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Spectralis wrote:I have had the octane plugin for DAZ installed properly and working perfectly since I bought it a few months ago but something has now gone wrong. I don't know why the plugin has stopped working - neither DAZ nor OctaneRender crashed before it stopped working.

hi!

this sounds like the settings file had been deleted or is inaccessible or broken. can you pls check if there is still a OctaneRender_settings.oczdb in this folder: %APPDATA%\DAZ 3D and if its size is > 10kb;

just in case i have attached the default file - you may just copy it into the named daz 3d appdata folder; at last this should enable you to input your activation data again and get the plugin working...

Thanks for your help. I got in touch with support and they sent me the same file and advised me to use it to replace the one in the Roaming/DAZ3d folder then deactivate the plugin in my account and wait an hour before trying to activate it again. I did all this but the same problem occurs, the plugin appears to activate but when I close the activation window it hasn't activated. I checked my account and it showed that the plugin had activated again but still won't work in DAZ.

I really don't know what to do. Perhaps if I cleaned out all the plugin files and tried to install the plugin again? But I don't know what files are installed by the plugin or what it adds to the registry. When I did try reinstalling the plugin when the problem first occurred it stopped at the license page - is this normal?

The standalone is activated and working perfectly.

Spectralis wrote:Thanks for your help. I got in touch with support and they sent me the same file and advised me to use it to replace the one in the Roaming/DAZ3d folder

sry, didn't know that; it is the first and usually only measure in this case. the problem is: the plugin/activationmanager can't find the settings file, or can't read or write to it, therefore the activation fails.

can you please...

• download this tool: http://www.voidtools.com/download.php
  (this is a super-fast file search utility; it takes some seconds after start to scan all harddisks, after that it finds any file in realtime)
• search for the term octanerender_settings and please report any occurrence and the size of the file(s) or post or pm me a screenshot of the search results

after that i will have more help. and pls, if you are aware of any changes that might be connected with this problem, like daz studio reinstalls or updates, changes to windows user profiles, whatever, i'd need to know.

reinstalling isn't really necessary, also deactiavtion isn't needed. the plugin only needs proper access to its settings and everything will work right away...

Hi, thanks for trying to sort this out. I really appreciate it. I've attached a screen grab of the search I did. My OS drive is C\:

In case this information is helpful I've been using the plugin successfully for a couple of months. Since I got my GTX 760 4GB over a month ago the plugin has produced great renders of stills and animations.

About a couple of weeks before the current problem occurred I updated the files with the latest plugin versions as instructed in the forum thread. Everything seemed to work fine after doing this. In fact, animation renders worked much better.

Occasionally DAZ has randomly crashed but there doesn't seem to be a pattern to this and it didn't happen just before the activation problem occurred.

About a few weeks before the activation problem I did noticed that DAZ took longer to close each time I exited the program than in the past.

I've not updated DAZ since v4.6 came out a few months ago. I'm using version 4.6.0.18. Octane Render plugin worked fine with v4.6 until recently. The plugin is version Beta 1.0 R1.11 25 Mar.2013.

My Win 7 x64 install is up to date with all the latest updates. I've not experienced any problems with it at all. I have full admin rights.

Around the time the activation problem occurred my internet went down and I've had to change provider. I have a new router as well but my connection is working fine now. I can update my other software without any problem.

I hope this info helps.

ok, this reads not all that alarming; settings location is ok, size too. of course the more strange it is what just happens. need to dig into it step by step;

- the settings file shows a "modified" date/time from when i uploaded it, means if you already tried activation again after copying it over, there was nothing written to it (bad).

- pls delete it from the C:\Users\Ray\AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D folder.

- open ds (with the plugin in place), the plugin should be accessible, but of course not activated. close ds. if you now look into the above folder, you should see a new settings file, with about 9kb size (only a stub which the plugin creates when it starts). copy the default file you got over once again (so it'll again look like in your screenshot).

- if you now open the activation manager directly (OctaneACM.exe from the daz studio application folder, usually under C:\Programs\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4), ideally by right-clicking it and use "run as administrator", it'll of course have username and password empty. if you enter them, and press "activate" it should say "successfully activated" (this means it could reach the activation server and the credentials were correct).

at this point the "modified" date/time of the settings file should have changed to the current date/time, and if you open the acm again, it should show the username and dots for that password. if this is not the case, something blocks write access to the settings file. unfortunately there are no checks in this version if the credentials were actually written to the settings file.

pls check and make sure that the file is not set to "read only"; the only else thing that comes into my mind is an antivirus program that blocks write access to this file (rather uncommon).

note: you wrote your plugin version is r1.11 from march, 25 - most probably you had updated it to this version http://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=33059 right? if you are unsure if the updated version is still in place, you may perform the update once again, prior trying out the above steps.

ps: if everything fails, and we are not able to work out the reason for the problem right now, i can still prepare a settings file which already contains your credentials and pm it to you - so you should be at least able to use the plugin again...

Thanks for sticking with this problem t_3. I followed your latest instructions and the plugin is working perfectly again. I think the activation just wouldn't stick when I tried to activate it in DAZ. I hope this helps others in case they ever have the same problem. I rendered some scenes I created while the plugin wasn't activated and the Octane rendered versions look fantastic compared to the Reality ones. Once you've used OctaneRender there's no going back!

Spectralis wrote:Thanks for sticking with this problem t_3. I followed your latest instructions and the plugin is working perfectly again. I think the activation just wouldn't stick when I tried to activate it in DAZ. I hope this helps others in case they ever have the same problem. I rendered some scenes I created while the plugin wasn't activated and the Octane rendered versions look fantastic compared to the Reality ones. Once you've used OctaneRender there's no going back!

glad it worked

seems to be a tricky problem; if started from within studio, the acm inherits the rights from the daz studio exe. might be some problem with the windows uac then. so running it externally and maybe using "run as administrator" is what solves this.

what'd be still interesting but most probably no longer to find out is why it lost activation in first place...

I didn't really notice anything out of the ordinary happen before the problem started but I'll be more alert to any changes in future in case it occurs again.

just downloaded the beta version of the plugin right after purchase. I shut off MSE and ran it as Administrator. All it does is close without installing anything.

I'm on windows 8 Home Premium 64bit
DAZ 4.6 Pro
D:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4


HELP!