Corrected bugs in Carrara 8.5 final version

Inflater

Hello community!

Carrara 8.5 is finally out - Yeah! - bit before updating I like to ask a simple question:

Is there a list of corrected bugs in Carrara 8.5? I am Carrara owner since version 5.1 and I am currently on version 7.20. I am using Carrara on a nearly daily basis and I think it's literally riddled with zillions of tiny bugs and flaws which makes my life hard when using it. Carrara in it's 7.20 incarnation is a love-hate-relationship for me: Love because it has soooo many wonderful features, hate because ... well ... see above.

I don't need the new features - I don't care for »Genesis« and the like and probably would never touch them - but I crave for the remaining part of the render system. That's why I ask about a bug list.

Kind regards,
The Inflater

evilproducer

Might help to know what some of these C7.2 bugs are that you get. They could be because of the old version of Carrara running on a more modern OS, so it may also help to know what OS you're using so that answers may be tailored to issues with specific operating systems, such as bugs associated with various flavors of Windows, or Mac OSes. There are probably also some bugs that are non-platform specific.

Can't really say what's been fixed if we don't know the issues.

Inflater

OK, no problem: Running Carrara 5.1, 6.x and 7.20 (this one is the current version) as 32-bit-application on Windows XP SP 2 with a 4 GByte RAM.

Here are some bugs:
a) »memory allocation error« in mid rendering
b) »memory allocation error« while switching between the rooms
c) Carrara sometimes forgets allocation of shaders
d) Carrara deletes shaders when using
Edit > Reomve Unused Masters > Remove Unused Shaders
even though those are in use. This is a hard to track bug because it does not show up regulary.
e) Carrara forgets most of the time - not always - all choosen settings in the
File > Import dialog
f) Carrara forgets sometimes the precision setting in
Scene > Interface > Display Units > Display up to

Flaws (I am pulling my hair for this):
a) Carrara ignores »write protection« flags of the operating system, it writes protected files nevertheless instead of giving an error message
b) No clue about the subdivision level of an object in a scene after
Edit > Smooth Objects ...
c) Object smoothing using
Edit > Smooth Objects ... > Change smoothing > Rendering
shows no visual difference beyond level 1 (level 2 looks the same as level 1even though eating up a lot of memory)
d) no up to date manual
e) no render continue
f) no render regions

So, is there a list of known and corrected Carrara bugs?

Kind regards,
The Inflater

evilproducer

The memory allocation error is usually due to bumping up against the 32 bit memory wall. Especially mid-render. The 64 bit version of Carrara should fix that.

There was a C7.2 Manual, but it didn't ship with C7 for some insane reason. They finally put the C7 manual into the shipping version of C8.5. 90% of the manual is still accurate and if you check the stickied threads at the top of the forum, DAZ is working on updating it.

If you use the Batch Queue you can pause and continue renders. Not just animations, but stills as well. This can also help with the dreaded memory error.

I haven't had the other issues you mentioned.

I do get a network render bug when using randomized procedural shaders, in that each node calculates the random function on it's own and renders it, thus causing the buckets to be extremely noticeable. ;-)

Carrara 8 and above have improved the network render settings.

evilproducer

Forgot to mention that I am also using C7.2 Pro, but I am on a Mac, running OSX 10.4.11

DesertDude

b) No clue about the subdivision level of an object in a scene after
Edit > Smooth Objects ...

Click on the Interactive Render Settings (see pic) and choose Outline Polys.

Hope that helps