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Out of Memory!

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jack arnold
Posted on Monday, April 16, 2001 - 10:20 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

I'm stitching 50 mb tif files with v. 2.3 on a piii 500 with 384 mb memory, windows 98 se, plenty of disc space.
can do 3 files maximum..any more and I get an out of memory error. do I need more ram, or do i have a software setting wrong?
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John Strait
Posted on Saturday, April 21, 2001 - 10:52 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

Jack,

See Trouble report 70 -- Out of memory when stitching large images for information about memory limits in The Panorama Factory.

I cannot answer questions about specific situations (like yours) without being able to ask for more information. Please include your email address when submitting FAQ questions.

John
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Doug Lockhart
Posted on Thursday, April 03, 2003 - 10:48 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

Hi! I'm evaluating PF and have found it to be the best at stitching difficult patterns of the 4 programs I've tested. I have Windows XP, 2.25 GHz P4, 1.5GB of RDRAM, and 160GB of HD, mostly unused. I, too am having trouble with "Out of Memory" when stitching two 59Meg .tif images. I read Trouble Report 70, turned off most of the Saved Images in the properties box, and did not check the 45-bit box, but had the same problem. It occurs during the Align Images step. After clicking OK, I get another dialog box with a message "The instruction at "0x73dd1351" referenced memory at "0x00000004". The memory could not be read". I received only the Out of Memory dialog box when I had 0.5MB RAM. Based on this problem, I updated to 1.5GB, and now get this second dialog box as well. Since I'm still evaluating the software, I haven't paid. If we can get past this problem, and get up to five 59MB files to stitch, I promise to gladly pay the $35. If I figure this out in the meantime, I'll let you know what I did. Thank you for developing this very cool product and your support.
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Kelly Shipp
Unregistered guest
Posted on Monday, October 13, 2003 - 11:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

I, too, am having this problem. Unfortunately, I just bought it! :-(

I'm using Win2k, have 512 meg of RAM and hardly nothing else running on the pc. I'm just trying to stitch 18 jpgs at 3 meg each! That's it! and I chose 24-bit color. I'm using the latest version too......What a disappointment.
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Kelly Shipp
Unregistered guest
Posted on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - 12:13 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

Solution: I've found that if I bump my swap space to about 1 gig it works. Your mileage may vary.
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John Strait
Moderator
Username: Jstrait

Post Number: 14
Registered: 5-2001
Posted on Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - 10:03 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

Hi Kelly,

I'm glad you found the solution to your problem! I was just about to suggest it myself, but you solved it before I could.

On some systems, the default size of the page file (also called the swap file) is too small for large panoramas. For example, Windows XP sets the default page file size to 1.5 times the amount of RAM on your system (I'm not sure if this is the same on Windows 2000).

For large panoramas you may need to set the page file size as large as 1 or 2 GB (1000 or 2000 MB).

For instructions on increasing the size of the page file, see Increase swap file size for Windows NT, 2000 and XP.



You wrote that you were stitching 18 jpgs at 3 meg each. This doesn't seem like a lot, but you have to remember than jpg is a compressed image file format. To be processed by an application like The Panorama Factory, the images have to be uncompressed when they are loaded into memory.

So you really need to consider the size of the image in megapixels when figuring out the memory usage. For example, if your images are 6 megapixel images, each one requires 24 megabytes in memory -- 6 megapixels times 4 bytes per pixel.

Your stitched image may be as large as 325 megabytes (assuming 25% overlap). During cropping and sharpening, The Panorama Factory has to hold two copies of the image in memory at one time. Now we're up to 650 megabytes. After adding The Panorama Factory software program itself, other housekeeping data and all of Windows, we could be approaching 1 GB. This is probably the reason that increasing the size of the swap file was necessary.


(Message edited by admin on October 15, 2003)
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21st_hermit
New member
Username: 21st_hermit

Post Number: 2
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 3:05 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

Also seeing the dreaded "Out-of-Memory" Dialog. Followed by do you want to terminate the program?

I'm running v3.1, on WinXP, P4, 768M RAM, increased the swap space to 2000MB min & 4000MB max.

Trying to stich 24 - 6MP TIFFs, got them all aligned w/ the manual adjust and was adjusting the overlap on the last image when it died!!!

So I restiched as two groups of 13 images, saved and cropped these as 22,000 x 3100 pixel panos. Tried to stitch the 2 together and even here I got out-of-memory.

Funny thing, last summer, running v2.3 (I think) I stitched 36 - 4MP images with only 256M RAM. It took 2-hours but it stitched. I increased to 768M and the same pano stitched in 10-minutes.

Any suggestions?


(Message edited by 21st Hermit on January 26, 2004)
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John Strait
Moderator
Username: Jstrait

Post Number: 58
Registered: 5-2001
Posted on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 4:32 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

I'm sorry you are running into the out of memory problem.

Fortunately, because you are running Windows XP there is a configuration change you can make to increase the amount of Virtual Memory available to The Panorama Factory. This will most likely solve your problem. Please refer to Increase the virtual memory available under Windows XP for step-by-step instructions.


I have a couple other questions/comments that might shed some light on your situation.

Surprisingly, stitching two groups of 13 images and then trying to join the two images together will require more memory than stitching the 24 images in a single step. You see, when The Panorama Factory blends the images into a finished panorama, it needs enough memory to hold the finished image plus 2 or 3 original images.

When stitching all 24, The Panorama Factory requires enough memory to hold the finished panorama plus 2 or 3 of the 6 MP images. But when you stitch in sections as you described, The Panorama Factory requires enough memory to hold the finished panorama plus the two 22,000 x 3100 pixel images -- 68 MP each!


You wrote that you were able to stitch 36 - 4MP images last summer. Have you changed to a camera that creates 48 bit images (16 bits per color channel)? Using 48-bit mode requires much more memory.

Or is it possible that your new 6 MP images overlap less than the 4 MP images you used last summer? If this were true, your final panorama may be larger than the one you worked on last summer.


Without seeing your original images myself, I really can't say more than this. If you would like to send me your original images, I'll try to stitch them myself to see what I can find out. If you'd like to try this, please contact me directly so that I can send you information about how to FTP the images to me.
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21st_hermit
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Username: 21st_hermit

Post Number: 3
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 6:28 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

John,

I appreciate your snappy and informative reply.

You asked me to increase my swap space, please reread my 2nd paragraph, Prior to posting I read this thread and increased swap to 2G -- 4G. Is that not big enough?

Your insights are correct concerning my prior panos: the 36 - 4mp were overlapped more than the newer 24 - 6mp. So the net would be more pixels/more memory. I would not have guessed my 2 - 13 image panos would be harder to stitch . . . oh well.

While I have the ability to do 48 bit, I have yet to go there. I'm getting terrific results, but I still consider myself a rookie.

Let me ask a more root question. Since you almost always have to manually adjust, slide each image pair, anyway; is there a way for PF to simply drop me into manual adjust mode without all the aligning, warping, et. al? This manual adjust mode is so easy and works so well, I'd prefer to just start there. As you've said, hard for the computer, easy for a human.

If we get to the stage of you stitching my photos, I'd prefer to mail a CD-R. I have a slow satellite uplink.
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John Strait
Moderator
Username: Jstrait

Post Number: 59
Registered: 5-2001
Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 12:07 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

I was aware that your swap file is set to a 4 GB maximum size. Unfortunately, the address space for any single Windows application is restricted to 2 GB. Regardless of the size of the swap file, no user process can address more than 2 GB. (The reason your swap file needs to be larger than 2 GB is that it is shared by all processes.)

Starting in Windows XP, however, there is a configuration change that allows a user process to address an extra 1 GB for a total of 3 GB. This increase is available only to applications that are "large address aware." The Panorama Factory V3 is large address aware. So making the configuration change described at Increase the virtual memory available under Windows XP adds 1 GB to The Panorama Factory's address space. In most cases, this extra memory enables The Panorama Factory V3 to create much larger images. I think you'll find that it will solve your problem.


You wrote that you almost always have to manually adjust each image pair. This surprises me. In most cases I find that The Panorama Factory finds the best image-to-image alignment without any intervention.

The warping step is always required. The images must be warped to allow them to fit properly. If the images are not warped, straight lines will cross in the overlap region rather than meeting smoothly. A similar thing happens if the focal length setting is incorrect. See Adjusting focal length for examples of incorrect focal length setting.

If you would like to see what happens when you disable warping entirely, try stitching your images with the camera type set to "Swing lens or rotational camera." This setting disables image warping because in effect the images from this type of camera are warped by the camera.

Skipping the automatic image-to-image alignment will not save a lot of time. That step is very efficient and typically accounts for less than 10 percent of the total stitching time.


Sending your images on a CD would work fine. Since you've hidden your email address, please contact me directly through email to support@panoramafactory.com so that I can email you my snail mail address.
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21st_hermit
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Username: 21st_hermit

Post Number: 4
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 1:03 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

Unfortunately, both my laptop and desktop are XP SP1, so they would appear unlikely candidates for the 3G virtual memory. Looks like I'll have to be limited to 2G until SP2.

I read the suggested text items and the reason for the manual alignment is I've Been Cheating. Because keeping the lens level is such a severe handicap, I bought PanaVue. Because using PanaVue is such a pain compared to PanoFactory, I've been using PF on "gently" tilted images. My process goes like this: after PF has done its thing, I start at the 1st image pair and align the most critical feature. Then move to the next pair and so on . . . After aligning, I restart at the 1st pair and adjust overlap, the smaller the overlap the sharper the images. I was doing this step on the last pair for the 24 - 6MP when I got dreaded out of memory.

FWIW, I then read this OoM thread, went to the page size dialog and they were set to 3xx min and 7xx max, this in spite of my RAM being at 768M.

So, how about officially permitting keystone images on v4? After all, you live in the "Keystone State" !!!
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elvabrabham
Unregistered guest
Posted on Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 4:21 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

I have recently acquired an HP Scanjet 4670 for the sole purpose of scanning my watercolour pictures that are usually approx 22" x 24" and by lifting the scan glass off the stand I can place the scanner onto the picture and scan in either 6 or 8 sections. That's easy! However, when I try to stitch them together they don't go together properly and I have printed off all the Help pages on Panoramamaker 3 which are excellent BUT there do not appear to be any instructions as to what to do if the picture does not stich together properly. HELP!
I also get the virtual memory low message. I operate on Windows XP.
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John Strait
Moderator
Username: Jstrait

Post Number: 207
Registered: 5-2001
Posted on Saturday, August 20, 2005 - 11:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

Dear 21st_hermit,
The ability to stitch rotated and/or tilted images is, indeed, on the list of features for the next major release (V4.0). I cannot give you a release date, but it is under development right now!

Dear elvabrabham,
This forum is intended for users of The Panorama Factory. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to give advice about Panoramamaker, a product from another company. However, the next major release of The Panorama Factory (V4.0) will contain a method specifically intended for stitching scanned sections of large documents.
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Paul Rohal
New member
Username: Paulrohal

Post Number: 1
Registered: 10-2005
Posted on Monday, October 24, 2005 - 7:13 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

Hi John,

I've sent a request for help, but not sure if I'm better of logging it here.
I run Windows XP, Pentium 4, 3.8Gighertz 2 gig Ram, Have my swap file bumped to 4Gig and have set the 3 Gig ini file change in from the Version 3.4. I recently bought the Version 4 in the hope that I could do larger files.
I use a 14mg raw file = 79meg 16bit tiff. x by average 20 portrait files to make a 180 degree stitch. I have 4 x 250gig hard drives and so don't consider storage an issue. The average file I work with in a stitch is around 600meg.

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards

Paul
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A Jordan
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Username: Ixlatall

Post Number: 3
Registered: 9-2005
Posted on Thursday, November 03, 2005 - 5:00 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

Hi John,

Any word on Paul's entry in this string? I'm running into the same thing.

I'm trying to stitch about 25 52MB TIF files on a Toshiba Satellite A75S213 laptop. I reduced them to about 25MB each thinking it might be my system but still no luck. Is there a chance my system is just not powerful enough to handle the load?

I use a registered 3.4 version of PF.

Thanks for any help you can lend on this,
Ali

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Michael A Smith
New member
Username: Littlem

Post Number: 1
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Monday, November 07, 2005 - 6:27 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

I have a similar problem. I have 230MB images (7500x5000 48-bit) that get an 'out of memory" error at the 'blend' stage when trying to stich more than six. I have almost the same hardware/software as Paul. It occasionally gives an abnormal termination that looks like a page fault.

I am considering going to 4GB of RAM. Any thoughts?
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John Strait
Moderator
Username: Jstrait

Post Number: 224
Registered: 5-2001
Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2005 - 1:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

Unfortunately, the memory limits in V4 are the same as V3. They are limits imposed by Windows, not by The Panorama Factory. For extremely large panoramas that cannot be stitched under 32-bit Windows, your only hope may be to use a 64-bit computer running Windows x64 and the 64-bit version of The Panorama Factory. A 64-bit edition of V3.4 is in open beta release right now and we hope to have a 64-bit V4 ready in the near future.

The three recent posts from Paul Rohal, A Jordan and Michael A Smith describe panoramas that are probably at or beyond the ability of 32-bit Windows.

I'll do a quick analysis assuming 25% overlap, i.e. 75% non-overlapped. (The actual memory requirements may be slightly different depending upon actual overlap amount and exactly what stitching options are chosen.)

Paul Rohal: 80 MB per image times 20 images times 75% equals 1.2 GB.

A Jordan: 52 MB per image times 25 images times 75% equals 0.975 GB.

Michael A Smith: 230 MB per image times 6 images * 75% = 1.035 GB.

Under the best of conditions, the largest image that could possibly be created under 32-bit Windows is about 1.2 GB. In practice, the maximum is smaller because of real-world problems like memory fragmentation. And the memory requirements increase futher as soon as you need to hold more than one image in memory at one time, e.g. for cropping, sharpening, etc.

If you have already increased the swap file size and increased the virtual memory available under Windows XP, then adding more RAM will not eliminate the out of memory problem. It would probably reduce stitching time, but would not erase the out of memory problem because Windows XP's virtual memory system already lets a program use more memory than the amount of RAM. But only up to 2 GB (or 3 GB with the /3GB boot.ini option).

If you have already done everything you can under 32-bit Windows, your next step is to go to 64-bit Windows, but that requires purchasing a 64-bit computer (AMD Athlon 64 or Intel XEON). With a 64-bit computer and Windows x64, the out of memory problem is effectively eliminated--The Windows x64 virtual memory system allows for 16 terabytes (16000 GB) of virtual memory...more than 5000 times as much as 32-bit Windows!
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Dierk Haasis
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Username: Dierk

Post Number: 1
Registered: 7-2006
Posted on Friday, July 07, 2006 - 4:50 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

While the OoM error is not in itslef a PF fault, the inevitable crash I get when clicking OK to the message is. It shouldn't happen.

I am also a bit stumped of how small the images have to be so PF does not encounter OoM. I just tried to stitch a pano out of 13 photos with varying overlaps. Originally I threw 16-bit TIFFs at PF with roughly 7400 x 5000 Px - admittedly a bit too much.

I then saved all the Tiffs as JPEGs, getting the file sizes down to between 9 and 13 MB. the most I could then stitch was 4 photos; I tested 7, which did not work, could well be 5 and 6 would have worked, too.

I 100-130 MB already too much for PF?

The system is Windows XP SP2 Home on 2 GB RAM and 3 GB swap file as recommended by Windows. The 3 GB switch is not supported by MS (hence not used by me), and the page referring to possible trouble with video drivers seems to not exist anymore.
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John Strait
Moderator
Username: Jstrait

Post Number: 260
Registered: 5-2001
Posted on Friday, July 07, 2006 - 9:01 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

Hi Dierk,

First, I agree that The Panorama Factory should not crash after clicking OK. I have tried repeatedly to correct this problem and I have been unable to. It seems to me that running out of memory interferes in some way with the ability of the Windows DLLs to recover. But perhaps I am just not clever enough to find the problem. Sorry about that!



You wrote that your 7 JPEG panorama did not work and you thought this meant that 100-130 MB is too much for PF. But as I have written in an earlier post, JPEG is a compressed format. The images must be decompressed when they are processed by The Panorama Factory. Memoy requirements are based on the pixel size of the images, not on the compressed file size.

The Panorama Factory stores 4 bytes for each pixel in memory (red, green, blue, plus an extra byte for housekeeping information). So your JPEG images decompress to:
7400 x 5000 x 4 = 148 MB each
Allowing for 25% overlaps:
7 x 148 MB x 75% = 777 MB


You also wrote that "3 GB switch is not supported by MS." But according to Microsoft:
"The /3GB parameter is supported on Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows NT. On Windows Vista and later versions of Windows, use the IncreaseUserVA element in BCDEdit."
Please refer to the Comments section of:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/devtest_g/hh/DevTest_g/BootIni_de16d3ec-c437-4628-805f-8945ea598a92.xml.asp


Thanks for pointing out the broken links on the page Increase the virtual memory available under Windows XP. Microsoft apparently moved those pages in their web site. I found the new location and updated my links, so you can now read the two articles you could not find:



Finally, the ultimate answer to the out of memory problem is to remove the limitations of 32-bit Windows. The x64 Edition of The Panorama Factory effectively eliminates the out of memory problem. But if you do not want to (or cannot) upgrade to 64-bit Windows, the /3GB switch offers the best way to significantly increase the size of panorama that The Panorama Factory can create.
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Dierk Haasis
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Username: Dierk

Post Number: 2
Registered: 7-2006
Posted on Friday, July 07, 2006 - 9:21 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

you are right, I didn't think about the decompressed size, probably because for smaller stitching it often suffices to use JPEGs in best quality over the original TIFFs. One reason is obvious: All my TIFFs are 16-bit, JPEG is only 8-bit, half the size in memory.

The 3 GB switch is officially only supported - as you implicitly wrote yourself in the other thread - on XP Pro.

ATM I solved the problem creatively by breaking the 13 image pano into 3 smaller ones (you will be able to see them on-line over the week-end, I put a link up). Unfortunately one of them had to be done with Photomerge, first time it worked. Eventually I finsihed up the central part with most of the action, and two wings with only landscape/cityscape.

Some day I will surely upgrade to a 64-bit system, most likely with the next computer having vista pre-installed. I look into the possibilities of getting 64-bit XP before that.

Thanks!
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Mark Edmonds
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Username: Markedmonds

Post Number: 2
Registered: 7-2006
Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 9:25 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

Great :-(

I've just had this out of memory error too. After clicking OK to clear the error dialog, PF just vanished with no chance of saving the project.

I have 2GB physical RAM and page file set to start at 2GB and expand to 4GB. Running XP Pro SP2, dual Opteron.

The panorama has 15 6MP JPGs in it so by my maths, that is (15*6000000*4)/1024^2 MBs = 344.

At the time of crash, Task Manager was showing over 1.2GB available physical RAM and PF using 616MB. No other applications running.

I had previously worked with this project without any problems. This time though, I replaced one JPG in the project. That was the only change and it was a like for like swap.

Concerned here about this...

Mark
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Mark Edmonds
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Username: Markedmonds

Post Number: 4
Registered: 7-2006
Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 1:21 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

Here is an example of unusual memory usage. I wont draw any conclusions, just describe what happened.

I started a new project in a fresh directory with 36 6MP JPGs for the pano.

I ran through using the Wizard to get the completed pano whilst watching memory usage according to the Windows Task Manager. It peaked at 1GB briefly during the crop but otherwise, stayed at ~600MB and below and most of the time, below 250MB.

One of the image pairs in the completed pano didn't line up so I stepped back throuhg the wizard and selected semi-automatic stitching. I then went to the bad image pair and supplied the control points manually.

I clicked on Next to get to the next stage of the Wizard. PF went off to do some processing and all of a sudden, memory usage shot up to 1.5GB! All I had done was specify 5 control points manually and for some reason, 1GB of RAM was suddenly taken up!

Memory usage remained at ~1.5GB until the lo-res preview was complete when it dropped down to about 200MB.

Anyway, just an example to mull over. Expected behaviour or not?

Mark
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John Strait
Moderator
Username: Jstrait

Post Number: 269
Registered: 5-2001
Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 1:57 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the additional information--it was very helpful !

I have identified a problem in semi-automatic and manual stitching that I believe accounts for this behavior. Apparently after restarting the Wizard, under certain circumstances its memory management is particularly inefficient when advancing from Step 6 to Step 7 of the Wizard. This also happens when you have reached the final Wizard step and then go back through the Wizard (this is the same as restarting the Wizard).

I am still investigating, but I hope to be able to correct the problem in the next update of the software, V4.4. We have not set a definite release date for V4.4, but it should be fairly soon.


(Message edited by jstrait on July 14, 2006)
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Christopher Hauser
New member
Username: Reven

Post Number: 1
Registered: 9-2006
Posted on Sunday, September 03, 2006 - 9:11 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

Ok I also got the problem and it's kind of disturbing. I wanted to stich 10*16MP images from my 1DsMk2. At the End between step 8-9 after the programm finsihed working I get the "Out of Memory" WHY ????

I got 4GBs of RAM my page file is between 4GB and 8GB. When I watched the Memory when the program crashed there were still 3GB left....
I'm using Version 4.4 and got Windows XP Pro with SP2.
Thx for help
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John Strait
Moderator
Username: Jstrait

Post Number: 275
Registered: 5-2001
Posted on Wednesday, September 06, 2006 - 8:40 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

With 10 * 16 megapixel images, you are probably very close to the fundamental limitations of Windows described in Trouble report 70 -- Out of memory when stitching large images. The "Out of Memory" error is probably being produced when The Panorama Factory attempts to crop the stitched image. At this point in the process, it must keep two very large images in memory simultaneously--the stitched and the cropped images. It's the attempt to allocated memory for the cropped image that is triggering the "Out of Memory" error. At this point, the memory allocation will show only the memory for the stitched image because there is insufficient memory for the cropped image to be created.

You wrote that there was still 3 GB left. Although you have 4 GB of memory on your system, Windows permits each application to use no more than 2 GB of memory. And memory fragmentation issues actually limit the application to somewhat less than this.

Fortunately, if you are running Windows XP it is possible to make a configuration change that allows the application to address an extra 1 GB for a total of 3 GB of memory. I recommend you try this. It usually makes a significant difference for people experiencing the "Out of Memory" problem. Please refer to Increase the virtual memory available under Windows XP for step-by-step instructions.

I hope this helps!
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Christopher Hauser
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Username: Reven

Post Number: 2
Registered: 9-2006
Posted on Wednesday, September 06, 2006 - 8:51 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

First of all thank you.

Now I tried the change that, but after I edit the Boot.ini the system fails to start. I don't really know why...

Second of all. I really don't want to talk over other Programms which are (only in the aspect of large Panos) better. I know that even Realviz Stitcher 5, which is a shame ... has the same problem and can't stitch 10 files. (also out of memeroy)

But there is a other programms. I was able to stitch 27*16MP images on the same computer. Now I don't name it, because I'm not sure about the rules here. Only question why is it able to do that??

thx
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Jack Zhu
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Username: Stoneboy

Post Number: 1
Registered: 12-2006
Posted on Sunday, December 10, 2006 - 5:38 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

Based on my 15 years IT experience. This is probably the problem with the mechanism of the PF. The Memory consume is not suppose to limit on the physical RAM and Virtual memory nowadays. A very simple example as we can see on Photoshop, it uses a part of harddisk's space as it's extended memory, by using this way, it can handle maybe 10 times bigger pictures than before, even the processing will be getting slow but it works. This is not a new tech though and not very complicated to implement. For nowadays applications, PF should try to change its way to handle much bigger images and the temp chache for the processing.It's none sense to stick on the system's limited memory.
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Mehmet Yuce
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Username: Myuce

Post Number: 1
Registered: 9-2007
Posted on Wednesday, September 26, 2007 - 8:02 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

Hi John,
I’ve read through the similar questions in this thread, but I don’t think I found an answer. Thinking that they were questions from last year, I was hoping maybe I can get an answer to my question now. I recently installed 2G of memory in my computer, increased the swap file size to 4096 and activated the 3G switch with your help. Also checked to see if the 3G switch was working - again with your help - and it was. Now I can definitely go much farther than I did before. Trying to do a multi-row stitch, I wasn’t able to do even one row. Now I can do three rows with no difficulty. The problem occurs when I try to stitch the 3 rows together. I get an error message that says:

“The instruction at “0x73dd11c7” referenced memory at “0x00000004”. The memory could not be read. Click on OK to terminate the program.”

Do you know the reason for this? Granted that I may be pushing the limits of everything here (I have 56 35MB files I’m trying to combine),I want to be sure that it can’t be done before I call it quits and downsize these files. Any advice is appreciated, especially if it works:-)
Thanks.
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Iain Faulkner
New member
Username: Iainf

Post Number: 2
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Monday, March 24, 2008 - 5:01 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

Hi PF,

I'm having some horrible out of memory errors running PF 5.1 on Windows Business Vista, on a Toshiba laptop with 2Gb of RAM. I'm trying to semi-auto stitch a cylinder of 9 x 12MP images and having got to stitch point 7 on the first pair of images, it just repeatedly crashes with the OUT OF MEMORY error. I've virtual memory set to just over 3Gb. Checking PF via task manager when it locks tells me that it's using around 1.8Gb of RAM at the point of locking up. Hope this is enough info and equally hope you can help - I've not had such serious problems before and this is a bit worrying.

Many thanks,

Iain Faulkner
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John Strait
Moderator
Username: Jstrait

Post Number: 349
Registered: 5-2001
Posted on Monday, March 24, 2008 - 5:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

Hi Iain,

Here's my first reaction:

If you are choosing "Cylindrical projection" (you wrote "semi-auto stitch a cylinder"), try stitching with "Spherical projection" instead. If this works, you can convert to cylinder after you are all done stitching by exiting the Wizard and using the "Convert panorama" command (New image menu).

The memory requirements for cylindrical stitching can be larger than spherical. Sometimes much larger. This is especially true when the camera is tilted (or when PF thinks the camera is tilted :-)).
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Iain Faulkner
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Username: Iainf

Post Number: 3
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 5:48 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

Thanks, John. I'll try this and let you know how I get on. Meanwhile I'm downscaling the images to 75% (approx 6.8MP) and it's working fine.

As a matter of interest I'm preparing spherical VRs for print by stitching each of the rows in PF and then blending/merging them in PhotoShop CS3 - works very well indeed...
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Holger Lang
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Username: Holger_lang

Post Number: 2
Registered: 5-2008
Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008 - 6:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

This seems to be a very difficult problem.
I spent nearly one day testing to make a panorama of 15 pictures - TIF Files about 57 MB size each.
So I've read the FAQ section - changed my paging file to 3070 MB - I use 2 GB RAM and Windows xp Professional with Panoramy Factory V. 5.1 - no success.
Then I monitored the memory usage during the processing of Panorama Factory - the peak was not more than about 935 MB.

PF was writing the stitched tiff file. The indicator for progress reached th right end of the display !boing! out of memory.

That meant again a sudden breakdown of th PF.
But than surprise:
In the temp directory the stitched tiff file had arived - it was easy to open it with photoshop to make the cropping.

I hope someone can use this description to get an idea of the reason of this memory problem.

Here is my question
Is this really caused by insufficient hardware?
If yes: what hardware and what operating system do I need to work with PF without problems?

Thanks in advance for your attention
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Holger Lang
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Username: Holger_lang

Post Number: 3
Registered: 5-2008
Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 8:27 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

Sorry - an additional question:

Is it possible to calculate what PF can do with a given memory?

The trial and error procedure I am just using is really annoying.

Thanks again
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John Strait
Moderator
Username: Jstrait

Post Number: 364
Registered: 5-2001
Posted on Monday, June 02, 2008 - 10:20 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

Hi Holger,

First I'll explain what you can do about the "out of memory" problem and then I will respond to some of the details in your question.


What to do on 32-bit Windows

The definitive articles about how to address the memory limitations of 32-bit Windows are in these articles:

Increase the virtual memory available under Windows XP and Vista

Increase swap file size for Windows NT, 2000, XP and Vista

These articles explain how to increase the virtual memory available to The Panorama Factory up to the maximum possible under 32-bit Windows.

Unfortunately, some panoramas still cannot be stitched even with the maximum memory on 32-bit Windows. This is because of fundamental limitations inherent in the 32-bit Windows operating system.


The ultimate solution: the x64 Edition of The Panorama Factory

The ultimate solution is to use the x64 Edition of The Panorama Factory on a 64-bit version of Windows. The "out of memory" problem just goes away. This is how I work on large panoramas and I can attest to never getting this error from the x64 Edition.

But this might mean upgrading your computer and/or version of Windows.

The 3GB option (Windows XP) or IncreaseUserVA option (Vista) discussed in Increase the virtual memory available under Windows XP and Vista
is the best way to address the problem on a 32-bit Windows system.

The Mac Edition currently has better memory performance than 32-bit Windows but not as good as 64-bit Windows. The 64-bit upgrade for the Mac Edition is still some time in the future.


"memory usage ... peak was about 933 MB ... out of memory"

It may seem strange to you that you received the out of memory error when Windows was reporting peak memory usage of only 933 MB. Here are a couple reasons that the Windows memory usage report may be misleading:

  1. Windows reports several different memory statistics. The relevent memory statistic on Windows XP is VM Size (I think Vista uses a different name). This number represents the total reserved virtual memory space. Under XP without the 3GB option, the maximum VM size is about 2000 MB.
     
    The Mem Usage number represents Windows' best guess of how much of the data in memory is being used at any given instant--the "working set size". It can be much smaller than the amount of reserved virtual memory. The Mem Usage number doesn't include data in virtual memory that is "swapped out" to the page file. This data may be needed momentarily and occupies virtual memory space even though it is not in the physical memory (RAM) at the current time
     
  2. Even VM Size doesn't tell you how much usable virtual memory is available because memory can be "fragmented". The easiest way to explain this is by analogy. In a restaurant that seats 100 people, when there are only 60 people in the restaurant, you might think that there is room for 40 more people, right? But it might be impossible to find a table for 12. There may be 40 empty chairs, but if each one is at a table that is already in use, it is impossible to seat anyone at all!
     
    Virtual memory has similar behavior. If the maximum VM size is 2000 MB and 1000 MB are reserved, it may be impossible to allocate memory for a 800 MB image because the largest contiguous free block is less than 800 MB in size.

In the temp directory the stitched tiff file had arived - it was easy to open it with photoshop

This means that the "out of memory" error happened on the very next step after The Panorama Factory finished stitching your original images. After stitching, The Panorama Factory crops the image to remove the scalloping effect at the top and bottom of the image and also to correct minor rotations of the image.

Cropping the image is one of the more memory intensive parts of the process. To crop the stitched image, The Panorama Factory must hold the stitched image and the cropped image in memory simultaneously. So if the stitched image was about 800 MB (15 times 57 MB = 855 MB), then it needed to hold two 800 MB images in memory simultaneously. This is probably beyond the default capability of 32-bit Windows.

However, it may be possible to complete stitching and cropping if you use the 3GB option I explained earlier.


Is this really caused by insufficient hardware?

Yes, partly.

32-bit Windows on 32-bit hardware has a 2 GB limitation on virtual memory. With the 3GB option you can increase this to 3 GB, but this is the best you can do.


If yes: what hardware and what operating system do I need to work with PF without problems?

The ultimate solution is this combination:
  1. The x64 Edition of The Panorama Factory
  2. Running on a 64-bit computer running 64-bit Windows
  3. With a sufficiently large page file
I feel confident saying that you will not receive the "out of memory" error with this configuration.
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Vasilis Caravitis
New member
Username: Epicuros

Post Number: 1
Registered: 6-2007
Posted on Friday, August 07, 2009 - 1:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

Hi,

I tried my third panorama and it did not work because of ...“out of memory”. I have 15 GB of free disc space, even more than the previous time. The previous panorama was 12 TIFF photos 36MB each and they were stitched without any trouble. This time I tried only 7 photos of the same size, AFTER I had downloaded the recent version of the program (V5.3 m32 edition) and it did not work. Could it be a bug in the latest version? I read about expanding the swap memory but my earlier attempt was successful with the same swap memory as I have now, despite the 12 photos. Please let me have your feedback.

Vasilis Caravitis





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psw
New member
Username: Psw

Post Number: 1
Registered: 8-2009
Posted on Monday, August 10, 2009 - 8:53 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

I also had 'out of memory' error when trying to make panorama from 5 NEF files 12M each. I bought another 1Gb of RAM, but this didn't help.
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Vasilis Caravitis
New member
Username: Epicuros

Post Number: 2
Registered: 6-2007
Posted on Thursday, August 13, 2009 - 1:36 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

I gave it another try and here is what I found:
-The got the same trumpet sound when the process finished.
-The processed panoramic image does appear on the screen together with the "out of memory" sign.
-Instead of clicking on "OK", which I did before, and which made the image disappear, together with the program to close, I tried another approach and clicked on "save project". This seemed to work and I got my project saved.

On another issue: When I clicked on "save project" I got several versions of the project saved (one cropped, one aligned, etc.) which did not make much sense to me. I only need the final, finished version of the project; why have disc space wasted by producing several versions?
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John Strait
Moderator
Username: Jstrait

Post Number: 380
Registered: 5-2001
Posted on Thursday, August 13, 2009 - 7:13 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

You can control which images are saved through the Project properties dialog box (File menu).

By default, The Panorama Factory saves intermediate images to improve performance in the event that you modify the project in the future. This is provided primarily for people who use the Classic (menu-based) interface to make adjustments to the panorama. For example, you can change cropping, sharpening or resizing parameters without restitching.
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psw
New member
Username: Psw

Post Number: 2
Registered: 8-2009
Posted on Friday, August 21, 2009 - 6:20 am:   Edit PostDelete Post

I tried to save project when "Out of memory" appeared, but all buttons and menu items were disabled.
John, do you need test files to reproduce this error? I can upload them.
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Wayne Nolting
New member
Username: Wnolting

Post Number: 2
Registered: 3-2010
Posted on Thursday, March 11, 2010 - 10:27 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post

I was also getting the out of memory error but soon realized that the images I shot were too big and were going to be re-sized anyway for the tour screen display. I selected the smallest fine setting on my Canon 40D to match the screen display I was going to present which significantly reduced the file size of each image to be processed. You also need to go into your system settings and set your a paging/virtual memory size to allow the system to automatically adjust and let the system select the size. I only bought the PF this week and was testing it last week. I also do PC support which allowed me to resolve this issue. My first panorama test using the PF and the Panosaurus head (a very unimpressive but successful image) is at www.imixstudio.com/pano.html. Hope that helps you out.

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