bwcc

I have Mac Pro Tower 5,1 running Sierra - on occasion when rendering certain projects Camera will crash and I get "Camera 64 is crashed" I can set it to 32 bit and it usually works but will run out of memory. I also have Mac Mini that I use in Renderama that is always set to 64 bit - it never crashes even when rendering the same projects. I can send a job to renderama and my Mac Pro Camera will crash rendering a specific strip of a large still and the Mac Mini will pick up that same strip and render it without issue. so, I don't think it is anything to do with the file. any ideas on how to get it stop crashing? thanks brian

do you know if TailorTool will work? brian

can you make any comment on whether existing plug-ins will work in the new version?

great to hear! - I would vote for built-in versions of Placer Deposit, Dante, Contortionist, Mrs. Bebel - just to start. I am also sure you are coming up with super cool new tools as well. thanks, brian

wondering if 64 bit Animator will be significantly different if the plug-ins are still 32-bit. the only time I run into memory limits is when using plug-ins. thanks, brian

Mac OS 10.10.4 (Yosemite)

I think it is dynamic IP but it's always the same IP number. - is it possible that it could be something with the PCI - flash drive? it's new and I've never had this issue before. also, that slave is on the same drive as EIAS and Master Renderama. - have had any issues with that? bw

I have Renderama slave that consistently errors when starting a job. total of 5 slaves 2 on other computers and 3 on my main system (all mac os). The 3 on the main system are on different drives: boot drive (PCI flash), internal SATA RAID, external SATA RAID the Camera Slave on boot drive works but nearly every time I start a job, it will get it's first frame then immediately error "Master / slave communication error" it will finish the frame, I quit the Camera and the Slave, restart slave turn it on in Renderama it then works without issue for the rest of the job. anyone see this?

I always try Chisel when I have a need and anything beyond the very basic models it seems to crash - not sure if it's just my system (lousy video card) or not...

When using reflections on a surface I often use a mix of ray traced and Global map, where the global map reflection is used where there is no RT reflection - usually works great. But, when using RT Blur Control I get soft RT reflections but the Global reflection are not consistently softened. Would be nice to have the RT Blur Control setting effect all the reflections of a surface - I can blur the Global map reflection, but that blurs the reflection of all the objects that use the Global map. brian

Any word on getting Tailor Tool updated to work in EAIS 9? thanks, brian

I'm on a mac also, but... what kind of error are you getting? - does it create the Placer Deposit object then error when generating the instances? starting in EIAS 9 (and 9.1) always use the Instance Mode Type 2, Type 1 will error every time. Other then that it seems to work ok - it will generate huge models but if you push it too far it will crash EI. how many polys would the created model be (if it worked)? brian

Is anyone using Yosemite yet? any issues with EAIS? brian

Tomas - any info on how EI works with the dual graphics in the nMP - does it use all the memory from both cards or just one? Do you have any rendering specs compared to 12 core mac pro tower? or other mac pro? also, when you say "but the next upgrade will love these machines even more" is there something unique to the nMP over a 2012 MP Tower with upgraded CPU's and graphics card? thanks, brian

not sure if you have it - but it seems to work with Mrs Bebel - I exported a simcloth model (with UVs) as a fact - then linked to Mrs Bebel and had it only build the Top surface (no bevel or bottom) and set it the UVs to copy source. You can also link the active simcloth group to the Mrs Bebel group to offset the surface and not have to export or import anything. the extrude amplitude would be the distance of the offset. brian

I have been using the Rhino Beta for the Mac and I noticed too that the export tessellation wasn't alway smooth - lots of T junctions. In the past I have usually used the Maximum Angle to adjust the density of the model - When exporting from Rhino I started using the "Maximum Distance, surface to edge" sorta does the same thing but for some reason the tessellation is usually much better. brian

I may have solved this... I am exporting a model out of Modo and I think the UV's are not exporting correctly - I am trying to get the UV's right and I will try it in blob maker to see if it works thanks! brian

I can't seem to get the Inflate setting in Blobmaker to work... It is supposed to inherit the UV coordinates of the child group - The child group is a simple model imported from Modo and UV's are working. I can apply UV's to model and it looks correct. But, when setting the UV's to "inflate" in the plugin, it looks the same as "whole" I think I have done this before. Any secrets to get this to work? thanks, brian

Since the 64 bit version came out, I use it for many things like building static models (then exporting / importing) and animating objects deforming to a curve. I do a lot of medical stuff, think of balloon catheter snaking through an artery. It works great, there is a time hit on rendering, but not as bad as it used to be. The problem is the deformation path is fixed. Sometimes I need to animate the object over the curve and have the curve change shape over time. Contortionist uses an Effector animation path to deform the models - I can use Path2Line to generate a path (geometry) export, modify the curve export the path again and import the curves as morph targets - really cumbersome, and the transition between morph targets is limited. I have the plug-in Wiremaker but have never used it and can't find any docs - does it do the same thanks as Path2Line? thanks, brian

I love using Contortionist and use it a lot - the 64 bit version works much better with bigger models. But, I usually use an effector path to deform the geometry which as far as I know makes it impossible to animate the curve path over time. Does anyone have a method to animate the curve? The plug-in will use an imported path and I have tired to use morph targets to edit the curve of the path but it never seems to look quite right... Really wish there was a tool in EIAS to draw a bezier curve that could be animated over time to use as a deformation path. I guess as long as I am wishing, this should really be part of the deformation system. brian

I have noticed this too, meant ask about it earlier... the path in the error message is where the local Camera stores the temp file. The Renderama Camera stores the temp files in the Renderama job folder. But, it seems like if there is a temp file in the local folder it will get an error. I haven't had time to verify it, but I think it also occurs with any temp file (blur, glow, reflection) brian

been using Modo and recently started using the beta of Rhino on the mac - tried using ViaCAD Pro for a while - It does have a good FACT export but for really big complex models it can be a bit unstable and slow... Rhino is still being developed but looks pretty solid. Also tried FormZ and never could get a good model exported - FACT, OBJ - nothing worked. Had extensive conversations with AutoDesSys - models would not tesselate correctly and would not smooth no matter what settings I used. brian

Running Renderama on Mavericks and Mountain Lion without any problems so far - but with Camera 9 using all the memory and all 8 cores I've have just been running 1 slave. I also have a Mac mini with 4 cores (8 virtual cores) running 1 slave. On your set up, since you have 16 slaves running do you divide the available memory among all the slaves? or set the max for each slave? Do you set each Camera to only run 1 thread? thanks brian

I have seen this before when rendering a very big single frame - was able to render by increasing the frame strips - of course that doesn't help in an animation... what does the GI window look like? - you might be able to reduce the settings in GI and at least get it to render. brian

very frustrating I know - did you try launching the slaves while the computer is disconnected from the network / internet? are you computers connected by a DSL/Cable router or switch? - kind of a obvious answer, try repair permissions? I think the problem I was having was when the slaves open they look for their set IP address and port number. I think if that port number is already in use or is blocked by the router (for whatever reason) the slave just gets confused and can't see the network. - If I remember correctly, I think I may have shut down the dsl router - disconnected everything, except for the phone line. Let it start up and establish a DSL connection. I was able to open the slaves while the computer was unplugged from the network and reset the port numbers. then connect only the computer to the dsl router. let it establish an ethernet connection. then plug in everything else to the router. not sure what fixed it - might have been just restarting the modem - but it did finally work. good luck! brian