Dreamscape?Max freeze

[andyjhunter]

I've been using Dreamscape for a few years now and generally have no problems but the last two jobs I've done with it I've run into an odd problem. While rendering an animated sequence Dreamscape will freeze/lockup on a specific scanline of a specific frame. The resulting freeze can only be broken by ctrl-alt-deleting out of Max.

When this happens in an animation the frame number and the scanline where the freeze happens is consistent and repeatable, for example it might be frame 78 and scanline 300 (of 486). In another animation it might be frame 200 and scanline 50. But in each animation it will always be that scanline on that frame, it doesn't matter if it's rendering as part of a sequence or individually. It doesn't matter if it's rendered locally or on the network. It doesn't even matter if I try to render the image in regions.

Also frames before and after the "freeze" frame render just fine.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[sitnisati]

Hello,

Is there something on particular scanline that might halt rendering, like objects, sea surface, etc..
If you completely disable DreamScape atmospherics, does it render fine ?
If you just disable clouds (if you're using them), is it rendering okay ?

Regards,

Kresimir

[andyjhunter]

So I've done some experiments on my scene which has both a Seasurface and a Terra object. I discovered that the scene crashed even when the dreamscape atmospherics were disabled and the Terra object hidden. Having narrowed it down to the Seasurface I then discovered that it rendered fine when I turned off the simple wave daemon.

So now I know the daemon is the culprit but I don't know why it happens only on certain frames and more importantly I don't know how to fix it. The waves are a critical aspect of the animation.

[sitnisati]

Hello,

Maybe it is related to the Sea Surface material reflections and refractions ?
I guess that Simaple Wave Daemon creates a mesh that ends up with infinite number of reflection or refractions which halts rendering.
You can send me a sample scene that halts rendering so that we can dig into it.
Please send to mailtoupport@afterworks.com

Regards,

Kresimir

[andyjhunter]

The max file is on its way to you.

Thanks

[andyjhunter]

Kresimir-

I'm still hoping to get feedback on this issue. I've emailed you directly but haven't received a response. I know the problem isn't the SimpleWave Daemon because I've removed it from the scene. Help would be greatly appreciated.

Andy

[sitnisati]

Hello Andy,

So far, I had no luck in determing where and why is this happening.
I'm running rendering in debug mode, and it seems that thread it's locked somewhere inside 3ds max.
I will send you a patch when we fix this bug.

I apologize for inconvenience.

Regards,

Kresimir