Getting frustrated with bugs... 2005-06-03 - By Sandy Sutherland
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Just to add - we use all Geforce cards here - various ones, and they all
work fine - not to say we don't have crashes, but no more than anyone else
here using other software!! I would strongly suspect your drivers!!
I have found the Drivers from www.guru3d.com to be very good - I currently
have 66.93 installed all round!
S.
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Sandy Sutherland Digital Doodeller - TD
The Refinery (Cape) http://www.refinery.co.za
mailto:sandy@(protected)
(P) (+27 21) 480 3132 (F) (+27 21) 480 3101
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-- -- Original Message -- --
From: "Joel Blackwell" <joel@(protected)>
To: <XSI@(protected)>
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 4:37 PM
Subject: Re: Getting frustrated with bugs...
> Thanks for the additional replies, guys. One of the problems seems to
> be- if I do exactly what I'm supposed to, XSI works okay. If I deviate,
> even slightly, everything goes awry. It's a shame because I spend hours
> in the manuals trying to work out if I've done something wrong, when
> most of the time that weird thing I saw moments before really was a
> 'weird thing' after all.
>
> When I said most guys have money to throw around, I was more referring
> to the ability to get the right hardware for the job. Unfortunately,
> I'll have to build a new rig for XSI, because I need my gamers card so I
> can stay compatabile with the other programs I have related to game
> development. It's a shame, but I guess that's the way the cookie
> crumbles, as they say.
>
> Hopefully in the future XSI's small quirks will be ironed out so I can
> stop cowering in a corner, waiting for my computer to explode after
> connecting a shader the way I'm not supposed to, or something.
>
> -Joel
>
>
> kim aldis wrote:
> > There's a few things worth mentioning here:
> >
> > First, to re-iterate what has already been said here, that Xsi at 4.2 is
> > extremely stable and I rarely see it crash these days. One issue only
these
> > past 4 weeks and that I nailed down to a dodgy .mov file in the roto
view.
> > Changed the roto file and all was dandy.
> >
> > Remember that graphics card issues are also related to any kind of
picking
> > so if you're having problems connecting RT nodes then this is likely a
card
> > issue. That said, I used the Go FX 5600 for quite some time without any
> > major issues. I appreciate this isn't the same card but generally Nvidia
is
> > seen as good for xsi. Generally speaking, though, the best bet is to
always
> > go latest drivers and to get them from Nvidia.
> >
> > Avoid recovering from crashed scenes. There's no guarantee that the
saved
> > scene is reliable and given the state of Xsi at the point of save it's
> > highly likely to have some form of corruption. Many people here have
> > reported instability issues with scenes that have been recovered. Far
better
> > to adopt a policy of regular saving.
> >
> >
> > Remember that although Xsi is powerful and gives you a great deal of
control
> > over your work, that control comes with the penalty of complexity which
in
> > turn gives you greater scope for error.
> >
> >
> > And finally, never underestimate the facility that sticky fingers and
> > unfamiliarity have for making a mess of things without your realising
it.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > kim@(protected)
> > kim@(protected)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>-- --Original Message-- --
> >>From: owner-xsi@(protected)
> >>[mailto:owner-xsi@(protected)] On Behalf Of Joel Blackwell
> >>Sent: 03 June 2005 13:59
> >>To: XSI@(protected)
> >>Subject: Re: Getting frustrated with bugs...
> >>
> >>Thanks to all who've posted responces so far... I appreciate
> >>it! It was a little daft of me not to post some of the
> >>problems I'm having, so I'll do so now.
> >>
> >>Firstly, I'm running a GeforceFX 5600 (and have run with a
> >>number of different drivers.. currently the latest) I've had
> >>no major issues, graphics wise.
> >>
> >>Now for some problems: Simple things, like creating two
> >>layers for a simple shader, and then attaching a texture to
> >>each. Then, half of the time I can't disconnect the textures
> >>at all from the layers (mainly a problem for the tree view)
> >>and the other half of the time, they do disconnect, but not
> >>visually, so I can't tell what's connected to what until I
> >>hit refresh.
> >>
> >>Then (usually while trying to disconnect the textures from the first
> >>problem) If I hit right mouse a few too many times in the
> >>tree view, XSI crashes. Even though it tells me it
> >>successfully saves, when I load XSI again and try to recover
> >>the scene, it tells me the scene is the wrong version
> >>(version 420 or something along those lines) and then
> >>proceeds to tell me it requires version 420. It then crashes again.
> >>
> >>Here's one from XSIbase...
> >>
> >>I loaded in an X format model with textures (not made by
> >>myself) and found it to have a red tint to it. I adjusted
> >>the ambient lighting for the materials to grey, and wondered
> >>why, even though the textures were grey in colour, the model
> >>still retained the red tint in the 3D view.
> >>However, the model rendered exactly as I thought it should
> >>look (that is, with grey ambience). Long story short- after
> >>a lot of experimentation, I found the problem to be that the
> >>model's texture was connected to the diffuse port of the
> >>phong shader. I'd adjusted the phong's ambience from red to
> >>grey, but XSI didn't change it fully. If I disconnected the
> >>texture and reconnected it again, the ambience was set back
> >>to red (again) and when I then changed it to grey, it fixed
> >>the problem.
> >>
> >>Very strange, and for those wondering, I checked the scene ambience.
> >>Really odd things like this keep popping up the more I work
> >>in the render tree... weird anomalies that keep me busy for
> >>hours, rummaging through the manual, trying to find out why
> >>it's happening.
> >>
> >>It's things like those that I encounter all over the place
> >>and make me wonder if anyone bothered to test XSI at all
> >>before releasing it. I'm sure that I'm overreacting somewhat
> >>at the moment... and you guys are right, they're not the
> >>biggest problems in the world. But, it'd be nice to have
> >>someone say, "Hey, we're going to get those things fixed, so
> >>people don't start comparing XSI to Truespace 3!"
> >>
> >>-Joel
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>Morten Bartholdy wrote:
> >>
> >>>Joel I do remember you ;) and I'm not sure my answer will
> >>
> >>be of much
> >>
> >>>help, but here goes:
> >>>
> >>>I use XSI on lots of different hardware combinations
> >>
> >>including a few
> >>
> >>>consumer gfxcards and though I do run in to the occasional bug or
> >>>crash,
> >>>V4.2 appears very stable for my use, which is any flavor of
> >>
> >>3D & VFX
> >>
> >>>for commercials and feature film alike. So I get around in
> >>
> >>the app and
> >>
> >>>I can't recognize your problems. I know this does not help
> >>
> >>you much,
> >>
> >>>but it leads me to think you are either suffering from a very
> >>>incompatible gfxcard (you don't say which one), or bad
> >>
> >>hardware - perhaps memory.
> >>
> >>>You say it happens when working with shaders, so what
> >>
> >>exactly is it you do?
> >>
> >>>Do you tweak parameters on existing ones or write your own?
> >>
> >>Granted -
> >>
> >>>tweaking shaders with the renderregion active causes hangups or
> >>>crashes now and then, but although annoying, nothing I would call
> >>>serious flaws. The only times I have experienced repeated
> >>
> >>crashes or
> >>
> >>>the like, was when I was beating what ought to be a dead horse, and
> >>>was too tired to think of reasonable workarounds or even a better
> >>>solution. In my experience (having taught 3D at several
> >>
> >>schools in my
> >>
> >>>country) those that keep running into trouble with the app
> >>
> >>often keep
> >>
> >>>using it in ways that may provoke certain weaknesses in the
> >>
> >>sw. I am
> >>
> >>>not saying that is what you do - I am only trying to give
> >>
> >>you pointers regarding how to work on fixing your specific problem.
> >>
> >>>When you say no-one seems to care about your problems, bear in mind
> >>>that if it is a gfxcard issue, it could be fixed for an amount
> >>>equalling a few hours work for many professionals on this,
> >>
> >>and though
> >>
> >>>I understand your pain, and appreciate that you may not be in a
> >>>position to aquire a certified card, you may need to
> >>
> >>understand why others might not be bothered.
> >>
> >>>You might get more help from some of all the good guys
> >>
> >>residing here
> >>
> >>>if you provide a bit more specific info about the nature of your
> >>>predicament. I am no hardware expert, but I have used XSI
> >>
> >>on several
> >>
> >>>consumer cards including even an old GeForce 2 GTS, and apart from
> >>>performance and OGL accuracy they are not much different from
> >>>Wildcats, Fire or nVidia FX cards for average daily use, so
> >>
> >>I am curious to know which card you are using.
> >>
> >>>
> >>>Best regards
> >>>
> >>>Morten Bartholdy
> >>>3D & VFX Artist
> >>>Denmark
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>-- -- Original Message -- --
> >>>From: "Joel Blackwell" <joel@(protected)>
> >>>To: <XSI@(protected)>
> >>>Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 12:39 PM
> >>>Subject: Getting frustrated with bugs...
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>I'm considering selling XSI, mainly because I'm finding it hard to
> >>>>learn the program, due to the fact I run into a bug every
> >>
> >>few minutes
> >>
> >>>>when working with shaders. Every time I post about the
> >>
> >>problems (on a
> >>
> >>>>forum), someone pipes up and tells me something like, "You
> >>
> >>must have
> >>
> >>>>missed something." or, "The problem must be with your
> >>
> >>graphics card."
> >>
> >>>>Perhaps either one of those could be true, since I'm not using a
> >>>>certified card, and I'm no XSI know-it-all. However, no
> >>
> >>one seems to
> >>
> >>>>care if the problem could actually be worth looking to. My
> >>
> >>posts just
> >>
> >>>>disappear into nothingness, never to be seen again. Seemingly, my
> >>>>only solution I have is- risk paying some money for a
> >>
> >>certified card
> >>
> >>>>(which is beyond my price range at the moment) that may not fix the
> >>>>problems I've been seeing anyway.
> >>>>
> >>>>This is obviously a great community for people who work in a
> >>>>professional environment, and have money to throw around everywhere
> >>>>for proper support and the hardware to suit a professional
> >>
> >>pipeline.
> >>
> >>>>But, for people like myself, XSI seems more and more the poorer
> >>>>program to go with. Softimage may be doing everything they can to
> >>>>increase their userbase, but the program just isn't
> >>
> >>designed for the average person...
> >>
> >>>>and right now, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I mean,
> >>
> >>why develop
> >>
> >>>>a program for certified (non-gamer) cards, and then aim the
> >>
> >>program at
> >>
> >>>>mod makers for games? It just doesn't make any sense.
> >>>>
> >>>>That aside, does anyone have some advice for me? Last time
> >>
> >>I posted
> >>
> >>>>on this mailing list everyone tried to kill me as the marauding
> >>>>invader from the land of Truespace (if anyone remembers
> >>
> >>that fiasco).
> >>
> >>>>This time, I'm hopeful that won't happen again, and someone
> >>
> >>will help
> >>
> >>>>me get this program working as it should. Or, the
> >>
> >>Softimage crew will
> >>
> >>>>actually note down some bugs to be fixed, so I don't have
> >>
> >>to sell XSI
> >>
> >>>>and move onto something that works.
> >>>>
> >>>>Thanks.
> >>>>
> >>>>-Joel
> >>>>---
> >>>>Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo@(protected) with the
> >>
> >>following text in body:
> >>
> >>>>unsubscribe xsi
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
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> >>>
> >>
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