Hi group, I hope I'm not hogging this forum, but I've got another vexing problem with Poser; not quite as serious as a few of the others I've posted here, but one that's frustrating and time consuming nonetheless.

Whenever I do a trial 1/4 size render, then click back on Preview, I'll get this message over a blank grey preview window:

   

The preview image will eventually come back on but with several figures lacking any texture. They look like ghosts. No matter what I do, I can't re-load the missing texture maps onto them and have to close out Poser and reopen it to continue. This only happens on 1/4 size renders. Some of my full-size renders (800x600) take three or four hours to finish and I dont have that much time, especially when the picture needs a lot of fine-tuning that only can be achieved by multiple trial renders!

Has anybody had this problem, and is there any work-around short of getting a faster computer? I'm using an old windows xp workhorse with a gig of ram that I keep off line so I don't have a bunch of AV software hogging my cpu. At the rate I'm going, I'll be ready for the retirement home by the time my graphic novel Varinka is finished.

I've used Poser 7, with 1gb before, but I never did render with much in the scene, let alone 1/4 size renders. My little laptop is 1gb restricted, so I can't upgrade it further, so I use virtual memory with the 3gb switch for XP 32bit.

But for you...

I'm sure it's got the capacity to take more RAM, and if it's that old, it will be cheap too, I see no point in looking at other methods until you max it out the easy way first, which really is a memory upgrade. You'll find then things will work quicker also.

This may sound daunting at the moment, but honestly if I don't point you this way first I'd not be helping you at all. Especially as your PC needs it.

Google your PC model number, with the words (manual pdf). There you'll get the specs, for the maximum memory, and the slots where the memory goes for you to look up, and learn about.

If your PC is bespoke, then google (hwinfo), that will then get you a free program, which will tell you about your PC, and what hardware is attached. You'll want the motherboard information. Google that motherboard name with the words (manual pdf). That manual should give you information for what your memory options are, amongst other things.

With the PC model number or motherboard . Go to ebay type the model number followed by the word (memory), then look at the prices of the various hits that match. It should be cheap, you may see 1gb option, 2 gb option, or 4 gb option. That should give you an idea of cost.

You will want to look at the biggest memory option your pocket can handle.

Go to youtube type your PC or motherboard model number followed by the word (memory), you may see a take apart video, or an actual vid for upgrading memory. Learn that procedure, and with the manual you can carry out an upgrade yourself.

If there is no specific video for your machine, then watch a few memory upgrade videos, or take apart videos for similar looking PC's. That should give you a good general grounding on what you'll be doing.

Do it slow open the PC, with the manual as your reference see where the various parts live, and pay attention to the access to gain those parts. You don't have to upgrade straight away, build up your confidence looking at the parts first getting familiar with your machine.

Just remember not to go poking around, and do earth yourself to protect the parts inside the PC, as well as the memory that would go in.

What you're looking at is a 2-5min job, it's really quite straight forward, and will give you confidence with future upgrades.

____________
I've found that to do well with any figure you really need to have a passion for that figure,

...and I hope you develop that passion for yours.

Thanks Chromium,  I'd heard about that hwinfo freeware before, but didn't understand what it was for. I'll give it a try.

Chromium wrote: [View Post]

I've used Poser 7, with 1gb before, but I never did render with much in the scene, let alone 1/4 size renders. My little laptop is 1gb restricted, so I can't upgrade it further, so I use virtual memory with the 3gb switch for XP 32bit.

But for you...

I'm sure it's got the capacity to take more RAM, and if it's that old, it will be cheap too, I see no point in looking at other methods until you max it out the easy way first, which really is a memory upgrade. You'll find then things will work quicker also.

This may sound daunting at the moment, but honestly if I don't point you this way first I'd not be helping you at all. Especially as your PC needs it.

Google your PC model number, with the words (manual pdf). There you'll get the specs, for the maximum memory, and the slots where the memory goes for you to look up, and learn about.

If your PC is bespoke, then google (hwinfo), that will then get you a free program, which will tell you about your PC, and what hardware is attached. You'll want the motherboard information. Google that motherboard name with the words (manual pdf). That manual should give you information for what your memory options are, amongst other things.

With the PC model number or motherboard . Go to ebay type the model number followed by the word (memory), then look at the prices of the various hits that match. It should be cheap, you may see 1gb option, 2 gb option, or 4 gb option. That should give you an idea of cost.

You will want to look at the biggest memory option your pocket can handle.

Go to youtube type your PC or motherboard model number followed by the word (memory), you may see a take apart video, or an actual vid for upgrading memory. Learn that procedure, and with the manual you can carry out an upgrade yourself.

If there is no specific video for your machine, then watch a few memory upgrade videos, or take apart videos for similar looking PC's. That should give you a good general grounding on what you'll be doing.

Do it slow open the PC, with the manual as your reference see where the various parts live, and pay attention to the access to gain those parts. You don't have to upgrade straight away, build up your confidence looking at the parts first getting familiar with your machine.

Just remember not to go poking around, and do earth yourself to protect the parts inside the PC, as well as the memory that would go in.

What you're looking at is a 2-5min job, it's really quite straight forward, and will give you confidence with future upgrades.

I will say this. Poser can be a very memory hungry beast when you have so many things going on in the render. If in some way you find the PC really loading to a point of crashing then reduce the bucket size in the properties of Poser. It may take longer but with less strain. Another bit is to layer it. Render the things in the background you have and them saved as jpg and bring it back as a backdrop. I have a PC that has an I7 Quad Core with 12 gig of memory running with a 64 Bit OS. Some won't have a work horse such as this. I use it because of the Model CAD I make but if anyone is finding it hard and there is more information being used this is what I would do in stages. There is no reason to render a huge one render project unless you are dong an animation. Maybe this will help you I hops so. Best of luck.

____________
Two wrongs don't make a right.
But six left turns will get you around the block
and back in the driveway again.

tda42 wrote: [View Post]

I will say this. Poser can be a very memory hungry beast when you have so many things going on in the render. If in some way you find the PC really loading to a point of crashing then reduce the bucket size in the properties of Poser. It may take longer but with less strain. Another bit is to layer it. Render the things in the background you have and them saved as jpg and bring it back as a backdrop. I have a PC that has an I7 Quad Core with 12 gig of memory running with a 64 Bit OS. Some won't have a work horse such as this. I use it because of the Model CAD I make but if anyone is finding it hard and there is more information being used this is what I would do in stages. There is no reason to render a huge one render project unless you are dong an animation. Maybe this will help you I hops so. Best of luck.

Hi tda42, Sorry I didn't respond earlier, but I never received an email notice about your comment and only discovered it by accident.
Thanks for the tips. I'd already used layering on some scenes involving six or seven figures. It's tricky, especially if you're working with shadows, but sometimes there's no other way to do it. Also, I reduce bucket size (to 20) and raise the shading rate. That part is confusing, (HOW can RAISING a value make the rendering go faster?, but apparently it does...) With three or more figures in a scene, I raise it to 50. Three or fewer, I try to use 20. The old pc I use for Poser isn't connected to the web, so it's not slowed down by AV software, and I use taskmanager to turn off just about everything else as well and it's still barely adequate for the job.
But thanks again.

Strangely enough the software never had a 64 bit one for Windows. Only runs 32.    But sometimes you have to reduce the quality to get this to run. Even Poser Pro is slow. You might want to if you have it Render it with a plug in to 3DS MAX. Render it that way. I know that Poser 5 crashed a lot and even on threw 7. So really as the technology gets more real it uses up more memory and you get things like this. Sometimes it all can be a big mess and again you are back running it layer by layer. I guess they look at it as "Hey what do you expect for 400 dollars", but in all its just a market to get you to buy other things. Like DAZ taking on Poser. It never stops.

____________
Two wrongs don't make a right.
But six left turns will get you around the block
and back in the driveway again.