My Mac is hating my "Light Rays" plug in... why?

I am getting the following message...

"The effect "Light Rays" failed to render: Your hardware cannot cannot render at the requested size and depth."

I JUST bought my system, it can't be that outdated. With as much RAM as I have, why can't it handle this? I already googled and it was recommended to drop down the video processing under setting in sequence to "Render in 8 bit YUV" which I have already done.

FCP 6.0.5 Mac OSX 10.5.5 2 x 2.66 ghz dual core intel xeon
8 gb 667 mhz ddr2 fb dimm

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!

what gfx card are you using? That could be your problem.

Andy

Check the Fixed Resolution box on the group

Peter

Gentlemen, thank you for the speedy reply.

Andy:

I think I'm using a NVIDIA Geforce 7300 GT? Does that sound right?


Peter:

Where do I find this dialogue box/option? Where in the menu bar is this?

Thank you.

I believe that effect is dependent upon the texture limit of your graphics card. It sounds like you're coming up on it's limit.

Andy

Here's a thought... of some kind .. because I had that exact message a while ago.

About six months ago someone (possibly on this board) informed me that I had various graphics cards and other bits and pieces installed in the wrong slots on my fabby Mac Octo.

Apparently there are sweet spots in the slots ...(?!)

So I moved them around to the spots where they would allegedly work best and found that the increased speed from being in the correct position stopped all kinds of nasty messages and hangups such as that which you are experiencing.

This is, of course, just an annoying guess on my part because I know NOTHING.

But you might look into the issue of which slot your graphics card and other cards occupy.

In any case, this is clearly such a silly problem that the great minds on this board will fix you up in no time.

Best wishes,

Harry

HARRY:

Thank you for the advice, but I have no idea how to change my card out. Wouldn't know where to look.

ANDY:

is there an alternative? Change in settings? Is this the only filter going to give me trouble? Do I have to replace the effect completely? What graphics card should i have?

Thank you.

Here's what I'm getting at:

You seem to have an Nvidia card and it seems to me that this card should be in the fastest slot. I wonder if it is. Somehow I doubt it.

Open up your Mac and see if you can tell, from top to bottom, which slot the Nvidia card occupies.

Also tell us if there are any other cards in the remaining slots.

By "Slots" I'm referring to the circuit boards - some of which which have plugs and stuff that poke out of the back of your Mac and which invite connection to things like monitors.

Report this information back on this board and the good folks here who know better than me will help you to determine what slots, from top to bottom, your various cards should occupy.

Physically moving them around is a separate issue which can be dealt with later and which requires courage and daring.

I am not suggesting that I have a cure for you myself, but it MAY BE that the performance of these components can be improved by their being placed in better positions in the "stack" inside your machine.

Don't be concerned about not understanding this. I don't.

But you will very likely be able to improve the performance of your system if you get this stuff installed correctly, as was I when I changed things around.

OK?

Your problem is very fixable. People here with better brains than mine will help you if you give the details I mention above.

Best, and in sympathy.

I hope I'm not talking down to you. If so, I apologize.


Harry

So what card should I be using?

Cards with larger texture limits give you more leeway with some effects, particularly Motion based effects.

However, if you want to just do this effect, you should be able to accomplish it by sending your clip to Motion.

Inside Motion, you have an option called Fixed Resolution which can confine the amount the rendering of the light rays effect to a set width and height. From there you just have to make sure that the defined size is set to the size of your frame or slightly larger. That should be well within the abilities of your current card.

There is no Fixed Resolution button in the FCP version of the effect.

Andy

Well, I don't have anything particularly fancy. I have a Decklink HD Extreme ($1000 appx) and, even when I had a less expensive Decklink card, whose I.D. I have forgotten but cost about $500, I was able to render that particular effect "Light Rays".

I had been given to understand that these Nvidia cards are the bees knees, so I don't see why this chap should have a problem.

So, "digibody", have you got any further news for us?

Oh and, BY THE WAY --- you have trashed your FCP prefs, right? You know how to do that?

Best

Harry

The Decklink HD is a capture card. That's not the same thing as a gfx card. The decklink isn't required to render the light rays plugin.

Andy

So what is messing him up? I have a Mac Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 4 megs of RAM. That's sorta comparable to his setup, no?

Oops about the Decklink card. It turns out I have the ATI Radeon X1900 XT. That's pretty basic, right? I mean that his Nvidia card is probably fancier than that and should do the job for him, no?

Thanks for setting me straight. And, by the way, I've been using your plug ins constantly and am still deeply in love with you.

Best

Harry.



H.

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harry323
So what is messing him up? I have a Mac Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 4 megs of RAM. That's sorta comparable to his setup, no?

The most likely reason the OP's having problems is because he's pushed the effect so that the "rays" are being calculated off-frame past the limit of the graphics card. My card, and I suspect his are 4K cards. Anything past 4096 pixels can't be rendered. Even though the frame size is only 720 or 1080, if you crank the amount up too much, the rays will want to render out past the edge of the frame.

The fix, in Motion at least, is to fix the resolution of the effect to the size of the frame. There is no such control on the FCP version of the effect, so to fix it, the OP needs to send the clip to Motion and apply the effect there, with the fixed resolution in place.

Andy

PS: You must have me mistaken for another Andy. I haven't made any plug-ins. I'd be lost even trying...

Okay, to make things more complicated, I have been using this filter for flashbacks that run throughout the entire 90 minute movie. I have applied it to many clips, so many I'm thinking it may be easier to simply just upgrade the card. Rather than importing and reimporting into FCP, what kind of card should I get to solve this problem so I can move on and hit my deadline? Or can I adjust some kind of settings in FCP? Also, not very good at Motion... also getting the hang of it. Thanks, guys.

Well, I don't have it, but I hear the ATI Radeon 3870 is the best card for use with Motion and Motion related plugins (like the light rays filter). It's a couple hundred, and I believe it has a 8K texture limit (2x my card). That's the card I'm looking to purchase.

As far as settings in FCP, you can try lowering the amount of the effect. This may help and get you under the texture limit.

Andy

Well, I've recently completed 2 features with quite of lot of layered effects like "Light Rays" and "God Rays" and some of those "DV Shade" plug ins and multiple layers (one was a ghost story, so you can imagine) and, although I often get crashes during render unless I render in small segments, this ATI Radeon X1900 XT thing that I have works for me.

I imagine Andy is correct because he clearly knows what he's talking about technically, and I can only offer my experience as a practical user who doesn't understand how this stuff actually works.

And - hey Mr digibody - PROMISE me that you have trashed your FCP prefs file and that this whole problem is not due to boring old corrupt prefs. PLEASE!!!

Best.

Over and out.


Harry

If you want to check the speeds of your PCIe slots you can use the Expansion Slot Utility it's found at
HD/System/Library/CoreServices/Expansion Slot Utility

HD Being your Hard Drive

Expansion Slot Utility screen shot


------------------------
Dean

"When I see you floating down the gutter I'll give you a bottle of wine."
Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica.

1.) Harry, sorry, not sure how to trash the perfs. I'm paranoid about trashing anything right now, I've been working on this feature for three years now

2.) My computer is a x16 lane graphics slot _ one x8 lane and two x1 lane shots, not seeing any yellow, #1 out of 4 express profiles shows a green dot by the x16, #2 and 3 slots being x1 and #4 being x8. What doe sthis mean?

3.) Andy, I tried exporting from Motion and I get the same error box. Suggestions? Would doing this in AE help at all?

Thanks!

Hey, man. Trashing prefs is really number one in mystery problem solving. You really should do it. And on a regular basis too. Each time your computer crashes, apparently a whole load of dirty crap gets written to your drives. Or so greater brains tell me.

Believe me, you will not lose anything important. And I do understand your paranoia. However, please understand that I am a boring normal FCP user and I have found that taking this simple step often cures a problem, and, if not - well, at least you have reset a whole bunch of stuff in your computer's FCS App brain which is probably clogged up.

Think of it as a bathroom plunger. It cleans out the system of nastiness.

And what I am proposing has nothing to do with screwing with your data.

It's not as if I am suggesting that this is a complete panacea for your issues, but it might help other more knowledgeable people on this board help you if you have taken this step.

Now ... be brave.

Be bold.

It's Freeware.

Here you go: [www.digitalrebellion.com]

Be a good boy and don't wimp out on me. The first time was hard and (gulp) painful for me too.

Best wishes in all things,

Harry.

Harry, thank you for your advice, I did indeed trash and I'm still encountering the same issues. Even worse, I got rid of the plug in I used and instead tried to simplify the effect by using brightness, and it's still giving me the same error message. So it has to be the graphics card, correct? Which is the absolute best card I should get to eliminate this problem? Thank you. Sorry to go back and forth so much like this.

Though I don't own, the best card out there for Motion (and by extension, Motion FX) is the ATI 4870. Though the ATI 3870 is no slouch either. I believe they both have an 8K texture limit.

Andy

Thanks, Andy. And for sure that purchase will solve my problem versus the card I currently have installed? Can I install this card myself? is it hard?

Without seeing your project, it's impossible to say, but the two cards I mentioned have the largest texture limit available for Motion, so probably.

Installing a card is a snap. Especially with a Mac.

Andy

The ATI x1900 does well also. I have that (512mb).

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

Hey, guys. There are several ATI 4870 make and models, which one do you recommend?

I switched all of my light rays to brightness and it still won't render, so I'm buying the hardware hoping it's going to solve my problem once and for all.

Can you please take a look at the link and tell me which is the absolute best and will help me avoid having to worry about this problem again? Here is the list..

[www.newegg.com]

Thanks.

Quote

The ATI x1900 does well also

Don't get a 1900 they get dirty and blocked with dust easily, get noisy then overheat and in some cases burn out. Plus its old tech.

Quote

There are several ATI 4870 make and models, which one do you recommend?

Whilst you can get the PC versions to work but there is a lot of fiddling involved and some things won't work correctly.

So unfortunately you need to get the Mac edition which is more expensive because they thinks its OK to charge Mac users more for a change in the ROM!

This is the only one that is available until other manufacturers start making Mac Editions...

[store.apple.com]


Better still - wait for the new Nvidia cards next month which will also be a good choice for Snow Leopard as they will support Open CL and Open GL 3 and CUDA GPU processing...

[www.engadget.com]



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

That is true Ben. x1900's love dust. You would have to blow it out about once every 3 months at minimum.

I am the same about that CUDA card. I have been an ATI only dude up until i read what CUDA could do. Exponential Computing in a v-card.

In fact in that interview with the Ndivia CEO he had even hinted that CUDA could eventually replace the GPU.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

Thank you for your input. Can't afford a grand for the Nvidia but I'll definitely get the 4870. Is this replacing the current card I have or adding on to them? Are installation instructions included? Do I ever have to clean the card like the 1900? Do I have to walk it and feed it, too? Sounds like more maintenance than my dog... LOL.

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digibody
Is this replacing the current card I have or adding on to them?

Replace. FCP and Motion don't play well with multiple gfx cards.

Quote

Are installation instructions included?

There are probably instructions, but in all likelihood, when you open you're computer and look inside, you'll feel silly for asking that. It's really easy to replace a component like that. Unscrew two screws by hand. Pull out old card. Slide new card in. Replace screws. Something like that. Not that different from changing the batteries in a remote.

Andy