VrayProxy - many small or few big?

[duke2]

I have a large master plan scene with over 100 specifically placed apartment towers, where there's a mixture of 4 base shapes - 2, 3, 4, 5 modules across and an L-shape, and 4 versions of each - 8, 12, 18, 30 storey. They all use common components.

My question is, should I spit out lots of VrayProxies (ie. Balcony types, level variations) and assemble the variations using those proxies, or should I assmble them using regular instances in Max and export each complete tower as a single VrayProxy?

[vlado]

It would be best to do a few tests, I guess. Having a lot of proxies occupying the same volume in space would typically be slower to render than a few large proxies that combine the elements, but on the other hand if you have to spend a lot of time producing these, it might not be worth it.

Best regards,
Vlado

[duke2]

Reporting back that many small proxies give Max diarrhea. I had what added up to about 2000 instanced proxies, where there were about 15 unique's. Max took 34 minutes to do the "Translating Vertices" bit, and vray took 20 minutes to render it.

Hell no.