Using Hexagon on a 64 bit machine
Wee Dangerous John
Posts: 1,605
I love using Hexagon and have been putting off upgrading to a new machine, but my other software being updated means my machine is getting very slow.
I'll be getting Windows 7 64 with 16 memory.
Is there anything tips you can give me - not getting Blender etc, I want to stick with Hex.
Comments
Hi John :)
Get Blender :)
My Hex is working fine on a Win 7 64 bit - get Large Address Aware http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/large-address-aware.112556/ - right at the bottom of the page. That will give Hex an extra Gig to play with.
That's about it!
Thank you Roy, do I need to install Hexagon anywhere special ?
I've tried Blender, I much prefer Hexagon. Thank you for the link :)
I'm using Hexagon on a 64bit machine and it works.
Since the support is dropped it is still quite buggy at times though.
I'm using 64bit windows 7 machine with 16mb of memory.
Best tip I can offer is to run the program in Windows xp - Sp2 compatibility mode as that was the time development stopped on hexagon. Right click on the hexagon icon and go to compatibility tab to make the change. You will need admin rights to effect the change.
Here are some other tips I've picked up from the forum
Installation directory
One caution - do NOT install to Program Files or Program Files (X86)! In Win7 those are write-protected directories, and Hexagon tries to save a number of its components in its home directory when you use it. Just install to C:\Hexagon or some other such (I used C:\DAZ-3D\Hex, but that’s just me being me).
Graphics Card Settings
There is a bug/problem with Hexagon attempting to use multi-processors.
Please try:- Open nVidia control panel-> Managed 3d settings. Change the option:- “Threaded Optimization” to “Off”
The same thing happened to me and I got Hex to start working again in my new computer. If you have the Catalyst Control Center installed you can find under the Gaming tab the 3D application settings and check off anything that would stop the program from using it’s default settings. I think that I had the triple buffering checked and it was messing up Hex because when I unchecked it Hex worked.
I’m using 64bit windows 7 machine with 16Gb of memory.
I just noticed a sig "Subtropic Pixel" stating Hex was only available in 32bit, and instantly had similar questions. It is in my wishlist till the third, so I also am looking around for answers.
I suspect the 32bit part, limits the amount of stuff a model/object can contain, probably for the better as this PC can take no more then 32GB of ram. figure windows consuming half of that, and there is a limited amount left for Daz Studio to work with scenes containing 2GB+ objects.
When I first got my 64 bit machine, I took that advice and Hex was perfectly happy at C:/Hexagon.
Then when DIM matured, I decided to do a fresh install of all things Daz because my runtimes were a mess. DIM installed Hex to Program files (X86) automatically without me remembering this advice. It has resided there without any problems since.
So, I guess it's a matter of personal preference where you want to install:)
Turning of maximum on the GPU is good advice.
Thank you all for your advice.
Edit - Updated and working fine. Have not started anything serious with Hex as yet, but it seems to be working okay. I've downloaded the memory patch but apart from that I have not played about with anything.
Couple questions...
I don't plan on working on any really large objects with Hex, so how important is it to install Large Address Aware?
I just moved up to an 8 core FX system. I skimped on the RAM as I could only afford the important bits at purchase time. I've only got 8GB of RAM. If I do install Large Address Aware, will that make my system slower when Windows starts paging to disk? My boot drive is a 128 GB SSD.
I haven't touched Hex in ages, been using Wings3D for pretty much everything the last couple years. But there are some things in Wings that just aren't very intuitive to me. I know Hex has better extrude and lathe tools for example, and despite owning zBrush and 3D-Coat, I'd like to have a simple modeler with some paint functions. Had a hard drive failure last year, and got a new rig this year. I've decided that, when I get my system set up to my liking and everything imaginable installed, I want to mirror my SSD to a partition on my HDD. I came across Hex and decided maybe it was worth another go at...
They did fix the vertex order thing, right?
I have Hexagon working on a 64 bit windows 8 computer (8gigs RAM) without any major issues, and Hexagon working on a 64 bit Windows7 computer(6gigs ram) too. No major issues. Yes I have two licenses.
I also have Hex working just dandy on a Win 7 64 bit - made it LAA with improvement on large file size handling and no negative effects on anything else :)
I'm in the habit of making very large and complex models and never have a crash unless I do something stupid!
What vertex order thing would that be?
I thought I saw some complaints that it was at some time changing vertex orders of .objs. This would make it unusable for creating morphs. I assume it was fixed, as that was a few years ago now.
Must have been a long time ago - I've been using Hex for about ten years, never seen or heard of that problem :)
Full body morphs on Daz/Poser style figures used to be a real PITA, having to jump through many loops, but that was because of the groups rather than a vertex order problem.
My Hexagon 1.21 works great with Windows 7 64-bit Pro. Never a problem. It's my main modeling app. I use it to make Poser clothing. The vertex order bug was fixed in 2.2 I think? It was broke in 2.0 or 2.1. So long ago. I'm not at all a fan of 2.x.