Scene file load crashes

[will_mclardy]

Dear Chaos Team!

I wonder if you could assist please? I'm having some issues loading scene files and can't figure out what is causing Vantage to crash. I first noticed issues loading up scenes with large numbers of proxy trees, nothing too heavy or larger than I'd loaded previously. Initially I'd assumed something corrupt in my Max scene but couldn't find any problems. Then I tried to load some scenes from a couple of months ago and I'm getting the same load errors. I've checked my drivers, windows updates and updated to latest V-ray MAX plugins and latest Vantage and still can't figure it out!
My system is 2x Nvidia 2080 Ti, 256Gb, AMD 3990X, I've attached Vantage.DMP and Debug_log files.

Any help much appreciated!

Kind regards

Will

[vladimir.nedev]

nothing too heavy or larger than I'd loaded previously.

You mean loaded previously with Vantage ?

It looks like Vantage is running out of GPU memory. Can you send us the scene for investigation ?

Looking at the log, the scene has quite a lot of unique materials (around 8000).
I am guessing they are mostly duplicates.
If you can replace them with a single material, Vantage might be able to run slightly faster.
But I don't expect even this many materials to cause memory issues.
They should use around 2 KBs per materials or 16 MBs total.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[will_mclardy]

Thank you for your reply Vladimir,
Yes the scenes loaded previously in Vantage. They are quite large though and would use more than the Vram ram on 1 card, say around 16Gb. Unfortunately these materials are unique. There's a large amount of Geo data in each scene and it's too complex to combine to into a single mesh.
If I send you the scene file, I guess I need to send you the assets also? It'll be quite a large download if you're ok with that?

Kind regards
Will

[vladimir.nedev]

You don't have to worry about the materials.

Did you have the "safe memory allocations" option disabled previously to make it load ?
Going above the available GPU memory sometimes works and this is handled by DirectX/Windows/GPU driver, but is generally not stable.

Still, the scene will be helpful in investigating how we can improve on our side when the GPU memory is not enough.

Yes, I will need the assets too.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[will_mclardy]

Thanks Vladimir,

Until I can get my hands on a couple of new A6000's I'm stuck trying to manage out of memory issues. Urban design projects are always pretty heavy! I have to say though the scene had been very stable throughout the project. It's odd the D3D errors suddenly start cropping up. Interestingly I managed to get one scene loaded into Vantage using the live link function but having Max & Vantage running at the same time wasn't ideal. I'll package up the scene resources for you if you wouldn't mind a quick look.

Kind regards

[vladimir.nedev]

I'll package up the scene resources for you if you wouldn't mind a quick look.

Yes, please, but don't raise your hopes, we will need to do some serious work to improve memory consumption.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[will_mclardy]

Thank you Vladimir,

I know! What you've accomplished so far is truly impressive. I'm not kidding about those A6000. Vantage is a tool I'm prepared to invest in!
I'm uploading a zip to our SharePoint.... Both my kids are now in gaming mode so it may take a while. Is there a way to post you the link privatively?

Kind regards

[vladimir.nedev]

You can send it to my e-mail. It's in my signature.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[will_mclardy]

Hi Vladimir,

Just wanted to check you'd received my email last week? There's no huge rush but I'd wanted to check you'd been able to download the scene files before I remove from SharePoint.

Many thanks

Will

[vladimir.nedev]

Sorry for the lack of reply. I did download it, yes. You can delete it.
I want to finish some stuff and I will give it a try, probably on Monday.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[will_mclardy]

Thank you!

[will_mclardy]

Any luck Vladimir?

[vladimir.nedev]

Sorry, things didn't go as planned

I just took a quick look.
The scene did load for me and Vantage reports it's taking 17 GBs (this is a value returned by DirectX about an application's GPU memory consumption).
GPUz on the other hand reports that the overall GPU memory used is 10108 MBs.

I am on an RTX 3080 with 10 GBs, GPU driver 461.72, Windows 10 version 1909 (I've been postponing the update).
I am using an internal Vantage build, but I don't think it has relevant changes.

It could be pure luck or the older version of Windows doing something different, not sure which one you are on.

I will send you a screen-shot by e-mail.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[vladimir.nedev]

Yep, it was luck, I tried loading the scene a second time and it crashed, then a third time and it worked again, this time reporting 18+ GBs.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[will_mclardy]

Thank you Vladimir, Really appreciate you taking a look for me. Useful just knowing you are getting similar issues. Definitely strange memory allocation going on somewhere. As said it really is odd though how this project remained stable for so long (makes me feeling like maybe I just imagined it!!) but that now current projects have started becoming unstable too points to a change somewhere in the system configuration. I'm going to try running some tests with single GPU, with SLI off and might try taking the cards out and reseating them. I'll also try setting up the projects with different configurations. There's maybe some way I can optimize the amount of textures and reduce the detail in ForestPack. Failing that I'll probably just scale back the size of my projects until I can get my hands on some new cards! Thanks again.
Kind regards
Will