Render size indicator
TheRetiredSailor
Posts: 260
Is there a log file entry or some other way to see how much memory (either for a CPU render or GPU) a scene used in an iRay render? This would be helpful for those thinking of buying an Nvidia graphics card for use in iRay. Of course I realize that buying as big a card (in terms of memory) is a popular opinion, but I would like an actual numerical indication. Thanks in advance.
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When you render in iRay, there is a set of statistics at the start of the render progress dialog that includes Geometry memory, Texture memory and Lights memory used. There is a product that helps estimate the potential size of a scene (SimTenero's Iray Memory Assistant), but that is not the end of the line. There are several procedures and products that can reduce the texture memory significantly (usually about 90-98% of the memory used for the render), either by hiding items out of the field of view, reducing the resolution where it is not needed, removing unneeded details like normal maps and other memory intensive resources, again, where not needed, or replacing distant textures with simple colours instead of bitmaps. Much has been discussed about the VRAM crunch, so don't let the raw numbers deter you.
Yes, it's more work, but either the artists learn to better optimize their products, or wait for a 128 GB VRAM card that costs less than a new car, we'll have to put some effort into complex scenes. Also, some VRAM is used up by web browsers and other apps, so closing them all, or better yet, a fresh boot, will stretch the memory farther. My Firefox has been up for a couple of days, and has almost 5 GB of dedicated VRAM already, just because it can.
Thanks, but I am not seeing that information in the render progress dialog. I am limited now to CPU iRay renders so perhaps that isn't displayed unless you are doing a GPU render.
Thanks as well for the tip on SimTenero's Iray Memory Assistant. I'll look into that. It may be enough to satisfy my needs.
start a render, cancle it, go to help>troubleshooting>view log file
scroll down to the bottom, if you can, filter the output by [VERBOSE] otherwise just look for
[VERBOSE] - IRAY:RENDER :: 1.10 IRAY rend stat : Geometry memory consumption:
[VERBOSE] - IRAY:RENDER :: 1.10 IRAY rend stat : Texture memory consumption:
[VERBOSE] - IRAY:RENDER :: 1.10 IRAY rend stat : Lights memory consumption:
[VERBOSE] - IRAY:RENDER :: 1.10 IRAY rend stat : Material measurement memory consumption:
[VERBOSE] - IRAY:RENDER :: 1.10 IRAY rend stat : Materials memory consumption:
those should show up with the actual values, although I'm not sure if verbose logging is on by default
I use GPU-Z which is free and tells you all the details about the GPU including how much VRAM is occupied. There's also MSI Afterburner which I also have. I don't know whether those are available for Mac if that's an issue.
I'm a CPU renderer too and I don't see any of that information in my log file. Maybe it's a GPU-only thing?
Yeah, I'm not seeing this in my log file or in the render progress dialog window. I really think you are seeing VRAM usage from the video card. This doesn't help me right now because I don't have an nVidia graphics card. CPU renders only. Thanks though.
So, tried a CPU render, and you're right, there are no memory stats shown in the render completion dialog when it starts. Nothing helpful in the Studio log file either. As you said, the bigger the better for the GPU, but scenes will find a way to fill all available memory, regardless of how much there is.