Error: Free memory is low. Memory exception thrown

[JasonA]

I used to get that all the time, in my case it was because I was using some really hi-res texture maps. While I'm no expert, I think its because Maya mis-estimates how much ram will be needed per bucket during rendering and when you get to the hi-res texture map, the error occurs (it did in my case anyways).

I fixed it by converting my image files to bots. Also, if you hit the "use cache" on the map settings it speeds up subsequent frames.

[uschi]

i´ve got this message within mentalray and it crashed all the time

i need to set my nurbs tesselation quit accuratly, and polymeshes
that used to have n-sides also caused probs...

one thing that realy helped was to use the clean up scene...

[beaker]

Do you have any shadow maps that you set with a resolution above 2k?

[bentllama]

i get it all the time when i run a batch script on some data...

...though, only when that batch includes using a custom plugin for importing a special data type...damn plugin... :)

what i did to fix it was break the script and bacth, into chunks...then it seemed to work fine...

...you may want to run your render from the shell if you are not already doing so...

[b.Schulz]

Thanks for the advice and tips so far....yeah...beaker...I do have some shadow maps that are higher than 2k. Think that's it?? I'll try and lower that and see if I still get that message. When I loaded the file it was giving me an error message as well (this is just recently and I have no idea why) but it was looking for some kinda image map that I wasn't using so I got rid of that in the multilister. Haven't play with this scene in a few days. I'm hoping that the shadow maps is the cause and will work if it's under 2k.

Bent- I dunno how to run my renders from the shell. Wanna explain? (if it's not too complicated? -if it is then don't worry...I'll read up on how to) and I aint using any plug-ins so I don't think that's the cause in my case.

Anyways thanks everyone, I'm gonna test so stuff out tomorrow. :applause:

[bentllama]

You can start Maya by either double-clicking the Maya desktop icon or by typing " maya " at a command prompt.

You can also render your scenes and run script from the command line within a DOS shell...

For a complete list of Render options, in a UNIX shell or DOS window, type:

Render -help

so your command would be " maya render <blah> <blah> "

[playmesumch00ns]

bentllama > I got this problem when working on heavy scripts. I think it's caused by Maya trying to put the whole script operation into one undo level and choking.

As you say you can break the script up into chunks, but if that's not practical you can also just turn off undo before running the script, or include an undo toggle in the script procedure with undoInfo -st off/on.

Of course, that only works if you don't mind losing undo

[alexx]

Originally posted by playmesumch00ns
bentllama > I got this problem when working on heavy scripts. I think it's caused by Maya trying to put the whole script operation into one undo level and choking.

Of course, that only works if you don't mind losing undo

maybe a tip to that one:
the command flushUndo
at the right places might help as well..

cleans up your undo buffer..
helps as well, when you do poly modelling and your undo buffer is running full..
otherwise you would have to close and reopen the scene.

cheers

alexx

[playmesumch00ns]

yeah that would work too, if it was just the size of the undo buffer that was causing the trouble (especially if you've got infinite undo on). It would be great if you could concatenate the undo buffer too...

In this specific instance the error was caused by Maya trying to put everything in one undo 'node'. Presumably if I'd had infinite undo on and tried to execute the 100-thousand-odd operations that the script did by hand, the same thing would have happened.

It would be neat if there was some way of monitoring the undo buffer state from inside a script, then you could just flush the buffer whenever it got too large

[bentllama]

thanks for the undo buffer information. I never thought of that. I hope that helps...

Thanks! :applause:

:beer:

[beaker]

Quick explanation of why your running into this problem: Maya on windows is a big memory hog(maya on *nix uses 1/4th the ram). 32bit apps/os have a limitation of 1.5-2 gb(2gb theoretical, but 1.5 in practice) of ram that can be allocated to any single app. Maya is especially a hog when it comes to shadow maps, textures(unless they are bots) and any kind of caching data(particles, cloth, etc..) So memory exception thrown is when maya is trying to us more than 1.5 gb of ram.

>> do have some shadow maps that are higher than 2k. Think that's it?? I'll try and lower that and see if I still get that message.

Shadows are the worst hog, with any moderate amount of geometry any shadows above 2-3k will cause that error(my 7 year old o2 can handle 8k shadows with 256 meg of ram, pretty sad huh). Few ways around it: #1 try rendering from the command line since this uses alot less memory then starting a render from the gui #2 lower the shadows resolution, #3 if the shadow is static then pregenerate it(this will speed up your rendering by leaps and bounds if you can do it in the first place), #4 render on linux.

[b.Schulz]

Wow. . . lots of usefull info here. I didn't know about the flush undo command. I can just run that from within maya in the command area? Thanks for the help. I can' render on linux because I don' thave access to it. Good thing to know about those shadow maps. I didn't know they sucked up so much Ram....sneaky little . . .!!! Someone told me that if I had flicking lights that I could just bump up my shadow maps a ton and that would fix the problem. . . but now I see that this is also causing a problem. Oh well...I guess I'll use different lights if when I lower the maps i get flickering shadows. Thanks again for the help everyone.

[alexx]

Originally posted by b.Schulz
Wow. . . lots of usefull info here. I didn't know about the flush undo command. I can just run that from within maya in the command area?

yes.. outside maya (command line) no undo buffer is stored so it would be useless :)
thats really just a helper if your mem increases and you notify you dont need the undos and want to go on working..
i found that command useful in scripts frmo time to time as well, if you want to be sure the script can run on different machines that might have the undo enabled and even unlimited steps


Someone told me that if I had flicking lights that I could just bump up my shadow maps a ton and that would fix the problem. . . but now I see that this is also causing a problem. [/B]

emm.. yes.. the answer was right so far..
but the first step should be not to increase the shadow map (since rendering time and mem usage increase), but rather check if you need all the shadow casting objects:
e.g. you have a huge plane with a small sphere on it. so the sphere has to cast shadow but the plane not.. so go in the attrib editor and switch "cast shadow" off for the plane.. THAT will help a lot more and better than just cranking up the shadow map resolution..

cheers

alexx

[wrend]

playmesumch00ns,

It would be neat if there was some way of monitoring the undo buffer state from inside a script, then you could just flush the buffer whenever it got too large
undoInfo -q -l

undoInfo, its golden, only became aware of it recently and been using it ever since!

[bentllama]

Originally posted by alexx
yes.. outside maya (command line) no undo buffer is stored so it would be useless :)


funny you mention that cause I get that error when i run the script in command line from a batch file... maybe it is the plugin tat i use to import at the beginning of the script?

[alexx]

hmm..
ok.. you can run out of ram without the undo buffer for sure :)

to be honest: that was just guessing, that maya does not do undoes in command line..
it would be so stupid to do it that it becomes probable again :surprised

alexx

[Boolieman]

Are you guys running out of ram cause i got a whole flock of em
:p
no really you guys gotta conserve your ram cause maya uses it up really fast so try doing thins in wireframe

[bentllama]

alexx: i will try and see if the undo thing works without the UI [via command line]...

... just as you, I am uncertain if Maya stores an undo when run via command line, [sans UI]... I imagine it would cause it is a global pref...

...hmmm, I am gonna have to ask someone at alias about that one :)

[beaker]

bentllama:

You only have an undo buffer if you run maya in non gui mode "maya -prompt". The command line render is a separate process.

[playmesumch00ns]

Originally posted by wrend
playmesumch00ns,


undoInfo -q -l

undoInfo, its golden, only became aware of it recently and been using it ever since!

Yeah but that just tells you how many undo levels are set, what I wanted was some way to get an undo-RAM-usage figure from a script. My problem was that I had one undo level using over a GB!

[makester]

on a similar note, I often find that maya is fine the first time I render into a new window, but on subsequent attempts the whole thing just hangs and the busy icon just ticks away doing nothing.

Anyone else experience this, and know how to get around it?

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