20gb of RAM but windows is still swapping !!!!

[stevesideas]

I have a 3dsmax scene where the memory usage goes to about 10gb. There are lots of multiscatter proxies and fairly large textures.

For some reason though even though I have 10gb free, if for instance I stop the render half way through there is still lots of disk swapping.

I have vray memory set to 0 after reading a post by Vlado. All 20gb is detected in windows 7. Im using 64 bit obviously.

Any ideas what I can do about this ?

[glorybound]

I have found that multiscatter makes for a very unstable 3ds MAX. I have been using Brute Force for my second bounce, with a smaller bucket size, to be able to use multiscatter successfully.

[stevesideas]

Ok, that may be the case but if max shows that im only using 10gb why does it swap ? Doesnt max report the total memory usage including the multiscatter elements. Im using BF for my secondary bounce too.

[stevesideas]

In fact...i just checked the processes in the task manager. Max is actually using 14gb...which is still 6gb under the total amount I have !

[glorybound]

are your cpu's maxing out first? Did you try setting your memory limit to something like 18gb? maybe the 0 setting isn't working, which is under V-Ray 2.0 beta (correct?)

[stevesideas]

I'll try setting it to 18gb and see if that works. Yes, that works for the latest version of Vray.

[BBB3]

Sorry to pollute Steve's thread, but I wanted to ask Bobby, what kind of problems are you getting since installing MultiScatter?

I'm also dealing with extreme instability in 2010 and 2011 since installing MultiScatter. I haven't found any workarounds and I'm thinking of switching entirely to ForrestPro, which I also own. I'm still in two minds, though, as I've got used to the MultiScatter workflow and haven't really played with Forrest since installing it. Plus I hate the idea of having to convert lots of scenes...

Any thoughts? Any solutions to make Max work stably with MultiScatter?

Of course, my problems could have absolutely nothing to do with MS, it's just a strong suspicion at this stage.

[glorybound]

I just get a lot of crashing and menu issues. If I have any Mutiscatter(s) in my scene and I try to import something I crash %95 of the time. My undo also makes my scene crash... my workaround is to drag-n-drop for import and CTRL Z for undo. If I right mouse click on the display (ie. wireframe, shaded) the menu doesn't show up for about 45 seconds. When I remove the Multiscatter(s) then everything starts working fine. I also had vray swapping memory until I switched to BF for the second bounce.

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

to Bobby and Bertrand:
woudl it not be better to commonly divert the stability request to the guys at rendering.ru??? Not much happening on the Multiscatter forum...

[glorybound]

I tried the render.ru guys, but they said that they are not seeing any issues.

[stevesideas]

Do you have problems after rendering when using multiscatter..when you go to the file menu and try and look at the asset manager or maybe import something ? Max just crashes straight away. Im not sure if this is multiscatter or not...It is a very large scene but it shouldnt really do that as I have enough memory.

[glorybound]

Yes. Import and undo (or any menu thing it seams) crashes max when using multiscatter. If I remove the multiscatter then it no longer crashes. I drag-n-drop for imports and CTRL Z for undo while working in a scene usng multiscatter.

[BBB3]

I tried the render.ru guys, but they said that they are not seeing any issues.

Same here... It's also pretty hard to reproduce as things generally work ok on simple scenes. The bigger the scene, the more instable Max becomes. But I'm also getting some issues with non-MS scenes, though not as often. And indeed, a lot of people seem to be working with MS on 2010 and 2011 without any problems. So it might be a conflict between different plugins or something along those lines. Hard to diagnose.

[stevesideas]

ok...thats kind of good to know. Have you started a thread on the render.ru website ?

[stevesideas]

By the way, im assuming you are using max 2011 ? Not sure if the same thing happens with max 2010..