crash after StarAlignement with large data sets in 01.08.04.1171 (x64, Win7)

[kwiechen]

Hi,

PI crashes after StarAlignment with larger frame sets (> 50-60 frames). The console shows success of StarAlignment but the GUI is not responsive (Win7, Xeon 6 core, 16 GB RAM).

Kai

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Kai,

I have just run three tests with 70 images on a Win7 laptop with 8 GB of RAM, without any problems. StarAlignment has worked flawlessly and the GUI has remained responsive all the time, and after each task completed.

Is this reproducible on your machine?

Anyone else is having this problem?

[Juan Conejero]

I have just completed another test with 120 images on the same Windows 7 laptop. I have registered the images (4096x4096 calibrated CCD frames) with StarAlignment, followed by ImageIntegration. No problem at all.

[Juan Conejero]

Kai,

I have just released an update for the Windows version of PixInsight 1.8.4. Chances are that this update will fix the problem you are experiencing with GUI freezes. The update causes PixInsight to use the default ClearType font rendering engine on Windows, instead of the FreeType engine used so far by default on all platforms. Please let me know if this helps.

[msmythers]

Juan

I just tried a large set, 215 images, 4608x3072 with the new update. The GUI did become unresponsive but did return after 4 or 5 minutes. Windows 7 with 16GB Ram. All drivers and updates are current.



Mike

[kwiechen]

Juan, Mike,

I have tried another large data set with 279 subframes and the PI GUI is blocked after the StarAlignment run for several minutes. I cannot find the update - pixinsight.com/dist shows .1171 from August 4th.

Kai

[tommy_nawratil]

hi,

that is the same BPP bug I was pointing at in another thread, with Win7/64
Would be great if it could be addressed!   

Tommy

[msmythers]

The update was not a whole package distribution but a minor update notice when you open PixInsight. My version is still .1171 but if you look at the installed updates you will see the minor updates.

When I did my alignment the GUI did come back but I left it alone for what seemed like 4 or 5 minutes.



Mike

[Juan Conejero]

Would be great if it could be addressed!   

I *am* addressing it, as everything that is reported by users. However, to solve a problem I have to understand it first, and to understand a problem I have to reproduce it (except the most trivial issues). Unfortunately, I cannot reproduce this problem on the Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 laptops that I have at hand now (I am supposed to be on vacation...). On both laptops, everything runs smoothly after aligning 120 images. It's true that the GUI gets blocked temporarily after the process, but less than one minute. This is caused by a cleanup task that releases/compacts memory and destroys temporary objects. On Linux this cleanup task is almost always immediate, but on Windows it usually takes some measurable time, since memory management is less efficient. Tomorrow I'll run a longer test, say with 400 images, to see if I can understand something about this problem.

[msmythers]

Juan

I'm going to run a series of tests with 'Translucent workspace child window' preference selected and deselected and see if there is a difference.  Also if I have time with and without active antivirus running. I like Windows and normally don't have problems but if the moon is out and shinning on the windows logo just the right way anything might happen!


Mike

[msmythers]

So I did 4 tests. One test group was 70 images. The other 140 images. Each group was either with or without 'Translucent workspace child window' selected. It does make a difference on my computer. Please take these numbers with a grain of salt. My computer does not have an SSD and is not using any type of a ram disk. This is also the computer that I surf with, watch videos and so on, while processing most of the time. I do however prioritize cores. I give PI 4 of my 6 cores exclusively and all other non-system programs get the other 2 cores. This assures I always have a responsive system during heavy processing at the price of a little horsepower. 

In all cases while the GUI was unresponsive for a period of time it always returned without any intervention on my part. I can't remember in the 2 1/2 years of using PixInsight on my same Windows 7 64 computer that PI locked up to where I would have to exit the program via the task manager. I have also never had a blue screen event on this computer in 4 years.

The numbers for GUI recovery.

70  images align
Translucent off   15 seconds to recover
Translucent on   35 seconds to recover

140 images align
Translucent off   150 seconds to recover
Translucent on   250 seconds to recover


Mike

[tommy_nawratil]

Thanks Mike for testing the timing!

In my case there were also >100 fullframe DSLR pics to process, and after finishing the >3 hrs task I just was not patient enough to wait for some more minutes.
So this is a more cosmetic issue, as the process seems to be finished but isn't, the clean up still going on.
Just the user is not aware and gets the impression the machine is unresponsive, and every Win user is allergic on that.

Dear Juan, enjoy your vacation. IMHO it can wait!

Tommy

[tommy_nawratil]

Just to add some details -
started BPP yesterday on 268 Eos6d pics.   It worked for 24hrs up to now. 
Especially the star detection went extremely slow, sometimes it took 3min to increase the number 1%.
But it did not crash 
Closing all other progs helped to free memory, and then it went up a little.
As it finished happily, I closed the BPP surface and PI hangs since 45min, the vent blowing maximum.
It stll occupies 10 of 16 GB memory. Will kill it now as I want to check the new master light 
mmh, looks good!

Tommy

[msmythers]

Tommy

I ran an old data set of 265 images and I gave up. The alignment ran for 2 hours but the GUI was not recovered after 4 hours. I might be going back to 1.8.3. I normally work with large data sets. The other possibility might be to split the sets but I would prefer not to. Or if I read correctly you could have both 1.8.3 and 1.8.4 installed at the same time now. That might be a solution. Run pre-processing with 1.8.3 and post with 1.8.4 for large sets. Not ideal but could work.

Juan
Can 1.8.3 and 1.8.4 be installed at the same time in Windows? I would guess they could share the same license file but with different install directories you would have different configuration files.

Mike

[msmythers]

Ok I installed 1.8.3.1123 in a separate directory and both versions are coexisting nicely. I did a few test runs with StarAlignment today.

First Test Group
Test 265 debayered frames 4608x3072 DSLR_Raw pure raw setting Translucent workspace off for all cases today.
StarAlignment defaults same results in 1.8.4.1171 and 1.8.3.1123 with fit extensions both set for overwrite existing files. I did the same test with xisf extension and saw no difference in times.

1.8.3.1123   79 minutes to complete alignment.  Released GUI in a second or less.
1.8.4.1171   115 minutes to complete alignment.  Released GUI 21 minutes later.

Second Test Group
Repeated 140 image test from 08-18-2015 but with this data set. The 08-18-2015 data set was from the same camera and scope and using the same software settings in PI.
1.8.3.1123   47 minutes to complete alignment.  Released GUI instant.
1.8.4.1171   59 minutes to complete alignment.  Released GUI 115 seconds later.


It seems that 1171 is exponentially taking longer to release the GUI from the cleanup. The 140 image test time was similar to the testing from the 18th. On the 18th the difference in the GUI release with version 1.8.4.1171 between 70 images and 140 was ~7 times longer. The difference today between 140 and 265 was ~10 times. All gui releases in 1.8.3.1123 were less then a second or what I would call instant.

These are just my observations for my computer. I do not have an SSD and I only have 16GB of ram. I am not using a ram disk and the swap directory is on a separated hard drive from both the data or the OS.


Mike