Mesh is too heavy. I can barely use file let alone render it...

[Myliobatidae]

You say you've tryed using vray proxy meshes, but it didn't work... could you describe what happend, that was going to be my first suggestion, my second would be to use windows x64, should be able to handle alot more data, even though max isn't 64bit yet.

[ecco]

Well ok, I've found out how to set the proxy object before and not bring in the hi-res one, which will make it easier for me to manipulate the scene at least with cameras and lights and so on.
I have a lot of work to do first setting up proxy objects for all layers of the model.

(I'm not sure what vray proxy meshes are).

But before I do all that, do you know if this going to make rendering easier on the computer? Or will it struggle regardless of what is in the viewports? I cannot see it mentioned.
Thanks

edit: Thanks for tip about windows x64. I didn't know about that and will download the trial asap. (I have xp pro I forgot to say).

[Myliobatidae]

sorry, I must have misunderstood you, when you said proxy, I thought you were using vray, I'm not aware of max proxy objects, I looked it up in help, didn't find it there...

Anyway vray proxy meshes are objects you export, which are only called upon rendering time, and are represented in the viewports, no real hit to viewport performance, they come in very handy when rendering large amounts of polys...

Also, the problem is probably going to be your shadows, it will probably render without them, but with them is where your going to run into memory problems, especially shadow maps (very memory hungry) I'm speaking of the scanline or MR now...

Vray, you could probably render it with vray shadows and GI with no problem, it handles the memory much better.

[grau]

I don't think winxp64 will help you when you only have 1gb of ram.

Vray proxies are for vray only, it lets you export an object to a .vrmesh file that only gets loaded on rendertime and uses less memory.

I take it you use the scanline renderer, if so the only advise I got is turning off the lighttracer since it uses a lot of memory. You can get close to the skylight look with ambient occlusion as well.
In general I recommend using vray. It has several features like dynamic memory and proxys that help with big scenes. I'm doing a 10+ million polygon rendering with full gi right now in vray with 1gb of ram.

If this model has anything to do with your avatar I really hope you get this working soon.

[Myliobatidae]

Well I think windows x64 will help, it will allow him to use up to 4 gigs of virtual ram, however setting up your computer to use windows x64 could be a nightmare as its not fully compatible with hardware right now.

[ecco]

OK I will get rid of the shadow maps and test again- I'll let you know what happens if it still isn't happening. And yes- I'm using scanline (only ever have done)- I've heard of vray mentioned many times but I've never looked into it, so I'm reading up on their site now.
I'll also turn off light tracer, although I'm not familiar with ambient occlusion as an alternative, at least not by name. Maybe I do but I need to read up on it to see if I do know what it is.

I'd prefer not to buy anything new at the moment. I just bought new software, a wacom tablet, external HDD and I also need a digital camera... i.e low on the €$£ stuff.

-
If you are interested in the avatar do a search for 'Santiago Cathedral' in the finished 3d stills gallery (I didn't think you're allowed to show work anywhere else or link to it). The lighting isn't as good as in the avatar but it's on my to-do list.
This thread doesn't have anything to do with my avatar now- but it might do soon. My avatar model clearly wasn't impressive enough to get the front page or more paying work, but what I'm trying to render now to show in the gallery hopefully might be.

I'm a model-maker- it's a shame that I struggle to do the other bits like lighting and texturing to show them off better.

Thanks for your help :)

EDIT: arggh! what am I saying- the Avatar model did get me more work- it got me this job of which I am trying to render for the gallery now!. It's been a long week..

[grau]

The model is great. Well worth a frontpage if it had a better lightning.

Well I think windows x64 will help, it will allow him to use up to 4 gigs of virtual ram
Thanks I didn't knew that, it's strange though that there still is a 4gb limit but I guess that's due to max being 32bit.

[stuh505]

So my question is do you have any ideas or techniques for rendering and dealing with massive scenes/ models like this- other than what I've tried already? I've tried using proxy objects but they don't work well here. I need to be able to set them up without ever having to see the hi-resl objects in the scene at all.

Hey, maybe the plugin I wrote will help someone after all!

Try this out:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=273529&highlight=beta

[Myliobatidae]

Yes but once Max goes 64bit it will be unlimited memory, from what I hear from the C4D people though, the amount of physical memory will have a dramatic difference in rendering times, i.e.
if you have 8 gigs of ram, as opposed to using 8 gigs virtual, they say it comes to a crawl when using the hard drive for swap, but the good news is there won't be any more out of memory errors...

[Myliobatidae]

Hey, maybe the plugin I wrote will help someone after all!

Try this out:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=273529&highlight=beta

Hi,
I'm trying your script, but I keep getting an error " no "delete" function for undefined" also it keeps creating duplicates of the original object everytime i render...

[petrolium]

Just a thought..
Howabout using the split scanline option in the netrender menu?.
Just set your own computer up as both manager and server.
Hope it helps
Prt.

[petrolium]

wierd i thought i just posted a reply...anyways

Just a thought, have no idea if it works.
Try and use the split scanline option in the net render...that might work.
Just set you own machine to both manager and server.
Hope it helps.
Ptr

[petrolium]

Just a thought, have no idea if it works.

Try and use the split scanline option in the net render...that might work.
Just set you own machine to both manager and server.

Hope it helps.
Ptr

[Bogged]

Hey petro, you have to have your first 2 posts approved by a forums leader.

P.S. How do i increase my virtual RAM. Currently I have 2 gigs of physical on a 3.4 GHz P4.

About your scene, I might advise you agaisnt installing the x64 trial version, being that your hardware might by improperly configured for the OS, thus making other programs jacked up.

-Gerd

[stuh505]

P.S. How do i increase my virtual RAM. Currently I have 2 gigs of physical on a 3.4 GHz P4.

You can only address a maximum of 4 GB ram, that is physical + virtual. To increase the virtual, go into System->Advanced->Performance Settings->Advanced->Change virtual memory

Yes but once Max goes 64bit it will be unlimited memory, from what I hear from the C4D people though, the amount of physical memory will have a dramatic difference in rendering times

Hey, you don't need to wait for MAx to go 64 bit, all you need to do is run a 64 bit operating system to take advantage of the extra memory address potential.

When max goes 64 bit it will run more efficiently under a 64 bit OS, but it will still run the same now (in fact if you are using an AMD 64 bit, then this can actually run 32 bit stuff like max better than a traditional 32 bit processor. wierd huh?)

Second thing, it's not unlimited when you go 64 bit...the limit is 1 terabyte. Pretty close though.

Third thing, you don't even need to have a 64 bit operating system to do this. Since service pack 2, there has been a built in function to allow you to increase your address space from 4 GB to 32 GB. You may wonder why this isn't active by default. It's probably because they don't care about you, and just want you to buy new stuff.

To activate this, all you have to do is go into your BIOS and enable PAE. Changing your Bios is also easier than you probably think...

System->Advanced->Startup and Recovery Settings->Edit

A text file something like this pops up:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


All you have to do is change that last line to have "/PAE" at the end.

Another thing you can do if you have 4GB or more is add "/3GB" at the end. If you don't do this, Microsoft windows will steal 2 GB of your ram and reserve it just for windows which means MAx wont be able to touch it. What a load of crap.

All this information is buried in the Microsoft knowledgebase online by the way, but good luck browsing around because they have no organization skills.

Hi,
I'm trying your script, but I keep getting an error " no "delete" function for undefined" also it keeps creating duplicates of the original object everytime i render...

This problem is caused when objects are imported and the name of the object has been changed so that the plugin cannot detect the object for removal before returning to the scene. One of the things that caused this in the past (which I fixed) was caching to 3ds files that have names with more than 10 characters, because Max automatically crops the name to 10 characters. Perhaps your settins crop the name shorter than 10 characters? that would cause the problem. Try caching to obj instead of 3ds. Also try making sure that the object names are not long. Also make sure that you do not try to Proxy a Proxy.

If you'd like further help, please do the following:

First, go into your "rendercache" folder within max and delete all the cached object.

1) Create an object
2) Proxy it, then go into the advanced tab of the proxy and paste all that info to me
3) Render. If a duplicate of the object stays in the scene, tell me the name of that object

Make sure to record what cache format the problem occurs under

[ecco]

Thanks to everybody for your suggestions;

I believe I have found a way around this which will suffice. As I also have a low resolution mesh, I'm probably going to split that up and use these parts to generate the approximate shadows for the high-res beneath it- then repeat the pattern below that, etc for the whole model. I've done test renders and it didn't crash.

The other suggested techniques all helped in part, but didn't quite manage to do what I was looking for- but thanks lots anyway :)

RE: Vray [I downloaded the demo from the website but whenever I tried to render it it said the demo had expired. Instead I downloaded the free version which does work, but there was no export to vray proxy mesh available as it described in the help docs].

Stay tuned

--
PS: some of the delightful error messages that graced my screen on many occasions these past few days..
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a282/10alameda01/errors.gif

[Joel Hooks]

2gb of ram makes a huge difference. You don't have to buy a spec'd out box, just drop $100 on some ram and use the "3gb switch" fix for XP to handle the memory.

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