Well since Sacrament was one of Jack’s heavier sets, I feel somewhat relieved that I can now load the whole lot in and render it without hurting my system any more. The RAM upgrade came through and everything now moves as smooth as silk. I’d post the resulting renders, but they’re highly experimental renders attempting to get a decent ‘light beam’ effect using Lux and Reality’s fog. It’s not very pretty at the moment, to be blunt.
Will post some renders when it’s looking a bit more holy and a lot less ‘moly’.
Golden rule of computer purchases that have been valid for the past 25 years at least.
Look at the price for the most expensive computer in the range you are about to buy. Then buy the next most expensive and then upgrade it with RAM and disk so you end up at the same price at the most expensive one.
Or if you’re tech but cheapskate like me you can self-build. I have a large old case and remake the system for about £500 every few years. New graphics card more often as they date quickly or blow up. The old parts get recycled into Linux boxes.
Or if you’re tech but cheapskate like me you can self-build. I have a large old case and remake the system for about £500 every few years. New graphics card more often as they date quickly or blow up. The old parts get recycled into Linux boxes.
I always self-build. It’s not a case of being cheap for me though, it’s a matter of pride. Buying pre-built machines often means having to compromise somewhere, and I don’t like compromises if I can avoid them. My current PC was built from the ground up. Everything from the motherboard to the CPU to the RAM was bought individually and pieced together by myself. It is cheaper to do, but it’s also a lot more rewarding.
The only thing I regret is buying a cheaper second monitor. Every now and then I get a horrible dithering effect which is highly distracting. I have to drag my Luxrender windows across to my good monitor so I can properly scrutinize the images. Well, live and learn.
The cheapskate was tongue-in-cheek. I prefer to build as pre-built PCs often have sub-standard components. If the motherboard is OK the disk(s) will be rubbish. I used to build my office machines too but I’ve been arm-twisted into accepting bought ones which are then a pain to upgrade.
....I have no issue with adjusting the texture map sizes myself in PSP. Done it enough that it has become pretty routine.
Of course sometime next week (fingers crossed) I should finally be able to say goodbye to memory and OpenGL issues.
...been a “one piece at a time” affair.
Same here with PSP. I only need the downsized maps for Vue so that it doesn’t go cry in a corner and refuse to play any more. It’s not a memory issue that can be solved by getting more, it just doesn’t like big textures. Maybe it’s the memory allocation - how much it gives to each object and texture which is an internal coding problem.
Enjoy all that memory. It makes a huge difference - especially running several things at once.
...thanks. I think 12GB should be a sufficiently high enough ceiling.
....I have no issue with adjusting the texture map sizes myself in PSP. Done it enough that it has become pretty routine.
Of course sometime next week (fingers crossed) I should finally be able to say goodbye to memory and OpenGL issues.
...been a “one piece at a time” affair.
Same here with PSP. I only need the downsized maps for Vue so that it doesn’t go cry in a corner and refuse to play any more. It’s not a memory issue that can be solved by getting more, it just doesn’t like big textures. Maybe it’s the memory allocation - how much it gives to each object and texture which is an internal coding problem.
Enjoy all that memory. It makes a huge difference - especially running several things at once.
...thanks. I think 12GB should be a sufficiently high enough ceiling.
Making low-res textures and then special MAT files to apply them is a huge amount of work. Most people seem happy with doing their own reductions at present.
A small render from within GiS Sigma looking out at other parts of the system through the windows and in reflections. I called it “A Tour of the Base”. The figures really ought to be a bit smaller scale which would make the structure even more immense and impressive. Bet she’ll cut their funding anyway.
New toys by the master! I already know what I will render for the PC contest (just need the webguys to fix so I can diownload the DS Mac OS files, getting only Windows files, bugged@mantis).
