Settings - Processor intensive vs. Memory Intensive

[Artifex-Auctor]

OK, more questions from me. I've been doing a lot of ArchVis type renderings lately and have come across a lot of memory allocation problems: I've got some highly detailed maps that I want to render at a high resolution with bump maps, displacement maps, opacity maps, reflections . . . basically a lot of everything on different materials in a scene from rubble walls to metals to clear glass to frit glass.

I can't even start to increase the quality settings of antialiasing and ir map from lowest quality without running out of memory.

Considering the relationship between memory intensive vs. processor intensive engines . . . I'm willing to have a rendering take 12 hours if I know that I can leave it overnight and not have the thing crash.

What AA methods and GI engines are the least RAM intensive?

[Gijs]

Re: Settings - Processor intensive vs. Memory Intensive

fixed and adaptive dmc is least memory consuming. for GI, the most memory expensive is irradiance, QMC is least memory expensive, but also slowest of all methods.

[Artifex-Auctor]

Re: Settings - Processor intensive vs. Memory Intensive

I'm not sure I have the time to wait for QMC as both the primary and secondary GI engines. QMC is what I would have thought to be the one to use . . . but I'm nto sure which of the two: Light Cache or Photon Map is more memory for the secondary engine?

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Settings - Processor intensive vs. Memory Intensive

To be honest, it doesn't really matter...its LC hands down...to get a good Photon solution takes a lot of setup and will take significantly longer.

[Micha_cg]

Re: Settings - Processor intensive vs. Memory Intensive

Looks like you must look for other ways. I rendered some train projects and my experince is:

- a 64bit OS is a must and best 5..8GB RAM (XP64 is stable, fast and RAM usage is low and you get it for a good price)

- use mesh objects instead NURBS, because the Rhino.exe must hold NURBS, render mesh and Vray engine in RAM - for rendering is needed the last one only

- try to get your modell at a low poly count

- MOI3D mesher create better meshes without kink effects at cylindrical surfaces

- take my "render tool collection" and use some workflow buttons: for example one button makes, that an empty scene is loaded to Rhino during the rendering starts, so only the Vray engine scene is in the RAM of the rhino.exe (it's a great RAM saver for complex scenes)

- try to use small textures as possible, textures are RAM hungry

At my XP64 machines Rhino crash at approx. 3.6GB. If the RAM limit is reached, I use the button scripts of the render tool collection. Also the usage of blocks helps a little to get a lower RAM usage - not much, but maybe 20%..30%.
For example a current train project, 48 seats are in the scene - 2.200.000 polygons and only 1.4GB RAM usage. Premeshing and block usage helps to keep the RAM usage low.

Also I would try to render parts of the image in passes or hide not direct visible geometry or use extrem low poly models for background objects. You could create two versions of your material for far and near distance.

For the future I wish, that Rhino will be 64bit and Vray independent from the Rhino.exe, also 64bit.