Some PRT files that do load fine in 1.2 are crashing max when using the PRT Loader from 1.4
They’re position + color only, and less than a million points each.
This is running Max 9, ext1, x64 on XP x64.
What’s odd is that some of our PRT’s load fine, but others don’t, and they all work fine in Krakatoa 1.2.
I’ll try to make some nicer test cases than “open up some of Anatomical’s old files and see it crash”.
It’s working now with the old PRT’s. So something must have been wonky. Don’t bother with this report unless I find something more concrete.
Something odd going on…
Loading a PRT is fine, rendering it is fine, but displaying in viewport causes crash. More testing needed…
We haven’t changed much in the PRT loading itself and have not seen any instabilities ourselves.
What version of Max are you running? What CPU make are you using and how many cores? Are you using culling?
Max 9, x64, extension 1. I have a Xeon, E5xxx, 4 cores. Not culling (yet).
Some PRT’s are fine, others not. All seem to work in Krak 1.2, but only some work in 1.4.
When loading them into 1.2, nothing unusual seems to jump out at me. 5-20 million points… position, color, density, normal, all look normal.
Tried loading in BIN files, and it crashes the same way. Same BIN files load into 1.2 OK. So it’s not just the PRT, but something in the way PRT Loader is displaying in viewport.
This is scary.
I have not seen a single crash myself, and we switched the whole office to 1.4.1, working on two major motion pictures with PRT data generated in 1.1.2. (yes, we have some balls 
)
We HAVE to figure out what is causing this - can you create a PRT or BIN in 1.1.2 with random data that crashes in 1.4.1 and send it our way?
Since the BIN loads fine in 1.2, and fine in NL Particles, and ONLY fails when displaying in the viewport in 1.4, I am wondering if perhaps it’s something goofy with my video card setup. I will try OpenGL vs DirectX vs Heidi on monday to see if that affects it. Also, I’ll test on a couple other workstations here.
The only thing that really worries me is that is doesn’t crash on every PRT file. Only on some.
Ok, switching to DX9 didn’t help.
I’ll try on another machine soon.
It’s getting worse. I should just pack it in early today…
If I load in a PRT that does work ok, then loading the “broken” PRT or BIN works fine, even if I delete the first PRT.
Since I can’t make any sense out of this, I’m going to move on and just hope for an easy to reproduce case to come along.
What I’m currently doing as a workaround is to just render the PRT first, then enable it in the viewport. Works fine after that.
Do you typically use materials on these particle loaders? I found a pretty serious bug in the material coloring code that was causing a crash depending on the channels present in the file. The bug is fixed and will be patched in the next release.
Yes, normally. Worth a shot.
Have a small PRT that crashes. Hopefully there’s something in the file that can shed some light on what’s going on?
You have to have a “fresh” 3ds max session for this to work. I’m using max 9 x64 in this case, haven’t tried in 2009 yet.
Make a PRT Loader, add this file, turn on Load Single Frame Only and Viewport. It crashes for me.
If you don’t check Viewport, but instead actually render the PRT Loader with Krakatoa, THEN you can check Viewport and it displays fine.
*Started Max (2008 64 bit here)
*Created a fresh PRT Loader
*Added the file
*Enabled Load Single Frame Only
*Set Viewport % to 100.0 - not sure what you mean by “… and Viewport”, but it shows in the viewport no problem. Running DX here.
Works for me. Added a KCM to color by position, seems to work in view and render.
Will try to run in Max 9 64 bit too.
But keep in mind I was using Beta 6 which is due out tonight
Nuts.
I meant check the viewport box, so it showed in viewport. For me it crashed on the default 1%.
It’s fine if I render THEN check viewport. So weird.
But it’s a cute bunny CT anyway. I’ll try to post it on the bunny thread soon.
Go grab Beta 6 and try in it. We might have fixed something somewhere… If it still crashes, let us know.
Hmm,
Might have been a problem with the reproduction. I’m using Beta 6 now, btw.
If I have Krakatoa as the active renderer, it’s fine. If I have Default Scanline Renderer, it crashes.
So it’s not about rendering the PRT to make it load right, you only have to have Krakatoa as the renderer for it to work.
Does that make it crash for you?
Darcy will have to reproduce this tomorrow (today is a holiday in Canada).
I will be in our LA office for two weeks so I will be limited in my ability to test stuff.