Memory Problems: 2GB limit ???

[nisus]

Hi all,

 

I'm having problems with rendering large images. I'm not really sure what the cause is, but I thought it must have something to do with RAM...

 

For the moment I'm having the problems with MR in 3dsmax 6 and 7 on machines with 2GB RAM and 4095Kb swap disk space (maximum).

 

I've read some stuff about memory limitations in XP in a another thread http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/showthread.php?p=56163#post56163

 

Also unfortunately, Max allocates RAM for the entire frame buffer, even in the case of split frame rendering, so RAM shortages due to the 2GB limit are unaffected for Max. AFAIK, the only render engine we support that does not have this particular issue is Lightwave, because it renders images in smaller segments to conserve memory. [Of course, this leads to artifacts with certain plugins ]

So I have a few questions:

- What does that 'allocation of RAM for the entire frame buffer in the case of split rendering' mean in plain language, i.e. what CAN and CANNOT be done?

Is it so that rendering every strip has to take under 2Gb of RAM? If so, what about swap space. Does this count too, so that the limit is under 6Gb? (or am I totally lost here?)

 

- Does MR-DBR solves this limitation (as long as every bucket needs under 2Gb/6Gb)?

 

- How can this be solved?

 

- What platform does NOT have this limit? (and what's an guestimated pricetag?)

 

rgds

 

nisus

[rivoli]

as long as i know windows can't allocate more than 2 GB of memory for a single process, which means max will stop working if your memory usage goes anywhere near 2 GB.

anyway, there's a way to tell windows to allocate up to 3 GB of memory per application. here's a thread about it, hope it can help to solve your problem (if it really depend on running out of memory):

 

http://www.chaoticdimension.com/forums/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5014&highlight=3gb

[abicalho]

There are 3 solutions:

 

1. Use the Bitmap Pager

2. ENable the 3GB Switch in Boot.INI

3. Use a 64 bit processor with 64 bit windows XP and your app will allocate up to 4GB

 

Alexander