WHATTA HELL???????

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Szabolcs Matefy

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Jul 5, 2012, 8:02:56 AM7/5/12
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Can anybody tell me what can I do, if I can’t load my scenes saved previously and loaded perfectly this before?????? Suddenly Softimage crashes on my scenes, and it seems that I lost whole 3 days of job. However, there were no crashes, and no issues at all…What the hell is going on????????

 

 

Cheers

 

 

Szabolcs

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Ben Houston

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Jul 5, 2012, 8:06:29 AM7/5/12
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I would suggest ensuring that no third party plugins are loaded at
all. It could be you updated a plugin and that plugin is buggy.
-ben
--
Best regards,
Ben Houston
Voice: 613-762-4113 Skype: ben.exocortex Twitter: @exocortexcom
http://Exocortex.com - Passionate CG Software Professionals.

Martin

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Jul 5, 2012, 8:12:35 AM7/5/12
to b...@exocortex.com, soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
This may not be what you are looking for but, after you have tried everything, you could try to open it with "Disable all geometry operators on load" checked and/or some other options in the Scene Debugging tab. 

If the scene is simple there may be some data you can recover.

M.Yara

Simon Anderson

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Jul 5, 2012, 8:17:16 AM7/5/12
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-Try merging the scene into a new scene
- try load in a blank softimage and disabling all the viewports and then load your scene
-have one viewport expanded and viewing the explorer window and then load your scene

thats all I can think of off the top of my head, hope one works
--
-------------------
Simon Ben Anderson
blog: http://vinyldevelopment.wordpress.com/

Szabolcs Matefy

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Jul 5, 2012, 8:17:52 AM7/5/12
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Even merging with these option enabled is make xsi to crash…I’m really desperate, because two days of crunching job lost. I can’t load even the previous (and previously perfectly loaded) scenes…

Simon Anderson

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Jul 5, 2012, 8:19:37 AM7/5/12
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are you using softimage 2010?

On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 10:17 PM, Pete Edmunds <pete3...@gmail.com> wrote:
Have a look in the Backup folder within the project there should be 4 backups of that scene do those load?

Pete Edmunds

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Jul 5, 2012, 8:17:56 AM7/5/12
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Have a look in the Backup folder within the project there should be 4 backups of that scene do those load?

On 5 July 2012 13:12, Martin <furi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Peter Agg

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Jul 5, 2012, 8:25:18 AM7/5/12
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Try unloading any reference models using the scntoc file. That has sometimes helped to narrow down the problem for me.

Szabolcs Matefy

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Jul 5, 2012, 8:28:24 AM7/5/12
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I am on 2013 SP1

I can’t load the backups, instant crash

I removed the new plugins, no help

I tried all you suggested, in vain

I sacrifice a black rooster, maybe Baron Samedi will help to fix this…

 

From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Peter Agg
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2012 2:25 PM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: WHATTA HELL???????

 

Try unloading any reference models using the scntoc file. That has sometimes helped to narrow down the problem for me.

patrick nethercoat

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Jul 5, 2012, 8:28:15 AM7/5/12
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could the magical runonce.bat (C:\Softimage\Softimage_2010_SP1_x64\Application\bin) help here?



On 5 July 2012 13:19, Simon Anderson <simonbenan...@gmail.com> wrote:

Eric Thivierge

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Jul 5, 2012, 8:33:02 AM7/5/12
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Clear your preferences?

--------------------------------------------
Eric Thivierge
http://www.ethivierge.com

Sandy Sutherland

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Jul 5, 2012, 8:26:14 AM7/5/12
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You tried this scene on another machine?  Not being able to load the previous autosaves sounds dodgy - sounds to me like a runonce or prefs replacement is needed - but quicker to test by loading on another machine.

S.

_____________________________
Sandy Sutherland
Technical Supervisor
sandy.su...@triggerfish.co.za
_____________________________





From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] on behalf of Simon Anderson [simonbenan...@gmail.com]
Sent: 05 July 2012 14:19

To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: WHATTA HELL???????

ThomasV

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Jul 5, 2012, 8:42:11 AM7/5/12
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Try opening on another system (win <-> linux) if possible. A while ago I could open scenes on my linux-box, that were crashing on Win.

 

good luck!

/Thomas


Szabolcs Matefy <szab...@crytek.com> hat am 5. Juli 2012 um 14:28 geschrieben:

Rob Chapman

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Jul 5, 2012, 8:47:21 AM7/5/12
to ThomasV, soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
and tried merging the problematic scene? been here before, its
horrible :/ think there is some debug mode you can switch on in the
SI startup script as well which may help, Fabrice did a while back
when we encountered some errors on previously loadable scenes , think
it was an error on a reference model in the end

Sandy Sutherland

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Jul 5, 2012, 8:49:11 AM7/5/12
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Suggested that - but easy test would be to use a different machine first.


S.

_____________________________
Sandy Sutherland
Technical Supervisor
sandy.su...@triggerfish.co.za
_____________________________





From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] on behalf of Eric Thivierge [ethiv...@gmail.com]
Sent: 05 July 2012 14:33

Stephen Blair

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Jul 5, 2012, 9:15:14 AM7/5/12
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Hi Szabolcs

Want to send me the scene? I'll try to open it, although most of what I will do has already been suggested.


From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Szabolcs Matefy
Sent: July-05-12 8:03 AM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: WHATTA HELL???????

Can anybody tell me what can I do, if I can't load my scenes saved previously and loaded perfectly this before?????? Suddenly Softimage crashes on my scenes, and it seems that I lost whole 3 days of job. However, there were no crashes, and no issues at all...What the hell is going on????????
winmail.dat

Andy Nicholas

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Jul 5, 2012, 9:37:41 AM7/5/12
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Hi,
Can anyone point me in the right direction for finding the full SPDL syntax
somewhere? I could have sworn it was in the docs but I can't find it any more.
Has it been taken out?

I found a bit of reference material on the Softimage Wiki, but it seems
incomplete.

Thanks,
Andy

Stephen Blair

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Jul 5, 2012, 9:44:19 AM7/5/12
to Andy Nicholas, soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Yeah, it was under Deprecated Features, if you have the 2011 SDK CHM
winmail.dat

Stephen Blair

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Jul 5, 2012, 9:48:15 AM7/5/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com, Andy Nicholas
winmail.dat

Andy Nicholas

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Jul 5, 2012, 9:54:51 AM7/5/12
to Stephen Blair, soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for your help. Sure, I understand it was deprecated. Seeing as XSI still
relies on a lot of stuff that uses SPDLs, surely the reference material should
be kept until the SPDL reliance is removed? Sometimes we need to get under the
hood on some of this stuff.

I'll see if I can find the old chm.

Cheers,
Andy

Andy Nicholas

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Jul 5, 2012, 9:55:20 AM7/5/12
to Stephen Blair, soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Thanks for that!

Octavian Ureche

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Jul 5, 2012, 9:56:09 AM7/5/12
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So why would anyone care about xsi having ascii scene file description?
Well....this is why.

I feel your pain, though trying to recover a scene in this situation, has more to do with luck than anything else.

Chris Covelli

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Jul 5, 2012, 11:00:47 AM7/5/12
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This might be a long shot but try opening your scene's .scntoc file in a text editor.  You may be able to find something in there that you can alter or get rid of to help open your scene.

One case in which this worked for me was when I had about 30+  multi-resolution reference models in one scene and I accidentally saved and closed the scene while all the models were set to their highest res.  Opening the scntoc file allowed me to set the model res all back to their lowest resolution and after that I was able to open the scene.
--
Chris Covelli
http://kylevargas.net/

Alan Fregtman

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Jul 5, 2012, 11:11:40 AM7/5/12
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I've also had the case of a buggy rig update causing a scene load to fail where it didn't use to. *shudder*

Szabolcs Matefy

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Jul 5, 2012, 11:28:22 AM7/5/12
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Thanks for all the comments and help!

I managed to find an older crashsave, and I recovered the scene from it. I had Species rig in the scene, but it was working just fine, yet it removed it. I also had installed Move Normal prior to the disaster, so I removed it also. The scene was not opening any on our computers.

I tend to believe what our artists say, SI 2013 line is cursed...they returned to 2012 SAP, and I am the sole 2013 user...


Cheers

Szabolcs

Bradley Gabe

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Jul 5, 2012, 11:34:59 AM7/5/12
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I hadn't seen such a crash in xsi in a long while, until recently. This time had to do with reading a particle cache into a scene where somehow the cache got overwritten, and the scene would crash on load. I fixed it by deleting the cache files. 

Any chance you are referencing something into your scene that now might be causing it to crash on load?

Tim Crowson

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Jul 5, 2012, 11:38:19 AM7/5/12
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That's sad, because I've been feeling the same way about 2012's stability. Our artists have more crashes with 2012 SAP than they ever had with all previous versions of Soft combined.

Tim Crowson
Lead CG Artist

Magnetic Dreams Animation Studio, Inc.
2525 Lebanon Pike, Building C. Nashville, TN 37214
Ph  615.885.6801 | Fax  615.889.4768 | www.magneticdreams.com
tim.c...@magneticdreams.com

--

 




 

olivier jeannel

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Jul 5, 2012, 11:39:55 AM7/5/12
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Isn't there some backward compatibility issues (there was a topic about
this)
Maybe it's "dangerous" for you to stay in 2013 while every others are 2012.

Alan Fregtman

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Jul 5, 2012, 1:01:28 PM7/5/12
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It's not "dangerous", but with every version of XSI you can never open new scenes in old versions. It's always been this way for as long as I remember.


Szabolcs Matefy

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Jul 5, 2012, 1:04:03 PM7/5/12
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Actually the issue is that they stick to 2012, because of few bugs. Mostly they suffer from bugs that a saved scene cannot be opened any more, or UVs are messed upon reopen, and so on. I try to collect and solve the issues with Autodesk guys (thanks again for their patience). In my point of view 2012 had lot more issues, however it's sure, that there are bugs in 2013 that were not present in 2012. However I think if we don't try to find those issues, Autodesk can't fix them. And my other opinion, is that I do not want to stick to an older version, just because there is an old plugin that works just with an older release. We have to find what makes the trouble, and get rid of it.

Cheers guys!

Szabolcs Matefy

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Jul 5, 2012, 1:05:26 PM7/5/12
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Sure. But Autodesk made a clever move with Max. There is the option to save in an older format. So it’d be not a big deal, that if I want to save a scene for 2012, all geometries, that uses some new features are frozen, and saved in the older format. It could be a real life saver sometimes.

 

From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Alan Fregtman
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2012 7:01 PM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: WHATTA HELL???????

 

It's not "dangerous", but with every version of XSI you can never open new scenes in old versions. It's always been this way for as long as I remember.

 

Matt Lind

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Jul 5, 2012, 4:05:59 PM7/5/12
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The issue as we've experienced at our studio is the problem exists in 2012 as it doesn't save data into .scn files correctly. When those .scn files are imported into other versions of Softimage, you get problems. Staying in 2012 will only make the problem worse.

Matt

Chris Chia

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Jul 5, 2012, 9:19:03 PM7/5/12
to <softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>, soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Hi Szabolcs,
Sometimes the problem could be from external plugins, or even due to mishandling of the file?

You could easily tell whether the file data is complete by comparing this file with the previously saved versions. We had a customer who was saving his huge file to server when the server suddenly crashes... And he didn't realise it's the problem and kept wanting us to recover this file.

Hence having the correct practice of saving files regularly in different saves sometimes helps alot ;)

And I would definitely advise you to troubleshoot your workflow in a calm state...

Is it possible to send me the crash file? I would like to take a look at what went wrong.


Regards,
Chris
Sent from my iPhone

On 6 Jul, 2012, at 1:05 AM, "Szabolcs Matefy" <szab...@crytek.com<mailto:szab...@crytek.com>> wrote:

Sure. But Autodesk made a clever move with Max. There is the option to save in an older format. So it’d be not a big deal, that if I want to save a scene for 2012, all geometries, that uses some new features are frozen, and saved in the older format. It could be a real life saver sometimes.

From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com> [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Alan Fregtman
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2012 7:01 PM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com>
Subject: Re: WHATTA HELL???????

It's not "dangerous", but with every version of XSI you can never open new scenes in old versions. It's always been this way for as long as I remember.

On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 11:39 AM, olivier jeannel <olivier...@noos.fr<mailto:olivier...@noos.fr>> wrote:
Isn't there some backward compatibility issues (there was a topic about this)
Maybe it's "dangerous" for you to stay in 2013 while every others are 2012.



Le 05/07/2012 17:28, Szabolcs Matefy a écrit :

Thanks for all the comments and help!

I managed to find an older crashsave, and I recovered the scene from it. I had Species rig in the scene, but it was working just fine, yet it removed it. I also had installed Move Normal prior to the disaster, so I removed it also. The scene was not opening any on our computers.

I tend to believe what our artists say, SI 2013 line is cursed...they returned to 2012 SAP, and I am the sole 2013 user...


Cheers

Szabolcs

-----Original Message-----
From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com> [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com>] On Behalf Of Rob Chapman
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2012 2:47 PM
To: ThomasV; soft...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com>
Subject: Re: WHATTA HELL???????

and tried merging the problematic scene? been here before, its
horrible :/ think there is some debug mode you can switch on in the
SI startup script as well which may help, Fabrice did a while back when we encountered some errors on previously loadable scenes , think it was an error on a reference model in the end



On 5 July 2012 13:42, ThomasV <li...@thomasvolkmann.com<mailto:li...@thomasvolkmann.com>> wrote:
Try opening on another system (win <-> linux) if possible. A while ago
I could open scenes on my linux-box, that were crashing on Win.



good luck!

/Thomas


Szabolcs Matefy <szab...@crytek.com<mailto:szab...@crytek.com>> hat am 5. Juli 2012 um 14:28
geschrieben:

I am on 2013 SP1

I can’t load the backups, instant crash

I removed the new plugins, no help

I tried all you suggested, in vain

I sacrifice a black rooster, maybe Baron Samedi will help to fix this…



From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com>
[mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com>] On Behalf Of Peter
Agg
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2012 2:25 PM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com>
Subject: Re: WHATTA HELL???????



Try unloading any reference models using the scntoc file. That has
sometimes helped to narrow down the problem for me.

On 5 July 2012 13:19, Simon Anderson <simonbenan...@gmail.com<mailto:simonbenan...@gmail.com>> wrote:

are you using softimage 2010?



On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 10:17 PM, Pete Edmunds <pete3...@gmail.com<mailto:pete3...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Have a look in the Backup folder within the project there should be 4
backups of that scene do those load?



On 5 July 2012 13:12, Martin <furi...@gmail.com<mailto:furi...@gmail.com>> wrote:

This may not be what you are looking for but, after you have tried
everything, you could try to open it with "Disable all geometry
operators on load" checked and/or some other options in the Scene Debugging tab.



If the scene is simple there may be some data you can recover.



M.Yara





On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 9:06 PM, Ben Houston <b...@exocortex.com<mailto:b...@exocortex.com>> wrote:

I would suggest ensuring that no third party plugins are loaded at
all. It could be you updated a plugin and that plugin is buggy.
-ben


On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 8:02 AM, Szabolcs Matefy <szab...@crytek.com<mailto:szab...@crytek.com>>
Voice: 613-762-4113<tel:613-762-4113> Skype: ben.exocortex Twitter: @exocortexcom
winmail.dat

Eric Thivierge

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Jul 5, 2012, 9:35:01 PM7/5/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
As an FYI, Species doesn't rely on any plugins except for the custom properties used for UIs so there shouldn't be any plugin issues related to it (that I know of). If you find something please let me know so I can track it down.


--------------------------------------------
Eric Thivierge
http://www.ethivierge.com


Szabolcs Matefy

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Jul 6, 2012, 1:53:56 AM7/6/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com

Hey guys,

 

So it is sure it was not Species. I just referred to it because I have a species figure in my scene, and someone mentioned he had a rigged character causing the same issue.

 

I do not really know what was the issue, it’s impossible to backtrack, however a cool scene debugging lecture would come handy.

 

As for this specific scene, I have installed MoveNormal addon yesterday, tried it, but the result was bad, so I removed the operator from the object. The saved scene was unloadable after this. Even when I removed the addon, and deleted everything that reminded me to have this addon, the scene was unloadable.

 

It would be nice to do something to avoid such cases. A more proper scene load manager would be the best. How? I do not know…I have some basic ideas, for example list the used operators in the scntoc file? It would give some hint.

 

About the stability and data loss, it’s quite interesting thing. I have never ever met the issue our artist met, a scene after load has corrupted UVs. I’ll collect those scenes and send for investigation.

 

Cheers

 

 

Szabolcs

 

From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Thivierge
Sent: Friday, July 06, 2012 3:35 AM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: WHATTA HELL???????

 

As an FYI, Species doesn't rely on any plugins except for the custom properties used for UIs so there shouldn't be any plugin issues related to it (that I know of). If you find something please let me know so I can track it down.

Chris Chia

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Jul 6, 2012, 4:49:49 AM7/6/12
to <softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
Thanks Szabolcs!
Will wait for your scene file ;)

Chris

On 6 Jul, 2012, at 1:54 PM, "Szabolcs Matefy" <szab...@crytek.com<mailto:szab...@crytek.com>> wrote:

Hey guys,

So it is sure it was not Species. I just referred to it because I have a species figure in my scene, and someone mentioned he had a rigged character causing the same issue.

I do not really know what was the issue, it’s impossible to backtrack, however a cool scene debugging lecture would come handy.

As for this specific scene, I have installed MoveNormal addon yesterday, tried it, but the result was bad, so I removed the operator from the object. The saved scene was unloadable after this. Even when I removed the addon, and deleted everything that reminded me to have this addon, the scene was unloadable.

It would be nice to do something to avoid such cases. A more proper scene load manager would be the best. How? I do not know…I have some basic ideas, for example list the used operators in the scntoc file? It would give some hint.

About the stability and data loss, it’s quite interesting thing. I have never ever met the issue our artist met, a scene after load has corrupted UVs. I’ll collect those scenes and send for investigation.

Cheers


Szabolcs

From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com> [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Thivierge
Sent: Friday, July 06, 2012 3:35 AM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com>
Subject: Re: WHATTA HELL???????

As an FYI, Species doesn't rely on any plugins except for the custom properties used for UIs so there shouldn't be any plugin issues related to it (that I know of). If you find something please let me know so I can track it down.

--------------------------------------------
Eric Thivierge
http://www.ethivierge.com

winmail.dat

Tim Leydecker

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Jul 6, 2012, 5:39:59 AM7/6/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Hi Szabolcs,


about corrupted UVs.

I�m currently creating UVs for existing meshes and have
found a few things to watch for.

*It�s not a good idea to delete the source mesh directly
after pasting UVs onto a target. Freezing the target�s
modeling stack first is a lot better.

*I avoid referenced files/meshes in this workflow at all cost,
instead import, then copy or transfer, freeze, delete.

*If creating UVs using Unfold, freeze the mesh after unfolding
AND delete the Unfold OP from the mesh, including any leftover
cluster or samplegroup nodes, leaving you with only the "Sample"
and the "Unfold" entries - for that UV set. If you have other
UV sets you need, you obviously don�t want to delete those.

*If you want to use "Regularize", freeze the Unfold first to
avoid crashes and delete as in above, then use "Regularize".

*Unfold sometimes creates multiple UVsets, depending on if/wether
you had closed the Unfold Op window and reopened it. It�s very easy to
end up deleting the wrong UV set or having the wrong UV set
assigned in a texture node and think things broke.

In short:

Regularize and Unfold bite - there should be a freeze modeling in between.

Unfold will creat multiple UV sets when it�s window is closed and reopened.

Copying and pasting UVs means there�s a connection that needs freezing afterwards.


Cheers,


tim

P.S: Unfolding with >150 000 polys or donut like shapes will make Unfold think longer
and sometimes solve incorrectly. Just hit "Unfold and pack" again and add an extra
temp edge"cut" to bring down the shell size first.






On 06.07.2012 07:53, Szabolcs Matefy wrote:
> Hey guys,
>
> So it is sure it was not Species. I just referred to it because I have a species figure in my scene, and someone mentioned he had a rigged character causing the same issue.
>
> I do not really know what was the issue, it�s impossible to backtrack, however a cool scene debugging lecture would come handy.
>
> As for this specific scene, I have installed MoveNormal addon yesterday, tried it, but the result was bad, so I removed the operator from the object. The saved scene was unloadable
> after this. Even when I removed the addon, and deleted everything that reminded me to have this addon, the scene was unloadable.
>
> It would be nice to do something to avoid such cases. A more proper scene load manager would be the best. How? I do not know�I have some basic ideas, for example list the used
> operators in the scntoc file? It would give some hint.
>
> About the stability and data loss, it�s quite interesting thing. I have never ever met the issue our artist met, a scene after load has corrupted UVs. I�ll collect those scenes and
> send for investigation.
>
> Cheers
>
> Szabolcs
>
> *From:*softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Eric Thivierge
> *Sent:* Friday, July 06, 2012 3:35 AM
> *To:* soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
> *Subject:* Re: WHATTA HELL???????
>
> As an FYI, Species doesn't rely on any plugins except for the custom properties used for UIs so there shouldn't be any plugin issues related to it (that I know of). If you find
> something please let me know so I can track it down.
>
> --------------------------------------------
> Eric Thivierge
> http://www.ethivierge.com
>

Chris Chia

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Jul 6, 2012, 8:55:22 AM7/6/12
to <softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
Hi Tim,
Just fyi, we treat every SI crash very seriously. If you have a scene file that causes a crash when opened or have performed certain operations in Softimage which lead to a crash, please let us know.

Ps: but please ensure that you do not have any custom operator in the scene.


Chris


On 5 Jul, 2012, at 11:38 PM, "Tim Crowson" <tim.c...@magneticdreams.com<mailto:tim.c...@magneticdreams.com>> wrote:

That's sad, because I've been feeling the same way about 2012's stability. Our artists have more crashes with 2012 SAP than they ever had with all previous versions of Soft combined.


Tim Crowson
Lead CG Artist


<md_logo.gif>


Magnetic Dreams Animation Studio, Inc.
2525 Lebanon Pike, Building C. Nashville, TN 37214
Ph 615.885.6801 | Fax 615.889.4768 | www.magneticdreams.com<http://www.magneticdreams.com>
tim.c...@magneticdreams.com<mailto:tim.c...@magneticdreams.com>


On 7/5/2012 10:28 AM, Szabolcs Matefy wrote:

Thanks for all the comments and help!

I managed to find an older crashsave, and I recovered the scene from it. I had Species rig in the scene, but it was working just fine, yet it removed it. I also had installed Move Normal prior to the disaster, so I removed it also. The scene was not opening any on our computers.

I tend to believe what our artists say, SI 2013 line is cursed...they returned to 2012 SAP, and I am the sole 2013 user...


Cheers

Szabolcs

-----Original Message-----
From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com> [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Rob Chapman
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2012 2:47 PM
To: ThomasV; soft...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com>
Subject: Re: WHATTA HELL???????

and tried merging the problematic scene? been here before, its
horrible :/ think there is some debug mode you can switch on in the
SI startup script as well which may help, Fabrice did a while back when we encountered some errors on previously loadable scenes , think it was an error on a reference model in the end



On 5 July 2012 13:42, ThomasV <li...@thomasvolkmann.com><mailto:li...@thomasvolkmann.com> wrote:


Try opening on another system (win <-> linux) if possible. A while ago
I could open scenes on my linux-box, that were crashing on Win.



good luck!

/Thomas


Szabolcs Matefy <szab...@crytek.com><mailto:szab...@crytek.com> hat am 5. Juli 2012 um 14:28
geschrieben:

I am on 2013 SP1

I can’t load the backups, instant crash

I removed the new plugins, no help

I tried all you suggested, in vain

I sacrifice a black rooster, maybe Baron Samedi will help to fix this…



From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com>
[mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Peter
Agg
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2012 2:25 PM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com>
Subject: Re: WHATTA HELL???????



Try unloading any reference models using the scntoc file. That has
sometimes helped to narrow down the problem for me.

On 5 July 2012 13:19, Simon Anderson <simonbenan...@gmail.com><mailto:simonbenan...@gmail.com> wrote:

are you using softimage 2010?



On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 10:17 PM, Pete Edmunds <pete3...@gmail.com><mailto:pete3...@gmail.com> wrote:

Have a look in the Backup folder within the project there should be 4
backups of that scene do those load?



On 5 July 2012 13:12, Martin <furi...@gmail.com><mailto:furi...@gmail.com> wrote:

This may not be what you are looking for but, after you have tried
everything, you could try to open it with "Disable all geometry
operators on load" checked and/or some other options in the Scene Debugging tab.



If the scene is simple there may be some data you can recover.



M.Yara





On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 9:06 PM, Ben Houston <b...@exocortex.com><mailto:b...@exocortex.com> wrote:

I would suggest ensuring that no third party plugins are loaded at
all. It could be you updated a plugin and that plugin is buggy.
-ben


On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 8:02 AM, Szabolcs Matefy <szab...@crytek.com><mailto:szab...@crytek.com>
md_logo.gif

Tim Leydecker

unread,
Jul 6, 2012, 10:05:06 AM7/6/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com

Thanks Chris!

I�ll see if I can set up a generic repro scene on the weekend or on Monday.

At least for the Regularize after Unfold thing.

Regarding *.scn files not opening, I�m lucky enough to only have that on
very rare occasions with third party render engines but usually merging scenes
solved this sofar.

I tend to use vanilla installs (except for the renderer) btw,
since any shop you end up freelancing at will most likely not
have that precious tool/plugin/script you�ve built your workflows
around anyway...

It�s hard enough to remember I use the Maya mouse button mappings for ZOOM/PAN/ETC
but still the XSI keymapping...

Always makes you look stupid when trying to navigate on another guys machine

Cheers,


tim
> I can�t load the backups, instant crash
>
> I removed the new plugins, no help
>
> I tried all you suggested, in vain
>
> I sacrifice a black rooster, maybe Baron Samedi will help to fix this�
> Can anybody tell me what can I do, if I can�t load my scenes saved
> previously and loaded perfectly this before?????? Suddenly Softimage
> crashes on my scenes, and it seems that I lost whole 3 days of job.
> However, there were no crashes, and no issues at all�What the hell is
> going on????????
>
>
>
>
>
> Cheers
>
>
>
>
>
> Szabolcs
>
> ___
> This message contains confidential information and is intended only
> for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you
> should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify
> the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by
> mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission
> cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could
> be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or
> incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept
> liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this
> message, which arise as a result of e-mail transmission.
> If
> verification is required please request a hard-copy version. Crytek
> GmbH - http://www.crytek.com - Gr�neburgweg 16-18, 60322 Frankfurt -

Szabolcs Matefy

unread,
Jul 7, 2012, 5:15:50 AM7/7/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
And it happened again. The scene was saved successfully, I was working on the scene over an hour or so, and I had to restart SI, and the scene is unable to load...I tried with a fresh new install, in vain. Thanks god, it was nothing very important
It'd be nice to have a scene diagnostic tool, that tries to load the scene, and report any issues, in normal format, like Object %objectname% has issues with %description of the issue%



Chris, I'll send the scene on Monday! Tear it apart...this is more annoying than a crash...


Cheers,


Szabolcs
-----Original Message-----
From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Tim Leydecker
Sent: Friday, July 06, 2012 4:05 PM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: WHATTA HELL???????


Thanks Chris!

I�ll see if I can set up a generic repro scene on the weekend or on Monday.

At least for the Regularize after Unfold thing.

Regarding *.scn files not opening, I�m lucky enough to only have that on very rare occasions with third party render engines but usually merging scenes solved this sofar.

I tend to use vanilla installs (except for the renderer) btw, since any shop you end up freelancing at will most likely not have that precious tool/plugin/script you�ve built your workflows around anyway...

It�s hard enough to remember I use the Maya mouse button mappings for ZOOM/PAN/ETC but still the XSI keymapping...
> I can't load the backups, instant crash
>
> I removed the new plugins, no help
>
> I tried all you suggested, in vain
>
> I sacrifice a black rooster, maybe Baron Samedi will help to fix this...
> Can anybody tell me what can I do, if I can't load my scenes saved
> previously and loaded perfectly this before?????? Suddenly Softimage
> crashes on my scenes, and it seems that I lost whole 3 days of job.
> However, there were no crashes, and no issues at all...What the hell is
> going on????????
>
>
>
>
>
> Cheers
>
>
>
>
>
> Szabolcs
>
> ___
> This message contains confidential information and is intended only
> for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you
> should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify
> the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by
> mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission
> cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could
> be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete,
> or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for
> any errors or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise
> as a result of e-mail transmission.
> If
> verification is required please request a hard-copy version. Crytek
> GmbH - http://www.crytek.com - Gr�neburgweg 16-18, 60322 Frankfurt -

pet...@skynet.be

unread,
Jul 7, 2012, 7:36:33 AM7/7/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
 
the real lesson to be learned here is that ultimately scenes are not to be trusted, so try and rely on them as little as possible .
not an easy task, but there are some good habits that can go a long way in making this work for you.
 
models (emdl) are your friend.
a major part what you produce can be put in one - corruption in models exists too, but is less frequent in my experience.
I usually keep a history of scenes in which I edit the models (so with the model local to the scene) - and export milestones to a model, occasionally keeping backups of the model.
with two parallel systems to save data, each with versioning/backups if you choose, it is a lot less likely that you’ll loose a lot of work when a scene (or model) corrupts.
from the scene you can produce the model again, and the other way around within limits.
‘big complex scenes’ or ‘production scenes’ should ideally be just a collection of referenced models – perhaps created by scripting even?
as in: import all ref models to build the scene, set them up for the shot, apply animation data, set render settings, build passes, put models in partitions.
Standardize on a system for this, with proper naming, and so much can be automated – even with very limited scripting skills.
There’s other types of data that can be used too – presets of all kinds, compounds, EANI, pointcaches, .xsi and .fbx files. If you wanna be real smart about it XML files.
 
Lose a scene? Never mind, you have still have the bits the scene was made of, and can recreate it.
I know its not as trivial as I make it sound, but ’not to trust scenes’ was one of the best lessons I learned.
 
 
 
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2012 3:56 PM
Subject: Re: WHATTA HELL???????
 

Sebastian Kowalski

unread,
Jul 7, 2012, 7:50:28 AM7/7/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
AMEN!

i am working like that for years, and improving workflow and a scene assembly pipeline from project to the next.
its not even a "workaround" for avoiding scene corruption but a work approach/ philosophy.
character, models, props, simulations, materials, passes, scripts, sceneelements in general, thats all assets for me. and i am using the scene only as sequencer, referencing as much as possible.

.sebastian

Todd Akita

unread,
Jul 7, 2012, 9:01:22 AM7/7/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Agree totally.  And if you are using custom stuff that changes (ie alembic, arnold, etc) it doesn't hurt too to have something like an on-save to write out that information.  You can even go the extra inch and make importers that guard against mismatches for even those smaller bits.

-T

Chris Chia

unread,
Jul 7, 2012, 9:27:43 AM7/7/12
to <softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
Hi Szabolcs,
Try this:
1. Start xsi
2. Open render tree window
3. With the render tree window opened, open scene now

See whether this helps.

Chris

On 7 Jul, 2012, at 5:16 PM, "Szabolcs Matefy" <szab...@crytek.com> wrote:

> And it happened again. The scene was saved successfully, I was working on the scene over an hour or so, and I had to restart SI, and the scene is unable to load...I tried with a fresh new install, in vain. Thanks god, it was nothing very important
> It'd be nice to have a scene diagnostic tool, that tries to load the scene, and report any issues, in normal format, like Object %objectname% has issues with %description of the issue%
>
>
>
> Chris, I'll send the scene on Monday! Tear it apart...this is more annoying than a crash...
>
>
> Cheers,
>
>
> Szabolcs
> -----Original Message-----
> From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Tim Leydecker
> Sent: Friday, July 06, 2012 4:05 PM
> To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
> Subject: Re: WHATTA HELL???????
>
>
> Thanks Chris!
>
> I´ll see if I can set up a generic repro scene on the weekend or on Monday.
>
> At least for the Regularize after Unfold thing.
>
> Regarding *.scn files not opening, I´m lucky enough to only have that on very rare occasions with third party render engines but usually merging scenes solved this sofar.
>
> I tend to use vanilla installs (except for the renderer) btw, since any shop you end up freelancing at will most likely not have that precious tool/plugin/script you´ve built your workflows around anyway...
>
> It´s hard enough to remember I use the Maya mouse button mappings for ZOOM/PAN/ETC but still the XSI keymapping...
>> GmbH - http://www.crytek.com - Grüneburgweg 16-18, 60322 Frankfurt -
winmail.dat

Tim Marinov

unread,
Jul 8, 2012, 11:56:31 AM7/8/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
BTW when this bug (with the render tree) will be fixed ? We have this problem since SI2010 I think.I even made an event that opens the render tree each time I open a scene.It's really annoying bug.

Chris Chia

unread,
Jul 8, 2012, 12:31:44 PM7/8/12
to <softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
Hi Tim,
I guess we might have a fix in line for the next release but we need more files to prove that the fix is working. Do you mind if you could help by sending me those files which you had encountered the problem?

And if anyone else had encountered such a problem, please email me the scene files. Many thanks!


Chris


On 8 Jul, 2012, at 11:57 PM, "Tim Marinov" <tim.m...@gmail.com<mailto:tim.m...@gmail.com>> wrote:

BTW when this bug (with the render tree) will be fixed ? We have this problem since SI2010 I think.I even made an event that opens the render tree each time I open a scene.It's really annoying bug.

On Sat, Jul 7, 2012 at 4:27 PM, Chris Chia <chris...@autodesk.com<mailto:chris...@autodesk.com>> wrote:
Hi Szabolcs,
Try this:
1. Start xsi
2. Open render tree window
3. With the render tree window opened, open scene now

See whether this helps.

Chris

On 7 Jul, 2012, at 5:16 PM, "Szabolcs Matefy" <szab...@crytek.com<mailto:szab...@crytek.com>> wrote:

> And it happened again. The scene was saved successfully, I was working on the scene over an hour or so, and I had to restart SI, and the scene is unable to load...I tried with a fresh new install, in vain. Thanks god, it was nothing very important
> It'd be nice to have a scene diagnostic tool, that tries to load the scene, and report any issues, in normal format, like Object %objectname% has issues with %description of the issue%
>
>
>
> Chris, I'll send the scene on Monday! Tear it apart...this is more annoying than a crash...
>
>
> Cheers,
>
>
> Szabolcs
> -----Original Message-----
> From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com> [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com>] On Behalf Of Tim Leydecker
> Sent: Friday, July 06, 2012 4:05 PM
> To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com>
> Subject: Re: WHATTA HELL???????
>
>
> Thanks Chris!
>
> I´ll see if I can set up a generic repro scene on the weekend or on Monday.
>
> At least for the Regularize after Unfold thing.
>
> Regarding *.scn files not opening, I´m lucky enough to only have that on very rare occasions with third party render engines but usually merging scenes solved this sofar.
>
> I tend to use vanilla installs (except for the renderer) btw, since any shop you end up freelancing at will most likely not have that precious tool/plugin/script you´ve built your workflows around anyway...
>
> It´s hard enough to remember I use the Maya mouse button mappings for ZOOM/PAN/ETC but still the XSI keymapping...
>
> Always makes you look stupid when trying to navigate on another guys machine
>
> Cheers,
>
>
> tim
>
>
> On 06.07.2012 14:55, Chris Chia wrote:
>> Hi Tim,
>> Just fyi, we treat every SI crash very seriously. If you have a scene file that causes a crash when opened or have performed certain operations in Softimage which lead to a crash, please let us know.
>>
>> Ps: but please ensure that you do not have any custom operator in the scene.
>>
>>
>> Chris
>>
>>
>> On 5 Jul, 2012, at 11:38 PM, "Tim Crowson" <tim.c...@magneticdreams.com<mailto:tim.c...@magneticdreams.com><mailto:tim.c...@magneticdreams.com<mailto:tim.c...@magneticdreams.com>>> wrote:
>>
>> That's sad, because I've been feeling the same way about 2012's stability. Our artists have more crashes with 2012 SAP than they ever had with all previous versions of Soft combined.
>>
>>
>> Tim Crowson
>> Lead CG Artist
>>
>>
>> <md_logo.gif>
>>
>>
>> Magnetic Dreams Animation Studio, Inc.
>> 2525 Lebanon Pike, Building C. Nashville, TN 37214 Ph 615.885.6801<tel:615.885.6801> |
>> Fax 615.889.4768<tel:615.889.4768> |
>> www.magneticdreams.com<http://www.magneticdreams.com><http://www.magneticdreams.com>
>> tim.c...@magneticdreams.com<mailto:tim.c...@magneticdreams.com><mailto:tim.c...@magneticdreams.com<mailto:tim.c...@magneticdreams.com>>
>> Szabolcs Matefy <szab...@crytek.com<mailto:szab...@crytek.com>><mailto:szab...@crytek.com<mailto:szab...@crytek.com>>
>> hat am 5. Juli 2012 um 14:28
>> geschrieben:
>>
>> I am on 2013 SP1
>>
>> I can't load the backups, instant crash
>>
>> I removed the new plugins, no help
>>
>> I tried all you suggested, in vain
>>
>> I sacrifice a black rooster, maybe Baron Samedi will help to fix this...
>>
>>
>>
>> From:
>> softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com><mailto:softimage-bounces@listp<mailto:softimage-bounces@listp>
>> roc.autodesk.com<http://roc.autodesk.com>> [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com>] On
>> Behalf Of Peter Agg
>> Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2012 2:25 PM
>> To:
>> soft...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com><mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com>
>>>
>> Subject: Re: WHATTA HELL???????
>>
>>
>>
>> Try unloading any reference models using the scntoc file. That has
>> sometimes helped to narrow down the problem for me.
>>
>> On 5 July 2012 13:19, Simon Anderson <simonbenan...@gmail.com<mailto:simonbenan...@gmail.com>><mailto:simonbenan...@gmail.com<mailto:simonbenan...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> are you using softimage 2010?
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 10:17 PM, Pete Edmunds <pete3...@gmail.com<mailto:pete3...@gmail.com>><mailto:pete3...@gmail.com<mailto:pete3...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Have a look in the Backup folder within the project there should be 4
>> backups of that scene do those load?
>>
>>
>>
>> On 5 July 2012 13:12, Martin <furi...@gmail.com<mailto:furi...@gmail.com>><mailto:furi...@gmail.com<mailto:furi...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> This may not be what you are looking for but, after you have tried
>> everything, you could try to open it with "Disable all geometry
>> operators on load" checked and/or some other options in the Scene Debugging tab.
>>
>>
>>
>> If the scene is simple there may be some data you can recover.
>>
>>
>>
>> M.Yara
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 9:06 PM, Ben Houston <b...@exocortex.com<mailto:b...@exocortex.com>><mailto:b...@exocortex.com<mailto:b...@exocortex.com>> wrote:
>>
>> I would suggest ensuring that no third party plugins are loaded at
>> all. It could be you updated a plugin and that plugin is buggy.
>> -ben
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 8:02 AM, Szabolcs Matefy
>> <szab...@crytek.com<mailto:szab...@crytek.com>><mailto:szab...@crytek.com<mailto:szab...@crytek.com>>
>> Voice: 613-762-4113<tel:613-762-4113> Skype: ben.exocortex Twitter: @exocortexcom
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