Hardware vs. software limitations

[Markvanhandel]

Hello,

My department has had crash issues on renderings in Vray for Rhino on large (400+ MB) files. The files have been cleaned up as much as we can but are of entire product lines requiring highly detailed assemblies.

My guess from reading forums is that this issue can be fixed with appropriate hardware. But before I go off with a $4000 hardware request for a Render Boxx I want to get a gut check on whether this could be a software issue. I mean, is there some upper limit to what VRay for Rhino can process?

Some specifics:

Standard workstations in our group are Dell Precision PW690 with an Intel Xeon 5130 (2.00 GHz) 3.25 GB RAM running XP 32 bit.

We have been considering getting a RenderBoxx 10300. Its system is a QUAD Xeon E5520 2.26GHz, 12GB RAM running XP 64 bit. On this I don’t anticipate I’d need to run files larger than 800 MB.

So are there limitations inherent to the software when you get into such large files or will Vray for Rhino process any model so long as the hardware can support it?

Thanks in advance,

Mark

[Micha_cg]

Re: Hardware vs. software limitations

At the forum tutorial section is a thread for this topic. You don't need expensive hardware, only a 64bit OS and more than 5GB. Also best you buy MoI3D for lighter high quality meshes.

[gallystops]

Re: Hardware vs. software limitations

Hey Micha, i just checked out Moi3d. Ummmm...i love it!

Now im wondering how long have you used it and in what areas do you find it can really shine?

I know there are some organic modeling 3rd party plugins for sketchup that are pretty good. But this seems easier.

Let me know will ya!

-Gallystops-

[dkendig]

Re: Hardware vs. software limitations

Yeah, we have a 2-3gb limit on the amount of memory that we can use at the moment. So 4-8gb of RAM should do you well. The graphics card isn't used by V-Ray in the slightest, so I wouldn't stress about it beyond making sure it can run the host application well.

As far as any render nodes, our render farm here at ASGvis consists of 30 rendernodes with these specs:

Motherboard: SuperMicro X7DWT
CPU: x2 Intel Xeon E5420 Harpertown 2.5GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 771 80W Quad-Core
RAM: 8GB DDR2 800 (not sure what brand)
Harddisk: x1 Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 80-GB Hard Drive

[Markvanhandel]

Re: Hardware vs. software limitations

Thanks to everyone, especially Micha. Sorry I missed that thread. We will look into MOI3D as a first solution. As for our rendernodes this will help greatly with making our decision.

Mark

[Micha_cg]

Re: Hardware vs. software limitations

Yeah, we have a 2-3gb limit on the amount of memory that we can use at the moment. So 4-8gb of RAM should do you well. The graphics card isn't used by V-Ray in the slightest, so I wouldn't stress about it beyond making sure it can run the host application well.

Some months before I posted my test results - 5GB and more allow to get the most RAM available for rendering at XP64. The crash limit is at ~3.6GB.

A long time I thought at spawners is needed not so much RAM, because the Rhino.exe at the master hold the model and the rendering and at the spawner the rendering is in the RAM only. So, if at the master are needed 3.6GB, than at the spawner it should be much less RAM. But look at my last edit from 2009 here, the spawner can need more RAM than the master machine:
http://forum.asgvis.com/index.php?topic=5887.0

Could be nice if the developer could check the DR texture load problem.

[Micha_cg]

Re: Hardware vs. software limitations

Hey Micha, i just checked out Moi3d. Ummmm...i love it!

Now im wondering how long have you used it and in what areas do you find it can really shine?

I use MoI for meshing only. I create wonderful light high quality meshes, some times more than 10..20 times smaller than Rhino meshes. If I render complex scenes like train interiors (with many detailed seats), than MoI helps me to get the scene rendered. An other example: I tried to render a computer housing with a big fence. The hundreds of holes of the fence let crash the Rhino mesher after more than one hour meshing. Per MoI I got a clean mesh for rendering after a few minutes. So, MoI helped me to get the project done. So, it's one of my most important tools here. The MoI mesher use all cores of the machine you use.
Also I use the meshes created by MOI for unwraping per Unfold3D. MoI create the nice, clean, complete welded meshes I needed for Unfold3D. Also here I couldn't finish many projects without the MoI meshes.

[[ popoff ]]

Re: Hardware vs. software limitations

... yep Micha`s advices works for sure - he helped me meshing my high detailed model ( http://forum.asgvis.com/index.php?to...32746#msg32746 ) and things start working

Mark :
... it`s pretty optimistic to believe you can render such a huge scene with modest configuration you got ... I`ll not even try ... sometime problem is not hardware or software .
Hope you`ll post some pics from this project - just curious to see such a heavy thing .