MWorks - Movie Plugin

Support
1

Dear Christopher,
my name is Antonino Casile and I am currently trying to switch to MonkeyWorks 4.5. In particular, for my experiments I need to use the Movie Plugin. I installed MonkeyWorks 4.5 downloading it from the github site and I tried to run the example for the Movie Plugin that is contained in the directory mw_examples/Tests/Stimulus/Movie.
However, each time I try to run it the Server crashes. I wonder if there is any fix to that that you have already developed and which is not in the main repository.
Thanks in advance.
Best, Tonino

2

Hi Antonino,

Many of the examples on GitHub have been updated since 0.4.5 was released, but none of them should be crashing the server. Which specific example(s) did you try? (The Tests/Stimulus/Movie directory contains many.)

Also, can you send me MWServer’s crash log? It should be in /Users/[your_user_name]/Library/Logs/CrashReporter.

Thanks,
Chris

3

Hi Christopher,
actually the behavior of MonkeyWorks was quite erratic. For example, I
rebooted the Mac and then I tried to run the example MovieTest.xml and
it worked smoothly and with no problem. I restarted both the client and
the server a couple of times and reloaded the example and every time
everything worked fine. Then I tried to run a different example
(MovieTestWithfixationDot.xml) and then the server crashed generating
the crash log
MWServer_2011-09-06-183737_Neurobio-AssadLabs-Mac-Pro.crash. After that
I restarted both the client and the server and tried to run the example
that was previously running with no problem (MovieTest.xml) and then the
server crashed again generating the crash log
MWServer_2011-09-06-183833_Neurobio-AssadLabs-Mac-Pro.crash. Both files
are in attachment to this E-mail.
Is it possible from these two log files to figure out what is the problem?
Thanks in advance for any help that you could provide.
Best, Tonino

4

Both files are in attachment to this E-mail.

I didn’t receive the attachments. Can you try posting them again? (Instead of attaching them to an email, it may be easier to reply online at http://help.mworks-project.org/discussions/problems/36 and upload the crash logs there.)

Thanks,
Chris

5

Hi Chris,
here are the two crash logs.

6

Attachments:

7

here are the two crash logs.

Looks like your browser uploaded the symbolic links, instead of the files they link to. The real files are in /Users/[your_user_name]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports. Can you grab them from there and try one more time?

Thanks,
Chris

8

ooops Sorry about that! Here are the two files!
Ciao, Tonino

9

Attachments:

10

ooops Sorry about that! Here are the two files!

No problem! Thanks!

11

Hi Antonino,

The logs indicate that the crash is occurring in the graphics driver. It’d be helpful for me to know what Mac Pro revision and graphics card you’re using. An easy way to get this info is to open up Terminal.app and run the following command:

system_profiler -detailLevel mini SPHardwareDataType SPDisplaysDataType

If you could cut and paste the output into a reply, that’d be great.

Unsurprisingly, I’m not able to reproduce the problem on either of my test machines, most likely because they have difference graphics hardware than yours. However, I will note that the behavior you described – the first experiment works, the second crashes, and then the first no longer works – is similar to problems I sometimes experience when developing graphics-intensive applications. My theory (unproven) is that application code can sometimes get the graphics driver into a bad state, after which even correct code that worked perfectly in the past starts failing.

In any case, the important question is whether (a) MWorks is doing something wrong that puts the graphics driver in a bad state, or (b) MWorks is not doing anything wrong but is somehow triggering a bug or other issue in the graphics driver.

Do you have access to another Mac with a different graphics card? If so, it’d be worthwhile for you to try to reproduce the problem on that machine. I suspect you won’t be able to, but if you are, then that would strongly suggest that the problem does lie in MWorks.

Thanks,
Chris

12

Hi Chris,
here is the output of the command: system_profiler -detailLevel mini SPHardwareDataType SPDisplaysDataType

Hardware:

Hardware Overview:

  Model Name: Mac Pro
  Model Identifier: MacPro4,1
  Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
  Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
  Number Of Processors: 1
  Total Number Of Cores: 4
  L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
  L3 Cache: 8 MB
  Memory: 3 GB
  Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s
  Boot ROM Version: MP41.0081.B07
  SMC Version (system): 1.39f5
  SMC Version (processor tray): 1.39f5

Graphics/Displays:

ATI Radeon HD 4870:

  Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 4870
  Type: GPU
  Bus: PCIe
  Slot: Slot-1
  PCIe Lane Width: x16
  VRAM (Total): 512 MB
  Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
  Device ID: 0x9440
  Revision ID: 0x0000
  ROM Revision: 113-B7710F-176
  EFI Driver Version: 01.00.318
  Displays:
    SyncMaster:
      Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
      Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
      Display Serial Number: HVZZ300543  
      Main Display: Yes
      Mirror: Off
      Online: Yes
      Rotation: Supported
      Television: Yes
    Display Connector:
      Status: No Display Connected

Best, Tonino

13

Hi Chris,
in the last days I tried a couple of things with the configuration of my computer.
I can now confirm that the problem with the Movie Plugin is most likely due to some incompatibility with the graphic card.
Indeed, I changed the graphic card of my Mac (I replaced the Radeon HD 4870 with an NVidia GeForce GT 120) and everything is now working smoothly! Movies are playing with no problem!
Best, Tonino

14

I changed the graphic card of my Mac (I replaced the Radeon HD 4870 with an NVidia GeForce GT 120) and everything is now working smoothly! Movies are playing with no problem!

Great! I’m glad you were able to resolve the issue.

In the past, we’ve run into problems with certain combinations of graphics cards, graphics drivers, and OS versions, but I think you’re the first to report a problem with the Radeon HD 4870. (Interestingly, under OS X 10.5, there was an issue with the GeForce GT 120 that could be avoided by switching to a Radeon HD 4870. Fortunately, that issue disappeared under OS X 10.6.) I’ll keep an eye out for similar problem reports from other users.

Chris