"Effect failed to render" messages

When I try to apply certain FXPlugs in the Effects menu that came with FCP 6, I get a red-card message that reads "effect failed to render." It doesn't happen with every FXPlug: I can use the "Stripe" and the "Scrape" FXPlugs, but it does occur whenever I try to apply "Defocus" or "Soft Focus," for instance.

Post this in the cafe Terry and lets see if it is a bug or not.

Michael Horton
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It's not :-)

The error message appears when your graphics card isn't powerful enough to render the effect, which is why you're only seeing it on some FxPlugs and not others. I only know this because it was mentioned in the recertification videos for trainers, I haven't seen it anywhere else.

Martin Baker
[www.digital-heaven.co.uk]
Unique plug-ins and tools for Apple Pro Apps

Any other explanation for this error?

I doubt the card is the problem - it's a Radeon X1900 and I'm having the problem w/ a project that used to work fine in an older version of FCP. I upgraded to Final Cut Studio 2 (from 1) and after saving the project as the new version I re-rendered. Everything rendered ok except the Prism effect on 2 short clips.

I read on the Apple boards that resetting the Scratch Disks might help but that didn't do it.

I have to say I've had some sketchy things happen ever since the upgrade - first a Compressor bug resulting in no Fast Start QT clips (plenty of talk about this one), then multiple crashes over the past few days, and now this effect problem. Ouch.

Hi,

I just bought a 2.8 8 core Pro Mac and I'm having the same issue with some fxplug plugins displaying the "The effect "..." failed to render."

My previous G5 dual 2.3 also had the same issue. I believe it has to do with having 2 video cards because when I took out one video card from my G5 to run only 2 monitors, I did not have these conflicts. I have not tried taking one of my ATI Radeon HD 2600 out on the Pro Mac yet, but I will later today.

I would find it surprising that it's the video card not being powerful enough...

Very strange indeed... Anyone with an explanation?

Any

Just an added note - I also have 2 video cards. I didn't test to see if I was able to get past it by removing one card, I decided I didn't really like the Prism effect, anyway.

So, what does this mean? Certain effects are confused by 2 cards?

Ajr,

I took out one of my 2 video cards of my new Pro Mac and the problems disappeared. It must be a bug in Final Cut because the same thing happened on my G5.

I think if you test other plugins you'll find the same problem, not just Prism...

I decided to install a new system on another hard drive and reinstall FCP on that drive so that I would not have any possibility of conflicts. The troubled plugins first worked, but after a few minutes, the same red message reappeared. So I guess the plugins are very confused! If one card handles them, how can 2 cards not be able to? Very frustrating...

Hey jlc,

Thanks for the testing info and nice detective work. I'll keep this in mind if I hit it again. Man, what a hassle to have to pull out a card...

There seems to be quite a few people out there with this issue. Probably people who have 2 graphics card. I sure hope someone can explain what is happenng because it does not make sense!

I just started having this problem as well, and only after installing a second video card. The card was to accommodate a Wacom Cintiq display tablet - thanks to a Google search that led me to this forum, I identified that as the problem. I've found that if I unhook the tablet and restart FCP, the effects render just fine. So if you have a display hooked up to your second video card, try unhooking it completely (rather than taking out the entire card) and it might just work. This definitely seems to be a bug - I reported it to Apple but everyone else experiencing it should do so as well, and hopefully they'll clear it up in the next update.

I've since returned my second video card. I find that with SPACES, having a third monitor is not essential. Still a bug is a bug and it should be fixed. Do you run OS 10.5.2? It' a pretty major update and it may have fixed the bug.

still having the problem but wanted to follow up w/ the fact that unplugging the 2nd monitor did the trick. how annoying.

i'm still running tiger on my editing station (10.4.11). anyone running leopard 10.5.2 also having the problem?

i've been moving my effects work to motion to get around this and it's working great.

I have a 2.6 GHz Mac Pro with the GeForce 7300 GT video card running Final Cut Studio 2 on leopard 10.5.2. I upgraded last week in the middle of working on a project (I know, last time I do that). With FCS 1, I was running Magic Bullet Looks and Colorista with no problems, after the upgrade I get the same red card message as stated earlier. I'm only using one monitor, so I doubt it's a dual montior - 2 video card problem. Other forums suggest it's a resolution size problem, however I tried it with the lowest possible resolution with the same problem. So unless my Mac Pro is already outdated and wimpier than I thought, it has to be something to do with the upgrade.

OK, I certainly don't have a CINTIQ display tablet, but took a shot in the dark and unplugged my Graphire 3 tablet and restarted Final Cut... applied the Looks filter and it worked without a hitch. Don't know what that means or if it's fixed, but at least for today I'm back in business.

Same issue. I unplugged the second monitor and tried the effect again. Worked. Sounds like a bug to me.

This was after we took the (very heavy) machine to the Mac store and had them swap out the second graphics card for a new one.

Could you be a little more helpful. What computer, what OS, what version of QT, what version of FCP, what filter exactly. Sounds like the graphics card can't support two monitors and effects that are GPU based.

Hi, I got Final Cut 6.0.6 and I just bought a new Mac Book Pro 17", 2.8ghz intel core 2 Duo 4GB
I installed the plug ins for the filters FX Factory, it seemed everything fine but once in Final Cut I added an effect on a clip and it appears the message:
"the effect "cartoon" failed to render: your hardware cannot render at the request size and depth".
I work only with the monitor of my laptop.
I really care about this filters but i have no idea what's going on..
It could be really an hardware problem? Anyone knows a solution?
thx + bye

The new MacBook Pros have two graphics cards - are you sure you are using the correct one?

Hey guys, I got a solution for everyone! Here is what you do....

Go to sequence>settings

then choose "render in 8 bit YUV"

worked for me, hope it helps you as well!