Bugs with 2.0.1.1

[PorcupineFloyd]

Thanks for all your help guys.

I'll try to stress my hardware a bit with suggested software, and maybe even do an OS reinstall, but that's a real pain...

[PorcupineFloyd]

I think that I've found what's triggering this render error - weather.

It looks like my CPU is overclocked to it's maximum compared to what my cooling can do and during the winter days it was computing at it's limits but now - it's either crashing or giving an overheating error while doing a linpack test.

I've also found that Vdrop may have something to do with TG2 rendering as CPU usage is fluctuating while rendering and voltage drop may be too much considering overclocking. I really don't want to get rid of my 3.2 GHz but it looks like I'll have to. I've enabled CPU "Load Line Calibration" but I still have to do some testing in order to determine if that helps or not.

So, let's say that this crashing error is due to my overheating or undervoltaged CPU, but there's still something with those models crashing Terragen while trying to save a .tgd.

Btw. I love OCCT splash anim.

[Oshyan]

Thanks for the update. We'll look into the OBJ saving issue and the others, but I'm glad the crashing issue seems to be system-specific.

- Oshyan

[himalofa]

I know this thread is aging now but I was looking for a solution the the exact same problems PorcupineFloyd  was having and I am using 2.0.3.1. The BSOD's have been quite rare but the black triangles make TG2 unusable especially for animation where it is not possible to touch them up by hand. It makes the animation look like a 1920's film with black specks flashing all over the place.

I have tried re rendering a frame and the blackness does not seem to appear in the same spot twice. About 1 in 5 frames is affected.

I am using 32bit Vista with a Q6600 and Gigabyte P45 board  and NV9600. Similar to PorcupineFloyd

I have also been struggling with the GI flicker problem often mentioned in this forum. I tried all the suggestions and in the end turned GI off and put in another sun with shadows disabled. This works but the GI problem is still there. Any solution yet? I have also been having a lot of CTD's. Whilst making the animation path I open a separate window on the terrain and move the camera from there. It seems to be at random times whilst this window is open that I get the crash, but it happens about every 30 mins.

I think TG2 produces the best pictures of any landscape prog, and I have used most of them but it is so full of bugs that a simple project becomes a mammoth task and often, finally, becomes  impossible. This is no longer the tech preview (or have I got that wrong?) and having paid my $400 I would expect something a bit more finished and these bugs, that have evidently been around for months, to be attended to.

[TheBlackHole]

   Whoa. Terragen causing the Blue Screen of Death?! That has NEVER happened to me and I hope it never does! And I've had black areas in renders before but that was 0.9 when the Sky Size was too small! The only problem with TG2 renders on my system is that they're veeerrrrrrrrrryyyyyyy sslllllllooooooooooowwwwwwwww. They take so long, you could probably learn programming code and write a faster renderer before the Terragen render was done! And I'm pretty sure this is a limitation of the free version, but if I use populations in my scenes, the render is reduced to half size! And I did a scene recently where a planet is getting smacked by asteroids, and it was set up like this: Main planet has one moon with an atmosphere. Huge asteroid (second planet) crashing into main planet. Three smaller asteroids in front of the camera. Orange light source near the huge asteroid. I add another small asteroid and render, and the moon disappears! The light source doesn't work at all, no matter what number of asteroids I have, and the huge asteroid turns black! Do you know why it happens? I have renders on the Asteroids! thread; look at them to see the problem. And the scene I'm describing is in the renders there. I'm pretty sure I didn't post any of the "black asteroid" pics there.

[jo]

Hi,

First off it looks like most of PorcupineFloyds problems were caused by overclocking. Are you overclocking your machine?

I know this thread is aging now but I was looking for a solution the the exact same problems PorcupineFloyd  was having and I am using 2.0.3.1. The BSOD's have been quite rare but the black triangles make TG2 unusable especially for animation where it is not possible to touch them up by hand. It makes the animation look like a 1920's film with black specks flashing all over the place.

I have tried re rendering a frame and the blackness does not seem to appear in the same spot twice. About 1 in 5 frames is affected.

Do you have a project you could send us? Even some example images would be helpful.

I have also been struggling with the GI flicker problem often mentioned in this forum. I tried all the suggestions and in the end turned GI off and put in another sun with shadows disabled. This works but the GI problem is still there. Any solution yet?

I'm not sure how the GI problem could still be there if you have GI disabled. Again it would help to see some examples and/or a project.

have also been having a lot of CTD's. Whilst making the animation path I open a separate window on the terrain and move the camera from there. It seems to be at random times whilst this window is open that I get the crash, but it happens about every 30 mins.

Do you get the crash while you are moving the camera? What sort of window do you have open? Is it an ordinary 3D Preview or is it a heightfield preview?

Regards,

Jo

[jritchie777]

I've had the same problems with holes in low render and full render but only with the alpine shader.

Question:  What OS are you running and do you have any compression software running on your hard drive, I'm assuming you have checked for appropriate space on the drive.  Another thing I would check would be the permissions, also depending on the OS, may need to set permissions to Admin...   Just some thoughts.

JR

[himalofa]

To answer Jo's questions.

Are you overclocking your machine? Just a little 2.4 to 2.7GHz Its been cold here and I don't think it's a heat problem.

Images attached:

The GI problem has not gone away I am just not using GI. GI renders certainly look better but it seems they can't be used in animations.

The CTD's occur just with the second window open. It is a heightfield preview opened in a new window. I move the camera with the arrows but it does not always crash, when it does it is usually soon after a move ie a few seconds. BTW it would be nice to have rotation of the camera in these views.

I have spent all day on the black triangle problem trying all options I could think of. On closer inspection it look like they all occur in the sky. I disabled clouds but they still occurred. I then upped the atmosphere samples to 60 and they seemed to be reduced but still occurring. My latest test I set samples to 50 and deselected "Adjust to distance" and I have had 30 frames clean so far. There are so many undocumented parameters that all this is guesswork. How about context sensitive help?

[himalofa]

Seems I was wrong about it just being the sky. Here is one on the terrain with settings as above.

[jo]

Hi himalofa,

It often seems when we have unusual problems like this, and these certainly don't seem to be widespread because we'd be hearing more about it, it's because someone is overclocking their machine. I would suggest try this with your machine in a normal configuration and let us know if you still have problems. If you do then we'll look into it further.

Regards,

Jo

[dandelO]

I get these often. Tiny little black triangles in, almost exclusively, the sky. My machine isn't overclocked.

If I consistently get these render errors the only option I have is to take the very same .tgd and render in the last beta version. It NEVER has these errors.

[cyphyr]

Well unfortunately we cant all get the latest Beta version
Richard

[PorcupineFloyd]

Just to review - my problems were caused by bad overclocking parameters which caused BSOD when Terragen 2 was generating spikes in CPU usage. It started happening from 2.0.1.1 or some of the latest betas prior to TG2 final release. I've found that turning on Loadline Calibration fixed this problem as CPU was less affected by voltage spikes.

I still however (with the latest version available) experience those small black triangles in renders. There seems to be a rule with it that goes as this: If the render quality falls, probability of displaying small, black triangles increases. It looks like the renderer is missing some data and leaving the triangles unrendered. It's not a big deal as it happens only in preview renders and almost never exists with Q at 0.7 or 0.8.

[dandelO]

Well unfortunately we cant all get the latest Beta version
Richard

Sorry, Richard. I meant the LAST public beta. 1.9xxxxxxx http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=4463.0
I don't have any new beta versions either.

[dandelO]

In my Iona image there is one of these missing triangles, I left it in because it kind of looks like someone standing on the cliff top, or a little terrain outcrop. It isn't, it's a missing sky triangle. I usually just postwork them out if it happens.

That render had a detail level above 0.7 and it still happened.

It isn't a common thing at all, though. It only happens very occaisionally but in some specific scenes it'll be persistant.
The same scenes render perfectly in the last, pre-TG2 beta.