DSS Out of Memory

[Stub Mandrel]

Help!

I finally was a good lad and made my flats, darks and bias frames, but it seem DSS can't take the strain and it is saying 'out of memory'

This is using a 6MP camera with 12 lights, 8 darks, 10 bias and 8 flats.

Is there anything i can do (I've tried a restart and closing everything else)?

DSS 3.3.2 under W8.1 (is latest version 3.3.4 just adds extra RAW codecs).

<edit> the crash is at the end of 'stacking' the second image.

Thanks

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Odd. How much RAM does the machine have?

[rwg]

DSS is a 32 bit application, so by default it will only access 2gb of memory (this goes back to the days of 32 bit windows and the operating system itself reserved the top 2gb of memory).

If you are on 64 bit windows, there is nothing to stop a 32 bit application from using a full 4gb of memory (providing you have enough), except the old 2gb limit which is retained for compatibility reasons.

You can turn off the compatibility limit using a tool called editbin.

Editbin documentation here : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d25ddyfc.aspx

You should be able to get the tool by installing the free 'Visual Studio Express' from Microsoft : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4180288/editbin-and-visual-studio-express

You use the tool by copying the deep sky stacker executable somewhere (say c:\) then running

Editbin /largeaddressaware c:\deepskystacker.exe

Then copy the modified exe file back over the original version.

cheers,

Robin

[Stub Mandrel]

Done a search, the drizzle was on, it seems that if you use this for anything other than a small pic DSS commits seppuko!

Now trying a run with 22 lights, 7 flats, 12 darks and 10 bias.

stack worked, pics a bit flaky :-(

[Stub Mandrel]

Just seen I missed your replies, thanks for the suggestions.

[wxsatuser]

Done a search, the drizzle was on, it seems that if you use this for anything other than a small pic DSS commits seppuko!

Now trying a run with 22 lights, 7 flats, 12 darks and 10 bias.

stack worked, pics a bit flaky :-(

Drizzle will definately be the problem.

It increases the size of the image.

[jtlandreneau]

there is a trick I like to use - you can drizzle if you use the super-pixel mode

[Xiga]

DSS is a 32 bit application, so by default it will only access 2gb of memory (this goes back to the days of 32 bit windows and the operating system itself reserved the top 2gb of memory).

If you are on 64 bit windows, there is nothing to stop a 32 bit application from using a full 4gb of memory (providing you have enough), except the old 2gb limit which is retained for compatibility reasons.

You can turn off the compatibility limit using a tool called editbin.

Editbin documentation here : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d25ddyfc.aspx

You should be able to get the tool by installing the free 'Visual Studio Express' from Microsoft : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4180288/editbin-and-visual-studio-express

You use the tool by copying the deep sky stacker executable somewhere (say c:\) then running

Editbin /largeaddressaware c:\deepskystacker.exe

Then copy the modified exe file back over the original version.

cheers,

Robin

Robin thanks for pointing this out! I had tried running DSS with Drizzle (on my machine with 8 Gigs of Memory) but it always crashed. After doing your trick, it now tackles it without a bother, so cheers mate!

I'm very much a newbie at all of this, but i thought i would test the effects of this on a quick stack of my crappy DSLR M31 data. The picture below shows the non-drizzled version on the left and the x2 drizzled one on the right. I've zoomed in to the same spot and level to show the impact on some bright stars. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much of an effect it had.

ps - The x2 drizzled file size blew up from 200MB to 800MB, but my 64-bit copy of Photoshop was still able to open it without any bother. 

[Stub Mandrel]

Is there a way of getting editbin without an 8 Gb install of Microsoft's Visual Studio that I don't otherwise need?

[rwg]

@Xiga, nice one - glad it's working for you

@Stub Mandrel - not legitimately. It's a microsoft tool and they choose to distribute it as part of visual studio. I guess you'd probably find places to download something called 'editbin.exe' on the 'net, but I'm not sure I'd want to trust them. Best bet is to download and install Visual Studio, grab editbin (and maybe any dlls in the same directory, just in case) and uninstall.

cheers,

Robin