I dont even get that far, it stops already during the light renders.

If you are getting garbage Ether, then you do have some problems with memory, either Video ram or actual ram. Whether that corruption is due to an actual physical problem or a software problem you will have to do some reinstalls to find out. I would reinstall the vid drivers first and formost, defrag the HDD (For the virt mem) and depending on the OS, maybe have to do a clean re-install of that. Corrupt files can cause the garbage. Also, overheating of the vid or main processor can do it too. I had to add a small fan from Radio Shack (DC, 5v I jumpered it into one of the power cables) to the heat-sink on my video card because I was having the overheat problem (I have a cheap card without the built in fan, obviously ;) )

On second thought - I usually blame Windows ME for all my troubles, financial and otherwise :) Could that be it? Which OS do the rest of you use?

Some information might help us understand: 1.) What is your operating system? 2.) Have you checked to make sure you have the latest Service Pack for the ProPack? There is one. 3.) Have you defragged your hard drive recently? Run Scandisk? 4.) Have you tried rebooting? 5.) Is your Poser installation on the same hard drive as your operating system and other software? I moved Poser over to its own 30GB hard drive and it helped tremendously. 6.) Do you have all the latest updates for your hardware, software and operating system? *** Believe me these questions are relevant because they'll help people nail down the facts, and possible causes or solutions. Ron

I use XP Home on the main desktop and notobook, 98 on the office computer, had the most problems on the office computer (all 3 have GEforce2 based chipsets) I have never used ME so I don't know if reinstalling the OS would help or not. I know on XP it is rare to have to do that (and 98 a monthly thing it seems!) Check on the Vid drivers, and the defrag first, the easiest 2 things to do. Sorry for your problems, I hate when I have problems like that because I waste so much time trying to find them.

Likey your biggest problem is the OS. Win98 is a good OS and can do alot. However, the more complex your renders get the less effective 98 is. The key here is your virtual memmory (a combination of conventional memory,HDD free space,and your processor). Win98 does not have the ability to adjust the amount of V memory your OS can use. 98 can be ajusted, but there is a limit and the OS alone can adjust the V memory. the newer windows OSs (Win2KPro,XPhome,XPpro) allow the ability to ajust the amount of V memory your system can acess. Windows OS by default set the initial V mem at twice and one half the amount of your comventional memory (example; 64 mb memory = 160 mb V memory ). This is true of ALL windows OS. Video cards and drivers, The sad truth is that POSER4 couldn't care less about them. Poser uses two elements of your system, the processor, and memory. So the truth is you could have a 25 cent video card and poser will use it, as long as the resolution sizes the video card can do are one of the preset resolutions within poser. Hdd, The bigger and faster the better. The bigger to fit all the files needed to run poser and all your figure and prop files. Faster, so that your system can move the files to the procrssor and memory, as well as serve as the place where virtual memory get written to. POSER4, Make sure you have all the update patches for your version of poser (PC or Mac) 4.03 and SP3(pro pack). Also keep in mind that poser is completely unable to clear memory. What that means is, you load a 2000x2000 texture for a figure. Both the figure and texture is loaded into conventional memory, this is great while you are useing that figure. But say, you decide against that model and you delete it from the document, or you decide to use a different texture map. The texture maps is not removed from memory, and cannot be removed untill poser is closed out and even then, some of it will not be removed (memory leak) and will only be fully purged after the system is either warm booted or cold restarted. Also, poser's render engine can, and does, "Get tired" since it has to completely redraw any shadow maps and whatnot every time you render. The most renders I was able to do, back to back, was 30. Past that and the system will do just what happens to you (W98). Sumary: Have an Operating system that allows you to adjust your Virtual memory (Win2K,Xp,XpPro,Me,OS7,Os8,OS9) Have the fastest processor you can afford. Have as much memory as your system can take and you can afford. Have the largest, and fastest HDD you can get, with as much free space on it as possible. ( I have two 40Gb ata100,7200rpm,IDE hdd, one is the OS hdd and the other is poser4 only)

Lee's advise is very sound, I recently went from 98 to XP, and poser became so stable it scares me (A gig of ram helps too ;) There are three things that will mangle a render (By draining system resources) if your system isn't up to speed. -Bump maps (massive drain on resources when rendering. The higher rez these are, the more they drain) -Transparency (another massibe draw on resources, this is compunded by lights and shadow maps.) -Lights/Shadow Map Size If you have a problem rendering, save your scene, tinker with the above three (get rid of bump maps you don't need, turn off trans you don't need, remove a few lights or turn off the cast shadows option for them) Then try to render again. -Trav

Dmon lots of luck. I've been having this same problem for a long time and for the life of me can't figure it out. I've done just about everything that has been suggested here and still the same garbage. I've concluded that it's because I'm running ME. If you can find the solution I'd be interested to know it.

Attached Link: http://www.memturbo.com

I had the exact same problem some time ago, and some really nice person told me what the problem was for me. He suggested I download a program called MemTurbo and it's worked like a charm ever since. They have a demo you can download to try it out to see if it works for you.

Maevryn are you running ME? I tried MemTurbo with no luck so I'm just trying to determine if it really is the operating system.

Just tried it too, and no luck. But at least it gave me insight into the enourmous amounts of memory being consumed :) If I tried to raise the auto recover level I just got blue screen when minmum was reached... Maybe its time to change OS. The idea of putting Poser on its own hard drive is also good.

Rockets, Nope, sorry. This was on my old computer running Win 98. The new one has XP and I don't have any problems at all on that one.

Ok, I just went and got the demo of MemTurbo to see if it can help. Problem is my cr2's are what's causing the huge memory leak as they are stuffed with morphs (thanks a lot Traveler!) but also since I've been using AprilYSH's remapped P4 figures and use Mike and Vicky textures I have run into more problems. Here's what happens with MemTurbo: It's running in the background and when my low point is reached and it tries to recover memory it freezes. I can't click on the icon in the tray or open it up. Poser continues to run though. I can't get out of windows either and restart, keep getting a system busy message so I have to Alt+Ctr+Del to restart. Could someone who is using MemTurbo with Poser tell me what settings are best? Should I not have it running in the background and just run it when I think memory is getting low or just before rendering?

Kalypso, are you running Windows ME? Sorry to keep asking this question, but I'm trying to determine if ME is the cause of my problem before I go and invest in another OS.

No I'm running Windows 98 SE but we're getting a new computer next month and I've been debating whether to go with Windows 2K Pro or XP. I know Win98 is probably the problem.

Attached Link: http://www.jfitz.com/software/RAMpage/

Kaylypso .. i run Win 98SE, but instead of memturbo, i use a free install called RAMpage and i haven't had any freezes like you have described since i began using it. i don't know how good the memturbo is but i have had a *lot* of luck with RAMpage .. one thing you might check, if memturbo is similar to RAMpage is *how much* memory you are trying to restore at one time when it freezes .. that is one of the FAQ questions or problems that RAMpage has mentioned(though again i have had no problem with it).. but they say that trying to get back too much memory at once can cause problems .. i am leaving the link in case you would like to try it out. . . odyssey

Thanks so much for all the advice:) I changed OS to XPpro and got a new hdd (sad thing is that I can't afford any Poser stuff for a while... figures...). All I can say is: Poser has never been more stable, faster etc. Thanks again :D

Designodyssey, what do you recommend as far as the amount of memory to free up? Also thanks for the tip on RAMpage...I'll try anything once. :-)

I discovered that if I turn auto recovery off on MemTurbo, I avoid freeze-ups. Instead I keep an eye on the RAM level and recover only when no critical operations (such as renders) are in progress.

Designodyssey, I remember hearing about RAMpage but hadn't paid close attention back then :) Thank you for the link I'm going to try it out today and see what happens. I had been trying to recover about 75MB memory which is not that much I think. I've got 128MB. I would also be interested in finding out what settings you use with it. Dmon that's an idea though I'm afraid even if I just have Poser on without really doing anything it still freezes. OK, back to experimenting. I was kind of hoping this might work while I'm online playing Diablo II since I get a memory problem (nothing as serious as Poser) when there are too many players in a game, lags and stuff. In this case I can't drop out to recover memory so it would have to be able to work in the background. Of course best solution is to get the 2GBAthlon and 1GBRAM sigh :))

Kalypso are you trying to recover to 75megs or are you trying to recover 75megs on top of what you already have? The amount you try to recover will depend on how much you have running in the background. If you try to recover memory that is needed to run essential parts of other programs then you can run into problems .. i did that at first, too. The trick is just trial and error on your computer depending on your normal usage .. you want to set the "recover if falls below this" number low enough that it does not interfere with the normal running of your software, yet high enough that there is still enough "ram time"(my own phrase ..lol) to recover RAM before Your system freezes or crashes... You also don't want to set the "try to recover to" number too high or it will, again, try to recover memory that is actually needed to run things you have in the background. i have 192megs of RAM and the numbers i use are 24 for automatic recovery and try to free an additional 64 megs. Considering the other things i have running at the time, this seems to work good for me and still leaves quite a bit left for the background, etc. i used to have to reboot my computer every three or four hours (if it did not freeze up on its own before then). Since i got RAMpage, i have left it on for close to two days without any problems and only shut it down because i wanted to shut it down, not because it needed to be. Others results may vary of course, depending on what all you do while it is running, but i normally have at least one software app open, OE open, and at least four or 5 browser windows open(usually much more because i surf a lot), and that is not even counting all my background/start up stuff that is running. Usually, though i do try to reboot once a day, if for no other reason to give my pc a little bit of a break or if i plan to be away from it for a long time and am not rendering anything. Having said all of that .. i also do the following. After everything has started up on my pc and before i actually do anything, i free the memory manually, to sort of get a fresh start. And, as on said she does, i also free the memory right before i attempt to render something. i keep the automatic on though so in case i forget about it while i am surfing or play in psp or something it will recover on its own. i think that about covers my experience with it, but if you would like to know anything else and i can help, let me know. odyssey

Thanks, you've helped a lot! I'm beginning to get a clearer picture of what's been going on with my system. I've had to reboot like that every 4-5 hrs especially if I run programs like Poser or Bryce. It's good to finally know that something can be done to improve this. Kalypso (who thinks the upgrade can wait until after summer holidays after all!)