WM Crashing to Desktop

Bug Reports
1

I’m running WM 1.0 Standard, upgraded from a registered version of 0.99.

It’s a fantastic programme and worth the wait, but I’m suffering “WM has suffered a problem and needs to close” crashes every second or third time I use it - usually whilst saving the ouptput, although ocasionally whilst creating the terrain. Just now I created a terrain and saved it as a .ter file. However when I tried to then save it as a .bmp file as well for comparison purposes - the whole thing fell over.

I’m running XP SP2 on an Athlon 3000XP and have a gig & a half of physical memory.

WM does seem to use up a great deal of memory, often 1.2 or 1.3 of the available physical ram. Is this likely to be the cause?

Anybody else suffering similar problems?

Thanks,

Bernie

2

Ouch… What kind of world sizes are we talking about? I don’t think a memory problem really causes crashes, at least those so consistent… Though, it is strange to crash on a second or third time you run WM and not the first… Do you have a tmd saved with that world where it may be recurrently crashing?

3

Initially I was going for the big 8xxx size, but after a couple of warnings that I needed over 3 gig of memory for them :shock: I dropped back to the 4xxx.

I’ve been playing all afternoon but I’ll see if I can get one to consistently cause a problem so others can have a go at it.

Regards,

Bernie

4

That reply was from me - I just forgot to log in!!!

:oops:

Bernie

5

Bernie, although it is hard to say if it is directly related, we have found that most crashes come from graphics-related issues. Because of the wide variety of graphics cards and drivers out there, we could not even come close to testing them all, so that is the biggest unknown in WM’s compatibility. So some info on what graphics card you are using would be helpful. It’s also strongly recommended that you upgrade to the latest drivers for your graphics card if you are not already running them.

We can be sure something is not right though because the release is already in use by quite a number of people and few crashes have been reported, so regular crashing is a sure sign of something amiss. I’m sure we’ll be able to sort it out in time. :slight_smile:

  • Oshyan
6

Hi Oshyan,

The primary card is an NVidia GeForce 4 Ti4200, and the secondary one is an NVidia GeForce 4 MX420.

I was using the latest NVidia drivers, but on checking a new one was released two days ago, so I’ll try that and report back.

Cheers,

Bernie

7

I wasn’t convinced that graphics drivers were the issue - if they were then I would have expected to be getting the crashes whilst looking at a finished terain, rather than during terrain generation or saving, as was happening.

So, I updated the drivers with the latest NVidia release (12th August 05 release date) - and I’m still getting occasional crashes.

It’s difficult to re-create exactly with terrain builds taking around 70 minutes, but watching my system monitoring utility, I suspect that the system is simply running out of memory.

At a World size of 4096 I am seeing 1456 out of 1536 memory used when saving a .ter, rising to 1518 whilst saving as a .bmp, and 1532 after clicking the OK button after the save is completed.

On another terrain, I saw 1535 used out of the 1536 available after I clicked the OK button.

The last crash happened after a long build, when I changed some settings in the last modifier before File Output. When I hit the green button, I got an immediate crash.

I’ve got a simple, 3 box + output network running at a World Size of 4096 as I am typing this, and I am seeing 840 used out of 1536 available memory.

OK, it’s just finished, and after I clicked the OK button, memory usage rose to 1096, then 1320 whilst displaying the finished terrain.

I then changed a couple of settings and got an immediate crash, even though memory usage stayed below 1400.

I’ll continue playing, and see if I can identify a consistant way of breaking it!! :wink:

Bernie

8

Hi Bernie,

have you tried switching to “Memory Conservation” mode during your high res renders? (Preferences->Build Options).

This will drastically cut memory usage at high res, and should let us know if this is a memory issue or something else.

Cheers,

Stephen

9

Sorry for the delay in replying - not had much spare time recently :cry:

Just been having a quick play though, and had a CTD again, even with memory conservation switched on.

Immediately prior to that, memory usage had gone over 1.5 gig whilst writing a .ter file, then dropped back down again.

I have saved the .tmd file, so can e-mail it if someone else would like to see how they get on with it.

Regards,

Bernie

10

OK - so according to the top of the page I am logged in, yet the system is showing my post as from “Guest” :?

Never mind - just tried using the same .tmd file at the 8192 res. It worked just fine until I realised that I didn’t have the “File Output” box connected. Connected the box, hit the green button and got an immediate CTD.

I was watching the StatBar at the time, and memory usage didn’t go anywhere near 1.5 gig.

Curiouser and curiouser said Alice … … … :lol:

Bernie

11

OK, so now I’ve just run the whole build at 8192, including the “File Output” box.

Worked just fine, and it displays the completed terrain without problem, however it won’t let me save the file as either a .ter or a .bmp! Gives a “File Error” message.

Bernie

12

yeah :frowning: unfortunately, until that issue is solved, right now you have to check the “save on every build” option in the File Output properties… :frowning: that is the only way right now to save an output in Mem Concervation mode :frowning:

13

Thanks Fil, wasn’t aware of that.

I’ll give it a try tonight.

Bernie

14

Sorry for this question but may I ask why you use such a big size?

15

Instant almost predictable crash to desktop:

Hi - I am running WM2 on an XP system.
I get almost predictable crashes whenever I use the File Input icon. This happens even if it’s the ONLY icon on the grid, or the 20th in a complex terrain.

It occurs like this:

  • place the file input icon on the grid
  • dbl clk to open it.
  • select “load” option; the file dialog box opens.
  • move the mouse around in the file list part of the window; at least half of the time, ANY motion of the mouse in this part of the dialog box, even the tiniest, causes an instant crash to the desktop. Note: this occurs before any file has been selected or “clicked-on” in any way, so, to my way of thinking, this can’t be a graphics file issue – but what do I know?
    Anyway, if one repeats the action, sooner or later the input file loads as hoped, and work can continue.

Hope I’m not repeating this report.

Great program (as usual). But I miss having the height button in the left hand tool pallet window. For us impressionists, having easy access to it allows those intuitive moves that would probably have no place in the accurate terrain modeling world.

– ford

16

Hi Ford,

Can you provide more details on this? I haven’t heard or experienced any issues before like it. The crashing is occuring within the “Open” dialog after you’ve clicked Load on the main file input page?

What version of windows are you running?