freeing memory?

[STRAT]

Hi there

 

when doing long rendering of animations, in either max or cinema, i regulaly run out of ram (1 gig) and start paging to disk. this ram depletion is an obvious thing, and slowly the render times creep up until say after 50 frames of rendering my ram is totally used up and it's paging to disk, taking much longer to render.

 

the solution is to stop and re-boot, but that isn't an option if i leave a pc rendering in work over the weekend. or buy more ram, but that aint gonna happen at the mo.

 

so is there any free or cheap ram management proggies i can download/buy that will flush my ram at predetermined intervals?

 

i appreciate nothing will be perfect, especially once a 3d app is running, but if i could find a ram freer/flusher that will free up as much memory as possible AUTOMATICALLY say every 10 mins, this would be perfect.

 

i use cacheman at the mo, but its pretty useless.

 

any suggestions?

[Greg Hess]

What app and renderer? Perhaps its best to start at the source of the problem, instead of trying to patch it?

[STRAT]

any 3d app.

 

3d studio wont replenish its RAM unless a re-boot is done, same with cinema 4d. i cant afford to stop and re-boot durring rendering animations. i need (if possible) an automated ram freer to kick in and release as much ram as it can.

[Ernest Burden III]

So far I haven't seen this with C4D. I did run some 300 frame test anims to look for the problem, didn't see it. But the complexity of the tests were not near what you are doing, so that could explain it. But watching RAM use in the TaskManager did not show a slowly climbing usage, it went down a bit, up a bit, but stayed pretty even for the whole process, then released all when done.

 

It would definately be an app-caused problem, because I have left Lightscape rendering complex frames for days without ever topping out RAM.

 

If Max has this problem, good luck getting Autodesk to address it. But Maxon seems more responsive...

[kingeldar]

3d studio wont replenish its RAM unless a re-boot is done

do u mean Max still uses ram after u closed it? or something else my poor english doesn't allow me to understand?

 

cause concerning that problem u can solve it using 'killmax'

i'm usin it to close max and it immediatly gives back the 1 or 1.2Gb of ram used by max...

if u were sayin something else just forget about that post... lol

[Ernest Burden III]

do u mean Max still uses ram after u closed it?...u can solve it using 'killmax'...it immediatly gives back the 1 or 1.2Gb of ram used by max...

Am I the only one who is left laughing by this? Why the hell would any of us accept such crap? Is that software FREE? You pay good money for a program that causes problems and cannot function without a bunch of helper apps?

[STRAT]

well i've just downloaded this -

 

http://www.flightsimsetc.dhs.org/content/utilities/bysoftfr.exe

 

which help closer monitor and keep an eye on my RAM usuage. i'm currently rendering a huge anim in c4d. i have 1 gig or ram. it's so far up to frame 28, rendering at a steady 2.5 mins per frame. but my free ram is dangerously hovering at the 10 mb mark. i've tried hitting the 'free ram' button, but obviously it's in use.

 

this shows that it is rendering within ram, and baring anything like nasty reflections comming into view, it should, in theory, continue around this ram/time limit.

 

there's 2000 frames btw.

[muzzy]

I used to use cleaning the memory softwares. It checks your memory real-time and , whenever you click, it cleans the cached memory but sometimes it cleans the wrong parts and my windows was frozen. I don't recommend it from my experience. Sometimes it works well, sometimes puts you in problem..

 

It is little bit off your answer but may be using Windows 3gb Switch may help you ? Still using paging but t is for memory problems as I heard..

 

http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/showthread.php?t=857

[Greg Hess]

Strat,

 

Have you considered just investing in more ram? Its pretty inexpensive right now.

 

I don't know what your ram type is, but its currently around 200-220 for 2x512 sticks of DDR, (and thats mushkin DDR, direct from their website).

 

I know you don't want to expend additional cash...but it might just be the easiest solution...especially if the work your doing is for paying clients. (You could just deduct it as a business expense)

[Ernest Burden III]

i'm currently rendering a huge anim in c4d...there's 2000 frames btw.

You go, girl!

 

I like to see that you are runnin' frames. Viva animation, baby!

 

BTW, that 2000 frames isn't a one-shot minute of footage is it? I think we need to teach you the value of short, sharp shots.

 

Anyway, I hope the frames render well for you. Obviously I am very interested in the issue since I am going to be using the same app soon enough. But it's Friday evening in the UK right now, so I guess you must be 'down the pub' right about now.

[abicalho]

3d studio wont replenish its RAM unless a re-boot is done

 

That's because MAX caches the bitmaps, so that the next render does not have to load it all again.

 

To free that RAM, open the MAXScript Listener and type:

 

freeSceneBitmaps()

gc()

 

This will clear:

 

- The Bitmaps

- The Undo Buffer

- Any garbage that's left in RAM

 

You can make it into a Macro and create a button in the UI for it.

 

But if you want to do it while rendering - that won't help. While rendering the app is using only what it needs. If you see memory going up, the best to do is to break the animation into smaller segments and render them in queue - say network render even if locally.

 

Alexander

[STRAT]

greg - absolutely. i want atleast another 2 or 3 gig, but i've been told flatly that wont happen anytime soon damn missunderstanding bosses.

 

EBII - lol, yes, 1 continuos fly by. not my choice tho i assure you.

[STRAT]

well i've just downloaded this -

 

http://www.flightsimsetc.dhs.org/content/utilities/bysoftfr.exe

 

which help closer monitor and keep an eye on my RAM usuage. i'm currently rendering a huge anim in c4d. i have 1 gig or ram. it's so far up to frame 28, rendering at a steady 2.5 mins per frame. but my free ram is dangerously hovering at the 10 mb mark. i've tried hitting the 'free ram' button, but obviously it's in use.

 

this shows that it is rendering within ram, and baring anything like nasty reflections comming into view, it should, in theory, continue around this ram/time limit.

 

there's 2000 frames btw.

just an update.

 

ok, im well chuffed with this little app. i have 400 frames of 2000 left to render, now rendering at about 9-10 mins per frame (due to heavey reflections) BUT BUT BUT within ram still. i have about an average of 50-60 mb free ram, which slightly gets re-plenished between every rendered frame of the animation. it really does do a good job of finding as much ram for me as it can.

 

this is great, even tho i've slightly optomised the scene for faster rendering, im now rendering at 800x600 (compaired to 640x480 last time) with much higher, smoother, cleaner gi settings than last time, and am about 75% faster.

 

altimately i need more ram. another gig would be great, but this auto ram freer/monitor is a god send. i hightly recommend it.

the advantage of higher gi settings for c4d users is of course, is that i can now stop the render process, and continue rendering it at a later date, still using the 'calculate first frame only' gi solution, without that gi settings jump being blatently obviouse.