Hello, I just purchased the full version of this software. I'm currently running the 32-bit version with 4gb ram 3ghz dual core processor and when I attempt to render HD resolution I get this error 'Insufficient memory to allocate the histogram' which then breaks the program. Any help on this would be great. Thanks!

Hi, please see the last point in the rendering FAQ here: http://chaoticafractals.com/manual/faq

If possible use the 64bit version to enable better use of your memory (i.e. much closer to the full 4GB).

Okay, that's what I was worried about, I didn't realize my system was 32-bit when I installed Chaotica, will I be able to reinstall once I upgrade my OS?

Pretty sure you will. But you maybe will need to request a license reset to support, not 100% sure but just in case you have troubles

Okay so I just installed Windows 7 64-bit on a second partition, installed chaotica 64-bit and am experiencing the same issue. Once again I have 4 GB RAM and an additional GB onboard my Nvidia GeForce 6150. I'm a little frustrated now.

Please at least mention the resolution and AA level at which you're trying to render...

4GB of memory is actually very little memory for running Windows 7, even without much other stuff running (eg. web browsers use many gigabytes easily). If you have 4GB of memory, it can't all be used by an application, since Windows will already be using quite a lot of it, probably over 1GB on its own. (You can see this memory use in Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc.)

If you can give some concrete information about what resolution you're trying to render, I can figure out how much memory it would need. As a rough guide, you can see the table on this page: http://chaoticafractals.com/manual/rendering-faq

I can understand you're frustrated, but Chaotica is unfortunately not capable of changing the laws of physics / computing, able to use more memory than you have available; at least the 64 bit Windows will allow you to use more than 2GB of memory (and will render quite a lot faster).

I'm a little confused after looking at that chart, how can I scale the height without scaling the width? It seems that Chaotica automatically scales them as dependents, I admit that I have had a hard time learning how to use the software with the given documentation. I'm trying to render 7020x4950 but when I type in 7020 as the width it automatically scales the height so that the image is square. How do I fix this and will it have a significant effect on the RAM usage?

Regarding the image aspect ratio, please see this manual page: http://chaoticafractals.com/manual/user ... r_settings

Assuming you haven't changed your AA level from the default value of 2 (since you didn't answer my question about it), an image at 7020x4950 will require at least 2.1 GB of memory, which is probably very close to 4 GB limit with Windows included, and will probably not be possible to allocate at once.

So, as the error message says, you have insufficient memory for the resolution at which you're trying to render.

Possible solutions include setting the AA level to 1, or simply buying more memory: memory is quite inexpensive these days, you can very easily get 8, 16 or 32 GB of memory. Running basic Windows with less than 8 GB is generally advised against, without even considering high resolution print rendering on top!

This is all covered in the Rendering FAQ (frequently asked questions), which I would again like to encourage you to read: http://chaoticafractals.com/manual/rendering-faq

yes I have read the rendering FAQ several times and it doesn't really adress these issues.

I am running Windows 7 which only uses about 216 MB of RAM for the system, if Windows 7 used 2 GB of RAM how would it be possible to run Windows 7 with only 1 GB? yet it is. And Chaotica is the only program I have running currently. So what you are telling me doesn't exactly add up.

According to the Rendering FAQ using Ultra level should use less RAM, but when I try to render at ultra settings for the same sized image, the software crashes. I would be happy to buy more RAM but I'm not really confident this software is any more likely to work once I do, since according to the rendering FAQ you keep directing me to, it should be working already, but it is not.
Now if you have a another solution I'd be happy to hear it, but as it is, this is simply not working as advertised.

I wonder if you could print screen your chaotica main window when you get this bug.
In a way that it shows the 4 things below:

1. Width
2. Height
3. AA Level
4. The error message

A side note: "doesn´t work as advertised". I think you are a bit too quick to jump with such accusations. For example, my version of chaotica works just fine, and i never had any unexplained memory issues.
Also, lyc kept asking you about the AA level, and you never mentioned what AA levels did you try. Just saying, AA level is what has most impact on the RAM usage.

I agree with you that windows is not the issue. You can hog up to all avaliable RAM with chaotica and it will in theory work. In practice, if you do that, windows will go on a strike and produce some MASSIVE lag (did such experiment once, by setting the max possible resolution, and my pc would just freeze for 20 min after each mouse movement, poor thing ).