Particle Playground in RAM preview

Using AE CS3 I've built a sequence involving the explosion effect of Particle Playground. I adjusted the Velocity Dispersion parameter to get a good expansion rate for the particles, using RAM preview at 50 percent resolutiion as a test bed. To my surprise, when I rendered the project, the particles flew at many time the rate seen in RAM preview. Any ideas as to why this happened or how to get the RAM preview to faithfully reflect the real render?

> Trapcode Particular is the third party plugin I use more than any other - it is quite simply the most useful plugin I've ever bought for AE,
b and worth every cent.
if you have the dime, everything will be fine...
just a note for the guys from the dev-team who probably may stumble over this thread: i'm not paying for Ae using it on a "experimental basis".
There are two presumptions: you are not capable of properly coding or lets say, having your software-development under control, or you are simply NOT WILLED to take a look into your code to see what else can be managed because you're so distracted by having this app work in somewhat future of Apples somewhat architecture?
i'm in serious anger with Ae every day using it. i don't think i need a higher degree in mathematics just to be able to control a pretty self-explanatory software. if software lacks in usability thus lacking in performance, why someone should spend any future dime on it?
I believe it has all to do with bureaucracy and fund, just to enhance a software systematically from version to version, not pushing the features at once whilst having them already in the top drawer since ages.
it's pure business. it has nothing to do with customer satisfaction nor with customer experience.
though, this forums and all it's peoples input from all aspects did had an impact on development. without it, we still would stuck in the middle 90ies.
Thanks for sharing.
personally i got tired of all this technical drawbacks. it caused me a lot of damage to my health, non billable hours and suffering in my
profession as a digital artist which i've started with pure passion.
I will quit my job and start doing something that makes really sense to me and my fellow men rather than hanging around for days/nights in front of a screen filled with problems.
I release myself from this forum. i wish you all good luck for the future and keep pounding.
cheers,
Thomas

Similar Messages

Trying to use Particle Playground

I just updated from CS4 to CS5 and suddenly I cannot use the Particle Playground effect. It worked just fine under CS4. Now...nothing.
I am on a MAC intel MacPro running 10.5.8 with 2 X 3.2 Quad core Intel Xeon and 10GB Ram
Any ideas would be appreciated.

This is quite an old post, but I am having exactly the same problem - particle playground produces nothing .
I'm running CS5 (AE 10.0.1.19) on a Mac Pro 2x 2.4GHz Quad Core Xeon with 12GB RAM & OS10.6.4
Even if I just create a new project, then new comp (any size, it makes no difference), new solid (comp size), then effect>particle playground, I get nothing - not even the stream of red dots that it produces by default. BUT, when I do a RAM preview, the info panel does its usual report of "number of particles: 116" etc. so it's actually calculating the particles, just not displaying them. I've tried tweaking the particles per sec, the grid settings, etc. etc....but nothing. I used to use particle playground a lot on CS3 & CS4, so it's not user error. I've tried tweaking the memory settings and turning multiprocessing and OpenGL off and on.
BUT - I have just discovered, if I use a layer map instead of the default particle dot, it works fine. So it's not as huge a problem as I first thought, as most of the time I use a layer map for the particle. But it would be nice to have if fixed!

RAM previewing and rendering not working correctly

Hi,
Today I was just about finished editing a video on CS6 and then when I'm about to add the last effect and render it it stuffs up on me:(. What happens is that while RAM previewing at some point during the loading of the preview it will stop loading, It will then proceed to play the ram preview on loop and when I press a button to stop it a small box pops up in the centre of my screen and the ram preview bar to show what has loaded (the one which shows green for parts that are loaded and blue for cached) turns black and sometimes other parts of after effects turn black. This has happened before and I fixed it by uninstalling and reinstalling After Effects about 6 times. I would do that this time though I would like to know the cause of it and any possible fixes as it is quite irritating. Another thing that may be happening is the RAM usage is slowly filling as I render. This has happened before on my laptop and I did not manage to fix it though it was not related to the first issue that time. The last time when it happened on my laptop the RAM usage eventually filled up to 100% and it would no longer render. I am not sure if it is happening this time as it is still currently rendering though I will update the thread if it does. Finally my render is going very slowly, I am not sure if this issue is realted to any of the above or if it is just the effects I am using though. My memory and multiprocessing settings are using 6 cores of 7 with 2 GB of ram allocated to each with multiprocessing on. My ram allocated for other programs is 6GB. To fix these Issues so far I have tried clearing the cache, purging the memory and image cache, restarting my computer and reinstalling after effects. My specs are:
i7 4770k non overclocked
GTX 780
G.Skill Ripjaws Z 2133mhz 32GB
Samsung 840 pro
Seagate Barracuda
MSI Z87-G45
H100i cooler
Any reply is appreciated
Thanks in advance
Sam

How much experience do you have with AE? Ram preview can be lengthened by adjusting the resolution of the composition window, different parts of the project can be previewed using the work area, and preview length and render time are both a function of composition frame size. Complex, memory intensive effects like particle systems will reduce the render time and the length of a ram preview. Without knowing the details of your composition it's hard to say if you are running into a bug, running out of resources, or experiencing normal behavior.

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

Slow RAM Preview in CC, any suggestions?

I am running my CC on a Windows 8.1 OS, with 24 GB RAM, an EVGA GeForce GTX 760 4GB graphics card, and i7 3570k Quad Core 3.4GHz processor. However, I am still experiencing an issue with struggling RAM preview. I've also altered the cuda supported cards in the Premiere file, so as to allow my GTX 760 access to the softwares, and still a slow rate of rendering speed. Therefore, I'm wondering if you would happen to know what the issue could possibly be, or if I should purchase new hardware or something. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Help>About will show you the version number.
Do you accidentally have the ray-traced renderer turned on for your composition instead of the standard renderer?
Do you have Depth of Field turned on for your camera?
Tutorials often speed up RAM previews to prevent boredom on the part of the viewer.
The size of the emitter is unrelated to the processing power it takes. What matters is how many particles are being created
SomeGenericName wrote:
I watch the Task Manager every time I'm doing something intensive on AE and my CPU always sky rockets to to using 99% of its power. Now is AE a software that uses mainly GPU support, or should it actually be using that much CPU power?
After Effects uses the GPU for very little. See here: GPU (CUDA, OpenGL) features in After Effects
Side note: The ray-traced renderer is now considered obsolete, so if you had not heard about it before, don't get all excited and start learning it. Learn this instead.
CPU and RAM are the two most crucial things for AE. This page might help: Optimizing for performance: Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects

RAM preview needs 2 or more frames error

Good Morning,
I have just encountered this error for the first time since i started using AE about 6 years ago.
I am running a PC (windows 7 pro), i5 2.90GHz 64-bit OS, 16GB RAM, and 1 GB Graphics card, dedicated 1TB HDD for Cache. Creative Cloud subscription.
I had no problems up until the update to 'After Effects CC 2014', since this update i cannot generate a RAM preview. I have read countless forums and i have followed previously suggested solutions (purge, remove VCReflect plugin, started AE as administrator etc), to no avail.
Any suggestions will be welcomed.
Will

The "RAM preview needs 2 or more frames to play back" message usually means 1 of 2 things. Either:
You have requested a RAM preview of only 1 frame.
There is not enough RAM available to generate more than 1 frame.
Regarding the first possibility, make sure that your comp is more than one frame long, and that your work area bar is set to more than one frame. Also make sure that in the Preview panel the From Current Time option is not enabled, if your current time indicator is on the last frame of your comp. In these cases the message is saying "You don't have more than one frame for me to play, so using RAM preview doesn't make sense: this single frame is already on screen and already cached!"
Regarding the second possibility, there are a number of contributing factors. Generally, make sure that there is available memory for After Effects to use, which you can check in Activity Monitor or Task Manager. If you don't have much free memory: use the Edit > Purge > All command, close other applications and/or restart After Effects or your computer. If you appear to have lots of free memory, start breaking down your comp, turning off effects and layers (including cameras and lights) until you can get a RAM preview without the error message.
Effects, in particular, can consume large amounts of memory, such as particle effects or effects that grow the layer bounds to very large sizes. If After Effects can't generate more than one frame for such a layer in the amount of available memory, you may get this error message.
If you're still having trouble, test by building simpler comps just to verify you can RAM preview anything, such as an animated shape layer or text or a piece of footage with no effects applied to it. If you need to post back to this thread, describe the contents of your comp, including the comp settings, layer types, effects applied, etc. Screenshots and screen capture videos are always helpful.

RAM Preview in Background w/ Windows Start Button?

on this one project while doing a RAM preview on 1080p comp with complex particle systems (it was reeeeeally slow on my computer), i noticed that the windows start menu button in the bottom left corner didnt disappear, so i clicked on it and the video continued rendering the RAM preview in the background while i was able to do anything on my computer that i could access from the start Windows start menu. i'm assuming this was a very convenient glitch? the button disappears on renders of less information processing so i'm assuming this wasnt supposed to happen.
has anyone else heard of this happening? if so, is there a way you know of intentionally making this option, to use the start button while rendering RAM preview, available every time?
AE CS4
Windows 7 32bit
3.5gb RAM
Nvidia GeForce 8600 (256mb dedicated)
Intel core 2 duo 1.5ghz

i use other apps while after effects is open all the time, but i have never been able to use other apps while i have a RAM preview in progress, that is until i experienced this glitch thing. normally if it's doing a RAM preview, when i click on anything (or type on any key) it automatically stops the rendering and shows me the preview up to that point. is it normal to be able to use other applications while after effects is doing a RAM preview???

Very slow RAM preview (novice user in need of help)

I am looking for some recommendations for hardware. I had a Mac Pro (8 core with 8MB RAM) and it rendered at the same speed as my IMAC. I am using AE CS5 and the trapcode 10 suite, in my comps. A ten second comp will take over 10 minutes to RAM preview, it takes 4-5 seconds for each frame, frame by frame. I tried enabling and disabling the (multiple frames simultaneously) function, as well as experimenting with the number of cores for AE setting. Any hardware recommendations would be gratefully appreciated. If you could share your hardware configuration / AE settings, It would be much appreciated.

See this page for information and recommendations about memory and improving performance in After Effects.
Recommendations in general are difficult because every composition and computer are different, as are people's preferences regarding rendering speed versus length of RAM previews, what other software they want to run at the same time, et cetera.
But, I'll make a very broad recommendation:
For HD-sized movies, you want to have 3-4GB of RAM installed per processor. So, for a quad-core with hyperthreading (which effectively has eight processors), you'd want 24-32GB of RAM. This describes my personal computer, by the way, so you know that I have put my personal money where my recommendations are.
Don't neglect hard disks. You need to have more than one hard disk. Sooooo many people complain of poor performance and fret about RAM and CPUs, and then I find that they're running their OS and applications from the same single disk that they're reading source files from and writing output files to... or their external disks are over a USB connection. [*shudder*]
BTW, particle effects like Trapcode Particular take a long time to render. That's just a fact of life. You may make them faster, but you'll never make them fast.

Why do RAM previews get slower towards end of comp?

I was just wondering, why do RAM previews and even updates in the comp. monitor when playing with effects get slower as you get deeper into the comp.? When i first begin a comp everything is extremely fast but when 2 to 3 minutes of the comp is completed everything slows down and each frame takes like 4 or 5 seconds to load. Do you think it's a matter of RAM?

No. Whatever issues you have are specific to your setup like calculations on effects accumulating or multiplying. This can easily happen with particle effects or temporal effects like Timewarp - the later the time in the comp, the more particles or frames have to be processed. You have not provided any relevant info, anyway, so there is not much point to making generic claims based on such vague and incomplete info. We know nothing about your system or even what version of AE you use, so aprdon me, this is pointless.
Mylenium

Unable to create image buffer after RAM preview

Running into an odd and frustrating error. Built a comp using the new Ray-traced 3D renderer and now I'm regretting being an early adopter big time with all the problems I've been encountering with it. The latest comes whenever I do a longer RAM preview in an attempt to watch the whole duration of my comp. It will get to about 170 frames or so, at which point I've interrupted by pressing spacebar because I don't need to see all the way to the end of my work area (around 220 frames). It'll play the RAM preview back fine, and even loop it, but as soon as I stop playback, I get this error message: "After Effects warning: Unable to create image buffer." There's only one button: "okay" and as soon as I click it the same error pops up again and it will never go away, forcing me to close AE from the task manager. I've taken to saving before every RAM preview like I used to do with Flash before previewing my buggy swfs for fear I'll lose all my work after previewing. Any ideas about what might be causing this?
Some more details about my comp:
1920x1080 @ 29.97
Ray-traced 3D
About 70 3D layers (I'm guessing this is my downfall - new renderer not designed for this many layers?)
Running Windows 7 Professional
i7 2600K
32GB RAM
2x GTX 570 video cards running latest driver (301.42, CUDA 4.2.1)
508GB free on my 2TB internal drive where the project and cache lives
From my GPU info window in case it's useful:
Fast Draft:
Available
Texture Memory:
600.00 MB
Ray-tracing:
GPU
OpenGL
Vendor:
NVIDIA Corporation
Device:
GeForce GTX 570/PCIe/SSE2
Version:
3.0.0
Total Memory:
1.20 GB
Shader Model:
4.0 or later
CUDA
Driver Version:
4.2
Devices:
2 (GeForce GTX 570, GeForce GTX 570)
Current Usable Memory:
1.04 GB (at application launch)
Maximum Usable Memory:
1.25 GB

Yeah, some buffer is very likely not flushing when you interrupt the preview and then there is no more memory on the graphics hardware. Consider setting the work area and your preview options to use only the work area. if it finishes the preview "correctly", it may not suffer the issue. Beyond that - raytracing doesn't/ shouldn't care about the number of items. The math is such, that it makes no difference whether you render a million polygons or just one. Of course there are still limitations due to the GPU dependency, but I doubt you ever truly exhaust the cards' geometry buffers. Compared to pixel data that is a small amount...
Mylenium

AE CS4 - why such poor RAM preview on my FAST machine?

Hi all, I just installed After Effects CS4 - I have a smokin fast mchine: quadcore Zeon 3.20 GHz, hyperthreading turned on, nvidia quadrofx 3800 with current driver, 12 GB DDR3 RAM, windows 7 64bit ... can you PLEASE help me troubleshoot a problem: even on the simplest compositions, a moving picture or a moving piece of type, the RAM preview stutters along, the current time indicator hops along at a choppy pace, images in the frame dont look like they're moving smoothly, and all i get is about 6 seconds of RAM preview ... seems to me that I used to get better performance on a MUCH MUCH slower machine under windows XP ... i have looked around the forums and seem the advice on multiprocessor options and the like, but nothing I do seems to help ... do any of you have any advice for me to improve my performance??? if you have any questions about my setup or preferences, let me know, I will be on this until I get what I expect out of my (otherwise incredibly fast) machine

Hi Todd, thanks again for your reply ... FYI, I bought the FX3800 for Avid editing, for which it is the qualified video card, and supports distributed processing in the Avid along with my DX HD hardware BOB - I had hoped it would work well with After Effects, too, but I do understand the Adobe is very transparent about the fact that, as long as your card has OpenGL support, probably best to sink your $$$ into more RAM or faster CPU .. but to stay on topic, I am just very stunned that I am not getting better playback with my system ... I have the most recent Nvidia drivers ... I have 2 NEC 2490WUXi2 each connected through DVI-D to my video card, each runnign at its native 1920x1200 res, 59 hertz ... the programs I have installed are Adobe CS4 Production Premium, Win7 64bit, MS Office 2007 Enterprise, latest version of Quick Time, Media Player version 11, and NERO 9 ... you dont think that one of these video player apps (like media player or QT) are messing with my screen performance do you? what about Nero 9, have you heard any compatibility or display problems associated with this app? would unistalling any of these programs be a troubleshooting technique that you'd attempt?
Finally, when you say "an issue with a bottleneck of drawing to the screen" what do you mean exactly? 'cause this kinds sounds like a goood description of what I am seeing ... what might be the cause of such a bottleneck, I am willing to try anything ...
Thanks, sir, for your reply!
Derek Reid
Trader Multimedia Inc.
www.tradermm.com
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:46:43 -0600
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: AE CS4 - why such poor RAM preview on my FAST machine?
Just one thing to cut down a frequent misconception:
Your nice graphics card doesn't do much for After Effects performance.In fact, trying to use OpenGL for rendering (including rendering of previews) can cause problems.
I recommend turning OpenGL rendering off for all but interactions. I.e., choose the http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/9.0/WSAF696587-2D81-42e2-B248-4C5C2B7D3614a.html and turn off http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/9.0/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103a4f2dff7-79e8a.htm l. OpenGL is not compatible with Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing.
I'm not saying that OpenGL is your problem. Rather, because you mentioned your nice graphics card, I just had to stress that you need to forget about that with regard to After Effects. It's not really relevant.
It may be that the jerkiness is an issue with a bottleneck of drawing to the screen. (I don't know, but it's possible.)
Your hard disk being too slow wouldn't be an issue with RAM previews, since the frames are all cached in RAM.
>

Issues with performance and RAM previews

Just did a major system upgrade from an iMac to a Mac Pro, and now I'm having an issue with performance...specifically with RAM previews.
When I try to do a RAM preview with audio, it grinds my entire OS to a hault (can't switch apps, or click on much of anything). It eventually clears up enough for me to stop the RAM preview.
So, I'm wondering if maybe my Memory & Multiprocessing settings might be off.
Here are my system specs:
Mac Pro
2 x 2.4GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon (12 cores)
64GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 5870
AE CS6 (11.0.2.11)
AE is installed on an SSD drive and the scratch disk is an internal HDD.
Here are my AE Memory Settings:
Here's my GPU Info:
Let me know if any other info is needed...

You are reserving far too little RAM for other software.
See this: "Performance tip: Don't starve your software of RAM."
(Also, I recommend going through all of these materials: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/543440 )
Regarding the SSD: Putting your application files on it means that applications load/boot faster. This is fine, but that benefit is just when you first start the application. If you put your cache files on it, then you get the benefit every time that something is read from or written to the cache---i.e., many times per second, for the entire time that you're working. Put your cache files on your SSD. BTW, there's no reason to not put your application files and caches on the same SSD. The reason that you split things across multiple disks is to prevent simultaneous reads and writes to and from a slow disk; the program loading from disk happens at a different time than reading and writing cache files, so there is no potential for conflict and slowdown.

RAM preview audio will not play through bluetooth headphones

I am using bluetooth headphones (Jaybird Freedom Sprint) to try and edit audio/video in after effects. However, when I go to Preferences>Audio Output Mapping and choose "Freedom Sprint" and click OK, close the preference window, and it will automatically go back to the default "Built in Output" when I open it back up. It will only play the sound through the Mac Pro tower I am using. Is there a way to get the headphone option output to stay permanently?? Is there a reason why it is not staying selected? Another thing I forgot to mention is that all other sounds work (like iTunes, volume up/down) through the headphones except for the audio RAM preview in After Effects. How can I disable the audio from playing through the tower? Very frustrating!
BTW - the only time headphones actually work is when they are plugged into the tower. These ones obviously can't be plugged in.
Thanks! (Screenshots provided for help)

Thanks! I definitely did try that first... (trying to find a solution with the headphones). You can't find any info about them online/their website. Regardless though, After Effects will not allow me to play the audio output through any other device except for the Mac Pro tower - even playing it through the LCD Cinema Display won't work.
Thanks for your reply

After Effects CS6 error: RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames to playback - any ideas please?

Hi everyone,
I'm running After Effects CS6 (11.0.4.2) on a MacBook Pro 2.8Ghz with 16GB RAM (Mac OS 10.9.4)
As a test, I created a 3 and a half minute Sequence in Adobe Premiere CS6, and then imported this into After Effects CS6, and placed it on the AE timeline.
This footage involves a couple of 1920x1080p footage movies, some psds and a large number of JPGs exported from two videos arranged as a sequence in two layers in Premiere, one on top of the other. So all in all for a Premiere / After Effects file I'd say it's reasonably heavy.
I then did a RAM Preview with Multiprocessing switched off - the 3 and a half minute sequence loaded into RAM, taking about 1min 30seconds, and played back in realtime at 25fps. This worked fine with 3,4,5 and 6 GB RAM available to other applications in the Memory Preferences. All things considered I think this is quite good. I can make changes, reclick the RAM Preview icon and my changes load into RAM and it previews ok.
My only 'complaint' is how long the RAM Preview takes to load up the whole thing.
I've been reading up on Multiprocessing and decided to try this to see if I can speed up the time it takes my RAM Preview to load up.
So I looked at some recommendations from Adobe and read information on various forums including this one.
My settings in the Memory Preferences are currently
• 6GB reserved for other applications
• Reduce cache size when system is low on memory - unticked
• After Effects Multiprocessing - ticked
• Installed CPUs (processor cores) - 8
• CPUs reserved for other applications - 6
• RAM allocation per background CPU - 3GB
• Actual CPUs that will be used - 2
This combination takes about 25 seconds to load up my 3 and a half minute sequence which I thought was pretty amazing.
I then pressed the stop button and then the play button - so now just playing the sequence briefly.
And also added a new layer - into the timeline - just a simple shape.
Then I tried a RAM Preview again.
I found I could load up part of the sequence but not load the whole thing into RAM.
I kept trying to get a RAM Preview and got this message
"After Effects error: RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames to playback" which seems to prevent RAM Preview from working.
Eventually I quit and restarted After Effects and the problem went away temporarily and then came back when I tried again.
I tried various changes to the Memory Preferences - trying 3GB available for other applications. This gave 13GB of my 16GB RAM to After Effects.
This made it take slightly longer for the After Effects error to appear but it still appeared.
I tried ticking Reduce Cache size in the Memory Prefs - the After Effects error still appeared, so having read this is supposed to make the issue better I now leave it untucked, but as far as I can see ticked or untucked, it makes no difference, the problem remains.
I've since tried -
Making 2,3,4,5 and 6 CPUs available for other applications.
Changing the Background RAM allocation per background CPU to 0.75GB, 1GB, 1.5GB, 2GB and 3GB
Lots of combinations.
But in the end, I always get the "After Effects error: RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames to playback" error.
It might take less or more time for the message to show up, depending on the combination of settings, but in the end I always got the same message appearing.
And I notice that I can RAM Preview less and less of the timeline. i.e. it becomes more blue than it does green and will load in only a small section of the timeline as opposed to the whole thing.
Reading further, I tried Edit > Purge > Image Cache and Edit > Purge > All Memory but still get the error message.
I also tried ensuring there were no other applications running e.g. Safari or Chrome or Firefox. And certainly not Photoshop or Premiere etc.
Reading even further, I tried two Memory management applications - 'Memory Clean' and 'Purge.'
Neither has had any effect - the After Effects error still appears.
Then I went back into the Memory and Multiprocessing Preferences.
I unticked Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously. And now the RAM Preview loads the whole 3 and half minute sequence in entirety, taking about 1 and half minutes to do so. It's working as perfectly as if I'd just quit and re-opened the application.
Then I went back into the Memory and Multiprocessing Preferences.
I reticked Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously.
The chose Edit > Purge > All
And tried a RAM Preview again. It loaded up in 25 seconds, but then, as previously, the error message came.
I tried Edit > Purge All - no effect.
And I tried going into the Media and Disk Cache Preferences and clicked Empty Disk Cache - still the problem remains.
I understand from my reading that After Effects CS6 11.0.2 was intended to fix this issue but I'm on 11.0.4 and as far as I can tell, I still have it - assuming it's the same thing.
As far as I can see, not using Multiprocessing allows me to work without these errors but take a bit longer to load the RAM Preview.
However I'd like to be able to use Multiprocessing as it seems it can potentially speeds things up quite a lot. I realise I could just not use it and AE would work, but I'd rather be able to make use of a feature of the software if possible, especially if it will speed things up and make optimum use of the my computer's hardware.
I've downloaded a trial copy of After Effects CC 2014. I'm still testing it but as far as I can see the RAM Preview error appears in this version of AE as well, but can take bit longer to show up in my experience.
Thanks everyone - if anyone has any thoughts or advice I'd appreciate hearing your opinions.
Kind regards,
John

You need to have much more RAM reserved for other applications and more CPUs reserved for other applications. Your current settings are crippling your performance.
Read these:
https://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2009/12/performance-tip-dont-starve-yo.html
http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2010/03/performance-tip-dont-oversched.html
After you have adjusted your settings according to the recommendations on those pages, restart your computer and try again.

I have no audio when I ram preview or after rendering in CS5.5

I have read all the solutions in other threads but with no avail, I'm still stuck with no audio. I had no problem like this before in CS3 and I'm currently using/learning CS5.5. I've had no audio at all. However, I can hear audio when I click on the layer that has my mp3 file on their by pressing 0 on the number keypad. But when I go on my main comp I can't hear any audio whatsoever when I press the space bar or when I press the RAM preview button. There is no audio even after I render it and yes, I did click on the audio check box in the audio module that has the lossless link to make sure it is on.

The flaw is here:
my mp3 file
Convert it to a WAV or AIFF. Nobody knows what can hapopen with MP3 and AE sucks at using those files even today.
Mylenium

Particle Playground in RAM preview

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for