how to fix "gather error"

[jojo]

since i started (re)simulating the crawler tracks, 3dsMax has become very unstable,
when i try to save, the program crashes 4 out of 5 times, and when i do manage to save,
and try to load it afterwards, it gives me a gather error. with the animation still intact, but with some big tracks sitting at the origin and no way to simulate the stuff.

is there a way to repair files that have a gather error??

now im just saving lots of times in a number sequence, so i dont lose mutch, but it does take a long time to resimulate everytime it crashes when i try to save the scene.

p.s.

sorry for posting so mutch

[Carl Buhre]

since i started (re)simulating the crawler tracks, 3dsMax has become very unstable,
when i try to save, the program crashes 4 out of 5 times, and when i do manage to save,
and try to load it afterwards, it gives me a gather error. with the animation still intact, but with some big tracks sitting at the origin and no way to simulate the stuff.

is there a way to repair files that have a gather error??

now im just saving lots of times in a number sequence, so i dont lose mutch, but it does take a long time to resimulate everytime it crashes when i try to save the scene.

p.s.

sorry for posting so mutch

Jojo,
First of all, please make sure you have the latest version of Craft Director Tools installed. If the problem still occurs, please send us your scene (support@craftanimations.com) and we'll take a look at it.

[Luigi Tramontana]

A while ago I noticed when doing massive scenes with multiple tanks on 32 bit systems that I ran out of memory, and as soon as you run out of memory max/maya begins go beserk yielding 20 minute long loading times due to hard disk cache usage, and of course tons of crashes (actually Vista/XP crashes).
If you are planning to create massive scenes i strongly recommend using a 64-bit system with at least 8GB of ram.

You can actually take your 32-bit scene and open it in a 64-bit scene and just experience the magic

[jojo]

ill go try the update, but i dont have acces to a 64 bit system, so i guess i just have too keep stuff simple.

btw, what's considered a massive scene?

im using one full tank rig with a total of 9 bogeys, 7wheels 1crawler and 2x 75track segments, 2 1d rotators 1 firepower and a plane of 8x8 (with one bump of about 20 extra polys).

i havent even included the model of the tank yet, (as that one has about 80.000 polys)

[Luigi Tramontana]

Well, for that specific scene I used 2 tanks (rigged as you have rigged yours) and recorded them for about 2000 frames.
It depends on how long a scene you are recording, for you 4000 frames would make you run out of memory on a 32-bit Vista. This since 32 bit can only utilize 3GB, but vista per se requires over 2GB leaving you with less than 1GB for Max, all scene meshes and nodes, all Craft stuff, and finally you will have a couple of hundred MBs for recorded keyframes left.

[jojo]

nah less than 1000 frames,

i got it to work though

i "merged" the animated wheels and floor to a empty file, made the track on them, and after i ran a simulation, that went okay, i just merged the tracks and their high poly links back to the scene with the tank, works like a charm

[Carl Buhre]

nah less than 1000 frames,

i got it to work though

i "merged" the animated wheels and floor to a empty file, made the track on them, and after i ran a simulation, that went okay, i just merged the tracks and their high poly links back to the scene with the tank, works like a charm

If you still have a version saved of the scene where you got the error I would really appreciate if you sent it to us so we can prevent this error from happening to anyone else.