When to use proxies vs. instances

[simmsimaging]

So I've been working with images with many instances lately, and trying to find workarounds to some of the limits of scattering/Pflow distributing VrayProxies. What I came to realize is that I'm not even sure why I am using VrayProxies - I'm just button-monkeying based on threads I've seen

Further reading has still left me a bit unclear. Is the only point of using VrayProxies to lower RAM usage when the files crap out? Is it faster/better in any other way?

If not then using straight instances of my objects would seem to be a lot simpler.

Could anyone clarify this for me?

Thanks in advance.
b

[vlado]

Instances are certainly faster and V-Ray can handle them quite well. But the original mesh must be present in 3ds Max and take a certain amount of RAM. Little by little it adds up. So for really heavy scenes, proxies are the way to go. If you just need to instance one or two objects a lot, then instances will work better.

Best regards,
Vlado

[simmsimaging]

Thank you.

b

[Neilg]

We only use proxies for trees, plants, and static cars - very heavy objects that can have more polys than the rest of the entire scene, and which dont need any editing once they're in.

Instances for repeated elements which arent too heavy but might need some editing to fit - windows, doors, street furniture etc. If one needs to change, you can break the instance and just change a few as you need.

[simmsimaging]

Thanks for the help.
b