RAM usage Problem

[Olli96]

I got a question regarding the RAM usage of max/vray. right now i am working on a scene and got lots of problems when it comes to rendering the scene. The RAM usage goes up to 1.5GB before even the LC and IRR calculation starts and my pc at work is always crashing. i am rendering with low settings and only in low res (1000*800), in the end i have to render it in A4 and A3...
The polycount is only at 1.078.934, i am just using one VRayLight and a couple of vray proxies which would add another 1 million polys to the scene - just a couple of plants instanced around. so my question is, what could cause this high ram usage? i saw other post with tons of polys and proxies and they rendered with no problem on a pc with 1.5GB. the pc i got at work is a x2 4600 with 1.5GB. i can render the scenes at home were i got plenty of RAM but driving home everytime i need to render the scene is not very comfortable.
thanks in advance

Olli

[HMA_Steve]

do you have lots of large texture maps? if so try reducing the size (by that i mean the pixel size not the size on disc), using any shadow maps?
Try dynamic rather than static under the system tab.

[Olli96]

thanks for the reply, all textures together are 110mb on the hdd. largest texture size is 2000x2000 pixels - nothing fancy at all.
no shadow maps.

Olli

EDIT: tried it with dynamic memory set to 400, 600 and 800, its still crashing when the lc starts to calculate.

[BELCORP_SAC]

Are you using vray displacement in large areas?
Displacement some times ends in memory crashes.

Cheers

Onz

[Olli96]

no, i am not using displacement at all...

here is a screenshot:

as you can see the ram is over 1.7gb before the lc starts to calculate, after the lc is done its already at 2gb...

[vlado]

What are your light cache settings? 300 MB for the light cache sounds a bit too much.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Olli96]

Subdivs: 800
Sample size: 0,02

could it be that opacity maps are causing this "problem" ?

Olli

[werticus]

1.5g of ram for machine that needs to render... just isnt enough to do anything imo

get 4 at LEAST. solved!

or use brute for secondary, it would use less ram.

[Olli96]

well, i agree, but i also think that it should be possible to render 1 million polys on a pc with 2gb. all the shaders are very simply, i didnt even used any specular maps on this one and was very carefully with the glossiness parameters, the render settings are low, low irr map settings and low lc settings. all plants and cars in the scene are vray proxies and i am using a lot of instances.
i havent had this problem before, i was using that pc to render much more complex scenes without any problems, thats why i was curious about what could cause this very high ram usage. like i said, at home i got plenty of ram and its no problem to render an a4 and a3 image. its just very time consuming that i have to drive home every time the clients wants to see a rendering i will see if switching to qmc will solve the "problem".

thanks for all the replys guys.

Olli

EDIT: tried it with brute force, the ram usage still goes up to 1.7gb when the irr map calculation starts. when i start the rendering the ram usage is at 1.3gb. after the geometry is loaded its at 1.4gb and after the building static raycast accelerator phase its at 1.7gb.

[RErender]

What AA are you using? Adaptive Sub with big buckets can use a lot of RAM

[Olli96]

i am using adaptive dmc 2/6

[QuakeMarine1]

turn on the 3GB switch

go workplace c:
unhide system files under folder options and
edit c:\boot.ini

go last line .. /fastdetect and add /3gb
looks like
.. /fastdetect /3gb

save and reboot

now you OS can apply 3 GB per application even you have only 2bg

btw: it is useless the add 4GB or 5GB

OT: hallo olli96 grz vom Farmer

[Olli96]

so the 3gb switch also works with 2gb ram ? cool, i will try it tomorrow

Olli

PS: hi andre

[DaForce]

I wouldnt suggest doing the 3gb switch that way.

As that will only give you one option when booting, and if for some reason its not compatible iwth your hardward and you get a BSOD then your kinda stuffed.

Best to copy the existing entry and rename the new one and then add the switches at the end.. such as this. (differences are in bold)

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional 3GB" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /3GB
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

You can also do it by right clicking on my computer and choosing properties then go to the advanced tab and then clicking on settings in the startup and recovery area then click the edit button.

Do note that even with this in place that after you go past your physical memory limit things will slow down as its starts paging to disk which is a fair bit slower than the memory. However atleast you wont crash