Digital Art Zone

Argh!
I thought I would import a simple characterout of Daz 4.5 into Bryce7 Pro and it took 10 minutes of scrolling progress bars etc when it eventually ran out of memory.

ONLY ONE CHARACTER!!!!

SO the question is WHAT do I need.
Well obviously more memory but here’s my Spec.
Pentium 4 Quad Core 2.4Ghz
2Gb Ram
3Tb HDrive
Running Windows XP SP3

I am not sure if XP supports more than 2Gb but what do other people have.
(Don’t say Macintosh!)

If I need more RAM and my PC supports it - i’ll get it but not if it will not be enough.
How much RAM exactly does it take to import one single character into Bryce - or is it better to send Bryce to Daz???

tdrd - 14 September 2012 07:52 AM

Argh!
I thought I would import a simple characterout of Daz 4.5 into Bryce7 Pro and it took 10 minutes of scrolling progress bars etc when it eventually ran out of memory.

ONLY ONE CHARACTER!!!!

SO the question is WHAT do I need.
Well obviously more memory but here’s my Spec.
Pentium 4 Quad Core 2.4Ghz
2Gb Ram
3Tb HDrive
Running Windows XP SP3

I am not sure if XP supports more than 2Gb but what do other people have.
(Don’t say Macintosh!)

If I need more RAM and my PC supports it - i’ll get it but not if it will not be enough.
How much RAM exactly does it take to import one single character into Bryce - or is it better to send Bryce to Daz???

Well, in my experience, there are many ways to upset the bridge.  So the question I have to ask is, and please don’t think I’m being rude, but I cannot know how competent you are with DS unless you tell us.  I for example, am pretty incompetent with DS and often do things in the wrong order and cause chaos with the bridge.  Chaos that has nothing to do with memory limitations or software limitations but I just tend to be a bit random with the DS Bryce bridge and it doesn’t like that kind of thing.

Now you may have already looked at them, so if you have, I apologise for stating the obvious, but have you paid close attention to Rashad Carters thread on using the bridge and moving characters from DS to Bryce?

Edit:  This link may help you to start with http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/7327/

tdrd - 14 September 2012 07:52 AM

Argh!
I thought I would import a simple characterout of Daz 4.5 into Bryce7 Pro and it took 10 minutes of scrolling progress bars etc when it eventually ran out of memory.

ONLY ONE CHARACTER!!!!

SO the question is WHAT do I need.
Well obviously more memory but here’s my Spec.
Pentium 4 Quad Core 2.4Ghz
2Gb Ram
3Tb HDrive
Running Windows XP SP3

I am not sure if XP supports more than 2Gb but what do other people have.
(Don’t say Macintosh!)

If I need more RAM and my PC supports it - i’ll get it but not if it will not be enough.
How much RAM exactly does it take to import one single character into Bryce - or is it better to send Bryce to Daz???

XP will support up to 4GB’s if you happen to have XP 64 then that supports up to 32GB I think but that’s irrelevent because as long as Bryce remains 32 only it won’t make use of more then 2GB as is and about 3.4GB if you use a little utility called Large Address Aware or LAA for short.

I would encourage you to bump your memory up to 4GB’s at least and consider bumping it up to the max your motherboard can support if it can support more and you plan on upgrading to a 64 bit OS in the near future. Memory is very cheap right now so I always encourage people to get the most they can right now because later on it might not be so cheap.

Now for Bryce I would also encourage you to get the LAA utility and use it for Bryce but only after you’ve added memory, right now with you only having 2GB’s it won’t do you much good. When if you’re ready for it the LAA utility can be found here:

Now on the Bryce DS bridge, not all objects are equal. There are models out there that are big enough in size and have enough vertices and what not that they would bring a system with just 2GB’s to it’s knees. So thinking “It’s just one thing” isn’t necessarily the right way to think about it. Also aside from the complexity of the model you have to consider the textures. Alot of the models out there are rich in detail. This comes from using very hi resolution texture maps like 4000 x 4000 in the case of the V4 Elite textures. So the bridge and your memory need to accomodate that as well. Also lots of things use transparencies and that would be an additional load on top of the model and the textures.

Another consideration is what David touched base on which is the order with which you do things. Now as far as in Studio I’m not sure if there is a certain order one needs to follow but in Bryce there is, especially for people with low amounts of memory. Bryce has the undo feature that lets you go pretty far back on changes you’ve made. Each step backward takes up some of that memory. Therefore to insure Bryce has the most memory to work with the order of things should be to open Bryce and if you’re just starting on a scene go straight to the Studio Bridge and send over to Bryce whatever you’re sending first. That way the undo buffer is essential empty and Bryce should have as much memory to work with as it can. Now if you’re adding something to a scene then of course open that first and then go to the Studio Bridge. Don’t use the bridge to import into a scene you’ve already been working on and/or making changes to because the undo buffer will likely be full.

@tdrd - 2GB of RAM. The system uses up quite a bit of that already. Then you have Bryce open and Studio open. And you have a character with nice cloths, shoes and hair to bring over the bridge into Bryce. You may hit the memory limit. Open the Task Manager and watch how memory usage develops. If it is indeed a memory issue, quit Bryce, open Studio, get your character and export it as obj. Quit Studio, open Bryce and import. This will save memory.

Also a handy tip I picked up from Chohole recently is if your model is wearing clothing… ‘hide’ all the body parts that you can not see (as Bryce doesn’t need the geometry for them and it’ll save on the poly count). If you’re making an .obj file to import into Bryce, you have the option of choosing which parts of your model you are going to save. Uncheck the boxes for all parts of the model fully covered by clothes (usually feet, toes, thighs, waist, abdomen and shoulders but this depends on the clothing they are wearing).

I do agree with LHD that the biggest problem I encounter is with textures. This was one reason I started making my own textures for clothing, as the super high res ones may look great in close ups, but for most of what I do I don’t need that, so make my textures smaller both in kb and pixel size.  Seems other people apprediate them as well, judging by the hits I get on my website. Also as He also says, the skin textures can be very large, and a single figure can have quite a few attacched to it, face, torso, limbs and eyes, plus bumps and trans maps. I have a habit of reducing the pixel size of a lot of my skin maps, and saving a reduced copy.

Even so a clothed figure, saved as a br 5 file can be 200mb or more, just for one figure, (bryce 5 doesn’t compress the scene file so this is the uncompressed size.)

In my case (which most likely does not applies to the OP)

I can’t risk using the LAA because my other ‘main’ program I use for work may likely become unstable, hang! My system is primarily for audio production, the software is quite old (I think 2005?) and there are audio drivers and a ton of plugins involved in that chain. Too many variables at play! There are further tweaks I could try but it’s just not worth the risk for a DAW that has surpassed all expectations and continues to run rock solid. So yeah I definitely do not want to rock that boat.

Thereby in ‘my case’; I’m prepared to wait till my budget permits a complete upgrade of hardware, audio interface / drivers, O/S and DAW software.

All above said;

(((understand that my case is unique and most likely does not effect the OP setup, thereby going the LAA route will most likely work fine)))

For now I get by using low-res textures and for what I do is geared toward HD video production being that the final renders need only be; 1920x1080p. thereby my textures need not be more than 1000x1000 (each - per obj) with 2000x2000 maximum might be OK (weighing in quality vs file size)! So anyway…. I have managed to render 4 Genesis figures in one scene (Bryce), I posted evidence of that in another thread so I guess the workaround (lower res textures) will do for now (until I upgrade)!

Also keep in mind any unnecessary applications running in the background (Start ups and services) for example;  DS4 is one of the biggest hogs of all and content management when system appears idle (not in use) uses up way more memory compared to other apps but CMS can be stopped (temporarily) particularly OK when DS4 is not being used; I can switch CMS = Run later on when I want to use DS4 so I guess that’s not an issue and DS4 will function OK for the most part although missing some functionality when CMS is disabled.

As Horo explained;
Having DS4 opened whilst bridging to Bryce = both programs are running thereby using a lot more memory whereas; exporting character from DS4 then close DS4 when done and then open Bryce and import that character will use less memory.

I have actually used the bridge for most other obj files that I’ve created and had no issues at all… but on Characters especially Elites or any other character that uses hi res 4000x4000?... whoa guarantee to crash both DS4 and Bryce!

@Sara16 - I understand your reservations of using LAA and I don’t want to convince you otherwise. Your decisions are a fully accepted. Just to clarify this: LAA sets a flag for just the program you tell it. You can toggle that flag back anytime. In fact, I’m removing it if I have to test a scene file that I might attempt to vend here, and toggle it on when I’m doing something for myself. Even Bryce 4 can be set LAA and it works.

I have updated the computer to 4GB of RAM and will keep you all posted on progress.
Am out tonight at a meal so it will be tomorrow before I can try out the suggestions above.
I DO NOTICE that the speed of loading and renders have improved somewhat…..

tdrd - 14 September 2012 11:28 AM

Am out tonight at a meal so it will be tomorrow before I can try out the suggestions above.

Enjoy your meal. A fine dinner is the next best thing to “brycing”.

Horo - 14 September 2012 10:49 AM

@Sara16 - I understand your reservations of using LAA and I don’t want to convince you otherwise. Your decisions are a fully accepted. Just to clarify this: LAA sets a flag for just the program you tell it. You can toggle that flag back anytime. In fact, I’m removing it if I have to test a scene file that I might attempt to vend here, and toggle it on when I’m doing something for myself. Even Bryce 4 can be set LAA and it works.

Thanks Horo,

Appreciate your advise and information you have shared on these forums. I’m sure others do too

I’m happy. My workflow continues on target. Between Bryce and DS4 I can create all the scenes and characters I need and in most cases together ‘complete’.  For example; no problem working in DS4 to create characters, no problem creating scenes in Bryce. For the immediate now; I have a lot of scenes to create and my system can handle that easily.  By the time I get all those scenes done and the audio projects (songs) mixed and mastered I be ready to upgrade to Windows 7 + new hardware and then move onto the next phase of combining all that I’ve done;  It will all come together nicely

And later next year I’ll start work on a new album, on a totally new system with the latest software.

Everything is slowly but surely coming together nicely!  Creativity is a labor of love.

I couldn’t be happier

.

OK - I went into DS4.5 and loaded my nice country lad in blue victorian outfit.
Exported the character as object.

Closed DS and opened scene in Bryce.
Imported my character OBJ file.

He appears ghostly white and lacks detail.  Where has all the colour information gone?

Another Question - can I export Bryce scene and open in DS???
I’ll try in the morning - had a few too many drinks and far too much chinese food tonight to consider doing much.

Terry

tdrd - 14 September 2012 07:49 PM

OK - I went into DS4.5 and loaded my nice country lad in blue victorian outfit.
Exported the character as object.

Closed DS and opened scene in Bryce.
Imported my character OBJ file.

He appears ghostly white and lacks detail.  Where has all the colour information gone?

Another Question - can I export Bryce scene and open in DS???
I’ll try in the morning - had a few too many drinks and far too much chinese food tonight to consider doing much.

Terry

use the Bridge from DS to Bryce - I do it all the time
no forget going from Bryce to DS - you will go nuts doing it