Direct3d error

[3dloft]

Hello,

I've been using Vantage for over a year now and all of a sudden I'm getting a direct 3D error when opening (see attached error image and debug log). I upgraded to Vray6 and Vantage 1.8.1 several weeks ago and have been using it without any problems until today. Still using the same Nvidia video cards (2X Nvidia GeForce RTX2080 TI) that I've had over the last year. Nvidia Driver 516.93 - latest for that card..

I even tried opening older Vantage files and still getting error. Any Ideas?

thanks, Dave

[vladimir.nedev]

Is it a large scene, maybe you are running out of GPU memory ?

Did this scene open correctly on a previous version of Vantage (e.g. 1.7.x) and what happens if you go back to that version ?

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[3dloft]

I've been using the same scene for over a week. Nothing has changed.. I'm also having the same problem using older smaller scenes. I'd like to stay with the new 1.8.1 version so I can use the Chaos procedural clouds. I also have the safe GPU allocations box unchecked.

today when opening Vantage I received a message saying Nvidia driver 516.93 has not been tested and I should use driver 472.98. I checked Nvidia website and that driver not supported for GeForce RTX 2080 ti.

update: rolled back driver to Nvidia 512.15 ( got untested error again). Reinstalled Vantage 1.7.4 and still getting Direct 3D error and locking up when loading any scene.

[vladimir.nedev]

Personally, I am using driver 512.15 on my RTX 3080 dev machine and have no issues.
I think we never marked the 5xx drivers as tested because there was a suspected slow down issue with them
where the driver doesn't use the max boost clock or something like this.

and still getting Direct 3D error and locking up when loading any scene.

Even on a single cube ?
If so, I would suggest using some tool to completely clean the installed driver and install it again.
Also, cleaning the driver shader cache might help.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[3dloft]

Hi Vladimir,

Thanks for helping. Really appreciate it. I did a clean install of driver and cleaned out Nvidia caches. Still having problems.

I opened some very small scenes and they open just fine. After opening quite a few larger scenes - I've noticed that the ones that crash are the ones with Forest pack vegetation in them. I'm using the latest forest pack update which is compatible with Vray6..

The weird thing is - I was working on a very large scene with a lot of forest pack vegetation in it for about a week and had no problems at all. I saved out several vantage files - now I can't open any of them without getting D3D errors.

[vladimir.nedev]

Ok, so the issue is scene specific and is most likely related to Forest Pack and possibly to running out of memory.

Are you using the "edge mode" on your Forest objects ?
When this mode is used, each instance that gets sliced by an edge has its own internal multi material with per-face info about the face's visibility.
If you are instancing geometry with lots of faces and have a lot of instances that are affected by edges, a large amount of GPU memory might be needed.

If disabling "edge mode" doesn't help, we will need the scene to test and debug.
You can send it to the e-mail in my signature or using the support form at https://support.chaos.com ,
but please mention this forum thread.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[3dloft]

All forest pack objects are set to point. I archived scene and emailed you a link.

thanks for your help!

[vladimir.nedev]

Thank you for the scene.

I couldn't reproduce the issue on my machine.
Tomorrow, QA will also give it a try.

Have you tried looking at the VRAM usage in GPU-Z while loading the scene ?
The .vantage file is setup to use 1440p resolution, which requires ~1.6GBs of additional VRAM compared to 720p.
Maybe try loading just the .vrscene file (you will need to rename or move the .vantage file as otherwise it will be automatically loaded).

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[vladimir.nedev]

Also, can you send me the log file after Vantage crashes/produces the error message ?

It's called "debug_log.txt" in %appdata%\Chaos Group\Vantage

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[3dloft]

What's the easiest way to check the VRAM usage while loading the scene? MSI afterburner?

[vladimir.nedev]

I use GPU-Z on the "Sensors" tab.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[3dloft]

Hi Vladimir,
Still having problems with forest pack geometry files crashing. I emailed you a dropbox link with very small file containing a box and several forest pack cactus in it that gave me Direct 3D error and locked up. I also included the Vantage debug and GPU-Z files.
Let me know what you find.
thanks, Dave

[vladimir.nedev]

Hi Vladimir,
Still having problems with forest pack geometry files crashing. I emailed you a dropbox link with very small file containing a box and several forest pack cactus in it that gave me Direct 3D error and locked up. I also included the Vantage debug and GPU-Z files.
Let me know what you find.
thanks, Dave

We haven't been able to reproduce the issue here.

I have some more questions/observations/suggestions:

1. Do you get the lock up when opening the scene or after that while you are working on the scene ?

2. Can you disable one of your GPUs from Edit->Render Devices and test if you get the crash this way (Vantage has to be restarted for the device changes to take effect).

3. There is something very strange in your GPU-Z log - the amount of used GPU memory is being reported as a negative value.
I can't find anything recent in google, but older forum posts suggest this might be a driver issue.

4. The debug log suggests that plenty of memory is available and then suddenly Vantage can't allocate a buffer.
This looks like a driver issue to me.

5. Do you use any other GPU intensive applications ? Are you having any issues with them or is it just Vantage ?

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[3dloft]

1. Do you get the lock up when opening the scene or after that while you are working on the scene ?
Large scenes upon opening. Small scene (box / cactus) after moving from camera to camera..

2. Can you disable one of your GPUs from Edit->Render Devices and test if you get the crash this way (Vantage has to be restarted for the device changes to take effect).
I only have the option of 2X gpu's (see attachment). Is there another way of disabling one of the vide0 cards to test? I checked and unchecked both boxes.

3. There is something very strange in your GPU-Z log - the amount of used GPU memory is being reported as a negative value.
I can't find anything recent in google, but older forum posts suggest this might be a driver issue.
I've been using the same video cards and driver for over a year without problem.

4. The debug log suggests that plenty of memory is available and then suddenly Vantage can't allocate a buffer.
This looks like a driver issue to me. The only thing that's changed recently is - I upgraded to 3DS Max 2023 and Vantage 1.8.1. I never had any problems using 3DS Max 2021 and previous Vantage updates up to 1.7.4.

5. Do you use any other GPU intensive applications ? Are you having any issues with them or is it just Vantage ?
I use Vray every day using IPR and haven't had any problems.

Thanks for your help.

[vladimir.nedev]

I only have the option of 2X gpu's (see attachment). Is there another way of disabling one of the vide0 cards to test? I checked and unchecked both boxes.

I didn't know nvLinked GPUs show as one in that dialog.
I guess you will have to disable nvLink/SLI so you can test only one GPU.

The only thing that's changed recently is - I upgraded to 3DS Max 2023 and Vantage 1.8.1. I never had any problems using 3DS Max 2021 and previous Vantage updates up to 1.7.4.

But earlier you said that :

Reinstalled Vantage 1.7.4 and still getting Direct 3D error and locking up when loading any scene.

?
It's important to know if 1.7.4 has the same issue or not in order to narrow down what change on our side might have caused this.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev