OctaneVR - eGPU 980 - c4d - Mac OS - Crashes all the time Tweet

[Gwerilla]

Hi All,

I ploughed through the topics, but my issue doesn't seem to come up. Sorry if I missed it.

So here is this:
- I use OctaneVR 3.05.3
- I work on OS X 10.11.6 on a very stable Macbook Pro. I have been using Vray and the whole Adobe suite at the same time (okay not the whole suite; but only Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign..) and it never crashed.
- I have an eGPU, working via an Akitio Thunderbolt PCIE Box
- Work in Cinema4D R18

So, I built an eGPU and got it running with OctaneVR 3.05.3. It was running smoothly and had a lot of fun rendering in OctaneVR. At some point when I would start up the Live Viewer, it would crash, causing c4d to freeze.

I tried to find the log, but it wasn't where it was supposed to be. Ah well... Just restart my whole system and keep going. I had to restart twice and than it would be running smoothly.
But as time passed by, some weeks later, it happened more and more. Sometimes even my whole computer froze. And restarting twice didn't work anymore. It kept crashing.
Than for a couple of days it all worked if I restated with a certain .c4d file that never crashed. I was really happy with that work around.
But after a few days that wasn't working either, and the crashing became more often and more terrible; no more crash reports, but complete freezing of my whole computer. I was able to use OctaneVR in between, sometimes for a couple of hours, but sometimes only for 10 minutes. That was the line for me.
I worked in an old version since friends advised me that, their system became very buggy with the latest updates, so I thought; maybe it's different with OctaneVR, since they were on the 'original' version.

So I updated to 3.06.1 (Standalone) and for the plugin to 3.06. Still the same problem, but it seemed to get even a bit worse. Than I tried the other version 3.06 for Standalone and 3.06 for the c4d plugin. Oh my, it's getting worse, constant crashing, only if I touched the 'Render' icon in the Live Viewer it would crash. Updating didn't work at all, it made the issue worse..
So, than let's get back to 3.05.3 for the Standalone + Plugin and everything should be allright, still buggy, but at least it worked half of the time. I used Appcleaner, an app that is supposed to delete all files concerning certain apps, just to make sure there weren't old files swarming around.
I guessed wrong, nothing changed and it was still crashing all the time, now it's even worse as before I tried to fix it.
After 8 hours of installing - restarting - trying - calling technical friends and so on and on I don't know what to try anymore.
I need help. I'm in the middle of an important job and need Octane to finish the job.

Does anyone have any tips, leads or preferably; a solution?
That would mean the world to me. I'm out of options and there is no Helpdesk I can call. I'm bummed out to the max.

Just to verify:
* When reinstalling I followed these steps:
> Throw the Standalone version away (In my application folder, and then ('Move to Trash')
> Delete the Octane folder in c4d/plugin
> Install new Standalone
> Drag the new Octane folder into the c4d plugin folder and then delete the .libs of the old versions.
* I tried this with R15 as well; same issues
* I have the latest driver for my eGPU
* I downloaded the latest CUDA driver

Only two more options in my opinion:
OPTION 1 -
My eGPU is messing it up.
I have an old 512MB GPU in my Macbook, that doesn't crash, but is too light to make a proper render. So I'm not sure if it's not crashing because my eGPU is broken and the software works just fine. Or that it's not crashing since it never gets to rendering properly (it gives an 'Render Failure' where it states in the log that there is too little memory) and it never gets to the real software issue. So now answers there for me, or does anyone know a bit more about this?
Is there a way to test my eGPU? I would love to try the Standalone version, but don't know how to do that. All topics I find are abracadabra to me. I downloaded a test scene, but the 'Play' button, that should start the render I guess, is grayed out.. And after 8 hours of failure the last thing I can do now is get into new software. If anyone would have a good file set-up and could tell me how to quickly test it, that would be great. I just can't continue no more..
OPTION 2 -
Somehwere, with all the installing of new and old versions; in a folder hidden far away, there is an old file that messes it all up. So I actually never really updated properly, because my computer keeps using a wrong file. I had this issue some years ago while installing c4d and VRAY.. By using the Appcleaner I thought I would solve this issue, but who knows.
To properly check this the only solution is a clean install; but for obvious reasons I want that to be the last option.

Thank you for reading this long story about my least fun day of work in 2017 so far. If you have any tips, or things I could try, to test my eGPU or avoid doing a clean install, I'd be happy to hear those.
I'm not a technical person, and I'm out of options I can think of..

Thanks!

[aoktar]

Could you please post some output from render logs?

[bepeg4d]

Hi Gwerilla,
sorry to hear that you have so many issues with your eGPU setup.
Another option could be that the instability is caused by the newer CUDA drivers itself.
If you have an external hd, you could try to make a clean install of osx with older CUDA drivers, to test the stability.
ciao beppe

[Gwerilla]

Could you please post some output from render logs?

I tried looking for them, but they aren't where they supposed to be. Users/*user*/library doesn't exist.
I also tried to show hidden files, but that didn't work either.

Then I tried looking via the name of the bugreport, but nothing came up.

Any idea where to find them?

[Gwerilla]

Hi Gwerilla,
Another option could be that the instability is caused by the newer CUDA drivers itself.

Thanks for your reply!

I actually updated my CUDA driver as last thing, than I went back to the newest versions of OctaneVR (3.06) and the funny thing is that it seems to run smoothly now.
I'm not convinced yet; it seemed to run smoothly before and than it would start crashing and the mayhem would start. But the half hour I used it yesterday and the hour it's open today is so far so good.

Fingers crossed!

[bepeg4d]

Hi Gwerilla,
about the bugreport, you can find it in /Users/User name/Library/Preferences/MAXON/CINEMA 4D R1X_XXXXXXX folder
About the log, in c4d, go to menu Script / Console.

ciao beppe

[Gwerilla]

you can find it in /Users/User name/Library/Preferences/MAXON/CINEMA 4D R1X_XXXXXXX folder

I don't have a Library folder when Im in the folder of the User..
Weird.

[bepeg4d]

Hi Gwerilla,
sorry, forget to mention that the User Library folder is hidden by osx.
In Finder menu, you need to press ALT and click on the Go entry, in this way you should see the icon of the Library folder.
Another way is to open the Preferences in c4d and press on the "Open Preferences folder" button:

IMG_0266.jpeg (21.58 KiB) Viewed 6057 times

Happy rendering,
ciao beppe

[Gwerilla]

Perfect, I found it!

Its very very long. Can I email the .txt file?

Thanks!

[frankmci]

For the last few days I was also having trouble with C4D R18.048 instantly crashing on startup with an eGPU, GTX 980, Mac OS 10.12.5, various OctaneVR versions, etc. I tried all the same things Gwerilla did, with no success until I finally rolled C4D back to the previous update, version 18.039, and now all is well. I will definitely duplicate my current C4D 18.039 install before attempting the next update.

You can download previous updates here:
https://www.maxon.net/en/support/downloads/
and install them on a fresh C4D R18 through the Help>Manual Installation menu.

I hope that's useful.

frankmci