Blender 2.45 seems to crash a lot under Win XP any settings I can adjust...

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

to minimize this issue. I'm using a P4 2.4 gig processor, 256 meg ram, and an ati 7000 radeon card 64 meg ram on the card. It's weird cause it crashes when I access the menu's and other user menus. The whole PC freezes can't even shut down the PC to restart, or use c+a+d to end the application. Think I should try reducing my graphic accel. settings down a bit to maybe stabilize the system? Don't really have a clue what to do to reduce the issue. I could also try running the appy with the compatibility thingy too I guess? Anybody have any suggestions as I would like to start using Blender to test OM's XSI exporter...BNG

[mrtwosheds]

256 meg ram is not very much these days.

[Red Devil]

Really.  And a 7000 series ATI card isn't supported any more.  I'm at the low end with an ATI AIW 9600XT with 128MB.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

The minimums for blender aren't very high with 16 meg for video and something like a 333 MHz for the processor. I found a site that listed something about older ati cards, but the issue seemed to have been related with not having the latest video drivers for my card. After right clicking my computer, going into properties, device manager, display adapter, and update driver; windows located an updated driver for my card on MS's website and installed it. Blender apparently liked the updated driver and now seems to work without further issues; knock on wood. Anyways, at least now I can begin the journey to learning the basics of Blender. I found a site that covers Blender animation and really think that I'm going to enjoy learning to master it for use in getting OM's exporter to work so that finally XSI animations can be done without spending a fortune for a decent 3d modeler. Tanks for the feedback guys.

[OvermindDL1]

I've not heard of B3D crashing; I have certainly never encountered it doing so either.  It uses standard OpenGL, so make sure your OpenGL drivers are updated (updated with updated video card drivers, unless your card is really really old, which yours just might be...).  Any more details on the crash info, did a google search, etc...?

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

The problem actually started during navigation through the menus, rather than  creating much in the workspace; one occurred after importing an X model that I previously made with GSL. I still need to go into user preference and check the default settings, but I'm waiting on that issue until I better understand Blender before modifying any settings at all. The updated drivers that installed over my old driver files seems to initially have done the trick to stop the crashes, and if need be I'll buy some more memory as my PC uses the minimum of 256 upgradeable to something like 1 gig.

It's a different story with my laptop which I use at work, but most of the stuff I'm doing on that PC is studying the documentation for Blender and getting used to the UI; it reminds somewhat of GMAX but with a lot less icons. I may have to start posting some crib type notes around my monitor to keep track of the many keyboard shortcuts that Blender uses, but that I already do anyways to help me remember what does what on the other 3d modelers that I currently use.

I think that I'm going to eventually make Blender my primary modeler due to it's wide range of capabilities and quite extensive user/support base. It's an excellent open source modeler that actually allows users to contribute to the development of the end product. Hopefully, a few more BZII modelers will get behind Blender as well, so that a BZII forum based group of peeps can all learn a thing or 2 about making animated models and props for the game...BNG 

[Dianoga4]

From what I know, Blender in general doesn't like ATI cards too much. Not to say none will work but I think the majority don't work well.  I was having major problems running blender when I had an ATI card. I looked around on their forums and found out about Blender not liking ATI cards. I had planned on getting a better nividia card anyways so I picked it up and never had a problem again.

Oh btw this might be handy. It's a list of Blenders hotkeys.

http://members.chello.nl/j.kassenaar/blender/hotkeys/kall.htm

Dia

[OvermindDL1]

Let's see.  My old card was an old Radeon 9700 Pro, it worked perfect with it.  My current card is a Radeon 1950 XT, it works perfect with it.  It is probably just people not keeping their drivers up-to-date.

[Dianoga4]

Actually on their forums at the time, alot of people seemed to be having problems with ATI cards in general and yea it had been suggested to update the video drivers which I did as well and it didn't help the problem. I also didn't say that all of them didn't work. I was only going by what I found out at the time which was a couple of years back but if you just like trying to prove people wrong OM, have at it, it don't bother me.

Dia

[OvermindDL1]

I am just saying that the current version, and the older version I used (only about two years ago though) have worked perfect, so whatever the issues were seem fixed.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

My laptop just doesn't work with B3d due to memory related issues, i.e., 8 megs of video ram, but on my desktop after updating my video drivers Blender pretty much runs flawlessly under XP, and I've already started making models with it.

The UI on Blender takes some getting use to as many functions are linked to 2 buttons keyboard sequence shortcuts. I figured out how to draw out shapes and fill them which is basically how I make most of the main bodies of my vehicles and mainly use the premade primitives to add things like cannons, guns, rockets, etc.

I think that I'm truly going to enjoy switching to Blender as my primary 3d modeler. Another nice benefit with Blender is it's vast array of importable formats so I can reedit other models created by other modeling applications directly in Blender. I figure the more I force myself to use Bender the better I'll get at understanding it's potential as far as modeling for BZII and eventual production of animated models to put OM's exporter through it's paces towards getting some cool stuff into the game...BNG

PS: Blender, has a ton of users and a vast array of learning tutorials to get peeps hooked on it. For any other peeps interested in using it I suggest linking to Blenders website and focusing on the following topics: Blender basics, working with the material editor/texture sections, and of course the section on doing animations.