pheonix FD render and crashs

[BBHead]

Hi Guys,

I have made a still of a ship moving through the ocean. I have a simulator set to Ocean in rendering tab.
However 3ds max keeps crashing during rendering. Most times when render is nearly complete. I have three questions really.

1. Is there something I can do to stop crashes? Any tips?
2. How best to manage a scene with a phoenix simulation involved?
3. Can I render out ocean, foam and splashes in separate passes?

The simulation grid has no more than 15 million particles

Thanks Guys!

Michael

[Ivaylo Katev]

you mean, the crash is not always on the same frame? you can open the task manager to see the RAM usage, one of the most common reasons for crash is the RAM overload. if not this is the case, we should find way to reproduce the problem here.

[BBHead]

I am only rendering one frame. Its a still image that I'm making. It crashes when it 95% of frame rendered. I am also getting a lot more crashes in general when using phoenix. I have 32 gigs of ram. And Dynamic limit in vray is set to 20 gigs.
Would a dump file from max be of use to you?

[BBHead]

Now that I think of it. render also keeps freezing on pre-pass

[BBHead]

Running a render right now that's stuck on pre-pass but I still have 19 gigs of memory available. Currently using 13,1 gigs

[Ivaylo Katev]

no, the dump file is not useful.
ok, can we get the cache file and the scene? i suppose the cache file is big so ask the support where to transfer it

[BBHead]

I can send you this but it may take a little time.
I can now replicate part of the problem. The pre-pass freeze only happens when I have displacement enabled in rendering tab in simulation options. Why is that? I need to fix this before I attempt to replicate render crash.

[Ivaylo Katev]

if the displacement causes freezing or crash, decrease the subdivisions, too many triangles.

[BBHead]

Hi,

I assume you mean global displacement subdivisions. I have and it does not help.
When I render image at really small resolutions(300*225) it moves, but very slowly!!!!!!

[BBHead]

It's also hanging on same bucket every time. Right where most foam and splashes are. When there is no foam and splashes the scene renders really quickly

[BBHead]

One last post before I retreat from my computer feeling utterly deflated. Brute force as both primary and secondary source of GI worked. Light cache and irradiance were a total diaster.

We could use "https://www.wetransfer.com/" to send files. Would need an email to send it though.

[Ivaylo Katev]

Hi,

I assume you mean global displacement subdivisions. I have and it does not help.
When I render image at really small resolutions(300*225) it moves, but very slowly!!!!!!

no, i mean the phoenix displacement subdivisions, "skyline subdivisions" in the official build, "mesh subdivisions" in the latest nightly

[BBHead]

Hi Ivaylo,

I have tried turning skyline divisions right down but still no good. Any render bigger than 3000*2250 pixels gives me problems. As soon as I turn on Ocean option in the rendering rollout of sim and hit render the ram use maxes out at 32 gigs. It then usually freezes and crashes. I need to be able to render a 6000*4500 pixel image for a project I have to deliver.

What I have been doing now is using cap option and trying to blend it with an ocean plane I made myself. Waiting for a test render now to check if results are ok.

Is there no way to limit the ocean size? As opposed to it been infinite. It is really chewing up memory usage.

Michael

[Ivaylo Katev]

if the subdivisions do not help, perhaps it may be related to the foam? can you try to render without foam to check this possibility.

[BBHead]

Hi Ivaylo,

Tried without foam. My ram is still getting maxed out at 32 gb. The resource monitor showed I was maybe committing a little less ram than before but still having the same problem.

I got some ok results with cap. Will have to do some post work in photoshop to blend cap and ocean plane together so it won't be seen at higher resolutions.

Michael