Thanks for the interest in my questions.
 
The breakdown of my swet up is as follows.
 
Camera- Panasonic DMC-FZ50- shooting at a 35mm focal length.
 
Image dimensions- I downsize to 5Mp to create a source file of 2560*1920
 
Rows- 3 rows with 12 images each plus a Zenith and Nadir shot for a total of 38 shots.
 
Stitcher Memory- I used a suggestion to use 0%- can't confirm if this is correct.
 
Mac Ram- 1.5GB
 
Thanks to you and to all for your support and insight. The more I use this program the more I like it and I know it's just a matter of time before I start making beautiful tours and pano's. It reminds me of being in the dark room back in the day. Hours of toil for little results and then one day I began to make art. That was a good day.
 

Hi Topper!
 
Thanks for the info. There is indeed quite a RAM load. The "0%" setting for the memory makes Stitcher hold as little in RAM as possible and read/write to the disk all the time. In theory this setting should cover your situation. It will also lead to very slow render times due to the extensive disk operations, compared to a render that can use more memory (RAM).
 
Stitcher can currently address up to 2GB of RAM. Your 1.5 GB RAM also has to run the MAC OS. I do not know how much RAM the OS uses on your computer - but you can measure it. Open up the "Activity Monitor" (located in the "Applications" > "Utilities" folder) and click on the "System Memory" tab near the bottom. Use the "Help" menu in the "Activity Monitor" menubar for further assistance in understanding the readouts. This same "Activity Monitor" will also show you how much RAM Stitcher is using when you are rendering.
 
And of course, you do not want to have any unnecessary programs open that eat up your RAM in what ever small amount.
 
I have a guess that Stitcher is starved for RAM - among other things. This may not be the problem, but given your Stitcher project set-up (and your computer's RAM) it is a good place to start. Just possibly Stitcher is not hanging - but is just at a certain point in the render when nothing appears to be happening (especially at the 76% mark) though actually there is, but is not being displayed in the progress bar. Combine that with the G4 processor of your iBook and you could have some extremely long render times for your pano. Crashing is also indicative of running out of RAM (though not the only reason) - even if you have set the Memory in Stitcher to "0%". The "Activity Monitor" mentioned above will help you evaluate if this is the case - and you just want to be an artist - have you ever had so much fun ;->
 
How long do you let the render run before you conclude Stitcher has "stopped responding"? Conceivably your render could take hours depending on your Render settings.
 
Along these lines...
 
More questions:
==========
What Render settings do you use?
- "Type" (Spherical Image, Cubical Image, Cubic QTVR, etc.)
- "Blending Method" (Morph, Smart, External, etc.)
- "Interpolation" (Bicubic, Lanczos,etc.)
 
Unless you are rendering straight to QTVR you do not want to use any sharpening. Far better to use Photoshop (or a 3rd party plug-in) to do that for you - and it cuts down on the render time.
------------------
 
A Test:
==========
To see if RAM is the problem (or part of the problem) try the following (Memory at 0%):
 
1) Render to "Spherical Image" type ("Render" menu > "File" tab)
2) Set the output size to 12.5% in the "Best Size Ratio" field ("Render" menu > "File" tab)
3) Set the "Blending Method" to "Morph" ("Render" menu > "Rendering Options" tab)
4) Set "Sharpen" to "None" ("Render" menu > "Rendering Options" tab)
5) Set the "Interpolation" to "Bicubic" ("Render" menu > "Rendering Options" tab)
6) In the "Render" menu > "TIFF Options" tab, select:
--- "None" under "Miscellaneous Options"
--- No checkboxes selected under "Rendering" (the "Use Strip" will help the RAM situation, but it should not be needed with this small an output size).
------------------
 
What happens? If you do get a successful render in this situation then RAM is most likely your problem with the full size render (i.e. "Best Size Ratio" field at 100%). Do give the render some time. Use the "Activity Monitor" to see what's happening "under the hood".
 
Ideally, if you could upload your source images at full res (75% quality JPEG) to a web site for me and others to experiment with, it would provide a better vantage point to evaluate things. Please let me know if you have this capability. If you do not have a web/FTP site there are other alternatives. Right now I"m just making a guess based on general impressions.

My Friend,
Thank You for the insight. I will give this a try right now and come back to you with the results.
 
Topper

Jim,
 
Been successful producing excellent panos using these settings, the only change is to build them as a cubic. This gives me photoshop clean up options.
What are the alternative to a web/FTP. I have neither.