Speed up DR per RAM disk?

[Micha_cg]

Hello,

I ask me how much faster the DR could be started, if Vray would use a RAM disk space. At the moment:

(1) all textures are loaded from the HDD (quite slow, since the data HDD isn't the fastest)
(2) scene and textures are writen to a temp dir at the system HDD
(3) all is send over the network
(4) textures and scene are saved to the slave HDD
(5) textures and scenes are loaded for rendering

so

(1) can't be faster, maybe the loading can be avoided if the textures are load to the temp at the previous rendering
(2) could be great if this dir could be set to a RAM drive
(3) Gigabit LAN - never full speed used
(4)+(5) could be great if this dir could be set to a RAM drive

Is it possible to change the temp dir at master and slave now? If not, please allow it per next build. The problem is, that for rendering animations an image can be rendered within 1 min or less, but the initialization time of DR need 20..30 s some times. OK, I use a SSD for system drive, but a RAM drive is so incredible fast (see benchmark - SSD is around 100..200 MB/s)

My advice for a good RAM drive (also free):
http://members.fortunecity.com/ramdi...ramdriv001.htm

The big advantage of the QSoft drive is, that the RAM drive is quite fast created at the WINDOWS startup.

[Micha_cg]

Re: Speed up DR per RAM disk?

Hello ... no way, maybe per registry entry to change the temp dir?

[pickinboy]

Re: Speed up DR per RAM disk?

Doesn't the new SSD drives help here?

I am using all SSDs in 4 machines - but our company is still only on 100MB switching - so need more throughput.

My file limits kick in between 90MB and 130MB (aircraft fly thrus.)

[Micha_cg]

Re: Speed up DR per RAM disk?

Doesn't the new SSD drives help here?

Not so much, SSD are approx. 2 or 3 times faster than a HDD, but a RAM disk is much faster. Also I use simple HDD at the spawners. Could be nice to add more RAM to slaves and use a RAM disk for the temp dir.

Could the temp dir changed if I change this path at the registry? The entry looks promising.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ASGvis

common_dir C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ASGvis

[Micha_cg]

Re: Speed up DR per RAM disk?

I tested it ... changing the directory works.

[SamPage]

Re: Speed up DR per RAM disk?

Could the temp dir changed if I change this path at the registry? The entry looks promising.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ASGvis

common_dir C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ASGvis

So to be clear you changed the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ASGvis\com mon_dir key value from C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ASGvis (or C:\ProgramData\ASGvis in Win 7) to some directory on your RAM disk? What about the existing C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ASGvis, just leave it as it is?

Thanks!

[Micha_cg]

Re: Speed up DR per RAM disk?

I copied the ASGvis dir to the RAM drive R:\ASGvis and I started a first test rendering and it works fine. Per buttons script I delete the temp of the ASGvis dir before a rendering starts (to avoid the missing texture bug). Now during the render test the ASGvis temp dir was created at the RAM drive and shows me all textures. So, the new dir is be used. More tests in the next days.

I'm curious how it works if I create a RAM drive at the slave ...

[Micha_cg]

Re: Speed up DR per RAM disk?

Here a first result - the render window popup after 10s and the slave buckets are seen after 15s. I'm not sure changing the temp at slave helps so much in this case, since only a few maps was loaded from the slave temp dir (Ram drive R. Most it helps that the DR folder is set to the master RAM drive dir. The network usage jumps to max 32% for a short time, so this isn't the limit.






----------------------------

Next test with "send to each node". In this case anything is saved to the a Temp dir defined per WINDOWS environment settings. I changed the Temp path to the RAM drive and now scene and maps are loaded to/from R:\Temp\asgvis_drspawner ... . After the first rendering is started/stoped the "send to each node" can be disabled, because the maps are automatic loaded again. But this mode needs the same time like the simple "send to shared folder" with RAM drive at the master computer.

Conclusion: for max speed it is enough to setup a RAM drive as shared folder at the master computer. A little bit more speed can be get, if the ASGvis temp dir is set to the RAM drive too per registry entry.

So, it stay to wait for the developer to get a faster started DR. My question for now is, when is used the ASGvis temp dir? At the end of my tests more images are loaded to/from this directory. Why are maps loaded from this temp dir instead the original source now? This cost extra write/read time.

It could be good for the DR start, if this temp dir could be used as central directory for sharing files over the network and files wouldn't be write/read again at every new start. If it cost to much time to check the file for being up-to-date, it could be good if the user could set an option for "only read files from shared dir". My test scene needs 20s to show the slave buckets on the frame buffer.