Crash Report Why?

[Charles Belcher]

I crash every time while simply trying to do something I have done many times before and that is, create a new musical sequence.  This is the text from the crash report.

0x75e89c7f ftol2
0x75e89c39 ftol2
0x0062be9b              SequenceData::init(int, int, int)
0x006f16db              xLightsFrame::OnButtonNewSequenceClick(wxCommandEvent&)
0x75616e44 GetThreadDesktop
0x6a08333a ZNK16wxAppConsoleBase11HandleEventEP12wxEvtHandlerMS0_FvR7wxEventES3_
0x6a083777 ZNK16wxAppConsoleBase16CallEventHandlerEP12wxEvtHandlerR14wxEventFunctorR7wxEvent
0x6a236036 ZN12wxEvtHandler23ProcessEventIfMatchesIdERK21wxEventTableEntryBasePS_R7wxEvent
0x6a2364d6 ZN12wxEvtHandler23SearchDynamicEventTableER7wxEvent
0x6a2366f2 ZN12wxEvtHandler12ProcessEventER7wxEvent
0x6a523419 ZNK13wxMenuBarBase8FindItemEiPP6wxMenu
0x756262d5 CallNextHookEx

Crashed thread id: 7848

What does that tell me?

Charles

[Gilrock]

No idea.

[gerry]

Charles,
Follow steves instructions and restore your rgbeffects file.
If it stil crashes, post the zip file and an explanation if the exact steps you used. 

[Charles Belcher]

Charles,
Follow steves instructions and restore your rgbeffects file.
If it stil crashes, post the zip file and an explanation if the exact steps you used.

Gerry/Gil/Steve,

It will be tomorrow or Tuesday before I can get back to it.  The crash occurred while trying to create a new sequence using a 30 minute sound track to the movie I am making. (if file size makes a difference)

Source is a 256kb mp3 from audacity.  Same source where all the individual segments of the movie were built.

Charles

[Gilrock]

So you can easily try a smaller mp3 and see if it happens.  Using a 30 minute song file is going to require a ton of memory.  We really don't have checks to see if you're exceeding the capacity of your machine.

[gerry]

Charles,
Are you planning to create a single 30 mins sequence ? And if so why ?
What are you going to play it on ?  The FP ?

[Charles Belcher]

So you can easily try a smaller mp3 and see if it happens.  Using a 30 minute song file is going to require a ton of memory.  We really don't have checks to see if you're exceeding the capacity of your machine.

Gil,

I am going to get into it tomorrow.  I used the same laptop last year and did a similar show which was also 30 minutes in length.

Power Director does have log files which offer a snapshot during programming.  Not a crash report, but a snapshot.  My machine is fine with a 30 minute video file.  Last year, the finished video file was 85 gigs and I played the show back (sound, lights and video) thru LOR S3 on this same laptop.

For the record, it is a MacBookPro with 16 gigs, 8 gigs of which are allocated to Virtual windows 7 via Parallels version 8 and 8 gigs are allocated to the Mac side.  All data content is stored on an 1T external hard drive.

But...I will dive into it tomorrow.

Charles

[dkulp]

Is this the Mac version of xLights or the Windows version running in Parallels?   Make sure you use the Mac version for a file this big.   (the Mac version is 64bit and can handle much larger sequences)

[Gilrock]

All because you were able to play a 30 minute video doesn't have any bearing on how much memory xLights allocates when you are sequencing.  xLights might use more memory than LOR I'm just not sure.   Best thing in Windows is use Task Manager to see your resource usage.  If Mac I'm not sure but I imagine they have something equivalent.  I have a MacBookPro also but it's a little older and I know that I've seen sequences that crash on that laptop but don't crash on my desktop.

[Charles Belcher]

Is this the Mac version of xLights or the Windows version running in Parallels?   Make sure you use the Mac version for a file this big.   (the Mac version is 64bit and can handle much larger sequences)

Dan/Gil/Gerry,

I am working on the Windows version of xLights.  When I asked the question a month ago or so, the answer was that the two versions of xLights were essentially the same and since most of the users questions on this forum are asked about the Windows version, I thought I should do the same.

Also,  my intention is to use a master Pi2/FPP for audio and light playback and a remote Pi2/FPP for video playback. 

I will report my findings later today.  I will do the following:

1) Install the mac version of xLights and see if this 30 minute piece of music allow me to create a "New Sequence".  Is there a problem with having both the Mac and Windows version on my laptop???
2) Begin with the Windows version and see if 25 minutes will load, then 20 minutes, etc.
3) Try to create with 30 minutes of 128kbs rather than the 256kbs I currently have.

256kbs=58 megs
128kbs=29 megs

Gerry,

The show I do is projection based with the music serving as a soundtrack.  We create custom animated characters which narrate and interact throughout the show.  The video, music and characters all overlap throughout so having to stop a segment and start another would kill the concept.  I end up with one file to load and playback.

Charles

[Charles Belcher]

Testing: Windows version of xLlights 4.2.12
Every test uses my network of 141 universes of E1.31 only
All soundtracks created from one original 30 minute file

TEST

30 minute soundtrack recorded at 256kbps with 56,253 kbps


a) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 20fps, no timings=crash
b) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 20fps, 50ms timing added=crash
c) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 10fps, no timings=success
d) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 10fps, 100ms timing added=success

*  In the case of a and b above, I can see the newly created waveform for about 1 second before it crashes

30 minute soundtrack recorded at 128kbps with 28,801 kbps

a) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 20fps, no timings=crash
b) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 20fps, 50ms timing added=crash
c) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 10fps, no timings=success
d) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 10fps, 100ms timing added=success
_______________________

TEST

25 minute soundtrack recorded at 256kbps with  48,778 kbps

a) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 20fps, no timings=success
b) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 20fps, 50ms timing added=success
c) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 10fps, no timings=success
d) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 10fps, 100ms timing added=success

25 minute soundtrack recorded at 128kbps with 24,340 kbps
a) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 20fps, no timings=success
b) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 20fps, 50ms timing added=success
c) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 10fps, no timings=success
d) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 10fps, 100ms timing added=success
___________________

TEST

20 minute soundtrack recorded at 256kbps with 37,282 kbps

a) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 20fps, no timings=success
b) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 20fps, 50ms timing added=success
c) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports,10fps, no timings=success
d) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 10fps, 100ms timing added=success

20 minute soundtrack recorded at 128kbps with 18,641 kbps

a) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 20fps, no timings=success
b) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 20fps, 50ms timing added=success
c) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 10fps, no timings=success
d) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 10fps, 100ms timing added=success
___________________

Looking at the results, I see that even though the file size is larger on the 256kb 25 minute track than the 128kb 30 minute track, xLights was successful creating the 25 minute track but not the 30 minute track so I did one more test--I created a 29 minute track


TEST

29 minute soundtrack recorded at 256kbps with 55,700 kbps

a) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 20fps, no timings=crash
b) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 20fps, 50ms timing added=crash
c) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 10fps, no timings=success
d) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 10fps, 100ms timing added=success

29 minute soundtrack recorded at 128kbps with 27,850 kbps

a) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 20fps, no timings=crash
b) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 20fps, 50ms timing added=crash
c) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 10fps, no timings=success
d) Create new sequence, my network loaded, no imports, 10fps, 100ms timing added=success

What does all this tell you?

[Gilrock]

It probably has nothing to do with the size of the audio file.  It's probably the length of the sequence.  If you have a sequence with 50ms timing for 30 minutes that's 20fps*60sec*30min=36000 frames.  Then you have 141 universes so we have to create a sequence object that's 141univ*512chan*36000frames=2,598,912,000.  So that's 2.5 billion cells.  Now I don't know exactly how many internal bytes we would allocate for all the music cells plus the sequence data object and other things but I bet you're pushing some limits.  Did you monitor your resource usage as it was trying to open the sequence?

[Charles Belcher]

It probably has nothing to do with the size of the audio file.  It's probably the length of the sequence.  If you have a sequence with 50ms timing for 30 minutes that's 20fps*60sec*30min=36000 frames.  Then you have 141 universes so we have to create a sequence object that's 141univ*512chan*36000frames=2,598,912,000.  So that's 2.5 billion cells.  Now I don't know exactly how many internal bytes we would allocate for all the music cells plus the sequence data object and other things but I bet you're pushing some limits.  Did you monitor your resource usage as it was trying to open the sequence?

Gil,


The test results say to me that it is a frame rate issue.  At 20fps, I can create a sequence with a larger file but shorter time duration; while at 10fps,
the file size, or duration does not matter.

I do have one 5 second fade out at time marker 19 minutes where I could actually split the movie and soundtrack if I have to. If I do that; then using the Pi2/FPP for playback, will it be able to execute the end of the first file and start the 2nd file in that 5 second window of time?  and stay synced up?

OR

If I put the entire 30 minute file in place with a 10fps, would the timings that I already programmed be executed as programmed or be truncated somehow?

I just watched the resource monitor.  On the graph, CPU #2 pegged out during the creation attempt and CPU#1 was pretty low.
The usage log shows xlights in red and "not responding".


Charles

[Gilrock]

Double the frame rate uses double the memory.  It's the memory usage you should look at not CPU utilization.

[dkulp]

It probably has nothing to do with the size of the audio file.  It's probably the length of the sequence.  If you have a sequence with 50ms timing for 30 minutes that's 20fps*60sec*30min=36000 frames.  Then you have 141 universes so we have to create a sequence object that's 141univ*512chan*36000frames=2,598,912,000.  So that's 2.5 billion cells.  Now I don't know exactly how many internal bytes we would allocate for all the music cells plus the sequence data object and other things but I bet you're pushing some limits.  Did you monitor your resource usage as it was trying to open the sequence?

At one byte per cell, that's 2.5GB.   On Windows with a 32bit process, the MOST we can get is less than 3GB so that would easily explain the crash.    This would likely work on the Mac version, but I still wouldn't recommend it.