Cleaning up texture cache / texture unload after rendering super slow (tiledEXR)

[mdskay]

Hi!

I get some problems when I use a huge amount ( 182 at the moment, each 2048-4096 pixel² ) of uv tile textures that are saved in tiledEXR format. My goal is to reduce the memory usage. But yeah, it would be to simple! Here some facts.

V-Ray: V-Ray for Maya version 2.40.01 from Nov 4 2013, 20:27:08
V-Ray: V-Ray core version is 2.00.02

Maya 2014 SP 2, Windows 7, 8Core Athlon, 32GB Ram

The Normal Settings I'm using without tiledExr.

182 normal EXR mixed 2K/4K Tiles
Dynamic Memory Limit : 4GB

Windows : 3.21 GB Ram
Maya open with Scene : 4.14 GB Ram
Rendering : ~28.6 GB Ram

Rendertime 1024x384 : 7m 7.6s

Rendering and Speed is fine. After rendering the texture unload is done in approx. 2-4seconds. All good, but high Memory Usage while rendering.

If i use the same setup with tiledEXR

182 Tiled EXR mixed 2k/4k Tiles
Dynamic Memory Limit : 4GB

Windows : 2.78 GB Ram
Maya open with Scene : 3.71 GB Ram
Rendering : ~8.48 GB Ram

Rendertime 1024x384 : 39m 31.0s <<< WTF!!!!

Lightcache and Irradiance Map calculation takes ages (~17mins, low settings). Texture unload is fast like the normal setup.

If i increase Dynamic Memory Limit to 16GB, using VRAY_TEXTURE_CACHE and VRAY_USE_NORMAL_DIFFERENTIALS, lightcache and prepass are running quick and rendering is done in 5m with a memory usage of around 8-16GB. Tried different dynamic memory settings.

But! After the rendering is always done after 5mins. The texture cache cleanup and texture unload is super slow and takes a loooooot of time. i always killed maya after 10+ mins of waiting, because vray is not responsing to the ESC Key.

Has everyone a clue what is the problem? I'm mean it is obvious that the tiledExr causes this problems.

Thanks for response.

Kay

[vlado]

This is fixed in V-Ray 3.0, but unfortunately not for 2.x. However for the 2.x nightly builds we added an environment variable that causes V-Ray to terminate the render process as soon as the final frame is written, so that can be a work-around for a render farm.

Best regards,
Vlado

[mdskay]

Thanks, Vlado. I guessed so, that it is a bug. Thanks for the confirmation. I will check it out. Can you tell me the Environment variable?

Have a nice day,
Kay

[tashko.zashev]

Hi,

It's VRAY_TERMINATE_ON_FRAME_END, but you will need a nightly 2.x build.

[mdskay]

Thanks Tashko. Nightly-Build is no problem, i have access too it.

[mdskay]

Hi.

I checked out the VRay Variable, VRAY_TERMINATE_ON_FRAME_END and it kills not just Vray. Also the Maya Application. I'm sure this is just for renderslave purpose.

But VRAY_MAYA_KEEP_BITMAPS works fine to me..

[vlado]

I checked out the VRay Variable, VRAY_TERMINATE_ON_FRAME_END and it kills not just Vray. Also the Maya Application. I'm sure this is just for renderslave purpose.

Yes, this is only for render slaves.

But VRAY_MAYA_KEEP_BITMAPS works fine to me..

Yes, this could work in an interactive session.

Best regards,
Vlado