Hi all, I'm having a bit of an issue moving a .hip file from a Linux workstation to an XP workstation. The file opens fine but after a few minutes I recieve either a Fatal Error message or Memory allocation error message. The hardware in both systems is roughly the same, dual 2.8 xeon, 2GB RAM, Nvidia Quddro 750's. Its a fairly heavy scene, but I don't understand why it would work under one system and not the other.

Any help wopuld be great, i'm really stuck on this one!

JT

First thing I'd do is monitor the memory with the XP monitor thingie(it takes years of experience to get this level of technical terminology training, you know ). One of the numerous reasons we don't have Windows in our pipeline is the mem management - Windows simply has more bloat, has some really stupid swapping protocols, and it's slower when comparing on the same hardware. Also, the way it manages out-of-memory situations is less than ideal. Given you seem to be pushing the envelope with the hip size, this may be related.

Having said that, Houdini shouldn't crash, unless it's literally running out of memory and swap, which is why I'd check that first.

Cheers,

J.C.

I'm sure we've had problems on windows if a hip file takes more the 1.6Gb, and I think someone else on the forum talked about it once. Definately worth checking memory usage.

If you have large SOP networks and using Houdini 7, I'd suggest to start adding turning on the unload (the “U” column while in list mode of the network editor) on Linux, save it, and then try loading your file in Windows.

Hi, thanks for the advice. Still using Houdini 6. I checked the mem usage whilst running Houdini. The Error messages occurs when the mem usage hits between 1.45 and 1.60 gigs. I've got 2GB of RAM and 3.5GB of swap, so I'm not running out. Interesting what Simon was say about a 1.6 gig file usage limit. I'm seem to remember opening this file on a Win 2K system without any issues, and far slower hardware, some time ago. I was wondering if it could be an XP issue?

JT

I've got 2GB of RAM and 3.5GB of swap, so I'm not running out.

Hi JonT,

It doesn't matter how much RAM or swap you have, on a 32 bit machine, any application is limited to 2GB of addressable memory. The swap space is used by the operating system as a temporary storage space for all applications running (including portions of the operating system itself). So if you had 3 applications running, each of them can use up to 2 GB of memory. But obviously they can't all live in memory at once, so the swap space is used to keep the parts of memory that aren't immediately needed. The more memory you have, the more the operating system can keep in live RAM, and therefore fewer swaps and faster running times.

The rest of the 2GB that seem to have gone missing is usually because of memory fragmentation (holes in memory), and the way the operating system loads DLLs in memory. For example, Houdini could ask for 200 MB, and even though there is 400 MB available, none of it maybe in a straight 200MB chunk, so the operating system tells Houdini it can't have 200 MB of memory, and Houdini crashes.

Hopefully that helps explain the situtaion, should you care about all the detail .

George.

sorry for highchecking the thread, but I had some crashes during mantra renders on XP and I have 2 gig of ram on that pc

For example, Houdini could ask for 200 MB, and even though there is 400 MB available, none of it maybe in a straight 200MB chunk, so the operating system tells Houdini it can't have 200 MB of memory, and Houdini crashes.

could that be the reason? if yes, what can one do about it to prevent it?