LDView 4.1 runtime error

[Michael Horvath]

I am unable to view the file "datsville.ldr" in the model attached to this post. LDView crashes in what I think is the last stage due to some type of runtime error. I don't have any additional information regarding the error.


Mike

[Michael Heidemann]

I just downloaded the file from this webside into a fresh folder. Then I unpacked the zip with windows zip utility. After that i opened datsville.ldr with LDView. No crash on my side. (win8 - 64bit, ldview 32 bit)

[Michael Horvath]

Maybe if I reboot it will go away.

[Travis Cobbs]

I strongly suspect that the crash is due to LDView running out of memory. One thing you can try is to set the "Memory Usage" setting on the General tab of LDView's preferences to "Low".

[Travis Cobbs]

For reference the 64-bit LDView 4.2 Beta 1 settled at 506MB of memory after loading the file when memory usage was set to Low (with standard settings, non-low-quality studs, and edges plus conditional edges). With memory usage set to High, it settled at 2,282MB (2.22GB), which may or may not work on a 32-bit build, which maxes out between 2-3.5GB depending on system settings. However, while the file was loading, I noticed usage over 5GB, which would have definitely crashed the 32-bit build. As a matter of fact, it locked up everything on my system except the mouse for a minute or two, but surprisingly, everything came back, and LDView even worked (albeit slowly).

In addition to setting memory usage to low, I would strongly suggest checking the "Low quality studs" option, and disabling edge lines. (The edge lines completely wash out the image, anyway.) Doing this, memory usage was 447MB (not all that much lower than with high-quality studs and edge lines).

[Michael Horvath]

What does the low memory usage setting do? Put everything in the page file instead?

[Travis Cobbs]

I can't remember all the details, but it either disables display lists entirely or cuts back on them. Display lists are an OpenGL technology designed to speed up the rendering of static geometry. Since LDView is just a viewer, all the geometry it draws is static, and it creates a display list for the entire model when in "High" memory usage (as well as a separate display list for each part).

It's been a while, so I can't remember for sure, but I think the settings are like so:

Code:

High: One display list for each part, and another for the whole model.
Medium: One display list for each part.
   Low: No display lists.