Crash with OSL wParallax

[Ink Visual]

Yep, this is definately not solved yet.
We would love to use it in production, but simply cannot due to instability.

[gabor]

Guys, you should try the shadersbox method, also from wParallax. It uses an already unwrapped box, you just have to apply the exr map to it. For me, it's working fine with the same maps as the osl version, but without crasing max. There are no osl maps in the scene, but the windows have the same 3d effect.

[Ink Visual]

The box method is just not as convenient as using simple plane behind the window. It's much harder to set up procedurally if there are many building types involved.
Planes + OSL are so much better and faster to use, if only they weren't crashing.

[maru]

Sorry for the lack of updates. According to the minidump that we received, the crash is inside 3ds Max and it can be reproduced without having Corona installed at all.
If you are not happy about something and you have a scene and/or minidump, please always contact us about it here: https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
The best thing we can do here is to contact Autodesk, and for this to work out we also need your permission to share your scenes/minidumps with them.

[denyskozakov]

Hey! I still have this problem, any updates about this? Thanks!

[wparallax]

Hi guys,

Indeed, the crash issue is very very strange, we are trying to find some solutions, but at the moment, best option is to use lower res maps (2K, 1K), or the Box Method. The OSL seems to be pretty clean, already asked two OSL devs to double check.

What I am trying now is to convert EXRs to TX files, someone has suggested that it is a very efficient way to render textures because it automatically downscales and upscales the textures depending how far or close you are to the plane.  TX format also loads much faster and allows for thousands of planes to be rendered without running out of RAM.  So far, some tests were quite successful with this format, aside from some error messages by corona/vray renderers, but it didn't affect the rendering. 

If you have access to Retail Pack 2, we added an Experimental File into Retail Pack 2 folder on gumroad, please give it a try. 

If anyone else without Retail 2 access, is interested to try the mipmapping tx file type, please let me know.

Best,
Art

[Ink Visual]

Bumping this one up.
Anyone has used OSL wPrallax successfully in production with Max 2024 & Corona 11 Combo?
Are crashes still present or has this been somehow fixed?

[jorge9124]

Hello everyone! I still have this problem on 3dsmax 2023/Corona 12.1,  is there a solution?

[Juraj]

In my opinion no, I stopped using almost all OSL, not just this one. The risk of random crash was just too high.

The alternative for Parallax planes OSL, is just .EXR mapped box. It works just as good, but requires positioning a box instead of just plane... it's less useful, but still useful.

[wparallax]

Hi everyone,

I know how frustrating it can be with those random crashes...still looking for solutions.  I have just added TX Version in the Free Scene, for people to test out.  This TX textures were already included in Retail 2 and Lobby 1 packs, but I haven't heard anyone use them yet, and what were their results.

I would really appreciate it if you guys could give it a try, please not, delete all the EXR planes in your scenes, otherwise it will not count as a test because OSL might crash again using any EXR texture.  So please only test with those TX OSL planes in your scene, create alot of planes (like at least 40-50), please also create not just instances, but also many copies, to have some variations. 

If you have Lobby pack 1 or Retail 2, please also try only using TX OSL planes and let me know how it goes, when I was testing the TX textures it worked well, especially the 2K ones, the mipmapping is automatically reducing the size of the texture from 2K to tiny size when viewed from far away.  If those TX textures are successful and people have no crashes, then I plan to convert all wParallax to this format.

Free Scene: https://wparallax.gumroad.com/l/YyRmU

Best regards,
Art Maknev

[Ink Visual]

Hi wparallax,
just to mentione we have tried to give parallax packs another go in the latest projects and we haven't had any crashes.
With that said, we did decide to play it safe, we limited usage to low res texture only. This isn't quite working for closer eye-level perspectives but gave us satisfactory results for aerial type of shots.
We will test the TX textures soon.
Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I know how frustrating it can be with those random crashes...still looking for solutions.  I have just added TX Version in the Free Scene, for people to test out.  This TX textures were already included in Retail 2 and Lobby 1 packs, but I haven't heard anyone use them yet, and what were their results.

I would really appreciate it if you guys could give it a try, please not, delete all the EXR planes in your scenes, otherwise it will not count as a test because OSL might crash again using any EXR texture.  So please only test with those TX OSL planes in your scene, create alot of planes (like at least 40-50), please also create not just instances, but also many copies, to have some variations. 

If you have Lobby pack 1 or Retail 2, please also try only using TX OSL planes and let me know how it goes, when I was testing the TX textures it worked well, especially the 2K ones, the mipmapping is automatically reducing the size of the texture from 2K to tiny size when viewed from far away.  If those TX textures are successful and people have no crashes, then I plan to convert all wParallax to this format.

Free Scene: https://wparallax.gumroad.com/l/YyRmU

Best regards,
Art Maknev

[wparallax]

Hi Ink Visual, 
Its good to hear you have some success, please do try the TX version, if you need more TX textures please contact me directly as well. 
It does seem to work better with lower res textures, maybe 3K-4K is pushing the limit of OSL shader, I think the sweetspot will be 2K textures, with more testing I will probably add 2K maps for all the packs some time soon.

Forgot to mention, some people experience more crashes using Slate Material Editor, when I did some tests, it is indeed crashing sometimes in Slate, and I had no crash in Compact Editor, very strange also.

Best,
Art

[maru]

Unfortunately, I was able to crash it in 5 minutes simply by starting Corona IR and adjusting the position of furniture. I have a minidump and will report it to our devs.

[wparallax]

Hi Maru,

Did you have a crash using TX file?

This seems to be the most common crashing issue, when tweaking the settings in the OSL shader, also I have noticed more crashes when using IR plus the Slate Editor is also rendering the small previews at the same time (actually each sliding of just 0.01 splaces creates new preview), when turning off the Render preview in the Slate Editor there are less crashes.  I will try to get in contact with the OSL dev again to test a few options, perhaps adding higher intervals  (to 0.1 instead of 0.01) when sliding furniture layer will ease the OSL calculations, and maybe locking the limit to how far you can slide each layer can also help. 

If you can also test it on your side, that will be great as well.

Thanks!
Art

[maru]

Hi Maru,

Did you have a crash using TX file?

Yes, using a file with TX textures only.

This is now reported to our devs as (Report ID=CMAX-1295).