Excessively long saved figure and scene loading, saving and clearing time ...SOLVED!!!
areg5
Posts: 617
My saved scenes were taking forever to load and save. We're talking about 20 min, 30 min ...longer. It was really pissing me off. No one had any answers for me. Then this guy on Deviantart made this suggestion, and it worked!
1. Load the scene.
2. Save it as a scene subset.
3. Close.
4. Open the subset. Save it as a scene.
Oh my God, what a difference! There must be something fragmented that can happen with scenes you work wit a lot, and this totally fixes it! Scenes that were taking 1/2 hour to load now load in less than a minute! If you're having this issue, try it! Makes things a whole lot easier and a whole lot less frustrating.
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Comments
Don't forget there are differences between scenes and scene subsets. Loading a scene defaults to replacing any scene you have already in your Viewport, and it will include render settings (unless you've changed how this works in the Preferences dialog). Scene subsets default to merging into the existing scene, and don't include render settings.
Note also that quick saving times appear to be at least partly dependent on having every item in the scene created properly in DAZ|Studio native file format, and saved properly into your content location. Any items loaded into your scene in Poser format will be automatically converted and saved into a sort of intermediate file format; this does work, but it's not as robust as proper native D|S files. Older D|S content predating D|S4.5 and the switch to .duf file format can also slow things down a bit.
Well, I just open the subset, I don't merge it into another scene, and all of my render settings are unchanged. Then once it's open I save it as a scene. As far as the rendered product, I haven't seen any differences at all. As far as how every figure and object and the scene act as far as posing and whatnot I haven't seen a difference there either. Since I make comics, many of my scenes are similar. I chnages poses and camera angles for a new scene. I merge characters in as needed. Sometimes do animations. And what I think was happening was that with small changes to the scenes and saves, it was somehow getting gummed up. Load and save times got slower and slower until I was waiting 30-40 minutes for a scene to lad, after waiting 20 minutes for the previous scene to save. In fact, even if I was loading a saved character and nothing else it was taking 15-20 minutes, and these were genesis and gen 2 characters. If I tried to open a default gen 2 female for example, it opened fast and fine.
So, as far as differences, I haven't seen any in the content of the subset vs. the scene. The main difference is that I can now use the program efficiently.
It may be caused by hidden items that plug-ins, such as Reality and Octane for DS, add to the scene file. If you opt to view hidden items in scene tab you might see a lot of 'detritus'. If memoe serves Reality had a habit a few versions back of adding to scene so hidden, un-needed, daat built up.
So I've heard, but I don't have Reality or Octane. I was just in this weird situation where the load and save times were getting longer and longer, usings props and saved characters I've used many times before with no problem. The only thing I could think of that was being done differently in the scenes was that I have started using Iray, and apply the Uber shader to all props and whatnot and Iray skins to the characters. I thought that might have been the culprit.
It shouldn't be, as all that is saved (I think and hope), are references to the resources in use and settings/properties made. A load might take longer if the shaders in use do not match the render engine set as tdlmake might need to run for the textures, etc., but that is clutching at dead straws that broke the bank at Monte Carlo ...
Yeah. Believe me, over the last few days I have searched for a cause and resolution of this issue extensively. The only thing that has worked, and worked very well I might add, is this scene subset strategy. Let me tell you how I use Daz. I make comics, and each comic has maybe 200 scenes in it. So when I get up in the morning, I do as many scenes as I can. Then I batch render them, using this batch render program intended for 3Delight but it works for Iray too. So before I had this problem solved, The save times were killing me. I'd do a scene, save, change a few things, save, ect. I could get maybe 5 or 6 scenes saved. Then when I set it to render, the load times were killing me. So for the rest of the day it would render those 6 or so scenes. My Iray is tuned and fast at this point, maybe 20-30 minutes a scene, so the majority of the time was loading time. Yesterday I started using subsets. I got about 30 scenes done. Huge difference for me, and I'll really be able to get my comics out faster.
A scene load will clear the previous scene, then loads the new items...then compiles the shaders/optimizes images, etc. A subset adds things to the previous scene, instead of clearing it. So if items are usng the same shaders, sharing textures, etc, none of that needs to be redone.
Well, I don't merge the subset, I just open it. Then save it as a scene. The shaders don't look like they were affected.It all looks exactly the same.
Well I had a use problem with the G2F overalls that I had autofitted on G3F being constantly being interactively collided and smoothed no matter what I was doing in the scene despite that all interactive smoothing and colliding for all clothing for all characters in the scene was turned off. I never did figure out why it was doing that but saving the scene, exiting, and re-opening the scene fixed it.
That wasn't working for me at all. I was cringing if I had to save and reopen a scene, because that process was taking about an hour.
What do you mean? If you save a Scene Subset and double-click its icon it will be merged - by default a subset is merged when double-clicked, a full scene is opened (you can override that via the right-click menu in the content pane or by using the File menu commands).
What I mean is, I save the subset, then close Daz. Then I restart Daz, go to open, and open it right out of the subset folder. I don't merge it into an empty scene or another scene. It'll just open like a regular scene. Then I save it as a regular scene.
Do you have Reality? That, in a previous version, could add a lot of nides to a scene - saving a subset obviously drops any unselected nodes. There may well be other ways in which unneeded nodes can accumulate.
I don't have Reality, it must be something like nodes. I re-use some scenes and characters a lot. I make adjustments here and there to hair, clothing shaders and such. Something must somehow be accumulating. The change in load time is dramatic.
If you load a scene that really lags, select teh Scene tab, then on context pop-out menu (the three horizontal bars icon) select Show> Show Hidden Nodes and check what changes (kf any) you see in the scene list.
I'm going to try the subset trick. Now, if I could figure out why loading G3F base into an empty scene takes a full 60 seconds, I'd be all set.
I'll have to see how long it takes me to load a G3. I don't use that generation much, but that might be a little long.
Just tried it, loaded in like 10 seconds. You might have an issue with your file structure.
With my system, it loaded the base figures and props really fast, it was hanging on certain saved scenes. Ones that I've used a lot over the last couple of years. I don't have any of the notorious plug ins that can slow it down, but there must be some sort of detritus that accumulates if you work scenes over and over again. Does is for me with certain saved figures. All of the problems seem to be with things I applied Iray shaders to, I think. Anyway, yeah, try it. It's like night and day.
Maybe I'm not understanding. What should I try? I'm adding G3F base into an empty scene. I'm not loading a scene file. But maybe you're saying there's something else going on where it still tries to look at existing scene files? That doesn't seem to make sense.
From what I can tell, DAZ Studio must load the complete list of morphs for G3F. I have a ridiculous amount of morphs. Looks like it takes a full 60 seconds to load the list of morphs. Dunno. G3M takes 25 seconds. The funny part is my content folder is on my SSD. Hmmmm... my cache and temp folders are on my C drive. I'm gonna move those to the SSD as well just to see.
edit: My G3F cache file is 138MB lol!
edit2: Star takes 37 seconds. Something else is going on.
Maybe. Do you get duplicate file warnings?
Nope.
How a
And this is the base Gen 3 female that's doing this? Do you have long load times with genesis and gen 2? Also, describe your system.
Another observation: I make extensive use of fit control. I noticed that on my scenes that I created from subsets by the method described above, fit control morphs were gone from the clothing objects. The clothing fit the same way as it did before I subsetted the scene, but the morphs were gone. It could be that if I looked at the figures individually, I might see the morphs not listed in currently used. Not that they can't be reapplied, but they might be gone from the list. How much data is a morph? I think it's a lot. I looked at scene size, and before saving the scene as a subset it's 268. After saving as a subset, 55. So I think I was getting hung up on the numerous morphs, which because I reuse my scenes and figures a lot, accumulated over time. The renders look identical. So I think if a scene seems like it's taking longer and longer to save and load, saving as a subset and reopening the subset is a great strategy to wipe the slate clean of this morph detritus that accumulates over time.
When you use Fit Control, or other means, to create one or more new morphs, those morphs are saved in the scene file. I would expect that they'd be saved in a scene subset file too, but perhaps it only saves used morphs in a scene subset.
You can make those Fit Control morphs permanently available and NOT stored in your scene file by using the File->Save As...->Support Asset..->Morph Asset(s)... menu item. That will save them in your run time and will load only when used.
Yes, it's G3F. I just tried G2F. It had to rebuild the cache since I had cleared it, so that took 2 minutes. But now it takes under 10 seconds to add G2F. I restarted the app and G2F is consistently under 10 seconds. I have a AMD FX-8350. My content library is on an SSD. My main video card is an R9 290. My iRay video card is a Titan X.
edit: The G2F cache file is only 33MB. Gotta believe a 138MB cache file for G3F has something to do with it.
edit2: Wonder if creating a new content set and splitting up my characters would help. I'm thinking I just have too many morphs.
Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling gen 3 female? I know I was getting tons of duplicate file warnings witn Gen 3, then I uninstalled gen 3 starter essentials, and left it uninstalled. It's uninstalled but somehow still in there, and everything works fine.
Oh, a Titan x? Just ordered one ...a Mitchell, not the new one. Can't wait to take that bad boy out for a spin! I'm going to replace my 970 with it, so with my 780 ti on smaller files it should totally kick ass, and with the huge capacity I can render big scenes too! Can't wait!
Yeah, my Titan X is a Maxwell as well. It's crazy fast! I'm sure you'll love it. I'm not getting any duplicate file warnings at all. But I'll try reinstalling G3F to see what I get though I tried that a while back with no luck.
I removed all my morphs from my content folder except the ones from DAZ. G3F loads in 15 seconds. Funny thing is 10s of that seems to be clearing the scene. It's already empty. What is it doing? Regardless, I have too many morphs. I'm gonna restore the ones I use the most and then see if any of these cause delays.
What happens if you take a gen 3 figure that took a while to load, save it, then reload it? Still take a long time?
Also, what happens if you take the gen 3 and save it as a subset, then reload it? That should be fast.
Sorry for going all necro on this thread, but I've been having similar issues recently. I'm running 4.9.3.166 and a relatively simple scene (g3f with hair and a dress, a g2m Legendary Demon with no clothes, and a few props) takes 5-10 minutes to save. I'm also running the 4.9.3.166 beta on the same box/content and it takes about 10 seconds to save the same file to the same location.
Obviously, there's something going wrong. I can use the beta, but would like to figure out what the deal is.
Anyway, I'm posting this so that others can try running the beta, too. Hopefully, whatever happened to the release won't happen to beta before I can figure this out!
- Greg