UltraScenery hangs & crashes Studio
I just got the Ultra Scenery Landscape Features Vol. 4 pack today which adds asphalt roads to Ultra Scenery. (https://www.daz3d.com/ultrascenery--landscape-features-volume-4). But when I try to use the pack the script hangs, and then when I try to exit Daz Studio, it crashes.
I've tried creating the simplest possible scene with just base grass, and a couple of different roads, but both of them caused the crash. Using no features or other features (dirt track) doesn't seem to trigger the problem.
On one type of road, the log right before the hang was showing:
2023-09-24 23:53:25.368 Loaded image: USC_NoFeature_00_texture.png
2023-09-24 23:53:25.400 Prepare asset load (merge): /environments/landscapes/ultrascenery/features/usc road 05/content/USC Road 05 Surface Decal.duf
2023-09-24 23:53:25.401 Locking viewport redraw...
2023-09-24 23:53:25.401 Viewport redraw locked.
2023-09-24 23:53:25.419 Native format content directories: 5
2023-09-24 23:53:25.419 Poser format content directories: 3
2023-09-24 23:53:25.419 Other import format content directories: 0
2023-09-24 23:53:25.419 Begin asset load (merge): /environments/landscapes/ultrascenery/features/usc road 05/content/USC Road 05 Surface Decal.duf
2023-09-24 23:53:25.454 JSON interpreter warning: Unexpected string member: file_display_text
2023-09-24 23:53:25.457 Determining missing assets...
2023-09-24 23:53:25.495 Setting textures...
2023-09-24 23:53:25.497 Scanning for addons...
2023-09-24 23:53:25.500 Creating node geometry...
2023-09-24 23:53:25.500 Creating materials...
2023-09-24 23:53:25.669 WARNING: ..\..\..\..\..\src\sdksource\general\dzscript.cpp(1187): Unhandled error while executing script.
2023-09-24 23:53:25.669 WARNING: QScriptEngine::popContext() doesn't match with pushContext()
Another type of road showed a simpler error happening:
2023-09-25 00:07:24.707 Loaded image: USC_NoFeature_00_texture.png
2023-09-25 00:07:24.734 Prepare asset load (merge): /environments/landscapes/ultrascenery/features/usc road 01/content/USC Road 01 Surface Decal.duf
2023-09-25 00:07:24.734 Locking viewport redraw...
2023-09-25 00:07:24.734 Viewport redraw locked.
2023-09-25 00:07:24.754 Native format content directories: 5
2023-09-25 00:07:24.754 Poser format content directories: 3
2023-09-25 00:07:24.754 Other import format content directories: 0
2023-09-25 00:07:24.755 Begin asset load (merge): /environments/landscapes/ultrascenery/features/usc road 01/content/USC Road 01 Surface Decal.duf
2023-09-25 00:07:24.785 JSON interpreter warning: Unexpected string member: file_display_text
2023-09-25 00:07:24.785 Determining missing assets...
2023-09-25 00:07:24.815 Setting textures...
2023-09-25 00:07:24.818 Scanning for addons...
2023-09-25 00:07:24.820 Creating node geometry...
2023-09-25 00:07:24.820 Creating materials...
2023-09-25 00:07:24.862 WARNING: ..\..\..\..\..\src\sdksource\general\dzscript.cpp(1187): Unhandled error while executing script.
Both of the assets (USC Road 01 Surface Decal.duf and USC Road 05 Surface Decal.duf) were present in the specified paths.
I tried uninstalling and re-installing Ultra Scenery through DIM with reboots in betwen each, but it made no difference.
I'm running:
DAZ Studio 4.16.0.3
Release Cycle: General Release [1]
Platform bits: 64
Qt Version: 4.8.7
OpenSubdiv Version: 3.0.0
Running on Windows 10, Build 9200, No Service Pack Installed
Any ideas? Thanks!
Comments
How many RAM do you have?
That looks a bit like the problems I sometimes had when I was using a 16Gb RAM Win7 machine. When I took it up to 24Gb RAM, those problems ceased. SO RAM may be the problem. Windows is supposed to page RAM when it gets full, but in the case of DS paging of RAM doesn't seem to work very well and DS is more likely to crash than windows is to page the RAM.
Not terribly helpful, but maybe it may help find the source of the problem.
If it's not a RAM issue (from looking at task manager should tell you when the physical RAM you've got is full or nearly full), then, there is a possibility that the decals need re-installation of the decals, or possibly you need the latest version of UltraScenery to be installed..
Regards,
Richard
I've got 16GB of RAM, that's as much as I can have in my machine. I killed everything else I could in memory and it still happens, so if it's not enough RAM, I'm SOL I guess.
It's strange though that all the other options work. Generating the simplest possible landscape only has problems with the roads, and it's no problem to generate much more complex landscapes without the roads. I even tried different features from Vol. 4 (dirt tracks 6, 7) and it was fine. It's only choking on the asphalt.
I did uninstall and reinstall Ultra Scenery so it should be the latest? It's 1.3. I left off the accellerator in case it was contributing.
Another weird thing: Daz Studio insta-crashes if I generate a simple landscape and then try to manually apply one of the road decals. I generated a grass-only landscape with Dirt Track 7 and then applied the Road 1 decal using Environments\Landscapes\UltraScenery\Features\USC Road 01\Content\USC Road 01 Surface Decal.duf. Dirt track 7 is exactly the same shape and position as Road 1 according to the thumbnails, so it seems like they should match.
Boom, crash. "DAZStudio.exe caused ACCESS_VIOLATION in module "C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\dzcore.dll" which is as bad as it gets. Not sure if that's how these decals are supposed to be used though.
It's not enough.
If you are lucky, you can try increasing the size of your virtual memory to something like three times 16GB's, but even if it does work, your computer will slow down to a crawl
But it IS enough most of the time. And I did some more digging and I don't think it's the problem here.
I monitored my physical RAM with Process Explorer on two minimalistic Ultra Scenery runs - one that worked and one that hung.
I never got past 50% on filling up physical ram (orange vs. black.) The working sets were also small compared to what DAZ Studio sometimes consumes.
On the one that hung, there was actually a DECREASE in the amount of RAM used. The graph dipped just when the hang started.
What is your total RAM usage?
There have been several updates to UltraScenery Realistic Landscape System (the script product). Are you up to date?
Update the product first and check the RAM consumption of all the Processes with Resources Monitor rather than DS only.
Not sure if this will help or not, but when I am not sure I can render a scene on either my 32GB RAM or my MacBook Pro M1 laptops, I save the scene, close D|S, and reboot the computer and then open D|S and the scene and render without doing anything else. I even have to do it for my 64GB RAM desktop sometimes.