"SharkD" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> "St." <dot### [at] dotcom> wrote:
> I had the problem again, this time with the non-SSE2 version. It went away when
> I closed the Explorer window I was using to view the directory I keep my source
> files in. Maybe that's the problem.
>
> -Mike

Could be that the scene file parser is trying to open input files in
totally-exclusive mode (VERY bad idea!), so if the explorer is at the same time
busy trying to get something out ouf the file (like, say, a preview image or
icon it will never be able to find but why the heck should Windows Explorer
care...) the parser can't open it.

That would at least fit all the symptoms I've been seeing here.

So dear developers - if this is the case, please change it! Files that only need
to be read should consequently be opened in read-only mode with allow-read
deny-write locking, so that other software can open them in read-only mode,
too.

Post a reply to this message

"clipka" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> "SharkD" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> > "St." <dot### [at] dotcom> wrote:
> > I had the problem again, this time with the non-SSE2 version. It went away when
> > I closed the Explorer window I was using to view the directory I keep my source
> > files in. Maybe that's the problem.
> >
> > -Mike
>
> Could be that the scene file parser is trying to open input files in
> totally-exclusive mode (VERY bad idea!), so if the explorer is at the same time
> busy trying to get something out ouf the file (like, say, a preview image or
> icon it will never be able to find but why the heck should Windows Explorer
> care...) the parser can't open it.
>
> That would at least fit all the symptoms I've been seeing here.
>
> So dear developers - if this is the case, please change it! Files that only need
> to be read should consequently be opened in read-only mode with allow-read
> deny-write locking, so that other software can open them in read-only mode,
> too.

It seems it didn't make a difference after all. It is still happening about 50%
of the time. It means I can't do animations, because it will automatically quit
on the next frame.

Very annoying!

-Mike

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"clipka" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> It actually seem to be an all-components-of-PoV limit, as it was in fact the
> renderer which had trouble finding the files.
>
> Not a good thing for a renderer striving for multi-core/cpu or even network
> rendering.

Does this mean that there is a limit to the number of files that can be included
using the #include statement? The files I am working on can potentially have
dozens of sub-files.

BTW, I am having the problems on Windows XP, as well, so it's not just a Vista
error.

-Mike

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"clipka" <nomail@nomail> wrote:

> In a nutshell, SSE2 is a processor feature that allows to do faster number
> crunching (provided that programs are optimized to use it, which the
> SSE2-binary of PoV ray is).
>

"Jerome Berger" wrote:
> With 3.6, you don't benefit from having two cores whether you use
> the SSE2 version or not. With 3.7 beta, you do benefit from the dual
> core whether you use the SSE2 or not.

I've been curious about this topic as well.  So do I understand that SSE2 is a
machine architecture/chip thing? Or is it somehow also an operating system
thing? I've tried reading up on the subject, but I still don't understand it
fully. I'm currently running the non-SSE2 version of POV-Ray (v3.6.1c) on
32-bit Windows XP SP3, on a 64-bit single-core AMD Athlon machine. Can I use
the SSE2 version of POV? And will it give me better performance (if only
slightly?) Sorry to be such a dummy about this. :-S

Ken W.

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Kenneth wrote:
> I've been curious about this topic as well.  So do I understand that SSE2
> is a machine architecture/chip thing? Or is it somehow also an operating
> system thing? I've tried reading up on the subject, but I still don't
> understand it fully.

SSE2 is a set of SIMD extensions to the instruction set of the CPU. SIMD =
Single Instruction, Multiple Data. Basically, instead of doing:
a[0] = b[0] + c[0]
a[1] = b[1] + c[1]
a[2] = b[2] + c[2]
a[3] = b[3] + c[3]

the CPU can be told to add b[0]-b[3] with c[0]-c[3] and store it in
a[0]-a[3], and it will do all four additions *at the same time*, since the
hardware has multiple adders.

That's of course oversimplified. And may be even wrong if *I* understood it
wrong :)

> I'm currently running the non-SSE2 version of POV-Ray 
> (v3.6.1c) on 32-bit Windows XP SP3, on a 64-bit single-core AMD Athlon
> machine. Can I use the SSE2 version of POV? And will it give me better
> performance (if only slightly?) Sorry to be such a dummy about this. :-S

SSE2 will give you better performance. May be very small difference, but it
will be something for sure.

"SSE2 was first introduced by Intel with the initial version of the Pentium
4 in 2001. AMD added support for SSE2 with the introduction of their
Opteron and Athlon 64 ranges of AMD64 64-bit CPUs in 2003."

So your CPU does support it. I heard *all* 64-bit CPUs support SSE2 (and you
don't need a 64-bit OS to use SSE2).

Post a reply to this message

Nicolas Alvarez <nic### [at] gmailcom> wrote:

> So your CPU does support it. I heard *all* 64-bit CPUs support SSE2 (and you
> don't need a 64-bit OS to use SSE2).

Thanks for the detailed info; very much appreciated. I'll download the POV SSE2
install ASAP!

Ken W.

Post a reply to this message

"Kenneth" <kdw### [at] earthlinknet> wrote:
> Nicolas Alvarez <nic### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
>
> > So your CPU does support it. I heard *all* 64-bit CPUs support SSE2 (and you
> > don't need a 64-bit OS to use SSE2).
>
> Thanks for the detailed info; very much appreciated. I'll download the POV SSE2
> install ASAP!
>
> Ken W.

Oops.  I see on the POV download page that there is now only one 3.6.1c 32-bit
Windows version of the program available. I thought there was a separate SSE2
version(?) but it's no longer there(?)  So... have I been using an SSE2 version
all along?? Or has SSE2 been incorporated into it only recently??  Confusion!
Anarchy! Help!

KW

Post a reply to this message

Kenneth wrote:
> Oops.  I see on the POV download page that there is now only one 3.6.1c
> 32-bit Windows version of the program available. I thought there was a
> separate SSE2
> version(?) but it's no longer there(?)  So... have I been using an SSE2
> version
> all along?? Or has SSE2 been incorporated into it only recently?? 
> Confusion! Anarchy! Help!

The original poster was talking about the beta (POV-Ray 3.7). I don't know
if 3.6 has a separate SSE2 build; I thought it did.

Post a reply to this message

"Nicolas Alvarez" <nic### [at] gmailcom> schreef in bericht 
news:493c4dbf@news.povray.org...
>
> The original poster was talking about the beta (POV-Ray 3.7). I don't know
> if 3.6 has a separate SSE2 build; I thought it did.

?? Only the beta has SSE2, as far as I have always realized.... ??

Thomas

Post a reply to this message

"Thomas de Groot" <tDOTdegroot@interDOTnlANOTHERDOTnet> wrote:
> "Nicolas Alvarez" <nic### [at] gmailcom> schreef in bericht
> news:493c4dbf@news.povray.org...
> >
> > The original poster was talking about the beta (POV-Ray 3.7). I don't know
> > if 3.6 has a separate SSE2 build; I thought it did.

>
> ?? Only the beta has SSE2, as far as I have always realized.... ??
>

Hmm, it makes me wonder if I confused the beta info with the current-release
version. That's possible, sad to say. Until yesterday, it had
been...awhile...since I looked at the download page. But I still have a vague
memory of seeing it there. Or of *thinking* that I did. Maybe in a dream...

KW

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