Unable to add a third G3 figure into Iray without crashing [SOLVED]

abelundercity_7fb40cbc22

I've been having a problem recently adding a third G3 to otherwise fairly simple scenes in Studio.  Like say I'm doing a boxing match and want to add the referee too.  Doing so causes a hideous render slowdown (crashed at the 39:50 mark last time I tried it, and that was the most successful attempt).  This didn't used to be a problem.

I run an Intel Core i5 4690K 3.50 GHz running 64-bit Windows 10 with 16 GB RAM

Card stats: 

Current OpenGL Version:
4.6.0 NVIDIA 388.13

OpenGL Provider:
NVIDIA Corporation

Hardware:
GeForce GTX 1050 Ti/PCIe/SSE2

Features: 

MultiTexturing Supported

Shadow Map Supported

Hardware Antialiasing Supported

OpenGL Shading Language Supported

Pixel Buffer Supported

Pixel Buffer Size Not Enabled

Maximum Number of Lights 8

Number of Texture Units 4

Maximum Texture Size
32768 x 32768

The log file is essentially this message over and over before the crash:

2018-07-02 06:51:37.409 Iray VERBOSE - module:category(IRAY:RENDER):   1.4   IRAY   rend stat : Native CPU code generated in 2.93e-007s
2018-07-02 06:51:37.409 WARNING: dzneuraymgr.cpp(307): Iray ERROR - module:category(IRAY:RENDER):   1.5   IRAY   rend error: CPU: Failed to allocate 14.8773 MiB
2018-07-02 06:51:37.409 WARNING: dzneuraymgr.cpp(307): Iray ERROR - module:category(IRAY:RENDER):   1.5   IRAY   rend error: CPU: Failed to allocate 29.755 MiB for (device) frame buffer, cannot use this device
2018-07-02 06:51:37.409 WARNING: dzneuraymgr.cpp(307): Iray ERROR - module:category(IRAY:RENDER):   1.5   IRAY   rend error: CPU: Failed to setup device frame buffer
2018-07-02 06:51:37.410 WARNING: dzneuraymgr.cpp(307): Iray ERROR - module:category(IRAY:RENDER):   1.5   IRAY   rend error: CPU: Device failed while rendering
2018-07-02 06:51:37.410 WARNING: dzneuraymgr.cpp(307): Iray ERROR - module:category(IRAY:RENDER):   1.5   IRAY   rend error: All workers failed: aborting render

oomu

Hello

2018-07-02 06:51:37.409 WARNING: dzneuraymgr.cpp(307): Iray ERROR - module:category(IRAY:RENDER):   1.5   IRAY   rend error: CPU: Failed to allocate 14.8773 MiB
2018-07-02 06:51:37.409 WARNING: dzneuraymgr.cpp(307): Iray ERROR - module:category(IRAY:RENDER):   1.5   IRAY   rend error: CPU: Failed to allocate 29.755 MiB for (device) frame buffer, cannot use this device
 

here, iray tells it needs more memory to work your scene.

you have a few choices:

- buy more RAM for your computer 32GB for example

- I'm not sure you need that much memory for a satisfying render: try to tweak the settings for your scene

    - check the SUBD settings of your figures and props (in Parameters tab, Mesh resolution). Only a few figures with intricated HD details would need 3 or 4 subd. And yes, it's QUITE taxing

    - check textures settings in Render Settings tab, Advanced tab,  1024 for High Treshold should be enough

    - check the Pixel size of the render image,  1024x1024 for example should be enough to start

- Check in Render Settings, Optimization, Instancing Optimization. Choose : Memory.

 

The more you add high subdived figures and props, with high resolution textures for each elements, the more iray will need memory, a LOT. Try first with more conservative settings.

 

  

oomu

Also, in the log you copy-pasted, it tells only the CPU was tried for rendering. Not your GPU.

again with iray, if the gpu itself has not enough memory to load the ENTIRE scene (figures, props, textures, hdri background and so on), it will "fail" to start the render and iray will try with only the cpu. And here, even the cpu mode "fails" because you don't have enough memory.

16GB should be more than enough to do ambitious and elaborate scenes with some restrain :)

abelundercity_7fb40cbc22

Thank you for the help, oomu! It seems that most of my settings fall under the parameters you described, with the exception of instancing optimization. Maybe I should look into the hardware solution after all.

ebergerly

Yeah, something looks strange. Looks like your CPU was going to render but it couldn't find enough system RAM? If you have a correct pagefile setting it should use your hard drive as virtual RAM. Although it seems strange it would need that much RAM for 3 G3's. Unless you have a lot more in the scene.

I suppose it couldn't fit in the 1050ti, so it went to CPU.

Fishtales

Also check you have enough virtual memory set up on your hard drives. Set it to the highest available.

abelundercity_7fb40cbc22

Ah, virtual memory was lacking.  That doesn't have to be done on the C: drive, does it?  That one's a bit crowded as is.

Fishtales

I tried moving mine to an external drive on the USB port but when windows is starting if the USB drive isn't loaded in time then it reverts to the c drive. It never used to so I don't know why it is doing it now. I now have it set for the second partition on the main drive, D:, not using the C: drive partition, and the external drives which seems to work.

abelundercity_7fb40cbc22

Well, I'm leaving the small portion on the C: drive as is, and adding a proper sized pagefile to my G: drive, which I've already set aside for temporary files.  The tutorial I Googled up says the minimum size should be 1.5 times my RAM, while the max should be 3 times.  Does that sound right?

Fishtales

I have C: set to none and the rest set to System Managed, except for my library hard drive which is set to none as it gets accessed a lot when rendering, which is giving me 26 GB of virtual memory :)

abelundercity_7fb40cbc22

Well, it worked!   And my test render came up in a fraction of the time to which I've become accustomed.

Thank you all for the help!

ebergerly

Yeah, I'd set it to auto and let Windows figure it out. On my 16GB machine the pagefile will start at 2GB, and when a big scene is rendering it will go up past 30GB. It's hard to guess what size to make it manually. 

Also, if you want to save some drive space when Studio is using it for virtual RAM, turn off hibernation so that it won't make that monster "hiberfil.sys" hibernation backup file. That should save 10's of GB of storage space.  

Just keep in mind that when Studio uses your drive as virtual RAM and CPU is rendering it slows things down like molasses in January because it's accessing the disk continuously. Yet another reason to get a GPU with more VRAM, or else do some scene management.