My latest image was busy rendering – estimated to take a whopping 156 hours to render (after the initial radiosity pass) that is 6 ½ days! I was using Vue 9 (64-bit) as a render engine. Bryce 7 wouldn’t handle the file (over 2.5Gb big) and it is limited to 32-bit address space so it can’t use all my 8Gb of memory! The render started last Tuesday and when I checked last night at 11pm there was only 4 hours left and a thin strip remained to complete, so I went to be happy in anticipation for the results for the next morning.
So this morning (it is now a full week later) I got up all excited and instead of being greeted by a completed render, I was greeted by the Windows 7 welcome screen! My PC had rebooted in the night, and 156-hours solid of rendering was gone! Even Vue’s famous “Resume Render” function didn’t work becuase the machine had simply shut down!
Needless to say I was more than slightly irritated…I was furious! What caused this reboot? It certainly wasn’t a powercut. I have a nice little UPS that will keep my system going for a couple of hours should the power go down.
Then a little notification popped up that revealed the guilty party. Windows ***ing Updater! By default it seems Windows 7 updates regularly and reboots the system once the update is complete!
After much cursing andsmashing my forehead into the keyboard, I discovered how to prevent this potentially disasterous occurance from happening every time Microsoft patches its operating system! This will work with any version of Windows 7 – Professional and above. It might even work with XP.
- Click the Windows 7 orb
- Type “gpedit.msc” in the Search field to find and start the Group Policy Editor
- Go to Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update
- Double-click on “No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Update installation”
- Enable it!
- Reboot the computer
In Vue I also set the Rendering to render to a file rather than the screen and to backup the render file very hour. I will report back next week – at the same time – with the results of my looonnnggg render!
[After this posting I recieved a note from David Brinnen informed me that Bryce can be made to see more than the default 2Gb limit for memory. Techpowerup has a link to a little utility “LargeAddressAware” that can allow Bryce to have a 3Gb limit – Thanks David]
Oh my, what a bummer!!!
Yeah, I know that lovely update thing.
Had it disabled a.s.a.p.
They have to ask me first,stap for step.
Takes a bit longer but at least it won’t reboot without my ok.
I hope the render will work out ok, this time. 🙂
Another way to avoid that is to simply unplug the network cable. That’s what I do when I know I’m going to have a render that’s going to go more than a few hours.
You know you can get a bit more “headroom” for Bryce by making it Large Address Aware?
Now I do. A Google search on “Bryce and Large Address Aware” brought up this site on TechPowerUp Thanks for the clue!
Ouch!
Deep breaths, and patience! Start ’em up again, me bucko!
(But David! Did you take out your frustrations on that poor defenseless tower case?? *grin*)
Same thing happened to me, though admittedly my render only needed a few days! I feel your pain.