#Extra Vertices
35 messages in this thread
Sometimes when working in the 3D editor (v.3), I get unpredicted
vertices and faces suddenly added that I did not draw, even on simple
objects such as the old table and goblet tutorial. These planes
render as well. It's really a mess and extremely disrupting to the
work! Do you have any idea what is causing this? I never experienced
it with v.2. (386DX w/ 8 Mb RAM).
<< Meshes that change on the fly…>>
There are 2 situations that I know about. The first situation assumes
that your project has run out of RAM and is paging to the SWAP file,
the SWAP file grows to be equal to your available hard disk space and
then *needs* to grow some more. Pharlap doesn't inform 3ds that there
is no more room. 3ds continues to page to the swap byt your mesh data
becomes corrupted because it's over writing itself. Moral of the
story – get more ram. The other situation is where your 3ds.exe has
become adulterated through a unhealthy disk, virus or some other
mechanism that modified the exe. When that happens, there are 100's
of things that can go wrong. Check your disk, check for visus'
reinstall from your install disks..
As Jonas said, it sounds like your 3ds.exe may have gotten corrupted
by a virus or something else. Check your system for virus', and then
reinstall from the master disks immediately. Once the program gets
corrupted like that, DOZENS of things can go wrong.
I can't believe that viruses are to blame for all these troubles that people
have with corrupted 3D Studio executables. Is it more likely that PharLap is
to blame, or maybe cracked dongle-less copies of 3DS? If
random-block-scrogging viruses are this common, why aren't they zapping every
other program and data file on disks at the same rate?
Well, it's just a matter of perspective. Just like in real world where you have
natural virus and DNA engineered virus… <g>
In a magazine column once upon a time, in the days when many people
had floppy-only systems, I proposed that virus writers weren't
thinking large enough: they should be making viruses several hundred
K in size, because with all the disk swapping that most users were
accustommed to, they'd never notice when this virus duplicated
itself. 🙂
Curiosity killed the Cat. <g>
-JE
They're not. It's just that I give folks the benefit of the doubt that they're
not using a cracked copy, and never accuse anyone of anything I'm not sure they
did.
– G
I completely understand that policy regarding potential pirates. Is
this the primary symptom of a cracked copy, however? Are there really
3DS.EXE-specific viruses? 🙂
another dead giveaway is when the person almost never responds to the
suggestions we give them. They probably realise they've been copped
and are too embarrassed to respond.
How many cracked copies can there be out there? Unless there are a
lot of do-it-yourselfers out there, I have only seen one ad in a
computer magazine that claimed it had dongle-cracking programs, and I
haven't seen any little programs for this nefarious deed on a small
BBS's either. Then again, maybe I just don't get out much…
You probably don't get out too much, Tim<g>. Over the past 2.5 years,
I have heard references to many, many cracked versions of 3DS around
the boards, and such. It seems to be a favorite of "collectors"
because of it's reputed power and higher-than-"normal" list price.
Folks seem to love to DL this thing and brag to their friends: "and
this one goes for 3k!!!". It probably lives a short life on most HD's
until the person needs the space for the latest cracked version of
the latest game and *poof* away it goes. As there are no doubt people
who *will* buy the lock-defeating software, I get the idea that this
would be the *last* piece of software someone would actually respect
the copyright laws on. See what I mean? Don't expect alot of honor
among software pirates! For every lock-defeating piece of software
actually sold, I'd suspect *many* cracked versions of 3DS hanging
around.
Sad, but probably true.
-Alan
What good is it without the documentation, though?
Exactly.
Believe it or not, I've even heard of *xeroxed copies* floating around with the
broken software. If a person is *experienced* with 3D, but does not want to pay
for it, they can probably figure out quite a bit without the docs…the bottom
line is that the cracked copies are out there. Just how much damage they're
doing is all speculation.
-Alan
All this talk about software theft is depressing me. I'd really appreciate it
if you changed the subject. Thanks.
– G
Tim,
>> How many cracked copies can there be out there? <<
I'd guess about 5 times the number of legit copies. I experienced a
dilemna just recently when I was asked to tutor a guy doing some
paying, architectural work and he had a cracked copy of 3ds. It was
the type that caused the vertices explosion phenomona. What would you
do? Turn down the work? Well, I insisted that he use a legit copy
(mine) for the tutoring and layed a massive guilt trip on him. A week
later he had bought a legit copy from a local dealer. I felt very
happy because I'd made a convert without losing income.
" Well, I insisted that he use a legit copy (mine) for the tutoring
and layed a massive guilt trip on him. A week later he had bought a
legit copy from a local dealer. I felt very happy because I'd made a
convert without losing income."
Yessss!! (and thanks!)
Nik
Nik,
you'd be surprised how many people that there are out there to convert!
The biggest thing about deciding to buy 3DS is whether you feel that this is a
product that you personally want to invest the time in to learn, and work with
it. Before I decided to buy a copy, I used to go and use someone elses. I
wanted to make sure that I, personally, liked the product and wanted to invest
the time in to learn it and master it.
I played around with a friend's ACAD for a few days and decided it wasn't
something I wanted to work with. But at least I hadn't wasted any money on it
only to reach the decision that I didn't like it.
This is one of the probems with these sort of products. How do you get a chance
to use them enough to decided if you want to own them. It's not so bad if you
buy a $50 game and then don't like it, but it you put out $3000 and then don't
like, that's another story!
Judy
That's AWESOME!!!!, Martin. I love hearing stories like that. Much better to
get a convert than a convict!
John Tissavary (La Luna cie)
John,
yes, it was a heartwarming situation in the end.
The old Jewish Guilt method of copy protection. It eventually works on anyone
with over an ounce of moral fiber.
– G
Gary,
>> It eventually works on anyone with over an ounce of moral fiber. <<
It's a never ending battle. I'm coming into contact with more and more people
who need converting. Quite a dilemna, I can tell you 🙁
Well, who said that moral fiber was common these days.
Like I said to Alan, this whole thread is just depressing to me and I wish
you'd find something more cheerful to talk about.
– G
>>depressing theft talk…
I hope that those who forgot to take their moral fiber tablets will get tired
of the un-normal arrays and so forth and buy the package.
Look on the bright side – I have heard sories now of 6 (at last count) people
who started using 3DS with copies (i.e. stolen copies) of R1. *ALL* six bought
3DS after getting hooked. Autodesk could make all this much easier by giving
away a crippled version of 3DS to all the potential junkies who wanted it.
NOW I'll change the subject. I see IPAS3 kit is out. Is the jury in on using
the HighC 3.11 and PharLap TNT 6.0 with IPAS3? These are the versions I have.
Gus said he thought the 3.11 would not work and I haven't heard word on the TNT
yet. The Autodesk statement that versions of the Metaware later than 3.1
_should_ work was sufficiently vague to be usless.
Do anyperson know?
(Keeping with the thread name, I just want this to build "Extra Vertices" for
3DS)
J K J
It's the other way around. Metaware 3.1 has some problems (which can be worked
out). The supported version is 3.11 (weird but very, very different from
version 3.1). I have linked IPAS using TNT 6.0 and all is working just fine. I
should be getting TNT 6.1 tomorrow and I will let you know how that goes as
well.
John,
<< IPAS3 and Metaware.. >>
The docs say Metaware 3.0 and 3.1…… and 3.11. Compiler versions
later than 3.11 have not been tested. Note: there are significant
differences between 3.1 and 3.11 IPAS entry points. When using
3.1 use the same settings and library files as used for 3.0, as the
entry points of 3.1 are identical to 3.0…. FWIW
jonas[adesk]
I have experienced the same problem, and it is not due to a crack
problem, either. It seems to have something to do with memory. I
constantly have problems with the Phar *craps* dos extender. I
usually boot out of ACAD or 3ds, unsuprised to see:
"Cannot load COMMAND.COM" "Error reading drive C:"
I have talked to many other users who experience the same problems,
with both ACAD and 3ds. Any memory tips you cold offer would be most
appreciatted.
>>"Cannot load COMMAND.COM" "Error reading drive C:"
I had this problem too but it was gone when I swapped my slave/master
drives. Seems I had some sort of corruption/intermittant on the HD
controller. Then I would occassionally lock up when on my D: drive.
I eventually threw the drive away and the problem went away as well.
>> I have experienced the same problem, and it is not due to a crack
problem, either. <<
that's why we generally give people the benefit of the doubt. If you
shell out, I think you need a copy of command.com in your 3ds or acad
directory.
Martin:
>> If you shell out, I think you need a copy of command.com in your 3ds or >>
acad directory.
Not with Version 3. You just need to make sure that COMSPEC is set in your
environment. It is automatically placed there by newer versions of DOS, either
automatically or perhaps when you set the size of your environment space with
SHELL=, I don't remember which offhand.
Greg Pyros
Greg,
>>> command.com in your 3ds or acad directory.<<<
>> Not with Version 3.<<
I wasn't sure that would do it, but it was the only thing that came to mind.
Martin "dunce" Foster
I had a problem similar to that, but it seems to have mysteriously
disappeard a few days ago. I am still trying to figure out what is
different.
This is just one of about a dozen different things that could happen to a
modified copy.
– G
>>or maybe cracked dongle-less copies of 3DS?
Bingo. Yost Group is just very diplomatic.