ginger_ninja_12 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Hi, I am new to Houdini so to speak and I am having intermittent problems with rendering a shot using Mantra's PBR for a personal project. If I persevere with staring the render every time it crashes it will eventually render a couple of frames and then crash again, the mantra node will then have its red lined error which when MMB clicked will give me the 'Command Exit Code - 1073741795'.This doesn't crash Houdini just the render. My scene consists of simple geometry (majority shaded with just a clay shader, but one grouped object that has a glass shader and stainless steel shader applied) with animation, a caustics environment light and a single area (sphere) light for soft shadows. I am just looking for an explanation as to why Mantra keeps crashing, and what I could possibly do to fix the issue as it is lengthening the scene render times and requires me to keep a constant eye on it. My PC specs: Processor - Intel core i7 3770k overclocked from 3.5GHz to 3.9GHz Corsair H80i Water-cooler GPU - 2 x Nvidia GTX 780 RAM – 16GB Kingston Hyperx Beast (if you want more info just ask) I have disabled the SLI on my 2 GPUs as I have read that Houdini doesn't deal well with multiple GPUs. I have also set both monitor outputs and assigned PhysX from the one GPU just to be sure. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skybar Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Can you render in a fresh scene? If you can, then it's probably something in your scene that causes the crash. Enable or disable one thing at a time to pinpoint what it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Which version of Houdini? Are you accessing exrs in environment lights? If so, grab the very latest Daily Build and try again. PS. Mantra doesn't use the graphics card at all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Netvudu Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 (edited) I´ve seen the error on some of my students, and usually it was related to some Windows configurations or lack of updates. I´m not saying it´s the OS fault. It´s Mantra but only on some specifc Windows specs. I would like to know what´s the specific reason for this error, because it keeps on appearing from time to time. Not easy to replicate it though, because on many computers and configs it never seems to happen. It would be nice if someone from SESI cleared up what that exit code means, though. Edited June 5, 2015 by Netvudu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginger_ninja_12 Posted June 8, 2015 Author Share Posted June 8, 2015 Thanks for the reply's, Skybar: Yes I have tested rendering a scene with exactly the same render settings on a fresh scene and it works fine. I will start performing test renders by dissabling one object at a time, hopfully that will identify the problem. Jason: I am using Houdini 14. The only light I am using is a sphere area light, so I'm not accessing any EXRs for envi lights. Netvudu: Glad to hear it's not only me who is having this problem, and that its likely a problem Mantra is having with my scene not a hardwear issue. I have read before creating this topic that it is sometimes related to lack of updates, so I checked for all windows updates aswell as fierwall and anti-virus updates and the problem persists :/. I will be sure to post any updates or hopefully a solution when I have them. Thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginger_ninja_12 Posted June 8, 2015 Author Share Posted June 8, 2015 On performing some render tests with the existing scene, it looks like the problem lies with the FBX import from Maya (2015). The file holds the modelled geo (very low poly mesh), animation, joints and a camera. I have tured each one on and off rendering each time and not one object/node seems to be the causing factor, the render is only ever completed without a problem when every object/node is off. The next step will be to re-export the objects from Maya using both FBX and Alembic file formats. Any ideas why the FBX file would be causing this, or just down a bug in the file? Also is it better to export each part separately eg. geometry in one file, geo with animation in another etc. or should it be fine to do like I have done and export them all at once into the one file? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atom Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 It could simply be your overclock. Is your system stable after running Prime95 for 2 hours? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skybar Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 If it's an issue with overclocking I reckon the whole computer would crash, not only a single process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atom Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 (edited) That is not always true. Sometimes overclocking instability only presents itself under heavy load (such as PBR rendering). That is why Prime95 is the premiere stability testing app (and it's free) for overclockers. Now matter what OC tweaks you've done to a system, it is not really a stable overclock until you pass the 2 hour prime95 test. It's easy, just download the prime95 app and run it along with a hardware temperature monitoring app and see how hot your system gets. It still could be a Houdini bug but I doubt developers guarantee stable operation on overclocked systems. Edited June 9, 2015 by Atom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skybar Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Yes I know. Still, if an overclocked CPU is unstable the whole computer will likely crash when it fails and not just the single process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginger_ninja_12 Posted June 9, 2015 Author Share Posted June 9, 2015 Yes It has reached the 2 hour mark previously using the blend setting with Prime 95 and temps max around around 73 Celsius, this is normal for my CPU as it has always run hot, unfortunately. But I will re-test again just to be sure! At the moment im just trying anything to help solve the problem. Are there settings you recommend me run Prime 95 at to get a better test, or just run it on the settings its at when you open the software? (Which is what I have done previously) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginger_ninja_12 Posted June 9, 2015 Author Share Posted June 9, 2015 I have just ran a 3 hour stress test using Prime 95, also monitored my temps, voltage and core speed with Core Temp and CPU-Z... and everything is stable and looking normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 Is there a crashlog.txt in your AppData/Local/Temp/whatever directory? (I can never remember the windows temp path) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginger_ninja_12 Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 No I cant find that file within my AppData directory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atom Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 (edited) I just test with Prime95 defaults which randomly chooses between RAM and CPU full load so the default is fine. 73c still seems high, especially on a water cooled system. If you use SpeedFan I believe you can better control when the fan turns on and at what temperature it reaches 100% rpms. If you have notched up your voltage to achieve the overclock, you may want to revisit your BIOS and take it down one step and see if it still runs stable. The voltage can contribute to heat as can excessive FSB increase . But overall passing the 2 hour mark probably means there is something wrong with the software, not your computer. If your scene is truly simple can you post it? Also check the obvious like are you writing your image to a folder that you have permissions to? Are you using any weird characters in your user login name? Edited June 10, 2015 by Atom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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