"what's the render doing when it's at 100% but is still not "done" rendering?"

Housekeeping. Erasing temp files, creating the swf files for the new files if it needs to.

This horrendous user interface embarrassment has been in Vegas forever. Almost everyone gets burned sooner or later, and yet Sony never fixes it.

It is inexcusable that the interface is identical between the dialog that shows during the render and the dialog that shows when the render is finished: same layout, same button placement, same colors, same everything -- except that the "cancel" button changes to "close."

What's even worse, they don't even give you a second chance by putting up a dialog that asks, "Are you sure you want to cancel?"

Have you ever had this happen after a two-day render? I have.

The fact that this hasn't been corrected after all these years shows ... I just erased what I wrote -- it was totally accurate, but way too nasty.

**Have you ever had this happen after a two-day render? I have. **

Yes. But only once.
Now, I look for the message "Rendering Complete:" at the top and three active buttons at the bottom of the dialog box, not just the "Cancel" button.

I agree, the dialog box could be better.

I always have the checkbox for 'close this dialog when rendering complete' checked. That way, if i see the dialog i know it's still rendering. When it's one, the dialog disappears. That way i never have to worry about whether it's the close or cancel button.

Why anyone would want to leave this unchecked is an utter mystery to me.

**Why anyone would want to leave this unchecked is an utter mystery to me.**

So we can remember that the last thing we were doing with the program was rendering a video (you young guys wouldn't understand this at all) . . .

So we can remember that the last thing we were doing with the program was rendering a video (you young guys wouldn't understand this at all) . . Yup.

And in the interests of saving a bit of energy how about a "Shut down computer when complete" option. Even Nero can manage that.

Bob.

I've nearly posted about this "are you sure?" option when you cancel a render a few times. I've had a render stop while the screen was switched off and someone hit the enter key. I think the dialog actually defaults to highlighting the "Cancel" button, so it is easily done. Again, as mentioned, it is a simple GUI feature, but the development team can't seem to allocate the time to implement it.

I would rather there was an option to lock the render that could only be stopped by a certain key combination. Even better an option to lock the whole machine and just display a progress bar would be even more useful.

Yep, been there, done that--on a very long render, too.

Like Kelly, I've selected the "Close this dialog when rendering complete" option.

I've had the same experience. Re "Close this dialog when rendering complete" - I like to see how long the render took so I leave it open, and take care when I close it. I wish they had a "Are you sure" prompt.

Jerry

The status of the finished render is always displayed in the 'status' area of the lower toolbar in Vegas. It will tell you how long it took or other appropriate error messages. There's no need to leave the dialog box open for this.

The problem with the status message is that if you click any other tool, menu, or button in Vegas then this status text disappears. You have to remember to look at it first thing before doing anything else.

"I think the dialog actually defaults to highlighting the "Cancel" button, so it is easily done."

I have used other software that does this as well. My habit now is that I will click outside of the dialog box to remove focus from the window and the 'Cancel' button. That way, if I do accidentally hit the 'Enter' or 'Esc' key, nothing will happen.

Maybe SCS should another version called VegasPro8 for dummies : )...

Just trying a little humor here...

I've also lost a render a similar way, but it was only a couple of hours... but I
didn't blame the GUI, SCS, or anyone else, but me... I held myself accountable...
I screwed up, I learned my lesson, I moved on.... the way I see it, this is user error, please get over it...

YUP!

On another note...He must have caught it RIGHT at the end when the button was in the process of switching from "cancel" to "close" because normally when you hit cancel..... it deletes the canceled file. Can you say..... LUCKY!?!

Blink, you know, that's what i've always noticed too. I've seen lots of people over the years make comments about troubled renders saying to cancel, fix what's wrong at that point, render the rest to a new file, then combine what you got from the first render with the second. I always wondered how since the first render usually ends up with no file or a corrupt file when cancelled. I never know how those folks accomplished that.

the way I see it, this is user error
IMO, a program is easier to use if it doesn't give its users rope to hang themselves with.

It's dangerous when it doesn't have to be.

I've seen lots of people over the years make comments about troubled renders saying to cancel, fix what's wrong at that point, render the rest to a new file, then combine what you got from the first render with the second. I always wondered how since the first render usually ends up with no file or a corrupt file when cancelled. I never know how those folks accomplished that. Easy: Don't use Vegas. I just did exactly this about three minutes ago. I have a render that I am doing, via the Debugmode Frameserver, to the external (separate program) MainConcept MPEG-2 encoder. The time remaining on this render showed almost eighteen hours. Problem is, I have a card from my utility company saying they are cutting power tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. to fix a broken cable which caused local outages a week ago. This is five hours before the render will be finished. However, most of the complex portions of the project are already rendered, so I stopped the render, simplified the project slightly (no one but me will notice the difference) and then started from the point at which the render had gotten to when I stopped it.

This simpler version will be finished in only seven hours.

But here's the point: Unlike stupid Vegas which throws out what has been rendered, the external MainConcept encoder keeps every frame which has been rendered. When I'm finished, I'll put the two MPEG-2 files into Womble, join them up, and in a few minutes have a finished project.

There are so many things like this which should have been changed years ago. Things which anyone who actually uses this stuff on a regular basis would have figure out is important, but the engineers at Vegas, who probably don't do much actual editing of projects, just don't seem to get.

The real problem is that I don't think Sonic/Sony has ever had a competent product manager. This is what such an individual is paid to understand and fix.

Been there done that

DO IT ONCE SHAME ON THEM, DO IT TWICE (OR MORE) SHAME ON ME.

[i]"Blink, you know, that's what i've always noticed too. I've seen lots of people over the years make comments about troubled renders saying to cancel, fix what's wrong at that point, render the rest to a new file, then combine what you got from the first render with the second. I always wondered how since the first render usually ends up with no file or a corrupt file when cancelled. I never know how those folks accomplished that."]/i]

Chien:

If you want to cancel a render and have the file still there then use taskmanager to end the Vegas process instead of pressing the cancel button. The file will still be there.

I learned this through the many crashes I once had with Vegas. It can't delete the file if you don't give it the chance. I used to take advantage of this.... I would take the crash pieces and sew them together :)

If you want to cancel a render and have the file still there then use taskmanager to end the Vegas process instead of pressing the cancel button. The file will still be thereThat's worth the price of admission! Great hint/workaround. I'll use that some day. Thank you!

But is the file any good (near the "end")?

I thought a lot of the codecs did before- and after- frame calculations and such, not just dumped out a string of self-contained frames that could be chopped at anypoint and still be usable.

Back in the day when I was having huge vegas crashing problems I would view the crash piece and find out where it crashed... then I would do a loop render a second or two BEFORE the frames where it crashed and trim the pieces to fit before I sewed them together... just in case "But is the file any good (near the "end")"

But I will say that when playing back the crash pieces, (or the pieces that I intentionally shut vegas down on) I never had any problems at the end.