Max 5, 5.1 stababilty....

[holosynthetic]

only when i have complex renders does it crash on me, when i cancel the render or when it finishes rendering and trys to process who knows what

[markdc]

Originally posted by nomis
Hey Guys,

I've been using Max since version 2.5 and it has always been very stable, but now with version 5 I am almost unable to use it.
I am running a new dell precision with dual 2G Xeons, Wildcat 6110 and 2G Ram, and Max is constantly crashing,.. usually when I open up the material editor, even on a new scene!
I have had to go back to v 4.2, but I am very dissapointed in discreet, and the .1 patch hasn't helped any.

has anyone else noticed this problem?

thanks

Try using the direct3D driver instead of OpenGL. I don't think I've had a single crash since I switched.

[CiF]

Who wants to use directX with a wildcat !!! ?

Max sucks ... and I'm a max user since 3ds 3 dos ...

just lazy enough to switch to another soft :(-

[erilaz]

What brian said is true. Switching to direct3D viewports stopped 95% of my crashes.:thumbsup:

[nomis]

did you guys have the same issue as well then?....or did your computer crash during other functions as well.....
I was also crashing heavily when I rendered a single preview frame and then saved it to the hard drive.....
also the "save as" command would lead to a crash many times....

seriously...I am getting an incredible amount of crashes on a regular basis......and it is happening to all of our licenses, both stand-alone versions...and network versions.
And they are all on on solid machines.

Im not sure if the OpenGL is the issue....as many of the crashes are occuring during "save" commands........

[erilaz]

Hmm... sounds like you have more issues than me. My crashing stuff generally happened during the day-to-day mesh-grinding.

Are you running Norton virus software by any chance? There were heaps of issues with that and max.

I've never crashed with renders or saves.

Have you actually contacted your reseller or discreet about this matter? This seems a pretty large problem if it's happening to all your workstations.

[nomis]

yea, we are using Norton anti-virus that runs accross the network....the office also started running this "big brother" internet traffic program that tracks everyones internet usage...sites visited......(ive gotta get out of there........).


I think Ill have to call the reseller tommorow........

Thanks!

[markdc]

Originally posted by nomis
did you guys have the same issue as well then?....or did your computer crash during other functions as well.....
I was also crashing heavily when I rendered a single preview frame and then saved it to the hard drive.....
also the "save as" command would lead to a crash many times....

seriously...I am getting an incredible amount of crashes on a regular basis......and it is happening to all of our licenses, both stand-alone versions...and network versions.
And they are all on on solid machines.

Im not sure if the OpenGL is the issue....as many of the crashes are occuring during "save" commands........

I had some crashes occur when manipulating the viewports and some other random crashes. I think this is just one thing you can try to see if it helps. If it does, then you know it's a OpenGL issue.

[sam]

Norton anti-virus is likely causing your problems.

This is an old issue and you probably should have checked with support before assuming a general software instability issue. In fact, when something is crashing like crazy it is almost certainly not a general software problem but a specific system configuration problem (since Discreet doesn't release software that crashes like crazy in standard system configurations, or at least what their QA team considered standard system configurations)

Max can run trouble-free, but you need to keep yourself informed of the issues that can cause problems. Visit the support forum on discreet, get help there, and keep tabs on the issues that come up.


sam

[Aaron Moore]

err got to vi2.com and go to the 1st news archives.. there is a link to the new cdilla files which should fix your problem with norton and the sys login issue...

[E.T]

Max never crashed on me before. NEVER.
ok one time when i was looking at a movie and playing a game and... but when iwas just working? NEVER.
and ive got almost an identical setup to you, except ive got a quadro4.

But since 5.1, crashes are commonplace, and i cant see a pattern either. And i agree with whoever said it: im not gonna switch from open gl.

Ill try that cdilla thingamabob and see if it works.

Otherwise im regretting i patched it.

[Maven]

Nomis...I have almost the same computer as you just may be 8 to 12 monthes older....

I have The Dell 530, Dual 1.7 Xeons, 1.5 Gigs of Ram, Wildcat 5110. And I rarely crash with max, and I am using dual monitors on with the 5110. The only time I really crash is if I have too many apps open...PS, Max, Lightscape, IE, Outlook then it slows down quite a bit and I usually crash max first.

I think may be you are not set up right. I am using OpenGL 1.2.

How big is your swap file? and how much space do you have left on your partitions? and what OS are you on?

[neversong]

man~ I hate Norton AntiVirus!!!

:shame:

[jadedchron]

i think you jynxed me because now i'm getting buttloads of crashes hehe :wip:

[Is-boset]

Before when i work in 3DMax i suffer continuos crashes, that was each time that i run 3DMax, usually i don't need close 3DMax cause "him" crashes. but a fiend tell me that go back to windows 98 and upgrade the video driver, and belive it works, the bad it's that can't use OpenGL or Direct3D drivers cause the new version of video driver produce visualitions-bugs in viewports.

NOMIS tell to us what the discreet guys tell you.
MAX crashs but i'm stick :hmm:

[E.T]

what would the swapfile do? curious!

[Maven]

If you don't have enough room on your ram some things that are open and not being used go to your swap file and free up space for max to use.

[E.T]

and swapfile is the same as pagefile? long time no tweak :)
Should it be large or small? Cause i remember when i used to tweak, some apps would work better if the swap/pagefile was small.

[Maven]

I believe that Discreet says that the swap file (page file) should be 3 times the amount of RAM. Or it could be 1.5 times I can't remember what I read, I know that I have 3 times. If you have the room why not?

[mouj]

Howdy !

i might be wrong, but usually speaking, the bigger the better : )
I'd be curious to know also if swap is same as pagefile.. i guess it is.

anyhow i remember once reading an article on setting your pagefile, and it said that you ought to set it to same values for it to work best

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/mouj/works/pagefilesettings.jpg

mouj

[Maven]

Yes the term is interchangeable. And it is also true that you should set the intial value and the max. value to the same amount of MB's.

[jadedchron]

i believe it's 1.5-2.5x your ram. however for xp, the page file handling is bad and shouldn't be used at all

[mouj]

Lol ! Xp is BAD !!
:scream:

mouj

[E.T]

im on xp, and i sort of like it. :surprised
why is the pagefile bad?

[nomis]

I have 15G free on my hard-drive, so I dont think its the pagefile,
Im thinking its a quirky network issue as it seems to crash during save features, or when attempting to access materials and bitmaps..... Im in an architectural office and our IT person is not really a pro, let alone familiar with 3D applications. That or the Norton Anti Virus thing.....
We will have to call our vendor and perhaps an IT professional.

Thanks for all your helpful replies, Im glad to hear that Max 5 is for the most part stable on everyones machines, as I said in my initial post, Max has always been stable for me.

Thanks again!

Nomis

[mouj]

just thinking...

It has been said already, there is an issue with Norton 2002 and Max 4/5, you need to update Norton (using LiveUpdate, many times in a row if necessary), or it causes Max to crash with a nice blue screen... but that must not be your case, because i remember that Max would crash right after it's been started...
There may be an issue with Norton recycle bin also, i know there is one with Illustrator...

not a big help, but if this can eliminate one possible issue...

mouj

[borch]

About swap/page file size: i believe the exception to "the bigger the better" is when you need to force an application to use all your RAM. Some apps (combustion i think is one) will only use part of your physical memory, and resort to the page file if they need more. Supposedly this is to let you run other programs simultaneously, but the drawback is low performance. By lowering the page file size the program will eventually find it insufficient and start using the rest of your RAM. At least this is what ive heard. Ive never had to fiddle with this myself.

[erilaz]

I've you've got 512 or more RAM, it's generally recommended to set the pagefile's min AND max to 256. That way it doesn't try to go into virtual memory unless absolutely necessary.

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