accelerating carrara pro? trial version of Carrara pro?
AbortRender?
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I am try working with an OCZ technical guru to try and figure out why Carrara build .172, crashes at startup after installing the hard drive acceleration suite (OCZ synapse 128GB SSD and dataplex caching software). The theory being that Carrara has an internal caching scheme that is colliding with dataplex. Or it could be some unique issue with my setup.
Has anyone else added this kind of hardware to their system?
Is there a trial version (timed trial) of Carrara pro available to test compatibility?
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If you disable the caching software, can you get Carrara to launch?
Once you are in Carrara, in the preferences you can set Carrara's scratch disk to the SSD.
If you cannot get Carrara to launch when the caching software is turned off, then it may be a problem with Carrara's installation...
The only option in Carrara related to harddrives and unique to Carrara and known to cause issues in for example Linux Wine, is the File/Prefs/Imaging, Scratch disk.
Turn off "Spool texture on disk" for better compatibility.
Here is a 30 day trial of the C8Pro 8.1, this particular option/problem should be independent of 8.1/8.5.
http://download.cnet.com/Carrara-8-Pro-64-bit/3000-6677_4-75362717.html?tag=mncol;3
Btw, running a noname SSD with Carrara and it launches in no time at all, not sure why you need another data caching software on top of the blazing fast SSD.
Good luck!
Thanks for the input holly wetcircuit and 3drendro.
IIf I could afford to buy an SSD large enough to put my mechanical c drive on - that would be ideal. And I doubt I would have any problems if I did that.
This product is a compromise of sorts. A "smallish" ssd is used it conjunction with caching software to provide an overall system boost for regularly accessed code and data. And for the most part that works quite well. Photoshop for instance, literally" pops up" when started.
Carrara was working just fine prior to installing this product, and after uninstalling the caching software, it still crashes in exactly the same way. ( the hardware in still the case but is unusable to the OS - it would need formatted etc)
So if I could ensure that Carrara is starting up as if it had never been run on this machine before - is there a way to do that?
I guess you need to trash the preferences...? Not sure where that is exactly...
There is also an uninstaller that comes with the Carrara installation, I think.
As usual you will want to back up all carrara related folders and content, first....
you can access and reset your preferences from the FILE menu (see pic)
You can also set up a different location for Carrara's Scratch disk and temporary files, and that should resolve any issues with your SSD and Cache software.
Historically,. SSD's have not liked having temporary files created and deleted on those storage media. (although they may have improved)
Placing files which the system will regularly access, but will not change, on an SSD, should give you faster access to those files (for example ,: A base OS),. but in reality you're talking about a second or two of difference between a fast SATA drive and an SSD,. and no Boot speed improvement will make you work faster, or better. ... (just my ranting opinion).. anyway...
If you've just installed Carrara onto this SSD,. then it should be seen as a new installation.
If you've moved or re installed Carrara to the SSD, then the User Preferences should still be in the same (original) location , which depends on where your OS is installed.
The Preferences file is normally located in C: Users \Your name \AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D\Carrara 8.5
I'm also not sure why you're installing a "BETA" version of Carrara 8.5, and not the C8.1.1.12 (production version)
that would seem like choosing the unknown option, rather than installing a known working version.
Hope some of that makes sense
Thanks 3d age I appreciate the advice. Here are some clarifications. I'm not actually installing any applications to the ssd, rather the product comes with cache management code that is supposed to dynamically move the most often accessed data (I suppose code or data) onto the ssd. The idea is turn your existing mechanical drives into 'hybrid' drives' by caching onto the added ssd. If you are interested here is a link: http://www.ocztechnology.com/synapse-faq. So I'm not trying to move specific things onto this ssd.
This has, for the most part, worked quite well in that my most often used applications are much more 'snappy' and responsive. In fact everything I have tested worked after installing the caching hardware/software - except two 3d programs modo 601 (educational) and carrara pro. Both of which worked just fine prior to installing this ocz synapse product. I got modo working by forcing the application to rebuild its preferences/configuration files. I tried a similar trick with carrara (I moved that roaming data folder - which causes carrara to re-create a new one) but it crashes in what appears to be the exact same point.
At this point I cannot get carrara to run at all. Uninstalling, re-installing didn't work. Even uninstalling the caching product entirely, then uninstalling/re installing carrara has not worked. I haven't tried going back to the last production version because I have been running the string of successive betas for months. I don't know what could cause this other than maybe the caching product updated a mutually used dll? I have a second system with which I could try and compare carrara dependencies - but this is a very long list, that I would have to go through manually. It may come to that. The OCZ technical people are willing to root through a crash dump and see what they can see.
This is all quite frustrating in that if I can;t get carrara to run, I'd rather not have the caching product at all.
quote: "and no Boot speed improvement will make you work faster, or better. ... (just my ranting opinion).. anyway…"
True, and what is worse is that the talent and good looks increasing software is way out of my price range.
It is kind of like repeatedly pressing the elevator button...it doesn't make it come any quicker, but it might make you feel better.
OOps ,.. I forgot to post the pic of the prefs options,...
If Carrara is crashing with or without the SSD cache software installed, then you need to get that problem figured out first before you experiment more with the SSD
You shouldn't move any folders from Appdata, it's a windows system folder, and having read the OCZ stuff, if the preferences files was an important file, then it would be moved to the SSD by the dataplex software.
I can't see how the preferences file would cause any issues,. but I can see a possibility for the Carrara cache (temp) folder and scratchdisk to be an issue, since this would be the most frequently written (hottest) files while using carrara.
and any attempts to Move the temp folder while the application is running would cause issues.
You could try setting the temp folder to the SSD , then restart carrara
I had a read through of the OCZ stuff,. ,,interesting but unclear at the same time.
I think you'd need to do some comparisons with "standard" SSD (without cache) and the OCZ (with cache) over a period of time, so that the cache has the ability to identify and move (hot) data to the SSD an allow you to see any improvement in performance.
You'd also need to weigh that against a new processor, more ram, and faster SATA drive.
For me,. Solid state flash drives are a great medium for data storage, while mechanical hard drives are still getting bigger and faster.
the system performance difference isn't something that I can't live without, and right now the advantages aren't huge enough to make me want to change.
hope it helps :)
Off-topic: I had a friend in an engineering class who designed a model elevator. The more you pressed the button, the longer it delayed reaching your floor. ;-)
Also, ensure that you have the latest drivers and firmware updates for your SSD before you start to use it.
One of my machines that I built has 2 SSDs. One for Windows, one for the paging file. All user files are out on "spinning rust" drives.
This box crashes like crazy...I'm about 94.38% certain it is due to reading from the paging SSD.
I have probably reached a dead end here but in case anyone is interested. 3DAGE I cannot modify the scratch disk parameters because carrara is crashing during initialization, the program never comes up. The scratch disk location can be changed in the preferences file - I think only if it is different than the deafault.
Since I could tell that carrara was crashing during initialization I tried the following: I removed all the files from the extensions folder. Once I got the required extensions moved back into the folder the program started to come up. I narrowed down my problem area down to the cr2 file extension. If you leave this extension out, carrara comes up and appears to run just fine. (and accelerated too).
Of course not having the cr2 file extension basically means not using any DAZ or poser content at all. Well I guess you can use content that comes as an obj or something.
Honestly I don't understand this at all. Why wouldn't removing the OCZ product from the PC allow carrara to run as it use to? I cannot find any evidence the the OCZ installation modified any system dll that may be common. ( doesn't mean that it didn't...)
Also I believe that both companies (DAZ and OCZ) could justifiably say 'not our problem'.
Without further assistance from either or both of them in pin pointing exactly where the crash occurs, I don't see what else I can do on my own. Re-installing everything (including windows) might do the trick.