Vray 5 (and 6), VrayBitmap and mipmap

[bardo]

Just for simple general question about textures and memory load.
If I use VrayBitmap and I load a standard image file format like jpg, png or tiff, Vray CPU loads all the textures at full resolution? Is there any difference on this matter from Vray 5 and 6 ?

Thanks in advance.

[dimitar_panayotov]

There shouldn't be a difference in how the maps are loaded between V-Ray 5 and V-Ray 6. Is there anything suspicious?

[bardo]

There shouldn't be a difference in how the maps are loaded between V-Ray 5 and V-Ray 6. Is there anything suspicious?

Oh no, nothing suspicious, just my personal culture about Vray.
Is it correct that if I use VrayBitmap loading a file format like JPG, PNG or TIFF, the texture is loaded inside memory at full resolution, without any mipmap and it will be loaded also if it will never be engaged in the frame calculations?
I mean: if I want to save memory I have to switch to tx file format for on-demand mipmapping. Correct?
Or you developed something I've lost that does on-demand mipmapping in an automatic way also with standard image file format?

[dimitar_panayotov]

The formats that contain mipmapping are .tx and .tif.
Formats like regular TIF, PNG, and JPG could be loaded only with full resolution.

Edit. DDS could also have mipmapping, but it's not supported by us with mipmapping.

[bardo]

The formats that contain mipmapping are .tx and .tif.
Formats like regular TIF, PNG, and JPG could be loaded only with full resolution.

Edit. DDS could also have mipmapping, but it's not supported by us with mipmapping.

Perfect.
Thank you for reply.

[dimitar_panayotov]

In addition to the info above. If you want to save memory further, tiled maps are needed. This will allow you to load only the tiles from the texture visible in your image. OpenEXR (.exr) format allows you to save mipmapped images that are also tiled. You could have mip-mapped and tiled .tx and .tif files as well.
We have a tool that comes with V-Ray, which can convert a regular image to a mipmapped tiled EXR.
https://docs.chaos.com/display/VRAY4...+EXR+Converter

[damaggio]

Is this really correct dimitar? it's not what the Docs say...... V-Ray loads the textures as needed and automatically creates mip-map tiles for them (regardless of their texture type). As a result, the GPU memory consumption is decreased
Just wanted to be clear about this, also is there a setting for this to happen when using the CPU? ....I'm in Maya though.
Thanks

Rodolfo

[Vizioen]

That's what Lele also mentions here and there, it depends on the blur value of the bitmap as far as I remember. So when you put the blur value to 0.01 it will always use full resolution. Or does this only apply to tiled exr or tx files?

[Muhammed_Hamed]

That's what Lele also mentions here and there, it depends on the blur value of the bitmap as far as I remember. So when you put the blur value to 0.01 it will always use full resolution. Or does this only apply to tiled exr or tx files?

Applies to all file types

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Is this really correct dimitar? it's not what the Docs say...... V-Ray loads the textures as needed and automatically creates mip-map tiles for them (regardless of their texture type). As a result, the GPU memory consumption is decreased
Just wanted to be clear about this, also is there a setting for this to happen when using the CPU? ....I'm in Maya though.
Thanks

Rodolfo

Dimitar is correct, V-Ray GPU mip-mapping option works in a different way
It is a very complicated system and will be deprecated soon(because it has many issues)

[dimitar_panayotov]

Just adding here.
We apply mip-mapping internally in V-Ray to every texture regardless of their format after they were loaded. This helps for a better sampling. However, this does not save memory.
V-Ray GPU is a separate renderer and Muhammed answered there.

[Vizioen]

Just adding here.
We apply mip-mapping internally in V-Ray to every texture regardless of their format after they were loaded. This helps for a better sampling. However, this does not save memory.
V-Ray GPU is a separate renderer and Muhammed answered there.

Ah thanks quite an important detail.

[damaggio]

Okay Dimitar and Muhammed, this information helps a lot to clarify how these texture files are being handled in Vray, thanks a bunch.

[damaggio]

Sorry to come back guys but after digesting this info I still have an inquiry...

GPU works in a different way with mipmaping and Chaos is working on a different approach for the future.( Good)

CPU, all textures once loaded are Mipmaped automatically under the hood to improve sampling, does not save memory.

So there's no need to change any settings in Vray rendering menu and no need to convert textures to mipmap prior to working ( as long as they are power of 2)...except a DDS texture.
I'm trying to update an answer in the Maya rendering forum but I want to be correct about it first.
Also the file texture attribute changing to Mipmap , does it help in any way with Vray?
Thanks again.

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Hey damaggio

There is no need to swap filtering to Mipmap, Sharp Mipmap is usually the best option. It is similar to Isotropic filtering in 3Ds Max
This filtering type introduced in V-Ray 5 helps on keeping sharp high frequency details in your bitmaps, without having to turn off blur/filtering, you could use filtering multipier of 0.2 for normal maps and bump maps
I don't know if Sharp Mip-map is used by default in the file node internally, I will ask and get back to you

Best,
Muhammed