Vray not working properly on new workstation

[daltonwatts]

Hi guys!

 

I have a scene with around 6M polys. Only one proxy. Vray 3.3.05. 2D displacementmod turned on. It renders fine in 2 simple machines one with Xeon 1230 v2 (16gb RAM) and other i7 4770k (8gb RAM).

 

Tried rendering on my dual Xeon 2696 v3 with 32gb RAM and bang! Lightcache is a complete snail... If i save the lightcache and irradiancemap and load it on the dual Xeon bang! UNHANDLED EXCEPTION: Irradiance map thread and something to do with GlobalIllumMap::buildLightMap.

 

I've had problems with other scenes too especially it not being able to render with 3D displacementmod turned on. So basically this new dual xeon is on standby mode and i'm unable to use it in production... 3700€ later...

 

I've yet to try Corona renderer to see if the problem is vray related or hardware related. Something i'll try to do today.

[Francisco Penaloza]

There seems to be several problem between V_Ray and these new multi cores CPUs.

I would recommend to post this problem at Chaos group forums.

Hopefully they can give you a solution.

[daltonwatts]

As suspected, Corona has absolutely no problems with the same scene... Must talk to Vlado i guess.

[RyderSK]

The only problem Vray had was not recognising processor groups.

 

Since 2696v3 is OEM (or alternatively, ES/QS) version of 2699, it is 2x18 cores/36 threads, 72 threads total, which is over 64 threads, a limit by which Windows 7 a newer, will create processor groups and split the threads into two.

 

You need latest Vray version (3.4 SP) to solve this. Alternatively 3.3 with environment variable set.

[daltonwatts]

Hi Juraj! Latest version (3.40.02) solves the problem of lightcache being stuck on the scene i mentioned above but it doesn't solve the 3d displacementmod on the other scene. Basically if i turn ON 3D displacementmod on one single carpet, lightcache takes ages to be processed when the same doesn't happen on both single socket workstations. No problems with 2D displacementmod.

[daltonwatts]

Further update:

 

Vray DEMO 3.40.02 - 3ds Max 2014

Using 3d displacementmod (Edge Length = 2.0)

 

If i only use one cpu (36 threads):

 

Calculating Lightcache: 42 seconds

 

If i use both cpu's (72 threads):

 

Calculating Lightcache: 3 minutes

 

On single socket i7 4770k (8 threads):

 

Calculating Lightcache: 16 seconds

 

Something clearly isn't right here... Same 3ds max version, same vray demo version.

[Francisco Penaloza]

As suspected, Corona has absolutely no problems with the same scene... Must talk to Vlado i guess.

 

Well to make a fair comparison between Corona and VRay, you should only use Brute force in V Ray or at least, use Irr and Brute force as second pass. That way you should not have problem with displ.

 

Of course this is separated of the multi-core problem.

[RyderSK]

I don't use Vray, so can't do any test but you can try following:

 

do the CPUs work 100perc. during calculation stage (LC) ? All the threads ?

 

This is the same file, using the very same settings ? No accidental change (not necessarily by you) ? Things to look at: Dynamic memory, Bitmap proxy/Paging,etc..

[daltonwatts]

I'm almost certain cpu usage and threads are at 100% during lightcache. But i'll check again later today just to be sure. Same file, same settings, same everything

 

Tried also the same scene on Xeon 1230 v2 and lightcache calculates in 22 seconds.

Edited July 15, 2016 by daltonwatts

[daltonwatts]

Ok,

 

Update:

 

With 3d vraydisplacementmod turned on, during the lightcache calculation phase the Xeons cpu usage doesn't go past the 88-89% mark.

 

 

 

On the i7 4770K cpu usage is 100%.

 

 

That might explain something. Don't know what though