Helicon Focus 7.6.4 STILL crashing

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GracieAllen
Posts: 67
Joined: 08.04.2015 00:19

Helicon Focus 7.6.4 STILL crashing

Post by GracieAllen »

In theory, I've submitted a bug, but since HF crashes back to Lightroom I don't know if what gets sent is complete or not.

Windows 10 Pro, 32GB memory, GTX 970 GPU, 5820 running at 4.1 GHz, all SSD

Helicon Focus 7.6.4 Pro. NO graphics acceleration – GRAPHICS ACCELERATION DOES NOT WORK. ALWAYS THROWS A “CL_OUT_OF_RESOURCES” error.

Nikon D850, 25 image stack. Exported from Lightroom 2020 using “Original”.
Retouching works for the initial area, then when I move to the next area to retouch, Helicon Focus crashes back to Lightroom. This occurred consistently in 7.6.3. Installed Helicon Focus 7.6.4. Ran EXACTLY the same stack, did EXACTLY the same processing, CRASHED EXACTLY THE SAME WAY. Below is the Windows log:
Faulting application name: HeliconFocus.exe, version: 7.6.4.0, time stamp: 0x5f20173b
Faulting module name: ucrtbase.dll, version: 10.0.18362.815, time stamp: 0x32a6df9a
Exception code: 0xc0000409
Fault offset: 0x000000000006db9e
Faulting process id: 0xeb0
Faulting application start time: 0x01d674b0fbd5a4c0
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Helicon Software\Helicon Focus 7\HeliconFocus.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\ucrtbase.dll
Report Id: 21ae3470-5419-4501-95a7-57bcf056df79
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

I've ALSO attempted to do some very basic retouching WITHOUT USING LIGHTROOM. Opened Helicon Focus directly, loaded the images, rendered, saved the project and started retouching. CRASHED THE SAME WAY.

At this point, between the inability to use the graphics acceleration due to the CL_OUT_OF_RESOURCES error, and the full HF crash every time I do even basic retouching, I'm seriously regretting upgrading to the Pro version... Anybody have a fix for this regular crash?
BobStone
Posts: 65
Joined: 03.06.2017 10:13

Re: Helicon Focus 7.6.4 STILL crashing

Post by BobStone »

A quick check with Google discovers a number of apparently rare issues with some software and this file. On my Windows 10 machine I find a copy in the Helicon folder, plus several others in the Windows system and WOW64 folders. The version numbers shown in the properties panel show some differences. You could try some debugging ... if you have copy in the Helicon folder, temporarily move it to the desktop. Helicon may then use one of the versions in the system folders when you try your stack again. If you don't have one in the Helicon folder perhaps they can send you a version known to be compatible with their development environment.

Good luck!
GracieAllen
Posts: 67
Joined: 08.04.2015 00:19

Re: Helicon Focus 7.6.4 STILL crashing

Post by GracieAllen »

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, I'm completely baffled as to what you think I should do... I don't find any "copies" anywhere but the helicon folder.

The current version of Helicon Focus crashes, repeatably, reliably, every time I do simple retouching on a stack. We're not talking hours of retouching here, we're talking two small areas. If there's no answer coming forth in here, HOW do I get to some other support channel so something can be done? 'Cause it's making the way overpriced "Pro" version I upgraded to, largely USELESS...

The whole POINT of the upgrade was 1: To get graphics acceleration - THAT doesn't work at all. Gets "CL_OUT_OF_RESOURCES" every time. And 2: to be able to do MUCH MORE retouching. THAT doesn't work EITHER.

So can somebody knowledgeable from Helicon please get on here and help get these two things fixed?
BobStone
Posts: 65
Joined: 03.06.2017 10:13

Re: Helicon Focus 7.6.4 STILL crashing

Post by BobStone »

I just ran a 26 image stack of D850 RAW files, then performed multiple retouchings. I had no problems. Quite fast actually ...

I know this does not help you, but I have a few suggestions. First, be sure you have the latest video drivers. The web sites of most graphics card manufacturers have a utility to determine the card you have and check version numbers. Up date if needed.

Your computer's manufacturer may also have an on-line utility to check all your system drivers. Worth a check. Windows update may help with both of these...

Hoping for the best ...
GracieAllen
Posts: 67
Joined: 08.04.2015 00:19

Re: Helicon Focus 7.6.4 STILL crashing

Post by GracieAllen »

Graphics card GTX 970 is current.

There is no computer manufacturer. Home built. All of Windows 10 is current. As far as I know, so is everything else, but other than graphics what can HF possibly NEED other than a current O/S?
The Windows log shows HF crashing, it shows the module as ucrtbase.dll, it shows the exception...

Helicon? Anything?
BobStone
Posts: 65
Joined: 03.06.2017 10:13

Re: Helicon Focus 7.6.4 STILL crashing

Post by BobStone »

I note that the ucrtbase.dll that triggers the error is located in your \system32 folder. The version number in the error report is not the same as the version on my Dell, which is 10.0.19041.423 dated 8/12/2020 at 1,021KB. (The version in my Helicon 7 folder is older and smaller. I moved this to a temp folder and HF seemed unaffected in a stack of 25 D850 raw files. So may not be needed there.)

Found this info on a MSFT site; may help.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... ted-system

Wishing you some luck with these troubling issues ... 😉
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Catherine
Posts: 1156
Joined: 29.04.2019 22:38

Re: Helicon Focus 7.6.4 STILL crashing

Post by Catherine »

Sorry for replying late. And thank you BobStone for your troubleshooting efforts, appreciate it.

You have encountered two separate and unrelated issues. CL_OUT_OF_RESOURCES means with 99.9% certainty that there is not enough graphics memory available (which is the memory located on the graphics card itself). This is extremely plausible since GTX 970 only has 4 gigabytes of memory which is barely enough for processing 20-30 MP images, and you have a 45 MP camera. And if you're processing raw files, which seems to be the case, memory requirements are even higher. So there is basically no chance 4 gigabytes of video memory would be enough for your workflow, this is not an error in Helicon Focus. Unfortunately, there are only two ways around this issue: upgrading your graphics card to something with at least 8 GB of memory, or disabling OpenCL acceleration.

As for the crash - this is likely a problem in Helicon Focus itself that we should fix, not in the .dll file. We have recently fixed one problem of this type, please try the updated version of Helicon Focus (it will still show as 7.6.4 - we didn't bump the version number yet). If the crash still occurs, please restart Helicon Focus right after the crash and send a bug report (menu - Help - Report a bug).
BobStone
Posts: 65
Joined: 03.06.2017 10:13

Re: Helicon Focus 7.6.4 STILL crashing

Post by BobStone »

For now, there may be no problem staking groups of 4-5 files, then stacking the several output files. I think Helicon can already handle a good deal of this with the split stacking feature.
GracieAllen
Posts: 67
Joined: 08.04.2015 00:19

Re: Helicon Focus 7.6.4 STILL crashing

Post by GracieAllen »

there's been so much stuff played with, I'm sure I won't remember it all...

In the end, I went back to 7.5.4, which worked perfectly, though slowly. Changed to 7.5.6, fine. 7.5.8 crashed in retouching. Up through 7.6.4, crashes were predictable. Eventually I anecdotally decided the retouching was fine for the first stroke, no matter how large. Second might work. If it did, when I selected the source image for the third retouching stroke, it crashed.

During all the uninstalling and installing, I rebooted repeatedly, and even removed every occurrence I could find of any file or folder associated with "helicon". Nothing mattered. Tried "Original" DNG, and TIFF sources. Didn't matter. Tried running as few as THREE images for rendering and retouching. Didn't matter. Still crashed when retouching.

On the second round of installs I made a change in the 7.5.6 preferences, then after going through intervening versions installed 7.6.4, and it's been working since. Not only does it render, but it uses the graphics acceleration (so at the moment it appears to be working with 4GB), and it doesn't crash when I do large retouches.

The ONLY thing I can think of is that there was a bad file somewhere, and at some point in all the uninstalling and installing it got replaced. Or it was just dumb luck and things will compost again tomorrow!

How LONG this will last I have no idea, but I've run at least a dozen full size D850, 25-image stacks and they've worked. As long as it continues I don't think I want to touch ANYTHING.. I fer-sher don't want to upgrade to some new version and go back to crashing.
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