3ds max using too much ram during render

[stayinwonderland]

Not sure if this is a vray issue. My affinity is set to 6 out of 8 threads and my dynamic memory limit is set to 2000mb out of 8000mb total. But task manager says it's using about 5500 and my total consumption goes to almost 8000mb so my computer DIES.

 

This is a new phenomena. Previously it didn't suck all the ram. Scene is medium heavy - a sane amount of tree/bush/leaf proxies, not crazy amount, not a small amount.

[CliveG]

Any displacement?

[stayinwonderland]

yeah, but like I say it's set to use 2000mb in the vray settings and it's not really done this before in terms of draining all my memory.

[RyderSK]

It doesn't sound like too much memory to me. Dynamic memory doesn't correspond with total usage either. Time to upgrade :- )

If the scene previously took much less, then it could contain bloat, so you can try Cleaner script.

[stayinwonderland]

yes it is time to upgrade

 

Hadn't realised my motherboard could only take 8gb until I took it in for an upgrade. Now I need a whole new computer.

 

Did the cleaner script and it might have shaved a bit of lag when saving files but still hasn't solved the issue. I just thought there was a system option to prevent 3ds max from going over a certain threshold of memory usage.

[stayinwonderland]

I can confirm that if I turn off displacement that I get full use of my computer while it's rendering.

 

The newest addition to my workflow is a script for creating roof tile displacement. It's not that slow or anything, I'd say fairly reasonable, but at even slightly higher rendering resolution it starts to demolish RAM. So I'm going to render without and then region-render with.

[Zdravko Barisic]

^^^^

OFFTOPIC:

What is the script for roofing tiles?

Just curious...

[stayinwonderland]

here you are: http://www.digitalxmodels.com/product/detail/442/3d_model_Displacement%20Roof%20Surfaces_maxscript

 

and it's free alright for middle distance roofing. Quick and painless.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

I won't harp on the thought that you might want to think about how long you are spending troubleshooting this problem vs. how much ram costs. Say your billing rate is $120. You can buy 16gb's of good ram for $150. So if you are thinking about this problem for a little more than hour you would have been better off buying more ram and spending that hour getting work done on a paying project.

 

In addition to checking on the displacement, make sure you are not using Vray paint flake material, etc... I would also run the note track cleaner and GC() just to be safe.

 

I remember back to the days of 32bit with a 3gb switch. On "large" scenes you had to keep track of the amount of disk space your scene was going to use. This meant tracking:

 

- The file size of all textures added together.

- What your dynamic memory was set at.

- What your Max file size was.

- If multiple proxies were going to load at once, and how much ram they would need to load.

- And what your dynamic memory was set at.

 

You added all those together to make sure that you were going to be less than 2.6gb because after that you might not have enough RAM to save the file after it finished rendering.

 

Those were the days.

[RyderSK]

if you are thinking about this problem for a little more than hour you would have been better off buying more ram and spending that hour getting work done on a paying project.

 

I love this way of thinking. It seems quite natural, but isn't for most.

 

 

With displacement it's worth to limit the maximal amount of subdivisions, since I presume you use 3D displacement ? Displacement can take from nothing to all your ram with visualy same result, depending on sampling and resolution, so prepare you mesh well and keep the upper limit of subdivisions low. You don't need to compute micro detail when there will be none.

[benjaminbogaert]

Or you can buy Batzal roof designer, its cheap and saves a lot of time

[stayinwonderland]

I won't harp on the thought that you might want to think about how long you are spending troubleshooting this problem vs. how much ram costs.

 

Hadn't realised my motherboard could only take 8gb until I took it in for an upgrade. Now I need a whole new computer.

 

I find it funny that it's even conceivable that I would NOT have maxed out my ram already. Lol. So yeah, try $200 per day and $1600 for a new computer. I'm just starting out.

 

Juraj:

 

Man, I just completed the render of all renders. About 20 hours for the lower quarter of the scene and no discernible advantage on the displaced geometry. Barely needs it. Or, well, it DOES need it but needs to be better applied as it looks crap even with it.

 

The displacement settings were 3D (not 2D) and 256 subdivs, edge length 4.0. Is this a somewhat high setting?

 

I hate displacement.

[stayinwonderland]

Or you can buy Batzal roof designer, its cheap and saves a lot of time

 

I hate Batzal more than displacement.

[RyderSK]

 

The displacement settings were 3D (not 2D) and 256 subdivs, edge length 4.0. Is this a somewhat high setting?

 

I hate displacement.

 

You are right in needing 3D displacement for something like roof since you need the light interactions and all the stuff "real" displacement brings. Vray 2D disp is just super powerful bump for microdetail.

 

Depending how subdivised is your mesh, but you might often just try something low, like 12 instead of 256, if it's just general shapes. Bring the micro detail through bump map.

[stayinwonderland]

Thanks for the tip dude, I'll definitely play with those settings next time displacement is being used. Really must buy a new system too.

[Zdravko Barisic]

I find it funny that it's even conceivable that I would NOT have maxed out my ram already. Lol. So yeah, try $200 per day and $1600 for a new computer. I'm just starting out.

 

Juraj:

 

Man, I just completed the render of all renders. About 20 hours for the lower quarter of the scene and no discernible advantage on the displaced geometry. Barely needs it. Or, well, it DOES need it but needs to be better applied as it looks crap even with it.

 

The displacement settings were 3D (not 2D) and 256 subdivs, edge length 4.0. Is this a somewhat high setting?

 

I hate displacement.

 

Man....that is TOO MUCH! Even 16 is somehow high settings! Go for 8-12, sometimes for some distabce grass 4 is enough.

 

I hate Batzal more than displacement.

 

Why? I am just curious.

[stayinwonderland]

Hmm, that is interesting to know that I can try getting away with 8-12! Looking forward to saving lots of time with that

 

Batzal. Firstly, I apply it to some geometry and the tiles are at 90 degrees to where they should be (orientation wise). No option to turn them, so have to literally start building the roof again and hope that it works next time.

 

Secondly, I sometimes apply it and the geometry warps, even a little. And there's nothing that can be done about that either.

 

Also, doesn't really save settings, so have to set up every roof from scratch ever time.

[RyderSK]

You can imagine the subdivisions as form of how many turbosmooth iterations you would put, it's dependant of original mesh, it's good to displace even, slightly more dense meshes. Than you can get away with lower subdivs, but not too low, then it kind of looses all benefits to point where you can just use turbosmooth with "render iterations" and regular (baked) displacement modifier on top.

[hrishikeshp]

Hello,

Did you get any warning message in vray log like: physical memory limit low?

[radu_ax]

Hello,

 

Batzal is indeed a difficult plugin as you said Andy. Not to mention inserting custom tiles in it, that is a real problem from what I experienced.

 

I use http://www.avizstudio.com/tools/atiles/ for roof tiles.

It is a very useful plugin for creating tiles of any kind. It is very easy to use and there is a free version also. Check it out.

 

From what I have read on the thread until now, displacement seems to be the main reason for your RAM issue.

As Juraj Talcik suggested, maybe is time to upgrade.

8Gb is really not enough, the trend now with RAM is "the more, the merrier".

[stayinwonderland]

Thanks for the link, definitely will look into that plugin.

 

I tried lowering the subdivs from 256 to 24 on that scene and it still half destroys my computer. So yeah, new computer for the new year methinks. Isn't it annoying that we're at the mercy of the motherboard and operating system's max ram.

[radu_ax]

What operating system are you using, if I may ask ?

[stayinwonderland]

Windows 7 home premium. I know I'll have to get pro with my new computer to accept 32gb.

[radu_ax]

The maximum amount of RAM that Windows can use depends on the platform on witch it is build, 64bit or 32 bit.

You have to check if you have the Home Premium on 32 or 64. If you already have the 64bit version, there is no need to upgrade your OS.

You will only have to upgrade the PC, or components ( Motherboard/RAM/Power supply...).

 

Hope it helps.

[stayinwonderland]

Not so:

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_7

 

Windows 7 home premium has a max ram of 16gb. Pro is 192gb.

 

Would be nice to find a motherboard that took more than 32gb but at the moment, even getting a PC off ebay with that much capacity is a slight challenge.