Mega Crash. Is it V-Ray or is it MAX.

[Neil Woodhouse]

Greetings all,

 

I have a brain teaser.

 

I'm currently working on some property scenes, both are large files, both have been saved incrementally.

 

One scene has 3 cameras. This particular scene keeps crashing, to such an extent that it throws me straight out to the desktop.

 

Two things happen:

 

1. In the V-ray render box ( the one that gives you tree size etc ) i get the following message. " Unhandled Exception: Irradiance Map" the computer drive whirrs for a few seconds then Max collapses.

 

2. V-Ray render dialog goes thru' it's usual messages, then goes to the pre-passes it then either falls over about 15 seconds into the first pre-pass or gets thru' two pre-passes and then falls over.

 

Having done a little 'observation' of this i have noticed that i have lost 'V' ram in this scene, everything is being handled by 'P' ram which indicates to me that when it crashes it has runout of ram. However i am concerned about the loss of the 'V' ram and wondered if anybody has come across this crash, or how the 'V' ram can be brought back into operation.

 

The other scene which is of similar size, uses the same v-ray settings, and has approx the same faces causes no problems and the 'V' Ram clearly runs. The previous increment file for the first scene bombed and gave me a 'MaxScript Memory Dump Error' I'm curious to know what this is as well.

 

I'm gonna go back 3 increment files and see what happens. In the meantime any of you guys out there got any ideas on this highly frustrating & annoying problem.

 

Knd Regards

 

Neil Woodhouse

[big_perm]

what kind of settings are running? how many objects/ poly count? are your objects grouped?

[F J]

hmmm,

what is ur physical RAM amount?

do u use 32 or 64bit environment?

if 32, do u use the /3GB switch?

[Neil Woodhouse]

Hi,

 

It's a dual core 32 bit, 2 gig ram, i'll try the 3Gb switch, seems strange that the previous increment scene file works ok, e.g both physical & virtual ram are shown in the scence stats, somehow it looks as though the scence file has got corrupted.

 

Everything is grouped. The file has 3.5 million faces ( it is a detailed viz )

 

Neil

[big_perm]

We had a huge break-through with memory issues due to grouping.

Very large scenes with lots of groups, and memory errors everywhere. Unhandled exceptions, and loss of Memory to where Max would just dissappear. Then it was found that groups require loads more of memory to be processed. Something about the relationships to each other all had to be processed in addition to all of the other functions that happen at render time.

Once we ungrouped everything, and converted to editable meshes render times were down to 5 minutes per frame, with no errors what so ever.

[Neil Woodhouse]

Thanks Jeremy,

 

Sounds promising. I'll try that and also try the same with another set buildings from the same complex that i have grouped, that crashes in the same way.

 

Wonder if the Max guys will do a fix for this?

 

Regards

 

Neil

[Neil Woodhouse]

It's a memory problem. I got a very exhaustive response from the support team at chaos. Not only do they recommend the 3gb switch, but also various settings in v-ray. I will do as they say and post the results.

 

Neil

[Zdravko Barisic]

We had a huge break-through with memory issues due to grouping.

Very large scenes with lots of groups, and memory errors everywhere. Unhandled exceptions, and loss of Memory to where Max would just dissappear. Then it was found that groups require loads more of memory to be processed. Something about the relationships to each other all had to be processed in addition to all of the other functions that happen at render time.

Once we ungrouped everything, and converted to editable meshes render times were down to 5 minutes per frame, with no errors what so ever.

 

Please, if you can remeber, what were the render times before ungrouping?

[DaveP]

Hi Neil. i am having similar problems with crashing, i posted my image today, if you have learnt how to resolve your issues, please send back your thoughts.

many thanks

David

[Chris Johnson]

If you are doing big scenes in your renderer, I would definitely buy more ram. My recommendation now is 4 gigs of ram.

 

I have another recommendation too to make good use of your memory:

1. Before you render a scene, restart Max. Please, trust me on this. However let me add that Max 10 will have significant improvements in this regard.

 

2. Get SP 2 for Max 9. It has a fix for a memory leak, that while small leaked a bunch of times.

 

Chris Johnson

[Neil Woodhouse]

Hi Chris,

 

I had SP2 installed before i started having the problems. Chaos recommend proxying. I've tried this, the thing still bombs. I'm going to have to upgrade to more than 4gb, the work i'm being asked to do now is very detailed.

 

Still at a loss as to why about 30secs into the first pre-pass the VRam disappears and gets dumped into the PRam, having said that the file is 44mb!!!!!!. One of the early saves of this file doesn't do it. The one after where i added 6 instanced trees & 12 instanced hedges ( all Evermotion ) does. It's really cheesing me off, as i have some additions that the client wants and i can't put them off much longer.

 

Regards

 

Neil