Here's an odd one:

Machine specs:
Computer Make: Custom
Mainboard: MSI K9 A2 Platinum MS-7376 Ver. 1.0
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6400+ 3.2 GHz.
Bios: MS-7376 Ver 1.20
RAM: 3322 MB.
OS: Windows Vista 32bit Service Pack 1 (up-to-date)
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX
Sound: Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro
Both sound and video drivers updated today.
AM version 15.0 and onward, currently using latest update.

1. When working in any modeling, action, or choreograph window I get the same strange problems. When using a render tool (render or render lock) or magnifying tool, or selection tool to drag-select an area I get the 'dotted outline' showing the area of selection - just as I should - but the inside of the selected area is completely gray (or if I've created a material it shows the material editor 'ball' as if I were cutting a hole in my modeling window and seeing the material editor underneath.) The area inside the selection outline does not update and if you grow and then shrink the outline it leaves an un-updated gray area that does not rectify until you release the mouse button.

2. Whether clicking either the render or render lock buttons in any of the above mentioned windows, or if selecting an area with either to render, the rendering process proceeds a short way in and then the materials editor window flashes or appears in the rendering area, and then the render process ceases leaving you with the original wire-frame you were trying to render.

This happens regardless of selecting either OpenGL or Direct3D render modes. It also happens regardless of screen resolution or frequency. It is making doing any work in AM so unpleasant I am considering giving it up.

I contacted AM Tech support and was asked to post on the forums. Any suggestions?

you mention that an underlying window is sometimes revealed What happens if you work with only one window open.

Any diff if your modeling window is "maximized" or is not ?

Basically sounds like one of those weird video card things. Hard to track down.

1. In the master.exe icon properties in the compatibility tab, disable "desktop composition".

2. This could be caused by 1. too.

That did it! Thank you so much! I can go back to working with AM again!

Best wishes,
-Matthew

I'm having these problems too, it seem to be related to the vista aero theme, as it declares it has switched it off when I start AM15 using the disabled desktop composition

What is puzzling is that AM13 behaves extremely well on vista, with a new "feature" I really like in that when you do a screen render you can switch to another window and it continues to render and doesn't forget the screen buffer meaning the render stays there even after switching windows.

Dissapointingly v15 goes back to the old "on screen renders are fragile as butterfly wings" status quo.

Oh well at least it renders frames in 10 seconds less than v13 on the tests I've done, that's a minute less every 6 frames, not bad.

Okay... looks like the culprit may be the synergy app that I use to share the mouse and keyboard between 2 pcs...

That kinda sucks since it's terribly convenient... but at least AM seems to be behaving now.

Hey, I got another deal related to that. I had the same problem when I clicked on render mode and tried to move the model when the process was done and it crashed on me too. I did the disabling thing too, which got rid of the craching problem, but I'm still getting a window that says Exception 033. Realtime render. If you can repeat this exception please send data and steps to http://www.hash.com/reports [^] Thanks. Now, the thing is that the window does not want to go away. When OK is clicked, it will immediatly pop up again with the same thing. Got any idea how to get rid of that?

I'm sure you've figured it out by now but you'll have to restart A:M.
You may have to Control-Alt-Delete and terminate A:M first.

For good measure once you restart A:M find the "Reset Settings" option under the Help Menu and then restart. If you've got a setting wrong somewhere this should set it right.