"RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames" error back in CS6

[EchoOut]

Hey everyone,

I'm quite familiar with this old error and how to avoid it and fix it but when preparing new CS6 lessons for my classes it just seems to come up again and again without any apparent relationship to the assets I'm working with. I've mostly been preparing some "What's New in CS6" lessons and have had this error come up using Evironment Layers, Raytracing lessons, Motion Tracker lessons, etc. using text, footage, solids, you name it.

The main thing that seems really telling is that before this issue happens, the blue and/or green cache bars seem to be gone within my workspace range. Purging the caches doesn't fix it but closing and reopening AE does fix it.

Using the updates AE 11.0.0.378 on OS10.6.8 MacBook Pro 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM

All prefs are set to the defaults.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

steven

[Tim Kurkoski]

Hi Steven,

The "RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames" error basically means AE has run out of usable memory space. Purging should normally fix that. I'm most concerned about this:

> before this issue happens, the blue and/or green cache bars seem to be gone within my workspace range

We want to take a look at this.

When you get into this state, open the Activity Monitor and look at the System Memory display. Please send a screenshot of that to kurkoski at adobe dot com. Also, select the AE process in Activity Monitor, click the Sample Process button, save the log and send it to me. Thanks.

-=Tim

[EchoOut]

Thanks Tim, will do.

-steven

[yelloween]

hi did you fix this issue?

I have the same message when i start a preview

I having the same problem actually with CS6, and CS5 worked great....

thanks in advance

[cbowlcut]

I would like to add that I am also experiencing this problem constantly after upgrading to CS6 with the recent update.

Please fix ASAP because it is making the program virtually unusable for me and I cannot find any way to mitigate the problem (closing other programs, etc.)

Thanks!

[rasielrt]

Same problem as in thread.

Can't RAM preview, just getting this error.

CS5 worked great, im very upset that i can't finish my work(in 2 days) with cool cs6's effects.

BTW, Adobe, may be this screenshot can help you http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14882469/2/scr.jpg (Actual CPU's used: 0 - is it right?)

[Tim Kurkoski]

rasielrt - Turn off the Multiprocessing preference. 4GB is far too little RAM to make effective use of MP, even with only 2 processor cores. Read up on recommended settings for MP here and here.

asdbnasmbashgjasdas - If you have MP turned on like rasielrt does, turn it off, regardless of how much RAM you have. Does that help? Yes? Good. Now post back with more information about your system: how much RAM is in your machine, how many processors, and what kind of work are you doing in AE. How big are your comps? How big are your source files?

To recap, the "RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames" error is an "out of memory" error. You are very likely be seeing it because you are, in fact, out of memory. Yes, there is a bug in AE CS6 that we are still researching that contributes to this error occurring, and the error message itself isn't terribly helpful.  But the bottom line is that if you are in a low memory situation you are still going to easily run out of memory. Turn off MP (it multiplies AE's RAM usage), shut down other applications, and optimize your memory usage (go to the first two links in this post).

[rasielrt]

Already tried this, the same error.

But I am going to retry this, may be im wrong (ill get to home in about 30 minutes), i will post result.

I tried to change almost every option to get RAM preview work.

Is there any way to turn of this new "Fast preview" and make it work as in CS5?

[rasielrt]

Ok, I got it to work.

No matter if I turn off multiprocessing, but it loads very few frames, and starts looped RAM preview.

More frames will be loaded if I lower resolution and frames skip.

Then, I got to "Preview" section of settings and set alternate RAM preview from 5 to 100. And it started to render RAM frames as it was in CS5 even if I set back from 100 to 5 or turn off multiprocessing.

0_o!

...

It's because every other app is turned off now.

[yelloween]

i Have got the same issue, i just upgrade my MBP to 8GB RAM, it s better, but still have this message sometimes, i find out that when i close everythiong and reboot, and justworking on AE, it s ok, i can have a preview a real one, of about 1 minute, but if i open justy one thing else, this message happen again..

And if i want to preview another part of my timeline i have to reboot it because even when i purge, the second preview i test after reboot is only few seconds looping.

So i just keep rebooting for making preview RAM, and it is really not an good way of working

Hope you ll fix this vere soon, !!

[cbowlcut]

I thought that I would add:

It turns out that Safari was a contributing factor. I still get the error if I have too many CS applications open, but closing safari has helped by about 70%.

I have the fasted 2011 MBP with 8gb RAM. I do not have MP on.

This problem is also occuring on other fast iMacs around here.

Can we get an estimate as to when an update will resolve this problem? We need to decide whether we should downgrade to CS5.5 or wait this out. I must repeat that this problem never occured with CS5.5 no matter how many apps were running on the computer.

Thank you,

Cassidy

[CJ_Shaw]

Hey, I want to add too! This was driving me nuts as well, purging, cleanout out database, nothing worked...then I closed Safari, and it just went away- without doing anything else! On a mac 12-core OS10.6.8, in case that helps.

[seetukka]

Same problem here!!

Trying to ram preview jpeg image sequence. First was only able to render couple of frames. After turning off disc cache, now I´m able to render about 2 secs, but very slowly. And that 2 secs is way too short!!??! CS5 I was able to preview tens of secods.

My computer is macbook pro dual core with 8 gb of ram...

Is there going to be fix for this soon??? Program is useless like this!!!

[CJ_Shaw]

I posted earlier that closing Safari helpd it go away, then it came back. I turned off disk cache, didn't help, but closing everything seems to help. Then I started getting a 6 to 8 sec delay on anything I would do in the interface (even zooming!) when I hit over 50 layers, which I didn't have a problem with in cs5. I guess this eats ram up, and I closed everything else, dropped to qtr res and that seems to help, but not desirable to say the least. (there are many 3d layers with 2d render passes, etc, etc, so yeah, it hits 50+ layers pretty quickly).

My mac pro 12-core OS10.6.8 has 16gb ram, I know, that isn't enough for the 2gb/proc suggestion, so I guess you need boat loads of ram for cs6?

[seetukka]

I notised that on the info window it says " switching to foreground" after rendering couple of frames. Never seen that before!

[Todd_Kopriva]

If you're seeing the "switching to foreground" message, that means that the background rendering processes are starved of memory and are going quiescent and turning rendering over to the single foreground process.

Disable Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing. You should only use that when everything is going well, you have lots of memory, and you want to try parallel processing. If you're getting out-of-memory errors, turn this preference off.

Also, an After Effects CS6 update is available:

http://adobe.ly/lsrkmJ

Install the update. It solves a lot of problems, including some with RAM handling.

[CJ_Shaw]

Hi there, just installed the update and tooled around for 5min and it seems faster, more interactive...so, just wanted to say thanks!!

[Engles11]

Hi I've installed the patch onto my trial version of CS6 and it hasn't made any difference to the error message

'Ram preview needs to or more frames to play back'

Multi processing is off, i'm running a 2x2.26 ghz quad core with OS 10.7.4.  The Ram available for Afx is 6GB.

I've got 2Gig for other applications and i'm rendering from C4D in the background as a neccessity.

This is causing real problems to my work flow and impending deadline.

[MarkWeiss]

When I had this problem, I found out that I had 4 instances of AfterEffects running as processes in Task Manager. Sometimes when you quit AE, the UI disappears, but the memory remains allocated and the core process is still running. Check Task Manager and kill any rogue processes that have not terminated normally.

[deema78]

To recap, the "RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames" error is an "out of memory" error - No, it isn't. Maybe it CAN be an out of memory error, but it is not one, specifically. And it is TOTAL FN BS that three years later, with 16gb ram, only half used, in cc2014, this GARBAGE is still occurring and you cats dont know why.

Ahh, yes, killing the other processes from MP mode fixes is... DEFINITELY NOT a RAM issue, unless you mean that this fn software HANDLES RAM incorrectly

[remote_dan]

Hi Tim

I've also been getting this 2 frame error - its been happening fairly unpredictably (ie sometimes it previews just fine) but to me it seems to happen more often if I jump to another app whilst the preview is rendering.

This is pretty standard practise for me - ie hit 0, then apple-tab to check my mail or tweak a psd. Using CS5 I would know the preview was ready because ae would jump in the dock, i'd tab back to it, hit 0 again and get instant playback.

Now under CS 6 all this happens but when I go back to ae the cache bar has changed from green to blue (or sometimes goes altogether). Most of the time I then get the "needs 2 or more frames" dialog, although sometimes when I hit 0 it just starts to cache again, like I'm hitting 0 for the first time. Very annoying!

On a big comp I will use shift 0 to skip 1 or 2 frames, but the behaviour as described above is the same.

When I purge (image cache or all), the blue line if it is there persists, but the error continues.

My specs are below and I will email you my activity monitor and log as requested. Do I also need to file a bug report or is this enough for you at this stage.

It would be super if you could fix this!

Thanks

Dan

specs:

mac osx 10.7.4

2x2.4 ghz quad core intel xeon (mid 2010)

16gb 1066 MHz DDR3

ATI radeon HD5770 1024mb

2x 23inch cinema displays + 1x cintiqWX

startup disk 120GB OCZ vertex2 SSD

project disk 1TB WDC 1001 SATA internal

cache disk 120GB OCZ vertex3 SSD

after effects CS6 v 11.0.1.12

disk cache setting maximum dsik cache 60gb (nothing else writes to this 120gb volume)

RAM reserved for other apps 4gb

ram shared by CS apps 12gb

multiproc OFF

[Atomickplaygrounds]

Hi Dan,

have you checked how much memory is AE actually using?

you can do this through:

the Memory & Multiprocessing options on the Preferences menu.

There you need to press the Details button and allow it a couple of seconds to refresh the information.

You will see then what is the Max Allowed Memory.

A low value here will explain why you have this problem and that is not acting randomly but something is blocking AE to access the RAM.

In my experience it was the firewall although it seems that an antivirus can also hold it back.

[Megumi2]

Hi

i have this problem also, so far i have…….

-purged the ram

-turned off muliproccesing

-and installed the update/patch!!

My imac (2.7 ghz, 4G Ram)  is only 3 months old

ive been using AE or over 10 years

and it happens right at the beginning of a project when everything is very simple

just a few jpegs in layers

Please Mr adobe get it sorted…

Megumi

[Megumi2]

Is it just me or has Adobe GIVEN UP with this issue?

Their last post above (their own forum) was in April

Sign.. .back to AE 5 again with its own iratatiing bugs

Megumi

[yelloween]

Yes i d like to be able to go back again with AE5 but how to find this version now? and i payed for the Creative cloud few monthes ago ! But indeed no answer to this issues, and it drived me that crazy, i stopped making video...

But i really hopped that was fixed in one or 2 monthes, we are now waiting from 4 monthes, and no any answer...

Hello ADOBE ! Help Us to use you software that we are paying for !!

I payed for more RAM in order to fix this issue, but not any amelioration... nothing! AE can't use my RAM that a really big problem !