After FX ram preview issue

I keep getting the error message, "After Effects Error: Ram Preview needs two or more frames to play back." I've used AFX for many years and have never encountered this error. What do I do?

I think the issue was resolved with the newest update, however a new wrinkle has developed. If I have the "render multiple frames simultaneously" selected, the preview hangs up. I have always had this selected and it's worked flawlessly until just recently. Can you offer some insight?

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RAM Preview issue

Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone has seen this or can provide some direction for further investigation. This is on a new Mac Pro on which I have just installed FCS
In some projects the RAM preview has no effect on playback performance. After generating a RAM preview, the project will play at the same speed (say 2 fps) and as soon as I pause playing, the green progress bar that indicates project is loaded in RAM disappears or becomes fragmented - without modifying the project in any way. When this happens it also becomes nearly impossible to do additional editing as every simple task (as simple as resetting the play range) can result in the spinning beachball. There was a recent thread on RAM preview issues (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12215113&#12215113) but it appears the problem there was due to a long HDV project. The projects I experience this on generally have a lot of particles or replicated elements, but are standard 720 x 486 resolution projects lasting less than 10 sec. System memory usage is relatively small, less than 4 GB.
These issues arise on a recently purchased MacPro (3.33 GHz 6-Core, 16 GB RAM, ATI 5870). The boot disc is an OWC SSD, and user folders, scratch, etc are on separate hard drives. I installed the operating system on the SSD using the installation disc, and have manually installed all my programs from their original discs. (I initially used migration assistant to bring over applications, but that failed with some applications, so I wiped clean and started over). There have also been some past threads on how different hardware configurations can affect performance, but I don't seem to be doing anything abnormal here.
What I have done:
Tested ram using memtestosx
Verified memory usage through activity monitor. The projects I have tested on use up less than 4 GB of system memory
Before each test or comparison I reset preferences.
I do not have this flakey behavior with an older MBP (17" 2.93 GHz Core 2 MBP with NVIDIA 9600) running the same OS (10.6.4) and motion version (4.0.3). Running the same project on the MBP will take longer for the RAM preview to complete, but when it does, the project plays at full frame rate.
The upgrade to a MacPro was mainly for other CPU and RAM intensive applications unrelated to video or graphics, but I expected motion to show a nice performance boost over the MBP on this new machine. Anyhow, any insight or direction for further investigation that I should pursue will be appreciated.
Thanks.

I tried your project (nice, BTW), and yes, 20,000+ particles take some time to render. However, when I did a RAM Preview, I had no problems - after render it played at full speed.
UNTIL...
I selected the emitter. Then playback went to the pre-RAM-Preview speeds. As soon as I turned off overlays or made sure the emitter was not selected, the playback instantly sped back up to full speed. I believe this is because Motion needs to image the constantly changing outline of the emitter. This means it needs to be re-drawn every frame after Motion determines the extent/size of the 20,000 particles on their random journey.
I think this is backed up by the fact that near the end of your project, there are only a few particles to keep track of and the playback appropriately speeds up. Also, CPU usage vastly increases when I turn on the overlays.
Moral of the story? To ensure the quickest possible playback, turn off overlays (⌘/) or ensure that something like a particle emitter is not selected during playback.
Patrick

RAM previewing issue

Hi,
I'm working in After Effects CS4, and I'm having a problem when I try to RAM preview short sections of an animation project. The RAM preview keeps stopping before it reaches the end of the work area, and beginning again. I'm pretty new to the program, but I've also noticed the little green bars that, I believe, tell you if the section has rendered/processed always have little gaps in them. That may be related. I don't know.
Does anyone know what may be causing this RAM previewing issue?
On a side note, I'm using After Effects on a Macbook (not a Macbook Pro), and I'm wondering whether this problem may be due to the Macbook not being sufficient for After Effects and CS4 in general. (I had originally intended to install the program on my 2004-era G5 tower, but it wouldn't install After Effects CS4 because apparently the program won't work with PowerPC processors, only Intel ones. At least that's what I was told.) Anyway, I've wondered whether the RAM previewing issue may be due to the Macbook not being enough computer for After Effects/CS4. My Macbook has a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 and 106 GB of available space.
Any insights on the RAM previewing issue and whether my Macbook isn't a suitable computer for these programs would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a lot,
Neil

From the theoretical specs there is nothing that speaks against your notebook. Apparently the biggest hurdle for some users is to get it to run in the first place, but now that it runs, it's safe to say that you will be able to use it properly. Of course, to let truth have its way, you will become slightly peeved at a point and get that yearning for a new machine, when you use more functions and your projects become more complex. Especially the only 2GB RAM will then often become a show stopper and you will really hate Adobe when one of those dreaded "Could not creat X x Y buffer" or similar out of memory warnings pop up. Still, no need to rush. Take your time and see, if AE is even everything you thought it would be and then make clear, structured plans for getting a new computer. You wouldn't wanna spend another 2000 bucks on a spiffy machine just to run AE once a month.
Mylenium

My After Effects re sized after a ram preview in full screen and is stuck like that.

My After Effects re sized after a ram preview in full screen and is stuck like that.even if I restart. I'm not able to acces any of the top tools.

What are the pixel dimensions of your monitor?
You can reset the workspace to its default by deleting your preferences folder.
Information on finding and deleting the preferences folder can be found here, in After Effects Help:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS37cb61f8f3397d86-164c9f19127035dd253-8 000.html

After Effects 2014 CC Ram Preview Issue

Ever since I upgraded to CC 2014(from CC) I have been experiencing an issue. My RAM preview will start somewhere in the middle of my in/out points. I have to wait for it to loop to see the beginning. I have tried checking/unchecking "from current time," I have tried cycling through the playback options, and I have tried clearing my cache. Nothing seems to work. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

This is a known bug with Mac OSX v10.10 (Yosemite).
After Effects with Mac OSX v10.10 (Yosemite)

After effects ram preview video playback issue

Greetings -- I have Mac Pro 2.93 GHz 12 Core with Nvidia Quadro 4000 & 24GB Ram.
During ram preview playback, it seems as though the video isn't refreshing fast enough in the display -- meaning its almost as if I can see the refresh on the top/bottom half of the frame happening separately. It's a bit diffucut to describe, actually. This does not happen with the same clip in Premiere, just AE.
The rendered video is fine and plays in QT/VLC, etc. without issue, it's just ram preview and is very distracting.
Any help woul dbe greatly appreciated!
Seth

CS6, 720p clip, 100%, Full, 29.97 fps. This may be related to the preview settings... It seems to go away if I turn it to final quality v.s. adaptive.
Fast Draft:
Available
Texture Memory:
409.00 MB
Ray-tracing:
GPU
OpenGL
Vendor:
NVIDIA Corporation
Device:
NVIDIA Quadro 4000 OpenGL Engine
Version:
2.1 NVIDIA-7.10.2
Total Memory:
2.00 GB
Shader Model:
CUDA
Driver Version:
4.2
Devices:
1 (Quadro 4000)
Current Usable Memory:
1.11 GB (at application launch)
Maximum Usable Memory:
2.00 GB

After Effects Ram Preview Drops Frames , Using Strangely Too Much Ram

System Specs :
     CPU : Core i7 4770k
     Memory : 16 GB DDRIII
     Graphic Card : GTX 770 4GB RAM
     Storage : 256 GB SSD + 2 TB HDD
     OS : Windows 7 SP1
     Using After Effects CC 12.2.1.5
NOTE : NOT ANY ADDITIONAL HARDWARE IS ATTACHED TO MY PC . NO SOUND RELATED EQUIPMENT NOR CAPTURE CARD NOR ANY THING ELSE
Hi there
As you Already Don't know I'm an After effects Specialist Using it for quite long time . There is an Ancient Problem with CS6 CC versions . I have a short Small size 1080p Video , about 8 MB , I drag it into project panel and then put it into timeline hence it creates a sequence . There are no Effects and nothing added to timeline , just a small simple video . The Strange Problem is when I click "0" for ram preview , The video starts playing and the green bar above timeline starts to fill . When Ram preview Finishes and plays the video from beginning I See there are several frames Between which are not being loaded to Ram ! The video plays RGB color bar instead of main video and when I check the Green bar above Timeline I see that those frames are being dropped and there is no Green bar above them !
I have had this problem several times before but this time it is too important and the problem should be solved . What is obvious is that some frames are not being rendered or are being deleted after render !
Another Strange problem is that when I open Task manager , It shows AE uses around 10 GB ! of RAM when I press "0" for Ram previewing this video !
So there is a Logical explanation here , Somehow when I do ram preview this video it uses extra ordinary too much ram so AE is unable to load the full video (8 MB) into Ram and hence deletes some of frames .
most of my videos have not this problem and use acceptable amount of ram .I've had this issue with some of my videos till now .
Listen carefully : "This has nothing to do with AE preferences or low memory or plugins . because there is nothing wrong with any individual components of may hardware or software . I have far more than enough RAM for a 8MB video . My Memory has no hardware or software problem . I tested them and if there was any problem with memory or other hardware that should have affected other applications . I have the most recent AE version . I have the most Recent windows updates and drivers . I have a Clean virus free system , and as a computer engineer this strange AE problem is rarely caused by viruses , trust me . I have not any hardware instead of ones a normal PC has . I have not any problem with my whole entire system configuration because I have benchmarked my PC with several up to date softwares . I have tested my PC with almost any STRESS TESTING solutions available for really long period of time , 3 days by IDA64 . Not any driver conflict , dll missing , registry problem have been discovered , as I know perfectly how to solve them ."
I asked some of my friend whom are expert in AE . I handed them my videos and Watched ALL OF THEM HAD THE SAME ISSUE ! So the problem isn't related to my Local PC . What i believe is that there is some malfunctioning or miss coded part in AE source code that decides to reserve such a huge strange amount of ram for such a tiny 8MB video . The point is that the AE works fine , no crash or any problem report . So the AE it Self decides to allocate such huge amount of ram and thinks it is correct ! So I think this is a work around that AE developers in adobe are using to bypass a problem or conflict ! by Using more amount of RAM . I think that there might be some miss understanding between the AE and my installed codec . I installed MEGA CODEC PACK on my PC to enable some new codec supports , and so are some of Windows default de/encoders changed to new ones . I think there shouldn't be any problem But there is something wrong between AE and de/encoder modules !
Please any one with any suggestion , I really appreciate your advices .

###UPDATED###
Well thank you guys for your patience ...
as you considered I forgot to mention the codec itself and other stuff ...
The video is in 1080p , 35 sec long , it is a green screen shot , this video is directly downloaded from YouTube and plays perfectly on all tested PCs . here are detailed info :
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                          : Base Media
File size                                 : 8.55 MiB
Duration                                 : 34s 993ms
Overall bit rate mode                : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 2 050 Kbps
VideoFormat                            : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : [email protected]
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Bit rate                                    : 1 927 Kbps
Width                                      : 1 920 pixels
Height                                     : 1 080 pixels
Frame rate mode                      : Constant
Frame rate                               : 30.000 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                 : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                  : 8 bits
Scan type                                 : Progressive
NOTICE : This video is just for testing the lighting and etc , and so the Sampling and other specs are not considered for broadcast .
I think you hit the point ! Thats K-lite codec pack installed on every machine which the video is tested on ! The point is whats wrong with it ?! I have had never ever any problem with this codec pack !!!
The deadly question : So what are the alternative ways to work with codecs that AE doesn't support ?! because installing codec looks simple and sufficient !

Ram Preview Issue with Yosemite

Hi, I have updated to OS X Yosemite, I am using AE 13.1.1.3, and now I am having an issue with RAM-Preview that makes working with AE problematic: When I start the Preview by hitting "0" on the Numpad the Ram Preview starts, but I am not able to stop it anymore until it has rendered to the end of the work area.
It is also strange that I am able to move keyframes while it renders.
The Shift-Ram Preview is also affected by this bug.

There is a known bug with Yosemite and the RAM preview, but your issue sounds different. Anyway, see the known issues here: After Effects good to go with Mac OSX v10.10 (Yosemite)

ERROR: RAM Preview Issue

Hello -
I have been researching this issue all day. I have seen a variety of posts but no solution for me yet.
I am using AE 5.5. I get the following error when trying to Preview.
"RAM preview needs 2 or more frames to playback"
I am working on a Mac and I have tried it on the Mac laptop and Mac desktop. Both systems have enough RAM to handle After Effects.
Any guidance is very much appreciated!!
Thank you

HI, I'm experiencing this problem as well, but it only starts after I add audio.
My composition is quite simple at the moment, I just need this snippet of audio to create a simple animation...
I'm able to listen to the audio with ram preview in the Viewer, but once I add it to the composition, I get the error.
I then have to proceed to re-start AE because once I remove the audio from the comp, the same error will come up again (until restarted).
Audio settings are:
My computer info:
Any help is appreciated. Thanks

After Effects RAM Preview not showing first 50 frames or so - Mac OS

So I'm on a 2012 iMac, and when i RAM preview, it plays audio but video does not show until about 50 or 60 frames in, its like a glitch or lag thats started recently, so it makes ram previewing from a certain time a real pain as i then miss the exact part i want and it c matches up with video a second or two later, i can't find any solutions, please help!!

As Andrew says, Adobe and Apple are working on figuring this bug out. See the known issues section of this page: After Effects good to go with Mac OSX v10.10 (Yosemite)
If you let the RAM preview loop at the end of its playback and play through again, it should be smooth and issue-free.

Error in After Effects RAM Preview after updating to Yosemite

There is an issue of RAM preview not showing video for the first several frames (a second or so) on the first run in After Effects.
No problem under Maverick.
Which means it has to do with the yosemite System-update.
This bug should really be fixed with some priority!
Apparently, Adobe cannot fix it (or don't want to).
So it's Apple who has to do something!!!

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.
Feedback

After Effects Ram Preview Help

Hello. I have recently got into after effects, and haven't had this problem until i deleted and then re downloaded AE (I was having a problem with creative cloud) So, I usually I want to render a 10 second clip, which isn't much, but when I try and render it with RAM Preview, it only renders about one second. I looked at other forum posts, and they suggested to upgrade your ram, but I have 12GB's of RAM dedicated to after effects, and my computer ONLY has 12, so I'm really stuck here. if someone could help me, that would be great as I really can't do anything in AE without a full RAM preview. Thank you.

12 GB RAM isn't much for After Effects. You also need to allow for some RAM usage by the system for it to work properly.

Adobe After Effects RAM preview crash

My computer specs:
Processor: AMD9(Quadcore) A8-5600k APU with Radeon HD Graphics 3.60 Ghz
Memory: 8.00 GB (7.40 Usable)
64 bit OS and AAE CS6 is 64 as well.
(I also updated my graphics card driver to Catalyst 12.8 and it still crashes.
Can someone help me solve this problem with it crashing?

Are you saying that After Effects closes when you RAM preview? Does it pop up an error message? How far into a RAM preview? How are you initiating this RAM preview? What kind of footage are you using? What effects are in your comp? Does this happen in every project? Has it worked before without crashing? What EXACT OS are you using? What is your EXACT version number of After Effects (11.0.2?) What are your memory and multiprocessing settings?

Super slow audio RAM preview issues in AE CS5

Hi all,
I've been having a tough time previewing audio while working in AfterEffects. I'm using Version 10.0.2.4, running on a 2x2.66 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon Mac Pro with 64 gigs of memory.
I've opened up projects that have never given me any issues in the past and I seem to be experiencing the same issue, over and over again:
When I try to preview a comp with audio (either hitting "0" on the keypad, or "." on the keypad), I get the "spinning beach ball" for at least 20-30 seconds before the audio kicks in. When I disable audio in my preview window, I have no delay with the RAM preview.
This happens with .aiffs and .wav files.
I've done the usual tricks -- restarting my machine, double checking to make sure there's not an issue with my speaker setup, repairing permissions, checking for updates.
Has anyone else experienced these issues, and is there a workaround? I have a job coming up that requires me to quickly preview audio and waiting 30 seconds every time I need to check my progress with a RAM preview is going to be soul-crushing.
I'll happily answer any questions -- I'm sure there's a bunch of info I've left out, and fingers crossed it's just some setting that I've ignored that's causing this issue.
Thanks,
Dan

Sorry for all the questions, but...
What path/hardware does your audio take to be output? Analog from the Mac? Via a third party card like an AJA or Blackmagic device? USB speakers?
Have you specified the audio device in the AE audio hardware preferences? Have you tried outputting to a different device, or removing the device and just using the standard system audio?

Temporary Machine Freezes After RAM Previews

We're having alot of trouble pinning this down, and are using up alot of time approaching a deadline.
I'm using:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83Ghz
8Gb RAM
GeForce 9800 GT with 182.50 Driver
Win XP Pro x64 SP2
with AE CS4
Up until a few weeks ago, this wasn't a problem, but basically, after a RAM preview, and in this case a 700 frames 1050x576 shot, single layer in the comp, no effects, with Task Manager reporting about 2.3Gb RAM in use during the preview - the machine locks up for tens of seconds, sometimes up to a minute or two when I come out of AE. Can't open drives, can't access anything in fact, then suddenly it comes back and works normally again. never crashes, just locks you out.
Am I missing something here? Is this normal? The point is that through the back end of last year, I spent 14 hour days throwing long HD shots and comps at AE, doing RAM previews, etc., but it all worked fine. Some slowdowns with that kind of data flowing through, but nothing outrageous.
We spent today swapping out RAM modules, thinking it's a RAM issue, though there are no classic symptoms of RAM failure, but that hasn't helped. Tons of free space on the two internal drives - 762Gb free on the boot drive, and 347Gb on a second drive.
I would appreciate any ideas as we are up against a difficult and tight deadline, but as ever, this kind of thing happens.
Thanks.
Julian.

Are you using Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing? If so, make sure that you've got enough RAM reserved for other applications, including the OS. Actually, I'd try just turning Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing off to see if that alone makes your problem go away.
A side note (perhaps not related to your issue): You didn't say whether you had installed the After Effects CS4 (9.0.2) update. That update fixed a lot of bugs.

After FX ram preview issue

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