A new CPU -- and we're back in business here!

 

It's been an eventful anxious and expensive couple of weeks since the last time I posted. My computer entered a "infinite boot loop," which is exactly what it sounds like. It's been in the workshop twice, and four hundred dollars later, its home with a new CPU and ... fixed. The new CPU makes it astonishingly fast, so I'm far from unhappy; the four hundred bucks is another matter!

Now I'm trying to catch up with myself, and not let all those images slip out of my memory -- I had about twenty ideas while the computer was in the shop; now, of course, I can't remember most of them! Well, they'll come back to me eventually -- I hope. So --

-- I'll just start over, and enjoy being able to do this again. Not being able to for a couple of weeks made me realize how much I enjoy this, and how much I actually need art as a creative outlet. Fantasy is very much on my mind at the moment, probably because of the book I'm reading, so --

-- here's a number of V4 and G8F characters and scenes, and tomorrow I have a raft of G8M scenes, and a couple of M4 characters to catch up with. For now, though --

-- numerous experiments are going on here ... water, dForce, shaders, sun-sky lighting ... all kinds of good stuff that goes to "make" images, though props and characters are the last things being experimented with. I'll post in a day or two, with a raft of new stuff. And yes, I

m loving the new CPU!

The Hulk has landed!

Eventually, the day had to arrive. HAPPY NEW COMPUTER! It's been a year since I turned off my old sesktop before I fried it; I haven't even tried to do art in that time -- therefore, the old machine still works, and will stay right here it is. And the new machine, designated "Hulk" on the LAN, is here some weeks early (thank you, Dave!) ...

It's humongous. Also whisper quiet and running cold even i the hot weather since summer began. Look at the size of the main cooling fan; there are two more in there. Whooooo!!! 😁😁😁 Dave hooked it up for me (saves my back and knees the hurt of climbing around under the desk; and I appreciate this muchly) ... and I took over, to install software. It's my Christmas present, of course. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

For those who are into the hardware side of things, here are its specs:

• AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT, 
• 12 cores threaded as 24; 4.7Gh; 70MB cache. 
• B450 Tomahawk motherboard (MAX AM4); 
• 16GB of RAM (Thermaltake ToughRam Z-ONE RGB, DDR4 3200Hz, CL16 Memory). 
• Hard drives: SSD, Samsung 970 EVO 1GB boot + 2GB internal. 
• GPU: the MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Super Ventus GP OC Edition, 8BG, with another dedicated cooling fan (Thermaltake Pure 140mm). 
• Bluetooth 5.0 (NIC Herald).
• Power source: Thermaltake -- Suppressor F31, with its own big cooling fan. 
• 8 USB ports, half of them USB3, one USB C, plus ethernet, 4x speaker-line outs etc.,
• Win10 64. 
• "Water cooling ready;" and we can double the capacity of the GPU and RAM, if needed

Sooo, the first thing was to "migrate" from one machine to the other...

A couple of days saw me slogging through the job of installing miles of software.Word 2016, Affinity Publisher, Affinity Photo, Krita and Irfanview were all quickly on, though I needed to import about 750 fonts, plus 4,500 brushes to the photo and paint programs, from my old system. Turned out to be easy. Next came Amberlight (on and tested) ... then, when everything was set, I got into the big stuff, for which The Hulk was built (by IT Warehouse at Marion).

First bit of bad news along this road: Bryce 7 Pro is a 32 bit program only, so it will not run on The Hulk. End of statement there; and all the more reason to keep the old computer on and working (it's a Windows 7 machine, 32 bit, and though Bryce stresses it, it will run okay).

DAZ Studio was an all-day install job, to get the new version (4.14) plus enough "assets" to get my oars back in the water. Done. Then, start up DAZ and ... urk. Talk about a learning curve! The interface has changed significantly from the 4.11 I was accustomed to; and I've simply forgotten a lot. I have to relearn some things I used to do automatically. Also, Studio is simply not cooperating in one or two ways, though I'm sure there's either a solution or a work-around. I'll get there; I;m just not quite there yet! 

I also have to manually install many hundreds of third-party assets, from Renderosity and various other 3D marketplaces. That will be a loooong job, so I'll do it a bit at a time. Not a problem, just a chore.

First bit of fabulous news: the unbeatable "file save error" I was getting on the old system right throughout 2018 and 2019 has not, repeat not, recurred in Studio 4.14 under Win10. I can now build a project, save it, reopen it, and have everything right where it should be.

The downside? I can't seem to get raytracing to work! This is terminally weird, and I'll be working on the issue. It's way beyond odd. But that's my problem, and I'm on it, albeit slowly.  

Can't wait to see how this system handles the workflow. I'm hoping that what took three hours last year will take twenty minutes now. At the moment, everything is working fine, and the system is dazzlingly fast; I just have to climb halfway up the learning curve before I have pictures to upload here; and I'm thinking that I might blog my progress in Studio 4.14,  just as I blogged my baby steps, 11 years ago, in Studio 3! Stay tuned, and bear with me. At the same time as all of this, I'm editing a novel, and while it's not actually difficult, it just guzzles time. Eats up your day and pushes art to the sideline. Done by Christmas, though, and then ... art!!