I have a problem when render animated clip in Poser 5, this scene is very simple, 339 frames, two figures, and poser world kit with raytracing and map cast shadows. Poser freeze(frame 187) before finishing the AVI render. My computer has P4 1,6 GB, 512 of ram, Windows XP installed Pro and SR3

Rule #1 for rendering movies: Never render as AVI or MOV. Always render as a series of images that you convert to a movie file later on. That way, you don't have to re-render the 186 frames that came before the crash.

The thing that stewer said is right. Its probably just a small bug in poser 5...

do you have anything special happening at frame 187? like an effect starts or something?

This is the P5 memory leak. Every frame you render loses system memory, until there is no more fre resources. You may get a request for more swap space, some people claim they can end the render while others claim they can't. I had this problem while working on a 240 frame AVI. Stills weren't an option as I didn't have the space for them. Basically, I found that the leaks are predictable and I could get about 90 frames into the AVI (less with other apps running) before it froze. My solution was just to render 80 frames and then restart my system and render the next set. I used VirtualDub (free) to append the files and what seemed like an insurmountable bug simply became an inexcusable one ;) Also, you will likely find you that you are able to render more frames without shadows than with. I don't know if Poser fails to return all of the memory it consumes, or if there are multiple leaks, but I am able to render much farther into an animation before it stops if i do not use raytraced shadows. I have not had these problems with the P4 renderer...

I do not have anything special in this scene, are the same elements in all frames. I hope to have more suggestions to be able to solve or to diminish this problem. Thank you very much.

You shouldn`t render scenes as avis It may seem easier and convenient but you can lose a lot of data at one time when it goes wrong. It is much better to render frames individually and put them together with virtualdub or any avi editing program. There are avi editing programs for free so theres no excuse for not having one...:) See stewers reply for more information.

Yeah, I know that frames are safer than AVIs, but surely you need more space to store them right? So if you want to chance rendering an AVI, there is a way to minimize the risk. As I was working on my last project, it started seeming like Poser's bugs were much more predictable than I first thought. When I tried rendering an AVI it would always lock up somewhere between 90 to 100 frames on this particular scene. I assumed this was because the leak was always consuming the same resources (I wasn't running anything else at the time on my 512MB machine). At no time did this scene lock up when rendering the smaller AVIs. Just render the scene a couple times, find the general spot in the movie where it locks and then break the movie up into slightly shorter segments.

Thank you very much by its advice, I believe that the solution in my case is to fragment the small scenes and render smalls AVi clips. Hopefully which in next service release (SR4) Curious Labs fixes these bugs.

I read many threads on Poser5 bugs before buying it. This memory leak is really the only problem I ever have with it. Now that I think I can avoid the problem, I'm quite pleased with Poser5 again. I hope it works for you as well.

Poser 5 is for a my powerful tool, I love this program, it use every day and I am happy with the results. I believe that only bug does not go to change to seem. Every day I visit this site and I learn of all the artists who publish their images, animations and discussions in the Poser Forum. I am sure that many artists of the Poser think just as me, because if not outside thus would not exist done so beautiful photographies with this program. Thank you very much to all. Sorry for my bad english.

Poser 5 is great I am sick of hearing complaints about it apart from the slow rendering times i have NO COMPLAINTS about the program Gusdrum, your english is very good only the line "believe that only bug does not go to change to seem" Doesn`t make much sense. I am pointing this out so that gusdrum can maybe fix this or learn the mistake it is not to make a fool of him.

I should let this thread die now that we've discussed it enough. I just wanted to add that I think it's a shame that companies don't admit their known bugs and post a truly helpful faq. The Poser faqs I've read always seem to assume I don't know what I'm doing when instead the program isn't behaving as it should. Surely CL know where this leak is and what will cause it to show itself. I would like some official statement like "Poser5 fails to return memory from raytraced shadow lights", or whatever it is that leaks the memory...

ive come to believe (in my own pathetic attempt to justify the issues) that all poser5 users pre sr1 and up to srx are beta testing some pretty premium new technology for the pro-sumer while also adding in emerging niche markets that only a program like poser can accommodate. sure im not saying new . i have faith in the program and its developers. ive been using it since it's release and bugs aside, i continue to use is, as long as they continue to address the bugs. im up to sr3 now and with each one, poser gets better and better. what can they fix now? i dont know. i dont use it enough like most people here and im sure there are still problems... like this memory leak. but if it continues to put money in the pockets of freelance modelers and texture artists and aids in the boom of more pro-sumer cg property, thereby devaluing the industry standards and putting power into the hands of us mortals... well... ill take it, bugs or bust. ill take it just to see what happens and be there when it does.

Yah, totally second that. Poser really doesn't have competition yet, and I don't think the first releases of DAZ Studio are going to be as powerful as P5. Also, I'm not sure that DAZ will be any cheaper than Poser given that alot of the plugins aren't going to be free. I worry about the future of Poser because of the rumours I hear about CL and their parent company. I just wish people weren't so worried to try P5 especially now that the price has become more reasonable...