#3D Studio hangs
10 messages in this thread
After lurking in the background for a year, studying various modeling programs,
I finally purchased 3D studio. I love the program except it seems to hang when
rendering certain objects. (such as the coil in tutorial 11) I can render
smaller portions of it. I haven't let the program sit for more than an hour
yet. My question is: Is the program hung or just taking a long time to render?
It stops about halfway through "transforming objects". It's running on a
Pentium 90 with (shame on me) 8 megs of RAM. My guess is it's running out of
RAM. Will it still render or just lock. I'm not familiar with exactly how 3DS
uses it's RAM. It's much faster than ray tracing when it works.
James,
You've got the right computer, just no memory. I run 32mb and 64mb in my PCs
and thats still is not enough (its not, I got World Builder and I gotta go to
128mb so that it doesn't use vitual mem).
You need to have 16 megs as a practical minimum or you just won't get any work
done.
As a test, start 3DS and after it comes up, go to the "Info" menu at the top of
the screen. Click on "Current Stutus" and see how much RAM is free. My guess is
not very much.
Load a small mesh (like the Autodesk logo, ADLOGO.3DS) and try to render it. It
should be OK.
If not then you may have a Vibrant driver problem, where the rendering screen
resolution selected cannot support your video card. Do the video check from
within 3DS VIBCFG.
Also check CONFIG.SYS and see if a FILES= and BUFFERS= statement is there. I
have files set to 40 and buffers set to 20 for 3DS.
If you have an EMM386 statement in CONFIG.SYS remove it also.
What I do is have a separate boot floppy for 3DS with just minimal files so
that as much ram as possible is available for 3DS.
As Martin Foster of Metrolight says, "RAM is you friend with 3D Studio". Ain't
it the Truth!
When you start adding IPAS routines and multiple object to you scenes the RAM
required becomes astronomical. I've had scenes with 500,000 total faces and
several IPASs thrown in that made me want to cry because of the RAM required.
256 mb would have been just about right.
As a side note, since you just started with the program you might get
frustrated quickly with it, especially if you have no prior animation, video
production, or film making experience. I know it took me around 3 months
working with the program 10-20 hours a week to get to where I think I could do
something useful and understand the concepts. 3DS has a steep learning curve so
keep at it!
The thing that help me a and a couple of other folks get over the hump, make
things come together, and see "the great light about how things are supposed to
work" was the Digimation 3DS training tapes. Its well worth the $395 I spent on
them. After watching the tapes, it was like "of course, thats how its works and
how you do it".
The other thing that help was to watch other animation tapes like "Beyond the
Mind's Eye" and the 93 and 94 Siggraph tapes. I finally got to point to where
I can say "yea, I KNOW how they did that!"
I've been working with the program a year now and am producing video tapes and
computer based training CD-ROMs. I still consider myself only an intermediate
user. Some the stuff posted here by some of the guys is outrageous! I don't
know whenever I'll get to their level. But I keep asking questions too.
Drop me a note if I can help you.
" The thing that help me a and a couple of other folks get over the hump, make
things come together, and see "the great light about how things are supposed to
work" was the Digimation 3DS training tapes. Its well worth the $395 I spent on
them."
What kind of tutorials do those tapes have? I am primarily interested in
Architectural models, would they help?
Are you looking at selling them?
Thanx in Advance, pHred
I think that you will find that the tapes cover a broad range of areas
including the architectural side.
And, no, I won't part with them! They're too useful!
Bye!
Thanks Mark, You pretty much summed up what I thought. I am hoping to upgrade
to atleast 24 meg maybe 40 if I can swing it (or talk my fiance into it.) I
just got out of school (Graphic Design) I am used to working with a Ray Tracing
program which used very little ram and was very, very slow. I've heard of the
tapes – I have the Minds Eye series which are great for ideas and something to
shoot for. I am hoping I'll be over the learning humb within 3 months. I'll
check the other options you suggested. I've checked the status with just simple
meshes and the page faults are in the 1000's. Not good. Looks like more RAM is
in my future.
Where can I get a hold of the Siggraph tapes? – besides attending.
Thanks, James
If you have page faults…its RAM! as in not enough.
The Siggraph tapes are available from Autodesk. There is a note in the 3dS
section about how to get a 95 tape.
I have the 94 tape. If you can't get one, drop me a note and I'll send you a
copy.
Bye!
Thanks Mark,
I'll check it out.
One more question – Are you running Liquid Speed? It came with my package but I
haven't installed it yet. Sounds like it helps with really complex maps – if
you have enough RAM that is.
Yes I do,
It helps with screen redraws only. Not rendering. But when you get complex
scenes, its the only answer.
Look in your autoexec.bat file for a line that reads "power" or "power.exe".
Delete or rem out this line. It is a power saving feature that doesn't like
3ds too well.
LAM
Thanks Larry – I'll check that one out.