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A:M Tips...Coming soon...Poser and Vue
The following tips were posted a few years ago, so some system tips may be outdated now for most users with the latest CPUs and memory, etc., but other tips may still be useful, especially the power and cooling tips. Users of other software still get crippled by the same issues since all CG programs are processor intensive. They may not know it, or want to place blame elsewhere, but power and cooling are the biggest stability issues out there now that Windows is much more stable.
I've been delving into Vue Infinite and exploring the uses of Poser models lately, but I still dabble with A:M as its animation tools are the best.
Kevin 9/12/06
Here's my contribution to the A:M community.
Reports of stability always seem to increase as more
work is done on each update of Animation:Master. It's been that way since I
purchased v2 in 1994.
Now, following are tips and ideas many have told me that they've found useful in their work with Animation: Master. Your mileage may vary given differences in systems, but they should help you. Intel or AMD processors, high priced RAM memory, low priced systems, nVidia, ATI video cards, Alien, HP, Dell, home built...it doesn't matter. These are good basics for everyone. (If you are looking for new components, I recommend online www.atacom.com, www.newegg.com and Micro Center has good deals to can find from time to time and for hardware information/reviews www.tomshardware.com. Those four places will help you in comparisons between Intel P4 and AMD Athlon CPUs, memory brands, drives, you name it).
Thanks
for visiting!
Joe
Williamsen
posted these stability tips at CgTalk.com.
They are used here with his permission. Joe says... Glen Crowell
submitted these great tips:
Windows system stability tips... IMHO, stability also depends on your
system being in good shape. This opinion has been formed by me and others
after bringing back ill-performing computers to a good state. If your
system is stable, you can run almost anything and you are capable of doing
more things at once in many instances. Be sure to check all the FAQs (http://www.hash.com/hashfaqs/)
and tips for increasing stability. (I can't speak for the Mac side since I
don't own one, though my brother does and he says his Mac can crash with
any program. Mac users send me your tips! Email
me! One Mac tip...out of memory? Set your memory to 256Meg, if you
have it. Use more if you have to but avoid using Mac virtual memory.
Memory is more affordable than it was years ago. Buy some if you need it.
Same goes for PC users...especially if you're running Windows XP..you
should have at the very least 256 Meg of RAM and now 512MB is recommended
by many. For CG work you really should try to have at lease 1GB.) I use the network version of A:M
with a dongle on the parallel port. The network version allows you to
spread your rendering among many PCs (number depending on the license you
bought... if one crashes, another can still be rendering away). Contact
Hash, Inc. for pricing and other information about NetRender.
*Some computers can become unstable if the power supply is not
putting out properly regulated voltage/current. Extra memory, new
processors and added devices can tax a power supply if the system wasn't
originally designed for it. This can lead to system freezes and crashes.
Check to see that your power supply is rated for what you have. If you had
your computer built from scratch, it's probably fine. If you bought a name
brand PC off the shelf, they often use lower power output power
supplies...sometimes 250 watts. If you are adding drives, memory, etc.,
you may want to upgrade your power supply. There have been articles in
Maximum PC indicating how much power certain components require.
In regards to stability of the app, it depends a huge amount on how you
use it. I have the opportunity to see how some of the best AM users in the
world work, and for those who know where the "mines" are, AM can
run for weeks without bombing (just as an aside, I STILL tend to get it to
implode from time to time).
Some of the things I've learned from the likes of Jeff Bunker and Tyler
Lybbert:
1) Try to not have more than one window open at a time -and if you must,
maximize them so that they don't overlap - or if you have two open
simultaneously, use the "Tile" commands under the Windows menu
item to make sure they're using up the screen space.
2) Don't use the tabbed "Workbook" mode.
3) Save often, and it's a good idea to save versions. Tyler told me he can
easily go through the alphabet in a day of working on a model (Bottle_a.mdl,
Bottle_b.mdl, etc). I tend to save after every major change, and I don't
see crashing nearly as much as I used to.
4) Use Undo with patience - in 10, it's actually pretty good. I still save
versions, though....
5) One key is *patience* - let the software catch up to you, and if you
make it through a huge copy/paste or Undo, save your model immediately.
One thing I can thank AM for, is my vastly improved "Save
Discipline" in all the software I use......
6) AM is a memory and CPU hog. Don't run it simultaneously with another
memory hog - like Maya, Max, or Photoshop - *expecially* if you don't have
a ton of memory (512 MB or more). I try not to run it with anything going
in the background (except Winamp, maybe
7) Of course, make sure that your drivers are updated, etc, etc.
Joe W
One more thing - the guys that get it to run pretty stably spend 90% of
their time in wireframe mode - and don't leave background windows in solid
shaded mode. They switch into solid shaded to check something - then pop
right back into wireframe. Jeff tells me it's a habit he picked up a
loooong time ago working in V4 and earlier...
Joe W
Thanks for the tips, Joe! I noticed that I have been following many of
these same habits that I picked up with the early versions as well.
Thanks for the great tips, Glen!
Any program can freeze, crash and/or crash Windows if things are not right
with Windows itself, if memory is not being managed properly or even if
your video card is experiencing problems with driver issues, etc. Some
crashes could even go as deep as chipset/Windows compatibility issues. And
even scarier, an IT guy at the station told me that Windows 98/ME can
degrade over time, with Windows files becoming corrupt with usage, so a
fresh re-install may be in order for some. Or just upgrade to XP.
Repeatable crashes could be A:M related. Repeatable is generally the key.
Some folks will tell you that random crashes can happen after a
combination of events that are hard to repeat. Those kind are many times
memory related. Let me say right here to make it clear that A:M can crash
and has. Often times it is software related. Please do us all a favor and
write down what you were doing and what happened and any error message
(but no stack dumps) and send it along with version and OS information to support@hash.com
so they can fix it or, if you're registered at the Hash Forum, there is a
section for bug reports. Be sure to include version info and OS and you may
include the project data as well if you're e-mailing, so they can try to duplicate the problem
at Hash, Inc. You should always make sure you have downloaded and
installed a more recent version update (not upgrade) than
the one installed from your CD. The best things about the Animation:Master
CD are the data files, models, etc. It makes a nice software lock. But
more often than not, it's an older version of the software and
improvements and fixes are always being made. Also, you might want to be
sure you have downloaded and installed the various "stuff" files
appropriate for your version from the Hash FTP site. ftp.hash.com/pub/updates/
They are there to take care of some possible driver issues. For example,
the 2001 version of A:M may require 2001stuff.exe for your PC, say for
instance, if you installed another program that overwrote one or more of
those commonly shared files. The 2003 version may require v10stuff.exe
(Will Pickering posted this a while back..."You won't need this
unless the am2003 installer prompts you to download it. Most machines
already have the dll packages installed that are contained in the 2003
stuff.") v10.5 has a separate file for this... v105stuff.exe
I for one (at the original time of this writing back in 2003) had a pretty stable older motherboard using the hardy, time
proven BX chipset, 384 Meg of SDRAM and an older 32MB ATI Rage Fury video
card. It's not real
fast, but it is paid for and more importantly it still works! I run my virtual
memory on the second hard-drive, not Drive C. It helps speed things up a
little. The "Typical role of this computer" is set as Network
Server in the System Properties/Performance/File System settings. My OS of
choice at this time for this box is Windows 98SE. XP is more stable and I
have it installed on my newer PCs. I do not recommend buying
new components (except additional memory if you need it and an upgrade to
Windows XP) unless you are
sure they are the problem.
I do not leave my computers on all the time, even my XP machines. My experience from work
computers that are left on all the time is that they have to be rebooted.
Some daily, some every few days. No way around that. Recent evidence is
pointing to the idea of "not turning computers off is good" when
they aren't being used is in reality a myth, besides being a waste
of power. A freshly rebooted computer usually works better, IMHO.
A few things that have worked in the past for me and other PC users to get
more stability...
Another wise investment in areas where the electric company's supply is
not stable, or the weather is hot or stormy, is a battery backup. Most
also include circuitry that evens out the power which makes for a happy
PC. I use an APC 300.
*Make sure your PC's air vents aren't blocked. Overheated PCs can
freeze/crash. This is more true than ever with hotter running AMD and
Pentium 4 chips. If you have a motherboard and utility that monitors CPU
temperature, you will see it rise substantially as it's crunching the
calculations for your renders.
*Run ScanDisk once in a while (found in Windows' System Tools). Use
the standard setting (thorough can cause problems, use it sparingly). Have
the "Automatically fix errors" option checked. Run ScanDisk with
the standard check a couple times just to really make sure Windows files
are fixed. If you have had a crash of any kind, it's wise to run ScanDisk
after the crash. It will often find errors after a program has crashed.
*Cleanup your start up programs. If you're running Windows, run msconfig and go to the startup tab to disable programs you know you don't
need to load into memory at boot up. If you don't know what a program is,
you can leave it checked on, but many are obvious. SystemTray,
ScanRegistry and Explorer are needed, but most of the others are not. This
will free up system resources. You can always go back and change these
settings if you have to. It's very easy. Most programs do not need to be
idling away in your system tray. Some can make calls that will interrupt
the processing for the program you are using.
*Defrag your C drive. And when you do, make sure that virtual
memory has been set to zero so the area it uses is defragged as well. Be
sure to reset it to your old setting or let Windows manage it again after
you've defragged your hard-drive. This will mainly help speed things up,
which could result in more stability for those who are impatient and click
too fast for the program and your PC.
*Disable any power saving features (Power Management in Windows'
Control Panel). Your computer should be set to function as if it's
always on (even though you may shutdown as you please). Windows 98
especially would cause A:M to freeze up when it thought it needed to
suspend or sleep. It would think nothing was going on and shutdown a
hard-drive or other systems, causing tremendous problems for A:M as it was
doing calculations in RAM. It would always crash a render in progress.
This problem went away when everything in Power Management was setup for
always on operation.
*Disable Auto-Insert Notification in your CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/ZipDrive
properties. It steals part of a processing cycle of the CPU and is not
needed. It's only there to load programs instantly when you put in a
CD-ROM, DVD or ZipDisk. You can always turn it back on if you want it. A:M
can use that extra CPU processing.
*Disable screen savers. They have the potential to disrupt renders.
You can always turn those back on when you're not
using A:M.
*Virus scan programs are notorious for sucking up system resources,
especially if their logging features are enabled. If you're not going
through email, you probably don't need it running, especially when running
A:M. We found at work that virus scan logging caused glitches in running
various programs and actually slowed some down. Note...If your
computer has slowed down, you may want to make sure your virus scanning
program is up to date and do a scan. Slow downs and other problems can be
caused by viruses.
*Constant connections to the Internet can also cause problems,
especially if you are being pinged. Go off line to work with A:M. We had a
problem at work where random crashes/freezes were happening to programs on
a server. Turned out that server was having problems every time another
company server, in another city, was trying to connect to it. The problem
went away when our server having problems was taken off the Internet.
In addition, if you have DSL and are using a modem provided by your phone
company, chances are it is of the variety that also uses your CPU to do
its work. I've heard reports of those modems knocking available system
resources down to as much as 54% available, a low level that can cause
many PCs to freeze or crash at will.
*If you are experiencing crashes and freezes you shouldn't really be
running other apps, other than maybe a paint program (only when you
need it) or media player, when using A:M until you can make sure your
system is stable and/or you determine A:M is at fault with a repeatable
crash. A:M may need all the system resources it can get. Microsoft Word,
Outlook and Internet Explorer suck up resources and they don't always
return them when they are closed down. Now some users report no problems
running many apps with A:M at once. They have done the work to make sure
their system works. Until you have done that, scale back the use of other
programs with A:M.
*Make sure you have the latest or recent drivers for your video card.
Latest isn't always the best, but drivers more recent than what your video
card came with are usually better and cause fewer problems for A:M.
*If you are experiencing many crashes/freezes, try a lower setting
in resolution and/or color bit depth. In the "old days" some
video cards worked better at 800 x 600 and 24 bit...now days many seem OK
working at 1024 x 768 and 32 bit. Video cards can be finicky. Just because
they can display higher resolutions doesn't mean they are stable at those
higher resolutions. Higher resolutions take more memory and processing
power. Use a lower resolution that will be less taxing on its resources.
Less stress is good for people and equipment. And the latest gamer cards
don't necessarily make good graphics cards out the door. Wait until the
card has been on the market for a little while. Besides the price
dropping, you'll benefit from more stable drivers and bug fixes resulting
from the early adopters' problems.
Anything mouse related can also be video card or driver related as it has
to display what the mouse pointer is doing. You can experiment with a
lower acceleration setting for your video card if you get random
crashes/freezes when clicking with your mouse. You could also be
experiencing settings conflicts. You can check in Windows' Device Manager
for those.
*Use a memory manager program if you want. My favorite for my
Windows 98SE box is FreeMemPro! It's an excellent $19.95 program that has prevented what
would've been many crashes in the past with other programs and Windows!
They have a 14 day Free demo to try. Do that first to see if it works well
for you.
http://www.real.com/accessories/?prod=freemem&src=111102realhome_2,rcais
*(For Windows 98SE & ME) You can also do tweaks to the VCACHE setting in the Windows system.ini
file. That will help Windows regulate the amount of memory it reserves
for caching. There are utility programs that will adjust that for you. You
can run sysedit (or msconfig in ME) and do it yourself.
Before editing your system.ini be sure to make a back up.
If you are using, for example, 384MB or higher of RAM enter MaxFileCache=61440
It should look like this when you have finished.
[VCACHE]
MaxFileCache=61440
Save the new setting.
For other RAM settings...
256 MB
[VCACHE]
MaxFileCache=30720
192 MB
[VCACHE]
MaxFileCache=24576
128 MB
[VCACHE]
MaxFileCache=16384
64 MB
[VCACHE]
MaxFileCache=8192
I obtained these settings from:
http://www.frugalsworld.com/tweaking/vcache.shtml
That site has all the info on why this setting could be crucial to you.
I have 384MB and my Windows 98SE box runs well with this setting. I've tried other
settings based on 1/4 and 1/8 RAM size but this has worked the best for
me.
* Larry B.
sent a couple tips...here's one... "If an app crashes, and claims
there is a problem with a DLL, do a search of the hard drive, and look for
the file that had a problem. There might be 2 or 3 other DLLs that are the
same, but an older version. If a program starts up with Windows, and loads
the DLL file (made for that version lets say V 3 for example), and then
you load another application (that has its own DLL, and version 5). There
will be 2 revisions of the same DLL and the newer apps might not be able
to understand some instructions. Usually, the way to solve the duplicate
DLLs is to close any app that uses it. Make a separate folder (call it
whatever. For the DLLs, find its location, and right click properties.
Then look through the tabs (the 2nd one I think). There is a version line,
and it'll show you the version of the DLL. Do this for the others. Move
the other Older DLLs to the folder made (to keep in case it is needed, but
out of the systems reach). Once done, move the newest file to the
windows\system folder. The older app should run (since the DLL is based on
the older version of DLL) and the newer app can run also. If not, then you
still have the DLL file to use to fix it with."
And another from Larry B...
"It is a good idea to keep at least double of your ram free on the
hard drive. The Linux swapspace setting is recomended for that size, and
it is just the Linux name for Windows virtual memory."
-Larry B.
Thanks, Larry!
There are more tweaks you can do to get and keep your system running
right. Maximum PC and other computer magazines have tips occasionally that
will help get your system running top notch. You can do searches on their
websites.
If you work on making your system more stable, you will have won a good
portion of the battle. Another portion of the battle is this...
If you experience crashes, please file a bug report with Hash, Inc. as
outlined above so they can fix it. Many bugs continue on because people
never take the time to let the programmers know what is wrong. The mail
list rules prohibit talking about crashes, but you can at CgTalk.com
if you're seeking another opinion.
If you have a stability tip or workaround for others to pass along,
email
me!
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