Render to Disk Crashes and Image Corruption

timmygyu

Hi,

I'm having trouble with Bryce 7.1.0.109 Pro. When I try to render 48-bit files using "render to file" I am periodically getting corrupted renders, and -- less often -- crashes. This happens whether I export to tiff, png, etc. Doesn't seem to happen with 24-bit files, though I haven't used 7.1 much. I'm using windows 7 ultimate, 64 bit.

Haven't had any trouble with render to file in the past, however, I seem to remember reading that it was somewhat problematic.
Anybody else have this happen? Any solutions?

Cheers,
Tim

Horo

If I'm not completely mistaken, render to disk is always only 24 bit. Bryce does render in 48 bit but you have to export the render right after it is finished, before you do anything else. Then you can export the render as 48 or 96 bit TIFF or HDR.

timmygyu

Horo,

Thanks for your answer. My problem remains, however. The reason I want to render to disk, exclusively, is that I need to create image sizes larger than render alone can create. As I understand, "plain" rendering is limited to 4000 by 4000 pixels. Render to disk allows 65K by 65K.

I'm trying to print some images in a way that takes advantage of 16-bit per color. A 16" by 24" image, at 300ppi, gives me a 7200 by 4800 pixel file. Furthermore, I usually would create a file 2X in both dimensions to allow for resampling -- so as to blur jaggies. That mandates a 14,400 by 9600 pixel image. And eventually I need to create files for even larger prints. You can see my dilemma.

Here's the procedure causing unpredictable crashes:
I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit.
To render to disk at 48-bit, first I uncheck 48-bit dithering. Then, I render to disk (not file as I originally stated). When the save dialog comes up, you have to select one of the following: PNG, HDR, or TIFF (BMP will not work, for example).

PNG gives a 24 and 48-bit choice; EXR and HDR give 96-bit only; TIFF is 24, 48, and 96-bit; all others 24-bit only.

To clarify, the crashes and/or corrupted images do not happen consistently. It appears to happen frequently, but not always. Image size makes no difference. Bringing Bryce up from scratch makes no difference. Scene complexity makes no difference.

Someone on the Renderosity forum said they had the same problem with no solution, so far.

One of my colleagues suggested the crashes might me a Bryce 7 memory management problem, but I don't think so. In case I'm wrong, I'm going to try the a program like "Large Address Aware" that increases the usable memory space of 32-bit programs -- such as Bryce. We'll see. . .

Tim

.

Dave Savage

At a push and with a bit of extra organisation, you can tile your render in 4000x4000px tiles using the Pan V and Pan H camera controls. Then composite your tiles in a photo editing app.

Never render to disc, it's unpredictable (as you've found out). :)

Horo

@timmygyu - I see. Bryce can render larger than 4000 x 4000. The 4k limit is at the width. It can be 4k x 6k in portrait. But this doesn't help you much. I wasn't aware that we can render up to 65k when doing so to disk. I wasn't equally unaware that render to disk can be done at the full 48 bit depth - as you can see, I really never used that render to disk option.

Yes, great, that's the way to do it: disable 48 bit dithering because it spoils the 48 bit render. And yes: do use LAA, I have all Bryce versions from 4 to 7.1 set to large address aware. Provided your machine sports at least 4 GB of memory, Bryce can then use up to between 3.2 and 3.5 GB.

TheSavage64 is right. There are several methods to render tiles that can be assembled to the final image. I have a tute up on my website (see sig) or here directly as 1.3 MB PDF Render larger then 4000 pixels. It may be a bit outdated and there are also other ideas around.

So, there you are. A lot of blah-blah on my behalf but no real answer.

timmygyu

Horo,

First let me say thanks for the link to your excellent tutorial "How to model render larger than 4000 pixels". What a wonderful piece of work!

Having said that, I still hope I can get render to disk to work, but your approach, as presciently suggested by TheSavage64, is now a feasible fallback strategy. Also, the lens discussion at the end of your tutorial is something I've needed for quite some time. I did note that the pdf links to your final result, http://www.horo.ch/tuts/online/tut21/ex2_50percent.zip, is broken.

Thanks to all. By the way, I also filed a bug report with Daz.

Tim

Horo

timmygyu said:

I did note that the pdf links to your final result, http://www.horo.ch/tuts/online/tut21/ex2_50percent.zip, is broken.

Thank you for your kind comment and reporting the broken link, Tim. Yes, it is (now was) broken in the PDF and also in the ZiP version. I've updated all 4 documents. The correct link is: http://www.horo.ch/raytracing/tuts/online/tut21/ex2_50percent.zip