maya 2015 freeze with sun/sky environment

[cyrillweiss]

Hi,

Creating a Octane Sun/Sky environment or opening a scene which has the node already, freezes maya 2015. Maya loads the scene without reporting an error (checked log file in documents/maya - no crashlog or similar found in %TEMP% Folder)

This does happen with Maya 2015, Maya 2014 is not affected. Only tested on Windows.
Of our 4 Windows Computers with more or less similar hardware setup are all but 1 affected by this issue. (I guess it is not a hardware issue, as maya 2014 is not affected, but maybe driver or windows setup?)
What has been done so far to solve it, but without success:
- tried latest Nvidia driver, and went back to second latest (same version, as the Computer which is not affected by the issue)
- reset maya preferences
- uninstalled plugin and standalone version of octane, then fresh install of the plugin with and without standalone
- change between aero and non-aero design
- tried older version of octane plugin (2.04,2.06 & 2.10 are also affected)

Anybody with the same issue? Is there anything more to do, which could help analyse or solve the problem?

Best regards
Cyrill

[cyrillweiss]

** UPDATE **
Just noticed the missing sun object in the viewport and changed from "viewport 2.0" to the "Legacy viewports". No freeze with both legacy viewports.
I also noticed an error message on the Computer which is not affected by the freeze:
"// Error: Octane: error getting attribute value: (kFailure): Unexpected Internal Failure"

[JimStar]

Strange, I remember that checked the Sun especially in Viewport 2.0 of Maya 2015 (after the report that it was not visible there) - all was OK on my machine. I will try to play with it a little more tomorrow.
Does it happen in any scene for you? Even in the empty one?..

[cyrillweiss]

Does it happen in any scene for you? Even in the empty one?..

Thanks for your reply!
I didn't check on all scenes, but the ones I noticed the freeze, had a sun/sky environment in it. It even happens in an new, empty scene. Creating the sun/sky environment creates the attributes in the attribute editor just before the freeze.
Just found out, that I can even change an attribute when the focus was on the attribute editor before creating the sun/sky environment, but at the moment the attribute gets changed maya freezes.
**update**: changeing the name of the sun/sky environment doesn't lead to a freeze

[JimStar]

I really can't reproduce it on my machines.
I even just tried it on Mac - the sun is always created smoothly with Viewport 2.0 enabled... It's shown, it can be edited and moved across the scene...

Could you please give some "step by step" description? Something like what messages you are seeing in the script editor after which actions, etc... Perhaps you can try different Viewport 2.0 settings to see if something changes (I tried play with different settings, all works for me).
Perhaps the different hardware may be the reason...

[cyrillweiss]

It's pretty easy to reproduce the freeze on the machines, which are affected:
1. activate octane plugin (if not already active) windows->settings->plug-ins->octane, check loaded
2. create sun/sky environment: shelf OctaneRender->Create Octane Sun/Sky environment node
3. if viewport 2.0 is active and the focus is on the viewport, freeze will occur right away (window does not respond, maya takes 13% CPU on quadcore, memory usage doesn't change noticeably)

I played with the Viewport 2.0 settings, still got each time the freeze.

Regarding hardware difference, I could narrow it down to the grafic card, memory and cpu (last two would be awkward as the reason, wouldn't it?). I will swap the grafics card tomorrow or a day after, need the machines at the moment.

What about the version of octane plugin, where the missing sun was reported first, could it be, there has been something leftover after an update like a settings file/library(dll?)/registry entry?

[JimStar]

No, it's definitely Maya's issue in working with OpenGL in later versions where they are trying to move to Viewport 2.0. It's declared in documentation that OpenGL is still supported in Viewport 2.0. But it seems in some hardware configurations it just hangs when using it. Just my assumption, but looks like this.
I'm working right now to rewrite this to not use OpenGL here, let's see how it will work for you in next version.

[JimStar]

Check please if something changed for you in THE LAST VERSION.

[cyrillweiss]

hm, now that is very interesting. On the machines with the issue there is no change - still freezes. But on the machine, which didn't freeze, now does with the new plugin. After going back to the version 2.11-5.3 on that particular machine, the sun still doesn't show up, but no freeze. The change to the latest version seems to make it worse.

[JimStar]

This is really strange. I can't reproduce it on any machine I tried.
What is in script editor when it freezes?