Asking some basic questions in order to stay on gpu rendering

kirbawirba

Just trying to be able to render larger scenes while staying on the gpu. Will using the lower res specular/sss/normal maps included with some models help to keep vram usage down? Will just switching those maps to "none" in the surfaces tab switch them off, thus saving some vram? Turning some background/secondary characters to base resolution will help too, I assume? Will staying under 3 or 4 lights help? Sorry some of these seem pretty basic amd over-asked. Getting pin point answers has been difficult...

Dim Reaper

To answer your original question, using lower resolution maps will lower the amount of gpu memory needed.  Using characters at base resolution instead of HD will also save on gpu memory.

The first thing that I always try after working on a large scene is to save the scene, close Daz Studio, give it a few seconds and the reload and render straight away.

Also, keep a lookout in the March Madness sale for this item going on sale:
https://www.daz3d.com/scene-optimizer

It works by lowering the resolution of texture maps in a scene, removing bump, displacement maps etc, and is a really easy way to lower the memory requirements of a scene.

 

To answer your original question, using lower resolution maps will lower the amount of gpu memory needed.  Using characters at base resolution instead of HD will also save on gpu memory.

kirbawirba

Dim Reaper said:

To answer your original question, using lower resolution maps will lower the amount of gpu memory needed.  Using characters at base resolution instead of HD will also save on gpu memory.

The first thing that I always try after working on a large scene is to save the scene, close Daz Studio, give it a few seconds and the reload and render straight away.

Also, keep a lookout in the March Madness sale for this item going on sale:
https://www.daz3d.com/scene-optimizer

It works by lowering the resolution of texture maps in a scene, removing bump, displacement maps etc, and is a really easy way to lower the memory requirements of a scene.

 

To answer your original question, using lower resolution maps will lower the amount of gpu memory needed.  Using characters at base resolution instead of HD will also save on gpu memory.

Ok, thanks! I've noticed that a lot of models come with lots of maps, but, thankfully, they also come with lots of them at resolutions from 512-4k! The models with both normal and bump maps in this case ended up with me just dropping the normals to "none" on the main skin surfaces. Maybe I'll just see if using the lower res ones will help. Its painfully slow rendering on cpu, and I thought a newer 1060 with 6gb of memory would let me push the limits more than my old 970M laptop... maybe I'll try compositing at some point, too. Will knocking down the lights from 4 to 3 help?

kenshaw011267

Get Scene Optimizer.  In a scene with a lot of props there can literally be hundreds, if not thousands, of maps and textures. Reducing them all a step would take forever. The Scene Optimizer does it for you in a few minutes.

Lights do not seem to take up much memory and the better lit a scene is the faster it will render in iray.

kirbawirba

kenshaw011267 said:

Get Scene Optimizer.  In a scene with a lot of props there can literally be hundreds, if not thousands, of maps and textures. Reducing them all a step would take forever. The Scene Optimizer does it for you in a few minutes.

Lights do not seem to take up much memory and the better lit a scene is the faster it will render in iray.

I'm definitely getting it, yeah. Sounds like a real lifesaver!