bwcc

It's really nothing - Every application has this since OS X (11 years ago). In OS 9 when you drag windows around the screen you get an out line of the window. Since OS X, when you drag a window you see the window (not just an outline). 9 years ago it seemed like a nice (and very simple) suggestion, now it just seems silly to ask for such a thing. Grab any window or menu in any application (other than EI) and drag it around. That's what it would look like. I'm not really asking for this now, I would rather all efforts be put toward designing and implementing a modern UI. There have been many better more useful requests than this. I was trying to say that even the simplest UI improvement (like a setting to remember multiple screen layouts) is difficult to get done. brian brian

This is a great idea!, but over the years we have seen many good suggestions on improving the UI. I'm not sure why the UI has such a low priority. It's hard to justify spending anytime trying to improve the current UI. I just read an article celebrating the 11 years of OS X, the current EIAS UI is a based on the the look of OS 9 ands Windows 98. If you look at any other 3d app, compared to EIAS they seem to be infinitely customizable. The UI really needs to be redesigned from the ground up. I suggested about 9 years ago to have the menus visible while being dragged into position. I thought that was simplest possible improvement. I know the current ownership hasn't had EIAS that long but I haven't heard of any UI changes in EIAS9. It's not that we aren't interested in suggestions for UI improvements, it's just that we have seen so many good ideas suggested none of them actually implemented. brian

This is definitely a job for PlacerDeposit. It's a great plug-in, I use it for so much. I really wish EIAS could take over development of Placer so we could get an update. It's great as it is, but it could be so much better. brian

This is not problem with Renderama. There is a 2GB limit, but when RM reaches the limit it suspends the stitching and moves onto the next job. It does not crash. It's a bit of a work around, but it's easy enough to open the sequence of frames in QuickTime player and export a .mov. The problem is RM crashing, because it won't move on to the next job. From my experience, RM will crash nearly every time when it is rendering frames very quickly, like a few seconds per frame or less. When completing a job where the frames render very quickly RM will get to the very end (>90%) and sit even though all the frames have been rendered. It will not begin stitching. Sometimes it will move on to the next job but eventually it will crash and nothing else gets rendered. If you reopen RM the jobs will be at 100% (or close) but not stitched. Hit "Go" and it will begin to stitch or render that last few frames if necessary. The rendered files are usually fine and error free. On jobs where the frames take longer to render it seems to work fine. brian

If it doesn't work you probably shouldn't have it on the website until it gets fixed.

does Dante work in Renderama? bw

The local Camera is the one in EIAS application folder. I have 8 slaves on the same computer but residing on a external RAID and 4 slaves on another computer. With renderama I typically use all 12 slaves. I don't see a version number anywhere in the NX shader, but I often replace the shader folders by dragging the folder from the EIAS application folder to all the slaves, just to make sure everything is consistent. How do I find the version number? Is there a newer version? the date on he file is from 2008.

Has anyone had problems with rendering in the local Camera and Renderama looking different? I have a project using the shader "NX" when I render in Camera it looks fine, then send the animation to Renderama and the shading is wrong. It also incorrectly renders the displacement, local Camera looks good but when sent to renderama the displacement is way off. It seems to only happen with the NX shader. thanks, brian

it sounds like you might be able to use Dervish linked to BlobMaker. I also use resequencer to randomize the polygons to the source model. the With Dervish you can set the how and where the blobs land and they will stay put. I wish there were better controls in Dervish to affect the transition. And, if the S. Factor in Blobmaker actually worked I think the result would look much more fluid like. bw

version 9

unfortunately I don't have A-Fractal and A-Rim and it's obvious an issue with those shaders and renderama. I wish I did have them. Maybe they will be included in version 9... I have gotten I/O errors while rendering in renderama before. This is a simplistic explanation, and I don't really know if this is what happens but it seems like when Camera renders a certain frame it will render temp files and store them on disk (like for glow). If one Camera renders a frame and writes the temp file then another Camera writes a different temp over the first. The first Camera attempts to read the temp file while it's in the process of being written and gets an I/O error. Do those shaders use temp files? bw

It doesn't sound like Placer Deposit would help. It doesn't really "instance" like other apps do. It duplicates. I think as far as memory goes it's no different than duplicating the model. I use PD all the time and run out of memory consistently with too many models or dealing with high res models. If you can render a full resolution, full quality frame in Animator it should work. When you render the animation are you using renderama? any other plug-ins or shaders? If using renderama how many slaves? Are your rendering single frames in strips? How much memory do you have allocated to Camera? Did you try to render the animation with the shaders turned off? bw

try turning off all network / internet access, (I unplugged the ethernet cable). If the slaves work then, it's probably a network issue. I'm not exactly sure what fixed it, but I think it was just restarting the DSL modem / router. brian

I don't know if you don't know or if you can't say but it would be foolish to assume that any of the 3rd party plug-ins or shaders will ever be updated. We can't even get a working UB version of the best plug-in ever created for EIAS. So I have to think that 64 bit Camera will never be something I can use in real production. but, assuming we are using 32 bit Camera. Lets say I have a big project. In version 8 I can render a snapshot using, 1 core and 1 Camera with 2GB of memory allocated to that Camera. When I send it to rama I can render in 8 Cameras using 8 cores with 2GB allocated to each Camera. I can see in Activity Monitor that each Camera is using about 1.6GB of memory to render the scene. If I try to render the same scene to 32 bit Camera 9 using all cores, will it run out of memory? Will it still need 1.6GB of memory for each core? thanks, bw

Unfortunately, it seems that using 64 bit Camera would be nice, but it's not really practical. I don't do much without some 3rd party plug-in or shader. And it sounds like the plug-ins and shaders will not be updated. I know the 64 bit Camera is something a lot of people asked for, but if you can't use it with any plug-ins or shaders, it doesn't seem to be worth the effort. So, what will be the best way to use 32 bit Camera(s) with Renderama? Would I set up Renderama with 1 Slave and have the 1 Camera render a single frame but using all cores? Or would it better to set up slaves for each core, like the way it works now? If I am using one 32 bit Camera on 8 cores, it will still be limited to 2GB of memory, right?. If I use 8 slaves, running on 1 core each, I can use 2GB per core. Does that make a difference? thanks, bw

Do you know if which, if any, of the plug-ins will be updated? Have you tested any of the plug-ins or shaders to see if they work in 64 bit? Even though the Camera will use multiple cores. Will we still be able to use Renderama? bw

what limitations are there in 32 bit mode? If we use a plug-in can we still render with multiple processors? Is Camera limited to 2GB of RAM? bw one more question... when you say "32 bit mode" is that something that Camera will do automatically or would you set it to "32 bit" or "64 bit" Can I use 64 bit Camera while using a 32 bit plug-in? bw

Has anyone tested the plug-ins to see if they work?

Placer Deposit form northern lights would work too. you could make a couple of unique pieces then randomly instance them over a surface. If you don't already own it, you might want to wait until EIAS 9 comes out. The Northern Lights plug-ins aren't really supported any more and if it doesn't work in 9 it's not worth buying. bw

with EIAS 9 since the Camera is MP will we able to specify the number of cores to use? or, will it just use all the cores? thanks, bw

since all features have been implemented can we at least get list of what will be in EIAS9? We know about the the 64-bit MP Camera and new file importer, but what else? bw

I'm getting this:

I have system drive that holds EIAS and Renderama app, I have a separate internal and SATA external. I have tried to install a new slave on each and it does the same thing. I did find out it must be something with the network. If I turn off the network connection the slaves will launch. I currently have this computer connected (ethernet) to a DSL router. IP is set DHCP. I have tried to set the IP manually and does the same. bw

Tom - I think the RenderamaPrefs is the preferences just for Renderama which is working fine. I'm having trouble with only the RenderamaSlaves apps. I know about setting the ports to different numbers, but I can't open the app to set the port number. I won't create a "RenderamaSlavePrefs" file at all. The Renderama Slave is acting just like it would if it was set to the same port as another slave. But I don't have any slaves runnning (they won't open) Is it possible something else is set to the the port :1616? bw

I'm having a problem with Renderama Slaves I use Renderama nearly every day and today I go to open the Slaves and the applications will not launch. I have deleted the prefs, reinstalled. I have tried the Slave from the 8.0 disk and the newer version from the website. I also deleted the the prefs for Renderama and EIAS. Everything opens and works except for the Slave Applications. I deleted the Preferences folder that holds the Slave preferences and when I attempt to launch the slave it creates a new folder but will not create a new preferences file. Is there any other preferences file I can delete? I have run disk utility and repaired permissions Mac-Pro 10.6.8 (snow leopard)