Solved - Problem with rendering - carrara crashes

24

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  • scottidog2scottidog2 Posts: 319
    edited December 1969

    I use this kind of Tower Fan. It is powerful, user friendly and safe if you have kids or pets.

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  • MysticWingsMysticWings Posts: 226
    edited December 1969

    Pets... yes... but I would need a model more nice to a laptop... Anyway it's a great idea... I had some troubles with eating when my last tower was almost dying... never thought of something like this... well, at that time I was thinking more "almost have all the money to my new computer, so hang on as you can please" :)

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    I really don't know how to do batch queue render... or what it is...

    Trying to test every things in the scene is a nice idea... but it would also take lots of time, since this just happen in high res and normally hours after the render start... but... I'm for everything now...

    I've already started the first render... so I'll leave it through the night. If I wake up and it had crashed I will try that camera trick... It makes some sense... 3d softwares are strange beings... we never know what can make them freak out... Will try to leave the testing of all things in the scenes for last recourse...

    Sorry, I should have picked up on that from your earlier post.

    When it comes to complex or large scenes, animations, scenes with multiple camera angles or network rendering, the Batch Queue is your friend! It is also a Pro only feature, so if you have C8.5 Pro, you should be able to use it.

    To access it, go to the render room, and on the very bottom left of the screen there should be a tab for the Current Scene render and a bottom tab for the Batch Queue. Click it and you should see a space for a list of scenes. It will be empty until you click Add and add a scene. You can add as many as you like and the computer will do them in order.

    From there, you can change whatever render settings you wish. If the scene has multiple cameras, you can change them as well. You can even load the same scene multiple times and have each version you've loaded have different settings. If you do that, you'll have to save each one with its own name or it the render will be overwritten.

    There are a couple more advantages to rendering through the Batch Queue. One is that there is a Pause button. If you notice the computer getting sluggish or it's coming up to a point where it seems to crash (your scene seems to be around 45-50% complete) you could pause it before the crash and quit Carrara, maybe restart the computer and then resume the render with fresh memory.

    The second advantage that might solve your problem is there is less of a load on Carrara as the scene isn't fully opened.

    There is one more advantage, and it is that you can have another scene open while you are rendering, and you can work in the Assembly room and everything. You won't be able to render of course, but you can arrange your scene, work on models, etc. It won't be as fast, in fact it can get somewhat sluggish on my old computer, but for simple work it can be a time saver.

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  • MysticWingsMysticWings Posts: 226
    edited December 1969

    Many thanks EP. :) It actually look very simple... and nice!! Thought it was some complex thing... :)

    Do I have to save anything so that I can turn off carrara in the middle of a render?
    To be able to keep working is also nice, specially for someone who is learning. Was going so well on Phil's training and now am stoped for all this time

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    Many thanks EP. :) It actually look very simple... and nice!! Thought it was some complex thing... :)

    Do I have to save anything so that I can turn off carrara in the middle of a render?
    To be able to keep working is also nice, specially for someone who is learning. Was going so well on Phil's training and now am stoped for all this time

    Sometimes what I do if I have a problematic scene is to load the scene into the Batch Queue and set everything the way I want and then I quit Carrara. Carrara will remember the settings. If Carrara crashes during a render and you haven't done this, then you'll have to reload the scene again.

    When pausing a render, give Carrara time to close everything out. Since you're on a Mac like me, you'll get the spinning beach ball for a bit before the image that is being rendered is closed. From there, you can just quit Carrara. To resume, just click the Resume button and it will pick up where it left off.

  • MysticWingsMysticWings Posts: 226
    edited December 1969

    Ok. The render just crashed again even it's just with one light. I'm going to change the camera a little and then do this...

    What a problematic render I have here... Maybe I'll lower the resolution a little to. Maybe that help to.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583
    edited December 1969


    I love my mac, but I will have a beast of a workstation... one day... :P When that time comes, perhaps you'll be in the mood to build a workstation! :)
    My eight core implistic but render-savvy monster cost less for me to build than what you've paid for that beautiful Book! :ahhh:
    But then you've got the pains of building, installing, troubleshooting... not to mention that Mac doesn't allow for us to build our own Mac's, so we have to use other OS. My Brother-In-Law (married my baby Sister) could build computers that could eat mine for a snack, but he prefers the Mac OS. He runs a render farm for an architectural firm, using all Windows Pro, and high-end software, like 3ds Max, Auto Cad, and the like. When it comes to what he refers to use ofr his own stuff, he insists that it runs on Mac, even though he has access to Windows machines, even in his own home!
    That (and evilproducer) is one of my biggest pushes towards saving up for one of those killer new Mac Pro workstations. But the problem is that such a thing would be thousands more $$$ that I could spend on other parts of my production, along with my being very used to Windows.... Argh!

    3d softwares are strange beings... we never know what can make them freak out... Will try to leave the testing of all things in the scenes for last recourse...

    evilproducer makes a great point. Especially if you might suspect that arch.

    Anybody can post a freebie at ShareCG, which is part of the magic of the whole thing. Some freebies might have geometry problems or other conflicts that might, perhaps, mess up a scene in some weird way. Not to say that the arch IS the culprit, just that it might be a good place to start.

    Just select it and deselect the visible box. You should be able to leave it right where it is, just hide it from being rendered.

    If you hide it and there's still a crash, leave it hidden, but hide the next thing you might suspect. Try again.

    Sometimes there have been situations that nothing within the scene is guilty of wrecking a scene for rendering. It's happened to several of us where the scene, itself, has somehow become corrupt. Fenric came to the rescue with some ways to try and avoid such inconveniences in the future, perhaps even ways to save a corrupt file. Mine? I didn't report it here. I started a new scene and built it anew from scratch. It had a lot to it, too. It rendered and saved just fine. Out of curiosity I checked the other one... nope. So I put an evil grin on my face as I permanently delete the file - and slept better that night ;)

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583
    edited December 1969

    I have never yet paused a render. Funny, huh?
    When my machine is rendering for me, I have to go and do something else! LOL
    I have become really good at timing it though, via the Batch Queue. That tool is my pal, and... yeah... it's very cool, nothing difficult about it. As a matter of fact, the only time that I ever allocate a Render To file name and location, is if the scene is loaded into my Batch Queue. Saving a file with a stored image name and location has been a curse to me in my early days. That information, if saved into the CAR file, doesn't ever seem to go away. So I leave it at Default in the actual scene save, and allocate the image names and locations directly in the queue. Works much better for me! :) Makes me happy... like this :)

    I think part of the benefit of Scotty Dog's tower fan is also to draw dust and debris from the air. I have one that looks a lot like that, but is from many years ago, so I can no longer find the original filters. So instead I used swiffer refills! Works great cleaning my air from junk! Making me happy, like this :)

    Oh... and have the forum members warned you yet... that I have flown over one too many Cuckoo's nests! :ahhh:
    But I'm friendly and don't ever really bite that hard. My reason for living, Rosie, keeps me in line pretty well %-P

    Back to the sane side of the world... I really hope you get this... I can't wait to see it in all of its glory!

  • MysticWingsMysticWings Posts: 226
    edited December 1969

    Well, most of people can't be satisfied on going back to windows after working with mac os... it's really a great machine... I had one G4 mac book some years ago, at the same time as my last windows tower. Then intel mac came and after a while I couldn't have new software in my mac... But I dreamt of getting a new mac until I finally have one. I would also love to have of of those monster workstations from mac... the price is always the problem... But they do worth the price... In a way... even being crazy prices...

    I'm really become very favorable to put an evil grin in my face and just delete this and start a new scene... believe me... :P But I'm so stubborn that while you give me things to try... I won't give up... My best feature becoming my worst nightmare again... I never give up... Until I have no other way at least...

    Using your computers to clean the air... you're a mad genius... now I know why your computer call you names :P

    I really should find a male version of Rosie... It would be good to have someone putting me in line... Well, my dog is coming here from 15 to 15 minutes to send me to bed... And he also remember me when it's time to eat, to walk... So it kind of keeps me sane when I'm in a "glued to 3d" mode... ;)

  • MysticWingsMysticWings Posts: 226
    edited December 1969

    Ok, last chance before I try to render without the arch (yeah... freebies can always have some problems... but we never know until we try...). I'm now rendering through batch queue and have changed a little the camera. One question: ok, I can pause and restart from where it was... but what about if it crashes? It would be to good to be truth that it would allow us to start in the same point... but just to know...

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583
    edited December 1969

    ...and sometimes we can find and fix what is wrong with freebies too ;)

    I agree that Mac's are totally worth their price. Some day... maybe.

  • scottidog2scottidog2 Posts: 319
    edited December 1969

    I am a mac addict. Have been for the last 14 years. Anyway I've been rendering a complicated scene on my 27" iMac. It crashed 5 times. A few days ago it was rendering for 48 hours and then it just seemed to freeze. I took out some of the scene elements and messed about with the render settings. Finally got it to render in 12 hours.
    Its better to divide a complicated scene into 3 or 4 separate renders and composite them in Photoshop. I'm doing 4 renders which will be combined.
    Its frustrating when you end up losing days to software crashes! Am rendering for 4K TV resolution. (3840 x 2160 pixels). I render out at 1920 x 1080 and double it in photoshop.

  • TangoAlphaTangoAlpha Posts: 4,584
    edited December 1969

    I'd love one of the new "ash tray" Mac Pro towers, fully decked out, but there's no way I can afford it. I got my first Mac in 95, and have been hooked ever since. Currently have a 27" iMac and a 13" Macbook Air (both i5) I've got Windows 7 on the iMac (it's dual boot), but I only really use it for multiplayer flightsim sessions on Sunday mornings!

    Back on topic...
    If you pause a batch render, and then restart it -- if the render then crashes, can you still go back to the last pause position? Strikes me that if you pause every hour, that way the worst that could happen is you lose an hour's render time.

    I have to admit that since I started learning to use the vertex modeller, I haven't even logged on to ShareCG. I see a picture of a prop somewhere, and my first thought is; that's a cylinder and a stretched cube and a couple of small cylinders there, and extrude that... ;)

  • MysticWingsMysticWings Posts: 226
    edited April 2014

    The render crashed again... so I took the prop and the character from the scene (really delete them, it's a very simple scene so no problem in doing it again) and am trying to do just the sky. Let's see. In my case is not a complicated scene... It's the sky, volumetric clouds, a prop and a character... so... Let's see how the sky goes... It will take time but... hey, at least I will understand what's sabotaging my render.

    Also, it never crashed when I was making other thing on the computer, so it's not related to that... I can keep working... at least that!!!

    That idea of pausing from hour to hour is very good.... but I had to be awake all night... :P

    Yeap... I should go back to some modeling to, but I have to admit... I really love scene making!!! And still have lots to learn to make the scenes I want. Anyway... I will go back to modeling one day... still have lots to learn there and my temple has to be done ;) just going with the flow.

    Thank you all!!! Not only for the help.... I think if I didn't have all these support in this last days I would be going mad about this. But you all make it worth it!!! And help me not entering in despair. :) Really love this community!! You are all great!!

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  • MysticWingsMysticWings Posts: 226
    edited December 1969

    Oh, i forgot... I'm rendering 8268x5906, 300dpi. It gives 70x50cm printing at 300dpi...

  • TangoAlphaTangoAlpha Posts: 4,584
    edited December 1969

    That's... big!

  • MysticWingsMysticWings Posts: 226
    edited December 1969

    Yeap... Really big... That's why 20h render is actually normal to me... crashing in the other hand... it was not...

  • scottidog2scottidog2 Posts: 319
    edited December 1969

    TaniaGomes.Art, I don't think setting the resolution dpi to 300 makes any difference in carrara. it will always render at 72 dpi. You'll have to resize it in photoshop.
    Think its better to get an expert opinion on this from an expert.

  • MysticWingsMysticWings Posts: 226
    edited April 2014

    Actually, it's not like that. If I use this settings, the image will have 72dpi when opened in photoshop, true, but will have much more pixels than 8268x5906.
    You then resize to 8268x5906 and 300dpi, and the image would have the same size exactly.

    This is needed when you want to print. If you make an image larger just by itself, or just make it 300dpi, what photoshop does is create new pixels with a proximum color from the ones around. This works good for screen... For print, is a never do... never never... you actually get bet quality if you print at 72dpi than resizing either pixels or dpi in photoshop. It takes lot of quality cause the printer will define this colors and it will appear as color noise taking out all quality. This was learned from pros that just work with pro printing, and he actually did it in my front to show the difference.

    By doing the way I do, there's no pixels creation by photoshop. All the information is already there. That's why the image keep 70x50cm independently of this changes. In this part, I actually know lots of pros personally so... And I may be new to 3d, but I have years of friendship with photography and photoshop... and with printing large scale images. Did it a lot during arts degree.

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  • scottidog2scottidog2 Posts: 319
    edited December 1969

    Just as a matter of curiosity what kind of photography do you specialise in. Do you do it full time?

  • MysticWingsMysticWings Posts: 226
    edited December 1969

    No, just had classes during the degree. My best friend although works pro with it, even give classes about it.
    And what I told here was tough me by the people that work at the printing graphic were I do all my printings. They were the ones who show me this by printing the same image the 2 ways - one at the original 72 dpi, other resizing and changing to 300 dpi. I could see the difference with my eyes actually... I was defending the same that you are defending here... and they just shut me up quickly...

  • MysticWingsMysticWings Posts: 226
    edited December 1969

    Look, you can give me all the pages you can find. If I wanted I could find as many saying the oposite... We can always find pages that say what we want to prove... It's not gonna change what I saw... I had enough of this discutions along my degree. Please, not anymore. I know prefer to believe in what I experience rather than in theories... You told me I shoul get this from an expert... I did... from 3 or 4 actually... and they showed me not with words but in the paper...

    Anyway, it's not a resolution problem... I'm doing high definition renders for 5 months... this is the first to crash...
    And now that i took out the prop, it's not crashing... it's really going great and really advanced... so... no reason for setting that down...

  • scottidog2scottidog2 Posts: 319
    edited December 1969

    Why are you showing attitude. No need for this. I saw your work that you have put up on your 2 sites. If that is the standard you're at, then you're an amateur. I tried to help you with your problem. Needless to say I wont be bothering with any of your future queries. You're the first person I have come across in this forum who has been so rude.

  • MysticWingsMysticWings Posts: 226
    edited December 1969

    I'm sorry if I sounded rude to you. It was not my intention. It's just that we both gave our opinions, and it seem that we both will stay with our opinion, so no reason to keep trying to convince each other. Both of we are allowed to keep our opinion, I think... That's the only thing I was trying to say... Really didn't meant to be rude to you.

  • MysticWingsMysticWings Posts: 226
    edited December 1969

    Well, I don't know if I found THE problem... but surely I found A problem. Just saw it now, but those squares don't move... a long time since the render is much advanced... I mean, just with the sky the rest of the render is going really fast... but having to render prop and character that could be a problem... I think... Actually the render never passed from more or less this line...

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  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    Well, I don't know if I found THE problem... but surely I found A problem. Just saw it now, but those squares don't move... a long time since the render is much advanced... I mean, just with the sky the rest of the render is going really fast... but having to render prop and character that could be a problem... I think... Actually the render never passed from more or less this line...

    There may be something there that is causing an issue. If the arch and figure are hidden or deleted, then I assume that's the sky? Perhaps there are some intersecting clouds.

    Also, at such a high resolution, what are the anti-aliasing settings set at? You may not notice any degradation if you go from Best to Good.

  • MysticWingsMysticWings Posts: 226
    edited December 1969

    Yes, I actually deleted them. It's the sky, the clouds to be more precise. I assumed there was no intersection since it is a Tim Payne sky. But I changed the volumetric cloud, move them a little higher. I did it as an whole, but maybe without notice I didn't select one of them... or did something I shouldn't without realizing.

    the anti aliasing is at good.

    Well, it is a simple scene... so I'll start again. Even if not exactly the same. Anyway, was my first learning with atmospheres and clouds... so training more will be good to me anyway. And even though, the render did not crash this time. And I have to say I learned a lot of things about rendering, lighting, settings and much more with all of you thanks to this. I will do the sky part again and render it before I load the prop and character.

    Dartan said before that one time in one scene something became corrupt somehow and he ended up starting all again. Maybe this is something like this... Let's see.

    Thank you for all the help

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    If you have an image editor such as Photoshop, you can choose to render an alpha channel. You could render your sky and clouds as one scene without the alpha, then the arch and figures as a separate scene rendered with the alpha channel option enabled.

    When I do this, I build my entire scene and then if I think I need to render it in three "layers," I'll Save As three different times. I name each layer something like Myscene layer 1, Myscene layer 2, and Myscene Layer 3. I then open each scene and either hide or delete the objects in the scene that are not supposed to be in that layer. I never adjust the cameras or lights unless the light is linked to a deleted object.

    Once I have each version of the scene set up, I stick them in the Batch Queue and render them.

    This video shows an example animation done by rendering different "layers" and compositing them. It works just as well for stills. It can even help speed a complicated render up.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79fyKOSUTsg

    For your scene, since you're using the Skylight and Indirect light, I would try rendering two layers. The first layer would be the background layer with the sky and clouds and no alpha channel. I would render the second layer with the figure, arch and ground as the second layer. I would delete the clouds, but leave the Realistic Sky. If there is a cloud layer in the Realistic Sky Editor turned on, you should turn it off. In the Render Room, turn on Render With Alpha Channel, but leave the Pre-multiplied option off or the sky will be rendered in the second layer.

    Load both scene into the Batch Queue and give it a try. If nothing else, you'll get a handle on what's causing the crash.

  • MysticWingsMysticWings Posts: 226
    edited December 1969

    So render with alpha channel make the parts that don't have nothing transparent!! That's great!! I've thought of that when I was still just using ds. It's really handful for the character in my illustration since a lot of work is not made in 3d but 2d (a friend is doing photomanipulation work and I'm learning to transfer my drawing skills to digital painting).

    And yes, this is great to see what's causing the crash. And also, is another great technic to learn!! I get more and more amazed with the many features of carrara as I talk to you.

    Thank you. Will do this!

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