Hi y'all,

Houdini is crashing when I try to render out an image sequence of a SIM sequence which I have already rendered out. I am reading it back in with a file DOP, then object merging the sequence into SOPS. When I go to render it says eventually “An error occurred probably due to insufficient memory”. I have tried altering the settings in the cache manager, which seemed to work, but the render crashed again after about 50 frames, and now it won't render any frames even with the same cache settings. Is there any other memory settings available in Houdini?

My setup is build 8.0.383 on XP, Athlon dual core 4200, 2GB RAM….

Thanks for any help…

old topic again… not sure this can help you but try to switch on dualboot with linux and most of your problems with memory will disappear forever. So I did.

Hmmm….'switch on dual boot'….like there's a button and its done for you?!

I tried to install Linux in a dual boot with XP, but the boot loader wouldn't load and I couldn't boot either OS!! I had to fix my mbr (master boot record) to get XP to load again. This is why I'm slightly tentative about trying it again. Linux is great for stability, but an installation which is not neccessarily guaranteed to not mess up you current setup strikes me as, well, a bit rubbish……

Agreed. I'm a Linux fool, but suggesting to change OS's to fix an app issue isn't realistic.

Have you monitored Houdini's cache manager(under the Windows menu - in Houdini, not windows)? Are you getting any clear clues there re: mem usage? I'm not really clear about the memory issues in DOPs yet - AFAIK there's no separate manager for that so it's supposed to be “automatic”. Try upgrading to a more recent release and see if it handles things better. There is also the possibility that what you're trying to do is simply too much for the system, but I agree that apart from massive datasets this shouldn't really be happening.

Cheers,

J.C.

I downloaded 8.1 last night and tried the scene with that, same result. I like Linux as it does seem to be slightly more stable than XP but I've still have apps crash and throw me out with no warning (Shake particularly). Installation will have to become easier if Linux is going to ever really take off (to the masses I mean).

I now seem to have solved the problem though using 8.0.383, I did two things:-

1. Removed the first 65 SIM files from the SIM sequence (as they were the ones which were already rendered)

2. Increased the page/swap file size that Windows uses by going to Mycomputer>Properties>Advanced>Performance Settings>Advanced tab and then click ‘change’ at the bottom of the dialog.

Not sure which step has got it rendering but its working (so far!!). Hopefully when I get back to uni and start working under Linux this won't be a problem…but I will have to look again at a dual boot methinks…although maybe vista will be more RAM efficient?

Sorry JColdrick, don't agree!
As you know very well problems with memory allocation under WinXp is not just a issue of “buggy code” of Houdini. It' much more deeper and wider problem of memory&threats handling under WinXp architecture, libraries and so on. If Houdini crashes once in Linux and 20 times in WinXp in the same circumstances, it's worth and realistic to think about changing OS. It took me 1 hour (and day more of reading forums for fixing various driver problems ) but it wasn't anything horibble for absolut begginer. My WinXP is also perfectely safe (and after all repairing MBR is not a big deal also).

There is some class of applications which always would work better in one OS then in other. So my little advice was quite worth to mention. I've took it from my expierience - it's pretty realistic & it works - solves the memory problems in Houdini under WInXP.


cheers,
SY.

The problem is for every installation that runs smoothly another does not. The process of attempting to fix the MBR i simple, yes, but it's not guaranteed to work. If it doesn't, you can't access either OS. Switching OS may be viable for someone who only uses Houdini, but after paying for various other software for XP, tweaking all my hardware, updating drivers, installing software etc. etc. it's a big time investment to risk. Also Linux isn't infallable. While at my university running Houdini and Shake under Linux I've still experienced crashes, as I said particularly in Shake which throws me out with no warning once every couple of days.

In my experience Windows is only slightly less stable than Linux (when running Houdini). In all other cases my copy of XP has been rock solid. I think a lot of the time people like to bash Windows and Microsoft just because they are the dominant force in computing and OS's…success breeds contempt…..

I'm using Windows all the time, and I know it's quite solid in 5th incarnation .
I also use Shake and Houdini on both platforms and I can repeat after you, that both of them can work very well on Linux and WinXP. Still Shake as Houdini are much faster/optimized/stable softwares in Linux edition. If you start working on something really hard… like your DOP simulations - these small differences in “platform software aplication” start to make a matter!

You know nothing about lagendary Shake performance untill you try it on Linux. Because on Linux it really rocks!

I didn't mean WinXp can not be used for Houdini. I meant most of Houdini momory allocation problems rise from platform dependence issues so if you'd like to get rid of it, change OS.

I'm really encouraging you to setup dual boot. Newest Fedora, or SUSE, one day of work and at least you have a choice.

good luck,
SY.

I do want a dual boot, but it just makes me nervous! I am considering giving it another go, I've recently unpgraded my PC to a dual core and have recently loaded all my software back on and tweaked everything as I like it (as I mentioned), but I think I will give it another go in the future. I tried Fedora (32 bit) before when the GRUB loader wouldn't work. Do you know if the 64 bit versions are more stable (with regard to the boot loader)? Or are other versions of Linux meant to have better/less finicky boot loaders such as Ubuntu etc.?

I'm sure there are somewhere here people more suitable to give you detailed linux advices. I work on Fedora 5, on dualcore Pentium D, and I had no problems with Grub. I had problems with systems co-exsisting under very specific partition setup (Linux on second part. of 3rd hd…). As I know 32bit/64bit compilation won't have any influence on Grub work. It's still the same grub… There is also problems with accesing you data on NTFS - it's good to have one Fat partition for exchanging data between systems. NTFS is still very problemativ for Linux - you can access it but you can not write on it…


cheers,
SY.

Glad you got your problem sorted, Dean.

Symek - you running in a production environment? You don't change platforms on a whim. If you read my comment carefully, you'd see that I'm not disagreeing with any given app being more or less stable/productive/whatever on different OS's(why do you think my avatar is what it is?), I'm saying telling someone to change their OS to address those issues is, as already pointed out by Dean, rubbish. And he's right.

Something to consider? Absolutely. However, I'm trying to imagine someone telling be that a certain feature in Sycloth didn't work the way I liked, to go out and buy Maya and run in Windows and it's solved. It would make *me* grind my teeth, anyway.

J.C.