Fumefx 1.1 Keeps running out of memory

#1

I am getting quite frustrated with a scene i am doing. Basically its a space explosion and after a set amount of frames i keep getting the “out of memory” error and the program has to close. I have shut down loads of background running programs and all that but i just cant finish the simulation

#2

I imagine you spacing is too low. Are you running a 32 or 64 bit machine?

#3

32 bit. Spacing was at like .832 i never fully understood what the spacing meant but what should i raise it too to be on the safe side

#4

if i don’t mystake, spacing is the size of the voxels. like subdivisions, if u are running a 32 bits computer (means u have less than 4 gb ram) u must keep the size a little bigger, or your machine is gonna kill himself

#5

a value of .832 is meaningless without knowing the rest of the container values. As dementol mentioned spacing is the size of the voxel, the smaller the spacing the more detailed your fluid will be. You can see a representation of the voxel size on one of the corners of your container, there will be a small box.
Think of its a pixels in a picture, the more pixels you have, the more detail you have, therefore the file size will be bigger and will take longer to process.

#6

Yeah the size of your spacing doesnt mean much when we dont knwo the size of your container.

You should do test sims at a large spacing and reduce the size until you get a good result. You may not need to put the spacing below 2 for example, so (again without knowing the size of your container) id suggest changing your voxel size to 10, and reducing it untill you get a good result, and no crashing.

#7

Recently i was getting the very same issues! was very frustrating. But after a little digging around i found ( i probably should have realized sooner, because i was aware of it).

Firstly i’ll suggest searching this in the fumefx help, will explain a bit
(Memory requirements and recommendations)

basically what this will tell you is “32-bit Windows limits the memory available per process to 2GB”…what does this mean. 3 things:

  1. If your running a 32 bit app, like windows xp, it will only ever use 3.5gb of ram regardless of whats in the machine (this includes the windows OS). It Also means that a program will basically only ever be able to use approx 2gb of ram. :frowning: which makes me sad, but it has to with the fact that computers cant cont that high or some crap liek that :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

  2. If you do get upgrade to a 64bit system, you will need to use 64bit max to utilize teh extra ram (64 bit can use up to 128gb of ram). I am pretty certain it also means that you will need a 64 bit version of fumfx to utilize max utilizing the extra memory ( mostley certain but dont quote me on that last sentence)

  3. In version 1.1 of fumefx, it tell you your memory useage ( for sim, and for render). What you would want to do is change the spacing so that in your case it falls below 2gb (2048mb) of ram going to be used. And if your not using version that gives you this info (update if you can, as that fixed some really silly bugs), then you will basically have to guesstimate how much RAM it will use. so as a rogue guide here are some values.

Again from the help (Simulation times may increase for up to 20% and RAM usage will be roughly doubled for a given simulation.)

Now the general values. Ignoring grid spacing but focusing on voxel density on the grid. See attached pic for where i am looking at.

A 100x100x100 voxel grid with fluid mapping will give take approx 95mb of ram.

A 150x150x150 voxel grid with fluid mapping will give take approx 300mb of ram.

A 200x200x200 voxel grid with fluid mapping will give take approx 710mb of ram.

A 300x300x300 voxel grid with fluid mapping will give take approx 2395mb of ram.

For me the highest I can go before it crashes or just locks up is:

280x280x280 with fluid mapping.

As the doc mentions if you don’t have fluid mapping your ram using will decrease by approx 50%, which basically mean almost double them if you don’t have fluid mapping (if you require it that is)

And after re-reading your initial post. It could just be a “heavy” or "dodgy scene :(.

Anyways i hope that is helpful for you

Cheers Kieran

#8

@ point number 3.

If your using 64 bit of max, you can only install a 64 bit version of fume on it. Not 32 bit.

Basically you need a 64 bit OS, 64 bit windows, 64 bit max, and you can have a stack of ram.

#9

Lol der (slaps forward). Yeah your absolutely right! I should have clicked on that one, must be getting too late lol.

#10

Not entirely true, the fumefx installer only lets you choose one, you can file dump a 32-bit version or vice-versa. I am really glad you can use 32-bit in xp64, and unless you are doing gargantuan sims the 4gig memory address space works pretty well. Plus you get the added benefit of using PhysX in 32-bit.:slight_smile:

#11

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