just a little reminder if you’ve forgotten (and only for us 32bit plebs):
been working at the peak of ram for a few weeks, struggling to get some shots to render.
then i remembered (Ching!) to reduce the size of the buckets by half. files that crashed before now render no problemo.
Reducing the buckets is an excellent idea but it will take more time to render.
You can also render strips if you have a network thing happening.
I had to use both of these methods to render an animation at the start of the summer - saved my a@@.
also dont forget adaptive qmc uses ALOT less ram then adaptive subdivision. But will most likely require a recalculated irrad map.
also if for some reason you do not want to restart max, you can always run freescenebitmaps() in your maxscript listener. Depending upon the size of ur file, it could take a couple of minutes to free the textures it’s taken in memory, but it certainly works to do test renders when u’re “almost out of memory” :roll:
hehe yeah i had a scene that would use up 1.74gb RAM… just under the crash limit. And using freescenebitmaps() and gc() often was the different between render and crash.
Also, remember that unless you are using LC for glossies, you don’t need to load the LC map at render time. You can specify no secondary bounces and just load the IR map (which has LC light info stored within it). If your LC map is large, this will save lots of memory.
Unfortunately for animations I am using LC for glossies and this doesn’t work. Usually my old render nodes drop off because of memory errors. But I’m not a 32-bit Pleb (nice term Nik 
). I guess I’m a 64-bit bourgeoisie…
“we’re not worthy!”
i didn’t know LC was stored in the IR map…
You can also minimise Max (and Photoshop for that matter) to clear the memory.
Nik,
Both QMC and LC when used for 2nd bounce are stored in the IRmap
well i’ll be…
so there’s no need to load LC? why do i bother saving it out then?
I don’t think you need to save it out unless you are using just LC. The reason I might load it (besides for glossies) is because its easier than going back to the GI rollout and specifying no second bounce. Inevitably, the next time I render I will forget to set it back…
ok cool. thanks aaron, i’ll have to try this at home. been working without GI for the past 5 weeks during the day :shock:
must remember to catch up for more drinks before xmas
:shock: No GI? Oh, you’re at that commercial place… Are you using renderman or something?
Yes, we should start a thread in few weeks…maybe November sometime.
nope, all vray. it’s an interior scene at night with very localised feature/specular lighting. not even a dirt pass
render times still take friggin long tho…
late nov sounds good.