Tutorials on how to render crowds in Iray
gibrril_fa945a6cee
Posts: 550
in The Commons
HI all,
I know these must have been posted before, but I appear to be a very ineffective searcher... Can anybody point me to some good tutorials on how to get scenes containing multiple genesis (3) figures, like 5 or more and still get them to render on the GPU instead of the CPU? Thanks a lot,
Me
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Comments
If most of them are 'background' and aren't really detailed in the shot, reduce ALL the texture maps on them to low resolution....1024 x1024 at least.
Since they are background, I would use Lorez figures instead of G3. If they are super distant crowds, I would use miniman and miniwoman ( http://www.porsimo.net/3d/other.htm#mm )
Others prefere to use billboards (set up a few characters and render them, then use them as a texture on a plane. Do this over and over until you have a large enough crowd)
Thanks,
But they're not really far away... I'm talking something like this:
Still rather close to the camera...
How about that?
I have a Titan X GPU (12GB) and currently I'm trying to render a scne with three G3's (two have the smae texture) and DAZ sends it to the CPU. I find that very dissapointing...
Thanks for helping me out...
Me
Then you'll probably want to use decimator to lower the poly count, although first I'd try reducing the texture size first. Scene optimizer is really good for that and real easy to use.
It pulls up a list of all textures used in the scene and then you can select all the ones you want to resize and have it automagically reduce the size of the selected textures by 1/2, 1/4, 1/8th etc and then set the new textures to your models. That's where most of the ram is used is in the textures.
You can also render them in groups, and merge the image in Photoshop or gimp.
Set up the image as planned, then hide all the characters. If you have some structure that will derail shadows, it would be best to keep those characters in the render. Once you have done that render, hide what you already rendered, and unhide a few of the other characters. Render them, and make sure you safe them as png so you keep the transparent background. Leather, rinse, repeat for the other characters. If characters overlap or throw shadows on each other, it makes sense to render them together, though.
Here's an example. The first is the completed image, the other two are partial renders. There is another one for the background that I haven't included, but this should give you an idea what I mean.
Something must be off if your 12GB VRAM card is dropping to GPU with just 3 Genesis 3 characters. Even at full resolution and with original textures, I would not expect them to need much more than 2GB each. Maybe the clothing or hair you used with the figures was eating up the memory. You might want to consider a utilty like https://www.daz3d.com/iray-memory-assistant to tell you want is eating up the VRAM.
I did manage a render with 20 G3F figures in it using just over 3GB of VRAM, but these were using lower resolution skins, so lowering the resolution of the skin textures can help you pack in some more figures. This will have a bigger effect than using lower polygon figures (except that naturally low res figures often used low res skins). Genesis 3 using base resolution only has 17K polys or so, so only 3 times as much as Loretta/Lorenzo, and will look much better for figures in the foreground, like in the image you displayed.
What operating system do you have on your computer and what version of Daz Studio are you using?
I have Nvidia GTX 1080 graphic card with 8 GB of VRAM and running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit on my computer.
Just made a test scene with G3M based characters:
https://www.daz3d.com/fw-alexi-hd-for-genesis-3-male
https://www.daz3d.com/fw-brett-hd-for-dante-7
https://www.daz3d.com/lucian-7
and there were no problems fitting the scene to VRAM graphic memory.
Total Rendering Time: 9 minutes 59.7 seconds
GeForce GTX 1080: 5000 iterations, 1.962s init, 584.396s render
Also used: https://www.daz3d.com/mec4d-hdri-gardens-vol-2-megapack
Added two more characters:
https://www.daz3d.com/dante-7
https://www.daz3d.com/leo-7
and still not hit the limit of my graphic card.
Rendering Time: 14 minutes 25.56 seconds
GeForce GTX 1080: 5000 iterations, 62.348s init, 785.040s render
May be your scene has very complicated environment.
Added one more character to the scene:
https://www.daz3d.com/fwsa-edgar-hd-for-michael-7
The computer started to slowing down, so it is close to the limit.
Have checked how much RAM Daz Studio occupied and it was 25.3 GB
I have 32 GB of RAM in my computer. Below is the iray render
Rendering Time: 40 minutes 18.54 seconds
GeForce GTX 1080: 5000 iterations, 114.753s init, 2257.697s render
As others have said this is completely not normal. So I am going to ask a question that may sound really stupid. Are your graphics card drivers updated? Because mine were not I rendered by accident in CPU mode for over a year without noticing until I did a larger scene and the difference became noticeable.
Hi,
Thanks for the comments!
I did use a larger environment, but still, three G3 characters and no go for 12 GB of VRAM is odd. I'll check my drivers ASAP!
Me
Okay, so how do I update these drivers? Just using the GameReady app?
Thanks a lot,
Me
No...go to Nvidia directly and get them there...the GameReady app adds a lot of unnecessary overhead.
Okay... Can someone explain this to me? (see picture. I've got one G3 figure loaded up and this is what the Iray Memory assistant says... By the way, I have 128 GB of SYS RAM installed, but DAZ only sees 34... How do I fix this?
Thanks a lot,
Me
Now I did a test with seven G3 characters. Now this is the result... Is something wrong with my Daz Studio?
All of a sudden, DS sees 47 GB of SYS Ram, but the Vram dropped to 9 (I did restart DS)
When I deselct everything I still have VRAM shortage... What? (VRAM003)
Thanks for helping me fix this,
Me
Please see this...
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/3279/acceptable-ways-of-handling-nudity#latest
Oops, sorry, didn't realize that; I uploaded a cleaner pic this time. Sorry.
I went to this site, and accoriding to them, my drivers are up to date:
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx
Is thsi the right source?
Also, just to be sure: SLI needs to be turned OFF right?
Thanks a lot,
Me
Yes and yes...
What is your operating system?
That could explain some of the oddities showing up, as some versions of Windows can eat quite a bit of video memory (by 'reserving' it for 'something').
Windows 10 64 bit pro.
See this post, specifically
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/1719441/#Comment_1719441
And thread in general.
And here is a chart with Win10 memory limits
https://www.groovypost.com/news/windows-10-memory-limit-2-tb/
If you are not seeing the full amount, then there is a chance you have a hardware config or physical RAM problem.
I can see the full amount in my system specs and use it in other programs. Daz Studio doesn't see it...
But the bigger issue is not the SYS ram, it's the GPU RAM.
How do I get all 12 GB of GPU RAM to be used?
Thanks a lot,
Me
Right!
So that article showed me that 2gb of one of my Titans is being used, but according to the GPUZ software I found through that articel, the second Titan has all 12 GB available.
So given that DAz studio will always mirror the smallest unit available, that means I can work with about 9 GB or VRMAM, That should still fit up to seven G3 chacarters, but clearly that doesn't happen...
Any ideas as to why Daz Studio does not use the full 9 GB of VRAM available?
Thnaks a lot,
Me
In your Render Setting\Advanced, Do you have CPU checked or your video card or both?
I don't think there is a way to use all 12 GB (I wish there was) - I have a GTX 1080 & it says:
info : CUDA device 0 (GeForce GTX 1080): compute capability 6.1, 8 GiB total, 6.63583 GiB available, display attached
I am not sure that the memory assistant is entirely accurate on what Daz sees as on mine it says 38GB but I only have 32GB - I know that Daz uses the 32GB as I have things I can load that would cause my Studio to crash when I only had 16GB on the same machine
Hi again thanks for the replies!
As hardware I only have both GPU's selected.
As Optix Prime Acceleration I have my CPU and both GPU's selected
Thanks
Me
What size render are you trying to make? The pixel count will drastically raise the memory needed to render. Close ups of characters raise it, too. And what kind of background are you using?
Textures eat VRAM more than anything else. I can run more V4 and M4 characters than I can G3, even though those old characters have a lot more polygons than G3. I can also fit more Genesis 2 characters in a scene than G3. So I don't think polygon count is nearly as important as texture sizes and number of textures. You can try using Texture Atlas, which would create one single texture for each model, similar to how most video games do textures for characters. It can save a drastic amount of memory and get you under the limit. Texture Atlas is included with Daz Studio, and there is a thread that teaches how to use it. Otherwise, you will need to cheat, and create the image in pieces like BeeMKay suggested. That's life with Iray. Iray doesn't really care how much system RAM you have, your VRAM is the what matters most. System RAM certainly doesn't hurt, but even if Daz can only see 47 gb or whatever it was, that is more than plenty.
Sorry Artini, but I consider those renders microscopic, and full HD is not that big either. And is that an HDRI or a full 3D environment? How many figures can you render in a full 4k size image of that scene? Or even 5K? I am genuinely curious because I do not have a 1080 and I have been considering upgrading. I want to render in the 3000 pixel range at minimum.
I'm trying to render at 4050 x 3605 pixels. I'm using this resolution so I can scale down the pics later and have a cleaner look. I try to hit at least 1500 itterations.
The tests I did in this forum used nothing but characters, no background. I'll post the results of the test render (what the log says) when the render is done.
Thanks a lot,
Me