Notch Block crashes out

Notch
1

Hi
I haven’t been able to get a notch block to run in LightAct so far. I’ve exported a few different blocks for media server, and built the map in LightAct. The moment I select the block name in the Notch Block reader note, LightAct crashes out with a bug splat error. I’m using the learning edition of Notch and have tried LightAct 3.3.0 and 3.3.1

Files are here

thanks

2

Thanks Jason,

We’ll take a look, but it might take some time because we are commissioning a project.

I’ll be in touch.
Mitja

3

Hello Jason,

We played your Notch blocks successfully in LightAct just now.

jasonNotch_1
jasonNotch_1947×440 30.4 KB

jasonNotch_2
jasonNotch_2968×438 41.3 KB

I looked at your crash reports on BugSplat and it seems the crash happens on initGL function of Notch SDK.

This might be a driver issue. Can you please make sure you have the latest GPU drivers installed?

If you keep getting crashes after that, please let me know your GPU model and driver version number.

Thanks,
Mitja

4

Thanks. But same issue after I’ve upgraded the drivers to the latest version.
Nvidia P5000
drivers 441.66 release date 12/10/2019

5

Hello Jason,

It turns out the most likely solution is to actually downgrade the drivers to either 431.98 or earlier. You can find them on this page.

Please try it out and let me know if it solves your problem.

p.s. the reason for this is in Notch’s SDK, which was only recently upgraded to support the latest NVidia drivers. It’s going to be implemented in the next LightAct release.

Cheers,
Mitja

6

Hello Jason,

We just published 3.3.2 which has the latest Notch SDK, which doesn’t exhibit this behaviour with the latest drivers.

Please let me know if you have any problems.

Cheers,
M

7

Thanks - is there a specific version of notch or requirements on how to compile the notch block? I’ve tried the new release and no crash, but I get an error reading notchblock. there is nothing in the log about why…
thanks

8

Hi Jason,

Not that we know of.

I just played your LightActBlock.dfxdll you sent a while ago successfully though. It seems it was created with Notch 0.9.23.074.

image
image1629×695 77 KB

Are you having problems this block too? If not and you are having problems just with one specific block please feel free to send it over to us so we can investigate.

To state the obvious but very often forgotten thing (at least with me): you do need to have a valid Notch playback dongle connected to one of your USB ports. Otherwise you will get Block read error label in the node.
image

Please let me know how it goes.

Thanks!
Mitja

9

Ah thank you. Problem solved - Notch dongle it was

1 Like
10

I was thinking of using Notch, do I need a Notch dongle as in the above example?

I downloaded a sample block from the Notch website, but this is not enough to render the Notch block?
I assume the watermark is included, but if I just want to check that it works, do I just need to purchase a Notch learning license and a dongle?

image
image1826×1046 143 KB

11

Hi @Atsushi ,

That’s correct, you need to have a Notch license in order to play Notch blocks in LightAct. This can be either a Notch Builder or a Notch Playback license.

Hope this helps.

Best,
Sara

12

I got a Notch Learning license and dongle since we are in the verification phase, and I was able to play Notch’s Block data via Lightact.
How do I synchronize Lightact and Notch’s PlayStart? Once I play the video in lightact, stop it, and return the timeline to the beginning, the Notch video starts in the middle.

image
image1797×1101 152 KB

13

Hi @Atsushi ,

Apologies for the late reply.

If I understand correctly, you placed a Notch Layer on LightAct’s timeline and were able to play the content of your Notch block from beginning to end, right? When you manually moved the playhead to the beginning of the Layer again, the Notch block was playing from the middle, correct?

That’s actually very odd. Can you please confirm that the ‘Free run’ checkbox is enabled on the Play Notch node?

image

Best,
Sara