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Some time ago I ran into a topic on The Area about Optimizing XP for 3dsMax and I'm wondering what you guys think about it.
Would it really be better if you'd have a 5Gb HD just for your Virtual Memory for example?
I've already set up a system according to this "guide" but haven't been able to work with it properly because my powersupply and motherboard got fried -_-
Would it really be better if you'd have a 5Gb HD just for your Virtual Memory for example?
I've already set up a system according to this "guide" but haven't been able to work with it properly because my powersupply and motherboard got fried -_-
I saw an Increase of cases where mental ray and the scanline renderer gives memory errors while rendering. I decided to create a small document on how to optimize WinXp to get rid of those troubles.
When dealing with Bitmaps and plug-ins, 3ds Max needs huge amount of continuous memory and that's why your system's paging file is very important. “Continuous memory” means no fragmentation on the hard drive space allocated to the virtual memory.
When you first setup your machine, create 2 to 3 partitions. One for the OS and your applications ( about 30GB ), the second will hold the virtual memory ( about 4.2GB ), the rest will be used for your remaining Data.
Setting up Windows XP sp2 3GB switch :
1.Right-click on “My Computer” icon found on your desktop and select “Properties”.
2.Go to the “Advanced” tab , and click the” Settings” button in the “Startup and Recovery” section.
3.Click the “Edit” button under the “System Startup” section.
4.Copy the last line of the boot.ini file and paste it on the next line. Change the string “Microsoft Windows XP professional” of the first line (the one you just copied) to something like “Microsoft Windows XP professional with 3GB switch”, the next time you boot , you’ll have 2 option like a dual boot , if nothing is picked within 30 secs , the first line is chosen. At the end of that line add /3GB like example below :
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional with 3GB switch" /fastdetect /3GB
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
If the OS doesn’t boot correctly, restart your machine and select the second OS when prompted (the one without the switch).
Please note: The 3gb switch only works with Windows XP service pack 2. Make sure to copy the windows 32bit line, not windows XP 64 for example (if it's installed).
Refer to this link for further information
At this point, you're system's paging file is setup on the c:\ drive and is probably fragmented. If you partitioned your HD like me, do a deep defragmentation on the virtual memory partition, else, do it on your c:\ drive.
It is recommended that you use a 3rd party defragmenter like Diskeeper. They usually do a better job then the windows native one.
Managing you virtual memory in windows:
1. Right-click on “My Computer” icon found on your desktop and select “Properties”.
2. Go to the “Advanced” tab and click the “Settings” button under the “Performance” section.
3. In the “Advanced” tab, under the “Virtual Memory” section , click “Change”.
4. Select the drive you want the paging file to be set to. (If you created a partition for the virtual memory select that drive) .
5. Select the “Custom size” radio button.
6. Now set the “Initial size (MB)” and the “Maximum size (MB)” to 4096.
7. Click the “Set” button.
8. If you created a partition, select the c:\ drive in the drive section, then select the “no paging file” radio button and click “Set”. Here we're telling Windows to set the paging file to another partition than the c drive.
Improving windows performance:
1. Right-click on “My Computer” icon found on your desktop and select “Properties”.
2. Go to the “Advanced” tab and click the “Settings” button under the “Performance” section.
3. Under the “Visual Effects” tab, select the “Adjust For Best Performance” radio button.
Disabling Auto-runs on startup:
Some applications are loaded at startup, applications that one really doesn't need when rendering. Quicktime, msn messenger, DVD players just to name a few.
1. Click on “ Start ”, then select “Run...” .
2. Type”msconfig” in the edit box then press enter .
3. Under the “General” tab, select the “Selective Startup” radio button and uncheck the “Load Startup Items” check box.
Disabling Unnecessary Services:
1. Right-click on “My computer” icon found on your desktop and select “manage”.
2. Select the Services and Applications roll-out and double-click on services.
3. Disable these services :
-Alerter
-Distributed Link Tracking Client
-Help and Support
-Indexing Service
-IPSEC Services
-Portable Media Serial Number
-Remote Registry Service
-Secondary Logon
-SSDP Discovery Service
-Telnet
-Upload Manager
-Wireless Zero Configuration - (If you are on a wireless network leave this enabled)
Also check for installed services that you don't need, like Ipod and Quicktime. It is also good to mention that anti-viruse software and firewalls use lots of RAM - if you're rendering, please disable them.
If you really want to go crazy with optimization you can also disable windows sound, A list of things you could do can be found here : http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html
I hope this will help,
cheers,
Pierre Quirion
technical Support Specialist
Autodesk, Media and Entertainment Division
When dealing with Bitmaps and plug-ins, 3ds Max needs huge amount of continuous memory and that's why your system's paging file is very important. “Continuous memory” means no fragmentation on the hard drive space allocated to the virtual memory.
When you first setup your machine, create 2 to 3 partitions. One for the OS and your applications ( about 30GB ), the second will hold the virtual memory ( about 4.2GB ), the rest will be used for your remaining Data.
Setting up Windows XP sp2 3GB switch :
1.Right-click on “My Computer” icon found on your desktop and select “Properties”.
2.Go to the “Advanced” tab , and click the” Settings” button in the “Startup and Recovery” section.
3.Click the “Edit” button under the “System Startup” section.
4.Copy the last line of the boot.ini file and paste it on the next line. Change the string “Microsoft Windows XP professional” of the first line (the one you just copied) to something like “Microsoft Windows XP professional with 3GB switch”, the next time you boot , you’ll have 2 option like a dual boot , if nothing is picked within 30 secs , the first line is chosen. At the end of that line add /3GB like example below :
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional with 3GB switch" /fastdetect /3GB
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
If the OS doesn’t boot correctly, restart your machine and select the second OS when prompted (the one without the switch).
Please note: The 3gb switch only works with Windows XP service pack 2. Make sure to copy the windows 32bit line, not windows XP 64 for example (if it's installed).
Refer to this link for further information
At this point, you're system's paging file is setup on the c:\ drive and is probably fragmented. If you partitioned your HD like me, do a deep defragmentation on the virtual memory partition, else, do it on your c:\ drive.
It is recommended that you use a 3rd party defragmenter like Diskeeper. They usually do a better job then the windows native one.
Managing you virtual memory in windows:
1. Right-click on “My Computer” icon found on your desktop and select “Properties”.
2. Go to the “Advanced” tab and click the “Settings” button under the “Performance” section.
3. In the “Advanced” tab, under the “Virtual Memory” section , click “Change”.
4. Select the drive you want the paging file to be set to. (If you created a partition for the virtual memory select that drive) .
5. Select the “Custom size” radio button.
6. Now set the “Initial size (MB)” and the “Maximum size (MB)” to 4096.
7. Click the “Set” button.
8. If you created a partition, select the c:\ drive in the drive section, then select the “no paging file” radio button and click “Set”. Here we're telling Windows to set the paging file to another partition than the c drive.
Improving windows performance:
1. Right-click on “My Computer” icon found on your desktop and select “Properties”.
2. Go to the “Advanced” tab and click the “Settings” button under the “Performance” section.
3. Under the “Visual Effects” tab, select the “Adjust For Best Performance” radio button.
Disabling Auto-runs on startup:
Some applications are loaded at startup, applications that one really doesn't need when rendering. Quicktime, msn messenger, DVD players just to name a few.
1. Click on “ Start ”, then select “Run...” .
2. Type”msconfig” in the edit box then press enter .
3. Under the “General” tab, select the “Selective Startup” radio button and uncheck the “Load Startup Items” check box.
Disabling Unnecessary Services:
1. Right-click on “My computer” icon found on your desktop and select “manage”.
2. Select the Services and Applications roll-out and double-click on services.
3. Disable these services :
-Alerter
-Distributed Link Tracking Client
-Help and Support
-Indexing Service
-IPSEC Services
-Portable Media Serial Number
-Remote Registry Service
-Secondary Logon
-SSDP Discovery Service
-Telnet
-Upload Manager
-Wireless Zero Configuration - (If you are on a wireless network leave this enabled)
Also check for installed services that you don't need, like Ipod and Quicktime. It is also good to mention that anti-viruse software and firewalls use lots of RAM - if you're rendering, please disable them.
If you really want to go crazy with optimization you can also disable windows sound, A list of things you could do can be found here : http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html
I hope this will help,
cheers,
Pierre Quirion
technical Support Specialist
Autodesk, Media and Entertainment Division
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