Registration fails while performing?

[beatfix]

Hi all,

Has anyone else had Arena 5 start behaving like it's unregistered, at random, in the middle of a set? Everything starts out fine, but at some point I start seeing the watermark / hearing the robot voice. Preferences pane still shows my software as registered (see attached photo).

If I quit and restart, the watermark goes away - until the next time it happens. I'm sending a ton of MIDI data in via an external step sequencer when this occurs, if that has any relevance. Luckily this has only happened in my studio so far, but it's making me nervous, as you might imagine.

To the obvious question - I am a paid and licensed user, no hacks or cracks. I've only seen this happen in Arena 5 as far as I can recall - been a Resolume user for several years.

I plan to do more tests, including seeing if I can replicate the behavior in Arena 4. Just wanted to see if I'm the only one who has experienced this, or if it's a general issue.

- j

[Zoltán]

Has anyone else had Arena 5 start behaving like it's unregistered, at random, in the middle of a set?

Yes, you are the third I know of including myself.
I experienced this once, and never again.
Could you describe your system and setup?

[beatfix]

OK, glad to know I'm not alone.

Arena 5.0.1 rev 56307 / mid-2012 15" MacBook Pro / OSX 10.8.5 / 8G RAM
Multiple MIDI inputs (Launchpad, IAC Driver Bus 1) and OSC input active (OSC out turned off)
Using Advanced Output to map 8 slices + 8 DMX lumiverses (controlling LED strips)

I'm using a software step sequencer to send complex beat patterns to Resolume layers, using the Application MIDI map.

Unregistering Resolume immediately after reboot, then re-registering with the same license key, seems to fix things - but I have no way of knowing when the issue will recur.

It's also worth mentioning that I get occasional application crashes when opening Advanced Output, or trying to launch Resolume while my MIDI sequencer is running.

- j

[Joris]

This is currently our number one, high priority ticket for the next update. I would shit myself if that happened to me during show.

Unfortunately, we currently don't have solid bead on it. We think it may be related to adding or removing a USB device while Resolume is active. This could be USB sticks, harddisks, but also midi controllers or DMX dongles. Would be great if you could keep an eye on this and let us know if you can find any logic to the madness.

Btw, Just to be clear on what's happening, Resolume doesn't really de-register itself. De-registering and re-registering is definitely not suggested as a fix. Somehow, Resolume receives what's called a false positive on the registration check, which causes the watermark to show up.

Perhaps making sure devices are connected before show, is already enough to not receive the false positive.

[Zoltán]

is there any way a registration check could be initiated by the user like saving the composition, opening preferences...?
I had an apple thunderbolt to dvi adapter connected when this happened, and just maybe my phone charging from the laptop,I'm not sure, that was a while ago.
no midi in or out.

[Joris]

We prefer not to publicly list precisely how and when Resolume checks for the registration, but yes, there are several user actions that can trigger a registration check.

[Zoltán]

We prefer not to publicly list precisely how and when Resolume checks for the registration, but yes, there are several user actions that can trigger a registration check.

ok, I see.
doing some tests now.

@beatfix
how soon after the robot voice have you opened up the preferences panel and made the screenshot?
also, if you have the time when this happens again to wait some 10 minutes if the voice disappears maybe?

[beatfix]

I spent a couple hours banging away today, trying to replicate the issue - repeating the sequence of software and hardware that I played with yesterday. No luck so far - everything is behaving. I have rebooted my machine since yesterday, so that may be a factor.

Regarding the preferences screenshot - I took that within a couple minutes of hearing the robot voice. I didn't track it carefully, but eventually the preference pane reverted to showing the software as unregistered. When I tried re-inputting my serial # I got an error message - it was only after quitting and restarting Resolume that I could get it back to normal.

Some of these details are vague because I wasn't really in diagnostic mode at the time. If/when this happens again I'll try to capture some more detailed information to help with troubleshooting. Yesterday was actually the second time the registration fail has happened to me (first time was a few weeks ago) so I wouldn't be surprised to see it again in the future.

- j

[beatfix]

UPDATE: 10 minutes after posting above, my registration got bounced again. I had just finished installing Ableton Live 9 Lite to test more sequencing ideas, and routed MIDI from Ableton to Resolume, again through IAC Driver Bus 1. Not sure of the exact moment when the registration failed, but this time when I looked in the preferences, it showed as unregistered.

Trying to enter my serial number, I get the error message "Unable to contact registration server, please contact mail@resolume.com". After closing and reopening Arena, it once again shows as fully registered.

I'm obviously motivated to sort this out - let me know if it makes sense to keep posting here, or if there is a better avenue (pun intended) for these communications.

Thanks,
Jeff

[beatfix]

Still testing. If, after experiencing the registration issue, I simply close Arena and restart, the problem seems to come back pretty quickly. This time, I waited for the watermark to reappear, and when it did I opened the preferences pane to see if I could watch the change from registered to unregistered. I waited a couple minutes, then Arena crashed. Crash log is attached below.