I have been having trouble in Poser 6 where I get an error message saying there is not enough memory, and I've got 2 Gigs installed. If anybody can help me with this, I'll post the specs to my computer if necessary.

What I've noticed is that although the texture mmap/ transparency map is selected in the shader node, it will sometimes "black out" or "white out" (yes both). The texture node blacks out or the transparency whites out, and reselecting a texture doesn't fix it. I've had to let quite a few renders slip by and go to waste because of this. Very frustrating! I would be grateful for any help or suggestions.

There is an render option for firefly in Poser 5 and I assume it is also there for Poser 6.  It is turn remove back facing facts, it is supposed to be a speedup option, but it has caused me many problems that sound like the of the sort of problems that you describe.  Next time turn off that option on the render options screen and try rendering again and see if that helps.



[Note: I split Crimmy's post above from the topic where it was posted as a reply.  This issue deserves a topic of its own here in 3D Nightmares.]

This happens in the shader node preview window, and it causes Poser to totally ignore any texture and transparency maps when it happens. They are not artifacts.

Then that is something different.  I have not seen that happen with Poser 5 thus far.

The machine has plenty of horsepower, it is based on an Asus A8N-SLI mobo with an Nvidia videocard, an AMD 64 and 2 gigs of ram. Was kinda hopin' it would handle Poser with ease.

Degenerate facets can cause black areas, but that doen't sound like the problem.

Which video card? I'm using the same motherboard with an EN6800GT in single board mode. AMD 64 4200+ with 3gig ram.  I have my video card set at the basic settings in the Performance and Quality panel and Image settings at Quality.  I haven't tried to use any advanced settings as I have read that occasionally problems arise.

Added the extra gig a few months ago.  Poser seems a bit more responsive and stable.  But, I haven't used it for the last month except as a test platform.  Been working at learning modeling from start to finish, including UV mapping and texturing.

I can set aside a bit of time to help.  Some more details will be useful.

OK I will dig up the details and perhaps a screenshot. Thank you for responding!

The screen shot of the problem and your shader node network in use when it appears would be helpful.  Also, you can determine if it is a Video card problem or not by doing this.  Ignore the problem and render anyway.  Save the rendered image to disk (not a screen shot) and view it with another program.  If the rendered image is clean, then it is most likely a problem with the video card or its driver.  If the rendered image is not clean, then it is a bug in Poser and will need to find a workaround until a patch is offered by the folks who currently own Poser.

One other thought, I understand that Poser 6, can take advantage of Open GL?  If so turn off that support, your workspace previews will revert to the look they would have had if your were using Poser 5.  But if the problem goes away with that alteration, you know that it is a bug created by either Poser 6 or your open GL driver or hardware being slighty out of spec for OpenGL

Poser doesn't take advantage from a video card if not (maybe) while showing an animation, so you won't see any difference in rendering performance using a different video card because the rendering engine doesn't pass thorugh the processor of the card.

About OpenGL it would affect only the preview window and not the rendering engine that is internal, So because the error appears while rendering I don't think changing the value will change something.

Sometimes I got the same error if I put the firefly rendering options at its maximum or if there is an error in the files I loaded.

That's pretty much what happens to me, I wing 'em up to the maximum in the hopes of eeking out that last bit of quality. Your post brings about another question. What is the best way to get high quality & FAST renders in Poser 6?

I think that the "work" at the end will be the same in terms of time if you use the same PC. If I have very big problem in a complex rendering I use to show/hide things in different renders and then merge the pictures in different liyers.

I did a lot of experimenting and used to start at the highest quality all the time.  As I started adding more to each setup, I found that if I start at draft and then work my way up, I could judge the real difference in quality.  

My longest render was the pic "Wet Kiss" which took about 4 hours.  I thought Poser was locking up each time I tried to render.  I finally let it go and when I got home at lunch, it was done.  The most complex was the "PF 3rd Anniversary Party" (both pics in the gallery)  The party pic had so many elements, that I had to figure out how many characters I could put into the building and still render. Then each render was imported as a background picture and more elements added.  I did this several times to get the final result and had to balance quality vs. speed vs. what I wanted to achieve.

I think one of my misconceptions early on was that a high end machine would make anything fast. To an extent it does.  As I gained more experience, what I have learned is that I have to balance the speed of the machine against the capabilities of the program.  Poser 6 is a good program with features that other programs doesn't have.  It is a bit clunky, though, compared to others.  But complex, high quality renders will take time no matter what program is used.  I know an artist using radiosity settings in another program and the render took 156 hours.  I think only a full sized render farm could have done better!

Believe it or not, that's basically what I've deduced thoughout my Poser experience. I guess I'm just trying to cheat at speed by buying the latest gizmos in computer technology. My real goal is animation and detail leaning toward the photorealistic.

I've used the highest factory preset in my renders this week and it has worked, however I've noticed that .tif files make black previews and gray renders. What am I doing wrong?

If you are talking about texture maps, make sure you are not using textures that were supposed to be used for bump or displacement mapping.  Bump maps are greyscale and could result in something similar to what you are seeing.

For saving or export render images, use the png format as the prefered and convert to jpeg after any postwork.  Pangor explained the png format preference to me in another posting, but it might take a bit to find.

Also, as far as render settings, there was a discussion that Rayera started that had some good pointers and experience sharing.

http://posetteforever.com/viewtopic.php?t=1870