[JDHill]

Okay, these HDRIs are installed when you install Maxwell Render (not the Maxwell for SketchUp plugin), so no wonder you do not find them. Instead of one of those, then, let's have you download this HDRI and try using it in a scene; it works fine here.

[dvsone1440]

So I have been playing around with the one you sent and I have yet to recreate the error. Then I tried messing around with one of the ones I have been using and actually had a hard time recreating the issue. kinda like when you take your car to the mechanic and it works fine.

That test however definitely tells me it is not corrupt as it was working quite well for a while... but when I stopped the rendering and then hit the "re-export" button the error appeared again.

What I notice with the one you sent me is that it is a very small low resolution file (992 kb). The ones I have had the issue with are all 30,000 kb + files. In order to get any detail in the clouds (I am typically using hdri files for exterior scenes) It seems like I have to use these nicer higher quality files. They look great when they work. Could this have something to do with file size?

The thing I don't understand is why they work for a while and then I make a few adjustments (or re-export it that seems to do it every time) and it says "format not recognized" but it just did? I have noticed that when the problem appears if I close sketchup and re-open the model and then hit fire again it seems to generally start working again. Until I make more changes or re-export.

[fv]

This problem occurs since recently. Also before 2.7.
It was discussed and related to lack of installed system memory. We have this problem as well and restarting SU solves it. But I haven't tried installing more memory than the 4Gb we have installed now.
Francois

[dvsone1440]

Well I have 12GB on both the machines I use and the problem still exists so I can tell you more ram does not help with that. My understanding is that sketchup itself has trouble using more than 4gb. Seems whenever I look at the activity monitor / task manager most of my ram is inactive.

[JDHill]

I have been trying, since your previous post, to reproduce this behavior, by building a model that takes lots of memory, and then assigning a different ~60MB HDRI to each Image Based channel. The application has remained stable (though excruciatingly slow), with the highest recorded memory usage so far being over 3.7GB, and I have not yet observed anything like the error you are reporting.

If, on Windows, you open Task Manager, you can go to View > Select Columns and check Working Set and Peak Working Set; I would be interested in knowing the values you observe for these before and after the issue occurs. My guess, based on my testing, is that this is not actually memory-related, and that it has something to do with your HDRIs; are they all from the same source? If you have an ftp client, I would like to p.m. you with information for my ftp, and have you upload one of these files -- hopefully that would allow me to reproduce the issue.

(OT: regarding 4GB limits, it is not that SketchUp would have trouble using more, but rather that it can't, since 32-bit applications are only able to address 4GB of memory. Say that your post office used 2-bit addressing; it could only deliver mail to four homes, whose addresses would be: 00, 01, 10, and 11)

[dvsone1440]

I could upload them to dropbox and send you a link ? Otherwise I could use my work FTP as well.

There are two of us in the office using Maxwell and he has experienced the same issue, so it doesn't seem like it is something strange I am doing.

I have not really noticed anything working in Maxwell being slow? When you say its excruciating slow... what is slow? Rendering or changing something? I have not noticed that relative to this issue.

I will mess around with a few to check the peak numbers are and post something in a bit.

My models are typically anywhere from 40 mb to 150 mb and the HDRI I have noticed the issue on the most is around 60 mb. The HDRI's are not all from the same source..

[dvsone1440]

I took some screen captures of the activity monitor right before and after the error that I can send you as well.. I don't see where I can add them here?

[JDHill]

You can't, you have to upload images somewhere like imageshack.us and link them using [img][/img] tags. And yes, dropbox will work fine.

When I wrote that SketchUp was slow, the reason is that just to load my test model, SketchUp required nearly 2.5GB of memory (on disk, the file is only about 200MB), and hitting Save was literally taking over 15 minutes. This model was right on the edge -- just a little larger and the export would fail, or SketchUp.exe would run out of memory as Maxwell voxelized the model for rendering.

Lastly, I would like to confirm again that we are not dealing with any network here (you wrote previously that you are testing on the local disk, but mention of your colleague experiencing the same issue raises a sliver of doubt). Reason being, I can imagine a situation in which the network is flaky from time to time, and that this could possibly explain the intermittent nature of the behavior.

[dvsone1440]

ok Send me an address and I will dropbox the file... dvsone1440@gmail.com I will send a typical sketchup file as well.

Sounds significantly bigger than what I am dealing with.

No... that was my first thought when this started happening (I did start out using a network location at work) . So I have been doing everything off the local C drive and continue to experience the issue.
I also have the issue at home with no network.

[JDHill]

I've only ever downloaded things that other people had uploaded to dropbox, so it may take me awhile to figure out how to do what you want.

[dvsone1440]

I just need an email address and I will send you a link to download all the files from dropbox. you can send me an address at dvsone1440@gmail.com

[JDHill]

Ah, I see -- my email is jeremy at nextlimit dotcom. I was just downloading & setting up an account...probably not a bad idea, regardless.

[dvsone1440]

You should get an email from dropbox soon..

[JDHill]

Thanks, downloading now, and will let you know what I find.

[JDHill]

I have been able to reproduce the issue, and it does look to be memory-related, after all. Concerning the model in your screenshots: while this model would have presented no problem prior to 2.7, you do have some large areas using grass, generating a total of around 2 million blades -- this is putting you on the edge of running out of memory. I could not tell you why this should manifest as the HDRI-loading code reporting a 'bad format' error, but I'll alert the core developers; possibly that code is just what happens to be running when memory allocation fails, such that the failure is mistaken for a bad HDRI. This could possibly be the case, regardless if grass were being used or not.

Regarding the other model (the one beginning with 2012_0612): though it does use around 2.5GB of memory while rendering, the only issue I find with it is due to a 2.7 bug (in the render engine, not the plugin), in which displacement causes the engine to crash when assigned at the sub-object level. To avoid this issue, it is necessary to ensure that materials with displacement (in this scene, Metal_Corrogated_Shiny) are not assigned to individual faces, and are only assigned at the group or component levels.