International Space Station Blows Up My CPU
mwokee
Posts: 1,275
Just purchased International Space Station. I select the 2017 configuration and then try doing a small 400 x 280 test render using Iray. The computer just chugs and chugs, nothing happens. The computer becomes extremely sluggish and it's difficult to kill Daz Studio.
I try again with 3Delight and it's still very slow at 400 x 280.
Any suggestions short of getting a refund? Can't work like this.
Thanks
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Comments
Regardless of the size of your render, Studio still needs to load and process the whole model (unless you eliminate/hide parts). I notice you didn't give any of your computer specs, but a lot of model needs more than a basic computer to render in reasonable timing.
3D rendering is not for the faint of hardware.
Did you alter any of the render settings for "Min update samples" or "Update Interval (secs)", or "Rendering quality"?
Values too high, will cause Daz/IRAY to render more, before "pausing" to update and refresh the scene. Too low, and it may bog-down your system with "refreshing", while it renders. I use 50 for update samples and 10 for interval seconds. I render at quality 0.10 and converge ratio of 25%, for quick renders. Then quality 4.0 and 100%, for production levels. (But I don't render with a CPU, so... I would not go that high, unless this image is going to make you money. :P )
There is a phase that has to be done, before rendering starts, and even after rendering starts, where you will not "see anything". That is where Daz/IRAY is trying to setup the scene, based on the shaders settings and geometry. Then, when it starts rendering, it does a pre-screening of the scene, to determine what is actually "going to be seen" in the reflections, in the light.
If you have lots of light-sources and lots of reflective and/or refractive surfaces, this can take a while. I am not sure of the details of the space-station, but I assume it has a lot of shiny metal surfaces and glass windows and light-sources.
Rendering on CPU will consume a LOT of processing power. Don't expect to do much, while rendering, unless you set the AFFINITY for Daz, to limit the number of threads/cores that it uses. (Free one thread and you can do other things, while rendering, but those will still be a little slow to respond. However, you should be able to freely move the mouse to hit the "cancel" button on a render, a lot faster. It will still take a moment to "pause the render", because cancel is just a pause button, not a "stop button". You can continue the render if you decide that you need the CPU for other things, for a moment, without losing what you rendered so far.)
To "Set Affinity", bring-up the "Task manager". (If you don't have a short-cut to that, just hit [CTRL]+[ALT]+[DEL], all at once. Task-manager will be an option to select, after you hit that keyboard-combo.)
In "Task manager", find the (tab) which says (Details).
Now find "DazStudio.exe", and 2nd-mouse-click (right-mouse-click)... To get the pop-up, drop-down menu.
Select "Set Affinity", and uncheck one of the threads. (Try not to do this while rendering... Also I don't suggest unchecking thread "CPU 0", as that may be the primary core that Daz started-in.)
You can then close Task-Manager... It will run like that, until Daz restarts again.
OPTIONALLY... You can try to alter some scene settings, before you actually render it...
1: Instead of "Refraction" for glass, use the old method of "Opacity". If it has both set, I would select the opacity value over refraction. There is actually nothign to refract, if your backdrop is "space".
2: Find all metal surfaces, and remove image-maps. Set the surfaces to an UBER shader, and just select 100% Metalicity. It is much faster and more accurate as a "metal reflection".
3: Hide things you can't actually see. Unless they might show in a reflection...
4: Try setting the "Max Path Length", in the [Optimizations] area of the (Render Settings) tab, to 3, instead of -1 (infinity/max), unless you have humans in the scene, where you can see the EYES... Those need a value of at-least 7, to render something other than a solid BLACK EYE. There are a LOT of refractions going-on in the eyes... More than it needs. (You can also hide the tears, to speed things up. That is refractions in refractions in refractions, with gloss over gloss over gloss... Total overkill for what it actually displays.)
5: Check the models [Mesh Resolution] area in the (Parameters) tab... There are three values that interest you.
- Reslution level: May be HIGH... Try BASE or LOW, if one exists.
- SubDivision Level: (This is what you see on the screen, not in rendering) Lower it if daz is slugish while setting-up a scene.
- Render SubD Level (Minimum): I would lower this, unless you are trying to push for a HD or final-production rendering. Not sure if daz does LOD, but this value is usually higher than the prior level, so it renders with more potential detail. However, unless a model is created with special "curves", or unless it is deformed in some way, by another morph, it will not give any more detail. It will just create more triangles that give you the same exact shape. It will also slow down rendering, as each smaller triangle surface has to be individually "calculated" for each new UV-surface/normal. Even if they are still the same.
6: Save this as a "Scene", so you don't have to do it all over again, later. Instead of loading the raw model, in whole... You can just load your scene, with all the changes you just made.
Are these instructions for Win10? I still have Win7 and my Task Manager doesn't have a Details tab. I do find the menu with Set Affinity, though, in the Processes tab.
Mine is under Process too. I have mine set for Studio to Set Priority/Below Normal. This way it uses only what is available while other programmes are being used and they get a share of the CPU allowing them to function. You can also use the Set Affinity setting too if you want.
Someone was asking about this set in Commons, and I noticed on my system, the full 2017 config uses ~24 GB of memory to prepare the render. If you don't have that much, it will page to disc, which is, like, 1000 times slower (probably more than that). I used to have that problem until I discovered the affinity settings, too. It would take 20-30 minutes just to get back control of the computer. Didn't let that happen again.