The most common installation problems

For Maya 2011 you need HOTFIX 2 or HOTFIX 3
FurryBall 2 was tested with Maya 2010, Maya 2011 and Maya 2012 (both X86 and X64)
FurryBall 3 was tested with Maya 2010, Maya 2011, Maya 2012 and Maya 2013 (both X86 and X64)
Windows Vista, Windows 7 only (Windows Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2 will work, too)
Always uninstall old version first
The trial version expires after 30 days of using and contains a watermark.
Please, always use the latest graphics drivers
You need to install DirectX 11

FurryBall installer installs and sets up everything necessary to load and run the plugin in Maya.
Here are some advices that could help if something went wrong and Maya fails to load FurryBall.
Follow them step by step, after every step try to load FurryBall to see if it helped and continue to the other step only if it didn't.

Or plug-in isn't any special, doesn't need any special settings and always eventually works correctly if the minimum requirements are met.
Most of installation issues stem from violating the installation process or tampering with FurryBall files or Windows Registry settings!

Check the system requirements to see if your computer is even able to run FurryBall.


COMMON PROBLEMS
Are you using 64bit FurryBall version under 64bit system and 64bit Maya?
Is it your User Account Control (UAC) Turned off, or do you have ADMIN accces to Maya?
Can your Maya communicate with internet?


SOLUTION 1 - Proper reinstall
Reinstall FurryBall as administrator (right click on setup.exe - Run As Administrator).
Let the installer finish the process! It might take a while and it may seem nothing is being done but be patient and wait for the last screen with the Finish button.
You could also try to install FurryBall to its default directory.
If there is any problem installing (not loading) FurryBall, contact us using the support forum.


SOLUTION 2 - Libraries installation
All libraries needed for FurryBall are automatically installed by the FurryBall installer.
DO NOT skip those installation steps at the end of the installation process.
In case of any doubts, you can download these two installers from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en
They're just libraries for your system, it won't do anything wrong with your Windows even though they're from Microsoft

Install both of them, again wait for the installer to complete the process. If there is any problem installing them, contact Microsoft support.
The DirectX setup is a web installer so it will need an internet connection when running. If you have no DirectX installed yet, this can take a while, please be patient.


SOLUTION 3 - Are the paths correct?
FurryBall creates a directory structure with all the files it needs, except for the licence.dat file which you need to copy yourself, see your e-mail.
FurryBall files MUST NOT be moved to Maya\bin, Maya\scripts or any other directories manually. Why?
Because FurryBall won't be able to find its files (effects, scripts, etc) and will fail. These files and directories are pointed to by Windows Registry keys under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\FurryBall\v2 (FB2) and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\FurryBall\v3 (FB3).
Everything is set up automatically by the FurryBall installer.
If you feel the need to set it otherwise, ensure first that your FurryBall is already working with the default settings and that you understand what its paths mean and are valid (in Windows Registry). Just then start altering them.

In order for a Maya plug-in (such as FurryBall) to appear in Maya Plug-in Manager automatically, Maya needs to know where to look for it. This is done by means of MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH environment variable. It can be set by two ways (for Maya 2011 x64, other versions similarly):
A. Open "My Documents"/maya/2011-x64/Maya.env (if doesn't exists, create a new txt file and rename to Maya.env) and for FB2 add this line:

or, for FB3:

B. Or add user environment variable MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH via Windows System Properties->Advanced->Environment Variables and set it to C:\Program Files\FurryBall2\ or C:\Program Files\FurryBall3\.
In case you already had this variable set to other plug-in paths, add your FurryBall path after a semicolon (";"), so in both cases (A or B) it looks like:

or



SOLUTION 4 - A check-list. Are you sure?
Ask yourself the following questions:
1. Did I uninstall older FurryBall versions first?
2. Did I really let the FurryBall installer finish and install the necessary Microsoft libraries, too?
3. Didn't I manually copy some FurryBall files somewhere else than the installation directory?
4. Didn't I change some registry settings manually?
5. Did I copy in the license.dat file I received by e-mail, as instructed?
6. Didn't my hardware configuration change anyhow from the one I used to obtain the FurryBall license?
7. Does my hardware configuration meet the requirements?

In case you answered NO to any of these questions (or "No, I actually did for numbers 3, 4 and 6"), you're doing something wrong. Please, read again the solutions above.


SOLUTION 5 - Still no luck
You believe you did everything correctly and FurryBall still doesn't work!
Post your problem to our support forum. Give us as much information as you can including:
- operating system version + service packs installed
- Maya version (incl. service pack) you were trying FurryBall and solutions with + all other Maya versions installed
- report from trying the solutions above - any weird output or strange behaviour
- run dxdiag.exe (just run dxdiag.exe from command line or Run in the Start menu) and select something like Save all information..., then attach the file zipped to your post
- Maya Script Editor contents when trying to load FurryBall
- Maya Output Window contents when trying to load FurryBall


We'd like to stress again that our plug-in installation is very simple and there aren't many things that might go wrong.
We're always here, at our form, to help you in case something doesn't work!