TG2 Mac crashing problem - suspect the video card

[lat 64]

I've been having some T.G. lockup troubles with my Mac. I wonder if this is the right place to post a few questions to narrow down the problem. Or, should I post TG2 area?
I'm suspicious of the video card. I'll try to compose a comprehensive list of the failures for anyone interested.

Thanks,
Russ

[Oshyan]

This sounds like a support issue, so I'm moving it to that area of the forums.

What makes you suspect the video card in particular? What are the circumstances of the freezes, are there common factors or does it seem somewhat random? Have you had any problems with other applications.

- Oshyan

[jo]

Hi Russ,

Can you give us more specifics about your machine? What sort of Mac is it, what's the video card and what version of OS X are you running? I would be interested to hear more information about your problems.

Regards,

Jo

[lat 64]

Ah, thank you for the Move.
Must start by saying I have learned some really good housekeeping habits and methods for faster renders from the forum posts, Wikis, and tutorials; so I'm happy with the new info you guys are putting out for us noobs. .

I've been trying to suss this out myself but after not much real progress, I need to stop and ask directions like a real man.
I have a earlier G5. I'l just copy the specs here:
Edit : mac OSX 10.5.8
Model Name:   Mac Pro
 Model Identifier:   MacPro1,1
 Processor Name:   Dual-Core Intel Xeon
 Processor Speed:   2.66 GHz
 Number Of Processors:   2
 Total Number Of Cores:   4
 L2 Cache (per processor):   4 MB
 Memory:   6 GB
 Bus Speed:   1.33 GHz
 Boot ROM Version:   MP11.005D.B00
 SMC Version (system):   1.7f10

The display/video info here:

NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT:

 Chipset Model:   NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
 Type:   Display
 Bus:   PCIe
 Slot:   Slot-1
 PCIe Lane Width:   x16
 VRAM (Total):   256 MB
 Vendor:   NVIDIA (0x10de)
 Device ID:   0x0393
 Revision ID:   0x00a1
 ROM Revision:   3011
 Displays:
VG910s:
 Resolution:   1280 x 1024 @ 60 Hz
 Depth:   32-Bit Color
 Core Image:   Hardware Accelerated
 Mirror:   Off
 Online:   Yes
 Quartz Extreme:   Supported
 Rotation:   Supported
Cinema HD Display:
 Resolution:   1920 x 1200
 Depth:   32-Bit Color
 Core Image:   Hardware Accelerated
 Main Display:   Yes
 Mirror:   Off
 Online:   Yes
 Quartz Extreme:   Supported
 Rotation:   Supported

The problems:

My "crash" is seems to me a system lockup in the user interface. I can still hear the hard drive working and sometimes during animation sequence renders I can hear the fans spool up even during lockup, so I think it's just the GUI that's gone west, and the unix below is still working.

1) I have never been able to open the object renderer window without a crash.
2) I can't seem to import .mtl for an object(this could just be Newbie stuff)
A crash can happen with an old real messy file or a new file with just a few shaders from default settings. Just no trends there.
A crash can also happen soon after I start from a cold computer or after a long day with a warm one. I have not yet seen anything to make me think it's overheating.
The NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT was just a cheapo card for us desktop publishers and has been fine for that. But I lock up whenever I am attempting 3-d stuff in T2 or Daz3d or even Google sketchup. If I get any indication that the Video card is responsible, I will be happy to upgrade.

Thanks so much for responding,
Russ in Alaska

Here's a link to my art blog with some of the ways I have used T2 to actually earn a living. it has been an awesome tool for my work. Some just-for fun work and my first movie there too
http://rcmportfolio.blogspot.com/

[jo]

Hi Russ,

I am a bit suspicious of the graphics card. I have a range of Macs and haven't had any problems like that with TG2, although all my Macs currently in use have ATI graphics cards. Not saying they're better or anything, just that I haven't used NVIDIA cards on a Mac for a while. It's quite telling that you have problems in other 3D apps as well.

You may have some crash logs which are indicative of the problems. If you look in the Console you may see some. The Console application can be found in the Utilities folder in your Applications folder. There is a list on the right. Look under LOG FILES then ~/Library/Logs and then CrashReporter. There may be entries for Terragen 2 there. If there are you can context click on them to bring up a menu which will let you see the log files in the Finder. You can then email any recent ones to me at:

jomeder@planetside.co.uk

As an aside, I had a look at your portfolio, interesting stuff. Funnily enough I used to do technical illustration for a textbook company and have drawn many of the sorts of things you have. Unfortunately it was all black and white and I never got to use TG for it :-). I did like your schematics. In another strange twist, I live in a log house and am building one at the moment. The Alaskan building regulations provided me with lots of useful information when we were getting started.

Regards,

Jo

[Oshyan]

I agree that the funny behavior with other 3D apps definitely makes the video card seem a likely suspect. Also I wanted to echo Jo and say it's great seeing TG2 being used for non-photo realistic illustrations. It's a less common use so it's always fun to see.

- Oshyan

[lat 64]

I e-mailed the log files to Jo.

Something I forgot to mention which could be related:
The TG2 interface is very slow to change node windows for me. 5 to 10 seconds is average to move say from render settings to shaders or whatever. Again, this is just GUI-related sluggishness since The computer seems to be quite capable when it comes to render times*.
I have now 6 gigs of ram, and by managing the render threads in TG2, I get reasonable render times for this old mac. In fact, TG2 is the first program to make the fans run up to high speed. I thought a car was pulling into my driveway and I got up to see who was visiting me
Some day we'll all have 128-bit machines and world peace too.

Russ

*I'm sure we all want faster

[lat 64]

Update for closure:
Jo took a look at the crash log files for my mac and pretty much advised trying a new card to see what would improve.
I'll do that late next month, but first I have to give up beer for a few weeks to save the dosh for an upgrade. Pooh!

Thanks for the thoughts, cheers,
Russ

[jo]

Hi Russ,

Just something else I thought I'd point out. The slowest machine I test on is a PowerBook G4 from 2004 with a 1.5 GHz G4 processor and a Radeon Mobility 9700 with 128 MB of VRAM. It doesn't take 5-10 seconds for that to move between the project views so I again I suspect something squiffy with your graphics card. There is a bit of OpenGL stuff happening when you change views so again that points to the graphics card. It's a shame it looks like something has gone wrong with it, I have a machine I can't use at the moment because I can't afford a new graphics card for it, but at least that's maybe one more data point which makes it seem that your graphics card is on the way out.

Regards,

Jo

[lat 64]

Hey!
I have an old G4 sitting right here on the floor doing nothing, no monitor though. They used to call those things the wind tunnel—really noisy.

I don't really think my card is on the blink, I think it's just choking on 3d verticies. I'll try to get a loaner card if I can, but I'll probably order one soon.

Thanks for the additional thoughts,

Russ