3dsMax2009 DR Not using 100%

[tbny65]

of processor. Constantly fluctuates. Max 9 works fine. 100% on all threads.

Any ideas?

[vlado]

Is this on any scene, even a very simple one? Which V-Ray version?

Best regards,
Vlado

[tbny65]

yes, simple scene, I can send it to you. Just teapots and spheres.

Case1= LC goes to 100% then dive to 0 halfway through.
Case2= Brute force fluctuates wildly and never hits 100%

Max9 goes right to 100%

Max9sp2 x64
max2009design sp1 x64

both using Vray sp2

[vlado]

Do you use any bitmaps or procedural textures? What resolution are you rendering at?

Best regards,
Vlado

[tbny65]

None. I tried 2 scenes. One simple one much more complex (geometry wise) Neither have proc maps or bitmaps.

Have you heard any issues with 2009 and DR? (other that the max9\max2009 conflict).

Is the CPU usage supposed to fluctuate? Does LC use the threads the same as Brute?

Do we still have to specify the thread count in the max listener like before (I forget the syntax).

Forced to upgrade.

(was really fond of 9 and vray sr2 combo)

[vlado]

Hm, I haven't really come up agains this issue before (there are quite a lot of users of V-Ray with 3ds Max 2009 now). The code of V-Ray for 3ds Max 9 and 2009 is nearly the same, at least as far as the rendering functionality goes.

You should not need to specify the number of threads as before, unless it is an old scene where the number of threads was already set explicitly.

Can you check in the Task Manager how much RAM is taken up? It might be a case of swapping out to disk, which will reduce the performance.

Best regards,
Vlado

[tbny65]

Vlado,

I think trying to figure out what all 32 buckets are doing, if in fact all there that are supposed to be there are there and why they render the way they render can drive one insane!

I'll do some more tests and if I can gather more evidence I will reply. Thanks for the help!!!!

-T

[TRGraphics]

I'm also having similiar problems on my farm. I have 32 cpu's on 6 computers and with 2009 half the time the slaves don't kick in at all and the rest of the time it's only after the irr map is calculated with brute force for secondary.

I didn't have this problem with max9. I have disabled everything I can in max 2009 but still the problem persists.

Size of the file doesn't matter.

[vlado]

Have you installed all service packs for 3ds Max 2009? Have you removed the viewcube files on the slaves?

Best regards,
Vlado

[TRGraphics]

Yes to all. I've tried everything. I changed the license to a new computer and still...

If I restart all the spawners it will work for a while and then the problem starts again. Very frustrating.

I have winxp pro 64 on all machines with 4 gig per machine, no firewalls. Most of my scenes are small and rarely go above 1 gig memory usage. My network is 1 gig so I don't think thats the problem.

[vlado]

Do you start the spawners as a service or manually from the Start menu?

Best regards,
Vlado

[TRGraphics]

I manually start spawners. I also reboot all my computers every morning.

I'm going do a re-format on my main computer. It has collected a load of different files over the last 8 months. Maybe that will fix the problem.

[tbny65]

I have all the updates on 2009 (I think its just sp1 they released). I never heard of removing the Viewcube files (that would be nice they are annoying). Can you explain?

I always run things (spawner and BB) as a service

-T

[vlado]

Then you could try changing the run method (service/manually) and see if that changes anything. About the viewcube files, I think it was named AutoCam.gup or something like that, so you can try to rename this (e.g. to .off in the end).

Best regards,
Vlado

[marisalibox]

hi vlado
i'm experiencing the same cpu multithread troubles.
i'm spawning on 2 twins pc (q6600 + 6GB ram) and task manager reports cpu always under 65% usage, on preprocessing and rendering stage.
my scene is quite heavy, but lot of proxy in (every proxy is around 60MB). i'm using bitmap and procedural textures, displacement and 2 sided vrayshader. only 1 simple vraylight.
i cannot send scene because of weight of external proxies, what can i do? posting or emailing screenshots maybe?

p.s.
i saw video from siggraph08. simply amazing. congs.