Messiah Studio - Too long to startup while reading scripts, nearly 8 minutes!!!

[Wegg]

wow. Are you running messiah from floppy disks? Does it ask you "Please insert disk 4" about 1/2 way through?

he he.

Sorry. . . no idea whats going on there. Messiah launches in about 20 seconds for me. Which. . . is kind of long but not THAT long.

[Labuzz]

not sure if you can use plugs and scripts with the demo version.

[khurrum_j]

Wegg: Funny. No Im not on the Amiga :)

Labuzz: Its the default installation. Nothing external loading.

I dont know what's causing this. Ive tried killing other processes in the
background but still! :shrug:

Like I said, after removing the scripts from their
default folder (../modules/scripts), M:S loads normal, like in 4 seconds!

I'm still looking around though.

FYI, that 100% CPU usage? That happens when M:S starts loading the scripts.

Khurrum J

[dobermunk]

Only thing I can suggest (tech master that I am ;-) is perhaps to test the scripts one after the other, to isolate the trouble-maker, or see if its just all the scripts. Another idea might be a firewall setting - wouldn't know why, but stranger things have happened...
I've never experienced something like this.

[khurrum_j]

Thats exactly what I did the first time it happened.

It seems that the script files (*.msa) are all very small files in kilobytes. The smallest is 1 KB and the largest 4 KB. But the content within these files seems to be taking time being read by M:S.

Once I kept only 1 to 2 KB files in the folder and removed anything over that size. The startup then took less than half the time loading up scripts. So I presume M:S is trying to compile these scripts while starting up? Or does it just load the scripts without compiling, but that wouldn't make sense, or would it? Hmm.. :curious:

Same thing happens inside of M:S. When I say compile all scripts (COMMAND>COMPILE ALL SCRIPTS), M:S goes into the same long compiling procedure as it does during startup!

I dont have any third-party firewalls but I am using Windows Firewall. I tried isolating M:S, diabling internet connex, and disabling the anti-virus program. None of these solve the issue.:sad:

Khurrum J

[dobermunk]

Gulp. Wish I could help.
Hopefully Fred or Taron will answer.

[ThomasHelzle]

I don't think anybody ever reported something like that.
What language do you use in your windows installation?
I have only minor problems with my german windows regarding messiah, but maybe it is something to do with that, since it is about reading text files?

Only guessing though...

Good luck!

BTW. What kind of system and graphics card do you have? Maybe it is more like a sideeffect of something else? Is messiah running fast once everything is loaded? The Dino example scene should run realtime 25 fps even with Subdivisions turned on (Tab key).

Cheers,

[khurrum_j]

Everything runs fine after M:S has loaded. Normal speeds, good frame rates. Thats one of the reasons why I still haven't lost my sanity yet! I ran the Dino scene with and without MetaNURBS. Very acceptable speeds.

Something to note though, I dont work in full-screen as the viewport performance really takes a hit. Not to mention I am using a drawing tablet on the system. Its very normal for the mouse pointer to jump here and there. But its favourable in half my screen resolution (the window size I mean). My desktop res. is 1280x1024 / 32 Bits.

System specs aren't one of the sexiest around, but here goes:

IBM Intellistation M Pro
P-IV, 1.5GHZ
1GB RAM
RADEON 9200SE
16GB SCSI (Messiah installed on this drive as its the faster one)
250GB EIDE
21" Monitor (This is keeping me from tearing my hair out!)
etc., etc., etc.

Oh, and its XP PRO in English of course.

Here is the screen shot of the resolution I'm running at:

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/5161/msdesktopgw8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


Khurrum J

[ThomasHelzle]

Well, I definitely wouldn't trust that ATI card.
I have two 22" monitors running at a total of 2800x1120 pixels and no problem with messiah full screen on a GeForce 6800GT (those are very cheap nowadays).
The complete messiah interface is OpenGL, not only the viewports and most problems people have are related to the graphics card.
If you are really interested in messiah, try swapping the card.

I also use a wacom tablet and don't have any slowdown or problems with performance.

Next thing I would look for: do you have an overly active Virus scanner in "On Access" mode running wild?

Did you try to uninstall messiah, delete the remaining program folder and the .cfg file from the temp directory, reboot and then reinstall?

Is your drive defragmented.

Did you do a checkdisk with all options checked on that drive?

If by accident those scripts landed in a bad sector on your HD, it would explain the problem.
Any strange noises while messiah is loading?

Well, you could also try the other drive for installation.

This is definitely not normal, so I would guess it is something with your system or a conflicting software etc.

Good Luck again ;-)

P.S. The startup of messiah on my system is taking 10-15 seconds, recompiling the scripts takes 1-2 seconds...

P.P.S. It may be worth trying out the "Omega Drivers" for your card:
http://www.omegadrivers.net/
I was able to get several peoples machines up to much better speed with them...

[khurrum_j]

I cleaned up my PC last night. I think M:S is loading 20% faster than before I think.
I have optimized the registry and removed the startup processes, including any unknown ones. So that's helping a bit.

Also, regarding the card, I have been looking to get one since two months now.
The card is definitely one of the major problems right now for me. Its bogged, if anything.

I have looked at three cards so far, one's that I could afford at least:

- ATI RADEON 9800 PRO
- ATI RADEON X800 XL
- nVIDIA 6800GT (One you mentioned)
- nVIDIA 6600GT

I am also saving enough to buy Messiah Workstation. A few purchases, but I still need to save for it since dont have the budget now.

Anywho, I'll be looking at that site in a moment. Will letcha' know how its different.

Thanks a lot!

Khurrum J

[khurrum_j]

Okay,

Omega Radeon Drivers are a no-go for me!

Installs and everything, but as soon as I try to change the resolution from the default of 800x600, I get a blue screen of death!

Omega drivers come with a few utilities like MultiRes, ATI Control, RadEditor, etc.

None of these actually let me get passed to changing anything. I get thrown into the BSOD and the system restarts! I've been at it since the last few hours, eventually uninstalling everything.

Following this, I installed the drivers from ATI's site. Back to normal now.

The defragmenting is helping as now it takes M:S only 03 minutes to read the scripts.
Nice!

Khurrum J

[PaulNewman]

Hi, why not try, against all reason, to install messiah on your IDE drive? I've seen some SCSI controllers cause severe bottlenecks on certain systems (although still hard to imagine 3min loading time). Not saying it's like this on your's but trying the IDE shouldn't hurt. :)

[ThomasHelzle]

Sorry for the problems with the Omega Drivers - did you uninstall your ATI Drivers before installing them? The tools that come with the Omegas aren't compatible with the ones that come with some of the standard ATI ones - it is in the install docs...

But if you think about a new card anyway, maybe it is a moot pont.
I personally can really recommend the 6800GT, since it runs with dual monitors and high resolutions and all my 3D apps perfectly (LW, messiah, XSI, SolidThinking, VUE ...).
Mine is from Gainward.

And while ATI has improved their OpenGL, I would still take a Nvidia card over ATI any day.

Cool that optimizing helped - your HD must have been a real mess then. ;-)
Do it once a month and enjoy a better system alltogether :-)
You can also run it several times in a row until nothing much changes anymore.

Also make sure your system drive has a lot of free space for temp files and that your page file is on your fastes drive (best not on the system drive) and has the same size for min and max. I have mine at 2Gig with 2Gig ram in the system.

Also make sure your temp directory isn't full with old crap - I saw systems with gigabytes of useless crap in there...

Good luck and let us know how it goes...

Cheers,

[khurrum_j]

Hi all.

So,

I've tried everything now. Nothing seems to be solving this issue :sad:

I'm almost done saving for the purchase of M:S Workstation :D. But a 'bit' concerned.
Really, its not soothing waiting 3 to 5 minutes for the software to load!

I was wondering if anyone has an old demo copy of Messiah:Animate lying around that I could test on my system. Anything from m:animate 4.0 and up? Seriously, its been so long now and, wasting anymore time on this issue seems futile to say the least.:shrug:

Any help with any m:animate demo is appreciated.

On the subject of purchases, I dont think I can afford a video card for some time now. I'm barely ready (but almost there) to buy M:S, and will have to cope with what I have for now.

Also, does anyone know how to order M:Animate from the pmG store? I couldnt find it.
And how come there aren't any other resellers online. I have been searching if anyone else might be selling Messiah but didn't come up with anything. Guess its only pmG's store then.

Oh and, I also happened to notice the specials for ex-Motionbuilder owners at the store.
Sweet! :applause:

Thanks for reading through :)

Khurrum J

[ThomasHelzle]

Sad to hear that :-(

I have run out of ideas, but there IS something wrong with your system I would say - I never heard of such startup times before. And I have run messiah on much slower systems than yours :-)
One option would be, to look through the scripts and only leave those in the folder you really need. And you always can move them back when needed.
You can definitely remove the shader scripts. :-)

If you happen to have a friend willing to swap (nvidia) graphic cards with you for a test or if you find a cheap Geforce card on ebay etc. (I had the 4800LE before, it ran nicely as well), I still think it would be worth a try.

Did you try installing on the IDE drive?

Messiah:Animate is exactly the same code as Messiah:Studio, just some modules missing - I doubt it would change a thing for you. Workstation is a much better deal anyway. And from the shop, it looks like pmG thinks the same ;-)

Edit: The Shopkeeper seems to have a bit of a problem with his math. 299.- is the full workstation, 219.- is the motionbuilder crossgrade, but it states: "Motion Builder to messiah:studio Workstation (Save $100 - Special Ends Soon without notice !)" >LOL<

I think there are no other resellers - for a time there was one in germany, but he dropped messiah some time ago, since he is mainly a Max-man.

Cheers,

[svintaj]

If you doubt, just install the demo on a friends computer and you will se that it's "someting" with your system!

/ Svante

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