Computer hangs/freezes while rendering

[Vizioen]

I have had the same problem of late, Vray 3.60.02 in max 2016 on windows 10.
I thought it might have to do with the fact I use Bitsum Process Lasso but have not taken time to test and investigate. If I remember to set vray to low priority it seams to work fine.

In the settings or in task manager? I wonder, because "Vray" isn't really a task in the task manager it's only 3dsmax, that's hogging 99% of the CPU. When I put 3dsmax to low priority it does work to a certain degree but not like I had before. Besides this is bullshit I'm not going to click another extra 5 times with every test render. That is just insane. And isn't the render going slower then with low priority?

Can this be solved within Vray or do we need to tackle Windows? vlado what do you think?

[anthonyh]

You should only need to set 3dsmax to Low priority process, Vray should inherit the priority (at least in Win7) and you only need to do that once per 3dsmax session. Alternatively you can create a batch file to run 3dsmax low priority I think. We do this for backburner so I`d think 3dsmax probably has the same or maybe a command line code you could add to the 3dsmax icon shortcut ?

[LQ2]

You can't do that in Windows 10

That's not true!
Select the 3ds Max app in the "Processes" tab of the task manager and right click, select "go to details". On the Details tab, with 3dsmax.exe selected, right click and select "set priority", then select the priority from the menu.

Not sure this helps in the grand scheme of things, but thought I should point this out.

Bill

edit: just noticed that someone else pointed this out too... Sorry.

[Raven]

In the settings or in task manager? I wonder, because "Vray" isn't really a task in the task manager it's only 3dsmax, that's hogging 99% of the CPU. When I put 3dsmax to low priority it does work to a certain degree but not like I had before. Besides this is bullshit I'm not going to click another extra 5 times with every test render. That is just insane. And isn't the render going slower then with low priority?

Can this be solved within Vray or do we need to tackle Windows? vlado what do you think?

Hey Ashley.

No I just do it i the vray settings panel, the "Low thread priority" setting, that works fine for me.
If I get a chance I will test what, if any, performance difference there is. It still uses 99% of the CPU process when I do this, although I assume it does drop more when I tab to other programs.

[Vizioen]

Hey Ashley.

No I just do it i the vray settings panel, the "Low thread priority" setting, that works fine for me.
If I get a chance I will test what, if any, performance difference there is. It still uses 99% of the CPU process when I do this, although I assume it does drop more when I tab to other programs.

Problem is that in the low thread priority in the settings doesn't work or doesn't have any effect. When I do it manually (task manager) 3dsmax > low priority it does make a difference.

[anthonyh]

Problem is that in the low thread priority in the settings doesn't work or doesn't have any effect. When I do it manually (task manager) 3dsmax > low priority it does make a difference.

Yes we noticed it have little effect, which is why I always do it in process tab. It`s become habit now.

[narayan]

Hope this bug get?s fixed on the next update, i thought i was the only one with this hang/freeze issue... =s

[cmjohncheng]

sysinfo.MaxPriority = #low
renderers.current.system_numThreads=sysInfo.cpucou nt-1

currently reduce 1 thread for avoid lag/hang when rendering.

[Deflaminis]

Maybe Spacefrog's Power Core Tools could help with this. Worth a shot. Cmjohncheng seems to be onto something there as well.

I used to take one core off the jobs with "Set Affinity" so I could make moves in the background, but at some point it changed so between renders it reset the affinity. There was some kind of environmental variable to go back to the old way, if memory serves. I can't seem to find the thread though.

[yavor.rubenov]

Hello,

Changing the affinity of the rendering process is not the best thing to do.
For example if you have 8 cores and change the affinity so that the process uses 7 cores means that the rendering will still create 8 threads that try to render. Then the OS will run those 8 threads on 7 cores meaning two of the threads will have to fight for the same core. Switching two threads on the same core is a very slow operation - so when that happens it will slow down both threads trying to run on the same core.
On the other hand setting the number of threads to 7 means that there will be only 7 threads trying to render and they will not have to switch often.

As Cmjohncheng wrote - setting the number of threads to all CPUs-1 can be done with MAXScript.
Another option is the environment variable VRAY_NUM_THREADS - it needs a positive number that will specify the number of threads to use.
If you want to specify the number of threads to all-1 for example you can use the following command:

set /a VRAY_NUM_THREADS=%NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS%-1

Best regards,
Yavor

[Vizioen]

O, right, thx, but what I really am trying to understand is, what changed? Because a few months ago I didn't need to lower my cores or priority so everything operates smoothly.

[LQ2]

As Cmjohncheng wrote - setting the number of threads to all CPUs-1 can be done with MAXScript.
Another option is the environment variable VRAY_NUM_THREADS - it needs a positive number that will specify the number of threads to use.
If you want to specify the number of threads to all-1 for example you can use the following command:

set /a VRAY_NUM_THREADS=%NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS%-1

Best regards,
Yavor

I've used max script to adjust the number of processors being used by V-ray before, making a small script file and executing it at render time. I am interested in your alternative method though as it looks like it could be more easily applied to more computers. Could you explain how to use that code as an environment variable? Where do you put it?

Cheers,

Bill

[yavor.rubenov]

O, right, thx, but what I really am trying to understand is, what changed? Because a few months ago I didn't need to lower my cores or priority so everything operates smoothly.

I'd love to know that too

On my machine (Windows 10) lately I also get freezes like the ones you describe when rendering. Tried to install some older V-Ray versions to find when it started happening and at some point tried with version 3.2 and it also freezes the computer. I'm sure it didn't do such thing back then..
Asked around some colleagues and some of them are seeing such freezes with other CPU intensive tasks too.
So for now my conclusion is that the problem might be related to some Windows update - the freezes started around the time of Creators Update..

I've used max script to adjust the number of processors being used by V-ray before, making a small script file and executing it at render time. I am interested in your alternative method though as it looks like it could be more easily applied to more computers. Could you explain how to use that code as an environment variable? Where do you put it?

Cheers,

Bill

You need to set an environment variable with name VRAY_NUM_THREADS and value - the number of threads you want V-Ray to use. Probably the easiest way to do it is if you open the start menu and type "Edit environment variables...". Then in the dialog you can create a new user environment variable. It will come in effect the next time you start Max.

Another way is to create a cmd script (new text file named for example startMax2017.cmd) containing something like:

set /a VRAY_NUM_THREADS=%NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS%-1
cd %ADSK_3DSMAX_x64_2017%
3dsmax.exe

and when you run this file it will start Max 2017 with the variable set so that V-Ray uses all cores -1.

Best regards,
Yavor

[Deflaminis]

the freezes started around the time of Creators Update..

Check out .Net 4.7. There were a number of bugs with it and MS has suggested to some people not to use it until they are fixed. I've noted all kinds of weird problems with .Net 4.7 on my side, at least on Win 10. Win 7 seems fine, as always.

Best,
Alfred

[Guest]

So for now my conclusion is that the problem might be related to some Windows update - the freezes started around the time of Creators Update..

I reckon this is about the same time we noticed it too. We have never set 3ds Max to a low thread priority or messed with any settings to do with processor management and 3ds Max and V-Ray have been absolutely fine until now. Cant even use the interactive features of the VFB