Nvidia Iray Preview View in GPU Mode

taiuri

I know how to render in GPU mode only by Nvidia Iray, but I don't know how to get the Nvidia Iray Preview View in GPU mode only. Do you know how to do it, guys?

Ghosty12

There is an option in the main viewport that looks like a ball with a down arrow next to it.. Click on that and at the bottom you will see Nvidia Iray, click on that and you will now have Iray in preview mode..

taiuri

Ghosty12 said:

There is an option in the main viewport that looks like a ball with a down arrow next to it.. Click on that and at the bottom you will see Nvidia Iray, click on that and you will now have Iray in preview mode..

Yes, I know how to select the Nvidia Iray preview view, what I don't know, is how to make the Nvidia Iray preview views use the GPU mode only and not the CPU mode. Do you know where I can select that option?

fred9803

If you turn off CPU in render settings I assume only the GPU will be used for any rendering, Iray preview or other.

taiuri

fred9803 said:

If you turn off CPU in render settings I assume only the GPU will be used for any rendering, Iray preview or other.

That option works for Renders only, but not for Nvidia Iray preview views. I know because every time I use the Iray preview view, my pc becomes too slow, and it's not the case when I render, because in renders I have selected GPU mode only, but I don't know how to make it works for the preview views too.

Dim Reaper

Exen with GPU-only rendering, there is always some load on the CPU.  Try turning the Max Samples to 200 in Render Settings > Progressive Rendering.  This will give you a good idea of what the scene looks like, but not have your machine constantly rendering.

You might also want to take a look at Render Throttle for iray.  This gives low, medium and high settings for iray preview.  Nothing you can't do yourself, but very convenient.  Also, on sale right now.

https://www.daz3d.com/render-throttle-for-iray

 

Richard Haseltine

If the preview is using Interactive mode (set in Draw Settings) then you would need to uncheck the CPU under Interactive Devices, as well as under Photoreal Devices, in the Advanced tab of Render Settings.

NylonGirl

I think the IRAY preview affects DAZ Studio response time enough that it might seem like the CPU is at 100% even though it's not.

taiuri

Richard Haseltine said:

If the preview is using Interactive mode (set in Draw Settings) then you would need to uncheck the CPU under Interactive Devices, as well as under Photoreal Devices, in the Advanced tab of Render Settings.

Yes, the Photoreal mode and Interactive mode are selected CUDA only in the Render Settings. But what do I have to select in the Draw Settings tab in order to the Iray Preview view uses the GPU mode only?

j cade

Dim Reaper said:

Exen with GPU-only rendering, there is always some load on the CPU.  Try turning the Max Samples to 200 in Render Settings > Progressive Rendering.  This will give you a good idea of what the scene looks like, but not have your machine constantly rendering.

You might also want to take a look at Render Throttle for iray.  This gives low, medium and high settings for iray preview.  Nothing you can't do yourself, but very convenient.  Also, on sale right now.

https://www.daz3d.com/render-throttle-for-iray

 

quoting for the excellent advive. Personally, I set a max time generally I go 22 seconds enough to get a general feel but stops my laptop from ever getting too hot

taiuri

I still have this problem, please help me guys, how can I get the Preview Nvidia Iray View uses the GPU mode only? I got with the renders only, but not with the Nvidia Iray preview view.

taiuri

This is what I have selected in the Advanced Render Settings. Should I uncheck "Allow CPU Fallback" in order to the Nvidia Iray Preview View uses the GPU Mode only?

 

taiuri

Richard Haseltine said:

If the preview is using Interactive mode (set in Draw Settings) then you would need to uncheck the CPU under Interactive Devices, as well as under Photoreal Devices, in the Advanced tab of Render Settings.

In the advanced tab of the Nvida Iray Drawstyle of Draw Settings, there is an option only: Tool mode, with 3 options: Exposure, White Balance and Both. Which one should I select in order to it uses the GPU mode only?

outrider42

You don't need to select anything else. The "interactive device" with the 2060 checked is all you need. When you turn on Iray preview, this should be reported in the help log. So switch to Iray in the preview for a moment, and open your help log. Start from the bottom. The bottom of the log will have reports of how many frames were rendered. It should be a big long mess of this same report over and over. Like this:

2020-11-12 22:08:42.524 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.0   IRT    rend info : rendered frame 0013 in 0.007364s, 135.8fps (internal: 0.002481s, 403.1fps, overhead 66.3%)
2020-11-12 22:08:42.525 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.0   IRT    rend info : Scene graph manager init took 0.000s

I have hundreds of lines like this, so you may need to scroll up a ways. You want to get to where this first starts, because in this area should be info about your render device being used. In my log, it looks like this:

2020-11-12 22:08:41.738 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.3   IRT    rend info : Iray interactive running with 1 device:
2020-11-12 22:08:41.738 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.3   IRT    rend info :   CUDA Device 1 - "GeForce GTX 1080 Ti" (compute capability 6.1, memory 10235 MB/11264 MB)

This confirms my interactive device is CUDA Device 1, which is actually my second GPU. CUDA device 0 is another 1080ti. So look for this line. This will tell you what device is being used, and if there is a problem.

Also, you can use a hardware monitoring app to see how much the GPU and CPU are being used. But keep in mind the CPU is going to report being used to a degree here, even if it is unchecked. The CPU has to keep running the Daz app itself, and depending on what kind of CPU you have, the Daz app can still tie up your CPU during scene creation and this might make you think it is being used in the Iray preview. When I turn on Iray preview, my CPU ramps up quite a bit. It is not because it is being used directly in Iray, but the workload on it is still elevated by using Iray, if that makes sense. Because now the CPU has to talk more to the GPU as they exchange data as you use Daz. Even just moving the camera around is a heavy task in this situation. When you hit the render button, the CPU is kind of done for a bit because you cannot use Daz while the render runs. But the CPU still has to direct traffic, so to speak, and can be pegged a bit while Iray runs even though the render is using GPU only.

taiuri

outrider42 said:

You don't need to select anything else. The "interactive device" with the 2060 checked is all you need. When you turn on Iray preview, this should be reported in the help log. So switch to Iray in the preview for a moment, and open your help log. Start from the bottom. The bottom of the log will have reports of how many frames were rendered. It should be a big long mess of this same report over and over. Like this:

2020-11-12 22:08:42.524 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.0   IRT    rend info : rendered frame 0013 in 0.007364s, 135.8fps (internal: 0.002481s, 403.1fps, overhead 66.3%)
2020-11-12 22:08:42.525 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.0   IRT    rend info : Scene graph manager init took 0.000s

I have hundreds of lines like this, so you may need to scroll up a ways. You want to get to where this first starts, because in this area should be info about your render device being used. In my log, it looks like this:

2020-11-12 22:08:41.738 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.3   IRT    rend info : Iray interactive running with 1 device:
2020-11-12 22:08:41.738 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.3   IRT    rend info :   CUDA Device 1 - "GeForce GTX 1080 Ti" (compute capability 6.1, memory 10235 MB/11264 MB)

This confirms my interactive device is CUDA Device 1, which is actually my second GPU. CUDA device 0 is another 1080ti. So look for this line. This will tell you what device is being used, and if there is a problem.

Also, you can use a hardware monitoring app to see how much the GPU and CPU are being used. But keep in mind the CPU is going to report being used to a degree here, even if it is unchecked. The CPU has to keep running the Daz app itself, and depending on what kind of CPU you have, the Daz app can still tie up your CPU during scene creation and this might make you think it is being used in the Iray preview. When I turn on Iray preview, my CPU ramps up quite a bit. It is not because it is being used directly in Iray, but the workload on it is still elevated by using Iray, if that makes sense. Because now the CPU has to talk more to the GPU as they exchange data as you use Daz. Even just moving the camera around is a heavy task in this situation. When you hit the render button, the CPU is kind of done for a bit because you cannot use Daz while the render runs. But the CPU still has to direct traffic, so to speak, and can be pegged a bit while Iray runs even though the render is using GPU only.

In a nutshell that means I can't make it uses the GPU mode only? Because I selected "Blend Photoreal with Reder Settings" in the Draw Settings Tab, and checking my Task Manager, I can see it uses 100% of CPU and 4% of GPU when I use the Nvidia Iray Preview Viewport. Really isn't there an option to make it uses 100% of GPU?

Richard Haseltine

Task manager does not give an accurate reading on Iray's GPU use in the processes tab - go to Performance, select the GPU, and set a graph to CUDA. How many cores does your CPU have?

taiuri

Richard Haseltine said:

Task manager does not give an accurate reading on Iray's GPU use in the processes tab - go to Performance, select the GPU, and set a graph to CUDA. How many cores does your CPU have?

I don't know how many cores it has (where can I see?), but it's a core i7, RTX 2060 Super with 8 GB of VRAM and 16 GB of RAM

Richard Haseltine

A core i7 would be at least 4 cores/8 threads, so 100% CPU usage does sound like it's trying to use the CPU - normally I'd expect one thread to be maxed out for a GPU render (12.5% at most for your system).

taiuri

Richard Haseltine said:

A core i7 would be at least 4 cores/8 threads, so 100% CPU usage does sound like it's trying to use the CPU - normally I'd expect one thread to be maxed out for a GPU render (12.5% at most for your system).

And what would you suggest me? Because everytime I render, my pc freezes in the first 10 minutes and then continues rendering and when I try to use the Iray viewport, it does the same. If you could tell me what I have to have checked and unchecked in every windows of Render Settings Tab and Draw Seetings Tab, I'd appreciate it so much.

outrider42

taiuri said:

outrider42 said:

You don't need to select anything else. The "interactive device" with the 2060 checked is all you need. When you turn on Iray preview, this should be reported in the help log. So switch to Iray in the preview for a moment, and open your help log. Start from the bottom. The bottom of the log will have reports of how many frames were rendered. It should be a big long mess of this same report over and over. Like this:

2020-11-12 22:08:42.524 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.0   IRT    rend info : rendered frame 0013 in 0.007364s, 135.8fps (internal: 0.002481s, 403.1fps, overhead 66.3%)
2020-11-12 22:08:42.525 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.0   IRT    rend info : Scene graph manager init took 0.000s

I have hundreds of lines like this, so you may need to scroll up a ways. You want to get to where this first starts, because in this area should be info about your render device being used. In my log, it looks like this:

2020-11-12 22:08:41.738 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.3   IRT    rend info : Iray interactive running with 1 device:
2020-11-12 22:08:41.738 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.3   IRT    rend info :   CUDA Device 1 - "GeForce GTX 1080 Ti" (compute capability 6.1, memory 10235 MB/11264 MB)

This confirms my interactive device is CUDA Device 1, which is actually my second GPU. CUDA device 0 is another 1080ti. So look for this line. This will tell you what device is being used, and if there is a problem.

Also, you can use a hardware monitoring app to see how much the GPU and CPU are being used. But keep in mind the CPU is going to report being used to a degree here, even if it is unchecked. The CPU has to keep running the Daz app itself, and depending on what kind of CPU you have, the Daz app can still tie up your CPU during scene creation and this might make you think it is being used in the Iray preview. When I turn on Iray preview, my CPU ramps up quite a bit. It is not because it is being used directly in Iray, but the workload on it is still elevated by using Iray, if that makes sense. Because now the CPU has to talk more to the GPU as they exchange data as you use Daz. Even just moving the camera around is a heavy task in this situation. When you hit the render button, the CPU is kind of done for a bit because you cannot use Daz while the render runs. But the CPU still has to direct traffic, so to speak, and can be pegged a bit while Iray runs even though the render is using GPU only.

In a nutshell that means I can't make it uses the GPU mode only? Because I selected "Blend Photoreal with Reder Settings" in the Draw Settings Tab, and checking my Task Manager, I can see it uses 100% of CPU and 4% of GPU when I use the Nvidia Iray Preview Viewport. Really isn't there an option to make it uses 100% of GPU?

What I am saying is that the CPU still has a job to do even when the render is GPU only. However, you do seem to have something else going on here, because Iray should be using more than 4% of the GPU. Again, I urge you to look at your help log for information. We are just playing a guessing game otherwise, and that is pointless. Your log should have an indication like I described which will tell you for absolute certainty what is being used, so we do not have to guess. So please look at your log. You can locate the log under the help tab at the top of Daz. Help>Troubleshooting>View Log File. It loads as a text file and yes, it will be long. Start up the Iray preview, wait a moment for the preview to start, then open the log. The log does not update in real time, so it only covers what has happened up until you open it.

It might take a moment to locate the text you need, but that time is worth it if you wish to truly solve the problem.

argel1200

How much memory is in use when you render? Wonder if your system is swapping out to free up memory. Doesn't sound quite like your situation, but thought I would mention it it just in case.  I know I have had scences that use 7GB of memory just for DS and then another 12GB when rendering. I just went fro 32GB to 64GB of RAM to deal with that (I often have Photoshop and other stuff also running).

taiuri

outrider42 said:

taiuri said:

outrider42 said:

You don't need to select anything else. The "interactive device" with the 2060 checked is all you need. When you turn on Iray preview, this should be reported in the help log. So switch to Iray in the preview for a moment, and open your help log. Start from the bottom. The bottom of the log will have reports of how many frames were rendered. It should be a big long mess of this same report over and over. Like this:

2020-11-12 22:08:42.524 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.0   IRT    rend info : rendered frame 0013 in 0.007364s, 135.8fps (internal: 0.002481s, 403.1fps, overhead 66.3%)
2020-11-12 22:08:42.525 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.0   IRT    rend info : Scene graph manager init took 0.000s

I have hundreds of lines like this, so you may need to scroll up a ways. You want to get to where this first starts, because in this area should be info about your render device being used. In my log, it looks like this:

2020-11-12 22:08:41.738 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.3   IRT    rend info : Iray interactive running with 1 device:
2020-11-12 22:08:41.738 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.3   IRT    rend info :   CUDA Device 1 - "GeForce GTX 1080 Ti" (compute capability 6.1, memory 10235 MB/11264 MB)

This confirms my interactive device is CUDA Device 1, which is actually my second GPU. CUDA device 0 is another 1080ti. So look for this line. This will tell you what device is being used, and if there is a problem.

Also, you can use a hardware monitoring app to see how much the GPU and CPU are being used. But keep in mind the CPU is going to report being used to a degree here, even if it is unchecked. The CPU has to keep running the Daz app itself, and depending on what kind of CPU you have, the Daz app can still tie up your CPU during scene creation and this might make you think it is being used in the Iray preview. When I turn on Iray preview, my CPU ramps up quite a bit. It is not because it is being used directly in Iray, but the workload on it is still elevated by using Iray, if that makes sense. Because now the CPU has to talk more to the GPU as they exchange data as you use Daz. Even just moving the camera around is a heavy task in this situation. When you hit the render button, the CPU is kind of done for a bit because you cannot use Daz while the render runs. But the CPU still has to direct traffic, so to speak, and can be pegged a bit while Iray runs even though the render is using GPU only.

In a nutshell that means I can't make it uses the GPU mode only? Because I selected "Blend Photoreal with Reder Settings" in the Draw Settings Tab, and checking my Task Manager, I can see it uses 100% of CPU and 4% of GPU when I use the Nvidia Iray Preview Viewport. Really isn't there an option to make it uses 100% of GPU?

What I am saying is that the CPU still has a job to do even when the render is GPU only. However, you do seem to have something else going on here, because Iray should be using more than 4% of the GPU. Again, I urge you to look at your help log for information. We are just playing a guessing game otherwise, and that is pointless. Your log should have an indication like I described which will tell you for absolute certainty what is being used, so we do not have to guess. So please look at your log. You can locate the log under the help tab at the top of Daz. Help>Troubleshooting>View Log File. It loads as a text file and yes, it will be long. Start up the Iray preview, wait a moment for the preview to start, then open the log. The log does not update in real time, so it only covers what has happened up until you open it.

It might take a moment to locate the text you need, but that time is worth it if you wish to truly solve the problem.

 

 

 

outrider42 said:

taiuri said:

outrider42 said:

You don't need to select anything else. The "interactive device" with the 2060 checked is all you need. When you turn on Iray preview, this should be reported in the help log. So switch to Iray in the preview for a moment, and open your help log. Start from the bottom. The bottom of the log will have reports of how many frames were rendered. It should be a big long mess of this same report over and over. Like this:

2020-11-12 22:08:42.524 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.0   IRT    rend info : rendered frame 0013 in 0.007364s, 135.8fps (internal: 0.002481s, 403.1fps, overhead 66.3%)
2020-11-12 22:08:42.525 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.0   IRT    rend info : Scene graph manager init took 0.000s

I have hundreds of lines like this, so you may need to scroll up a ways. You want to get to where this first starts, because in this area should be info about your render device being used. In my log, it looks like this:

2020-11-12 22:08:41.738 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.3   IRT    rend info : Iray interactive running with 1 device:
2020-11-12 22:08:41.738 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.3   IRT    rend info :   CUDA Device 1 - "GeForce GTX 1080 Ti" (compute capability 6.1, memory 10235 MB/11264 MB)

This confirms my interactive device is CUDA Device 1, which is actually my second GPU. CUDA device 0 is another 1080ti. So look for this line. This will tell you what device is being used, and if there is a problem.

Also, you can use a hardware monitoring app to see how much the GPU and CPU are being used. But keep in mind the CPU is going to report being used to a degree here, even if it is unchecked. The CPU has to keep running the Daz app itself, and depending on what kind of CPU you have, the Daz app can still tie up your CPU during scene creation and this might make you think it is being used in the Iray preview. When I turn on Iray preview, my CPU ramps up quite a bit. It is not because it is being used directly in Iray, but the workload on it is still elevated by using Iray, if that makes sense. Because now the CPU has to talk more to the GPU as they exchange data as you use Daz. Even just moving the camera around is a heavy task in this situation. When you hit the render button, the CPU is kind of done for a bit because you cannot use Daz while the render runs. But the CPU still has to direct traffic, so to speak, and can be pegged a bit while Iray runs even though the render is using GPU only.

In a nutshell that means I can't make it uses the GPU mode only? Because I selected "Blend Photoreal with Reder Settings" in the Draw Settings Tab, and checking my Task Manager, I can see it uses 100% of CPU and 4% of GPU when I use the Nvidia Iray Preview Viewport. Really isn't there an option to make it uses 100% of GPU?

What I am saying is that the CPU still has a job to do even when the render is GPU only. However, you do seem to have something else going on here, because Iray should be using more than 4% of the GPU. Again, I urge you to look at your help log for information. We are just playing a guessing game otherwise, and that is pointless. Your log should have an indication like I described which will tell you for absolute certainty what is being used, so we do not have to guess. So please look at your log. You can locate the log under the help tab at the top of Daz. Help>Troubleshooting>View Log File. It loads as a text file and yes, it will be long. Start up the Iray preview, wait a moment for the preview to start, then open the log. The log does not update in real time, so it only covers what has happened up until you open it.

It might take a moment to locate the text you need, but that time is worth it if you wish to truly solve the problem.

I have the log text files, but I can't attach them here. How can I send them to you?

outrider42

Don't do the whole file, there may be some info in there you don't want people to see. Just look at the file for lines like this

2020-11-12 22:08:41.738 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.3   IRT    rend info : Iray interactive running with 1 device:
2020-11-12 22:08:41.738 Iray [INFO] - IRT:RENDER ::   1.3   IRT    rend info :   CUDA Device 1 - "GeForce GTX 1080 Ti" (compute capability 6.1, memory 10235 MB/11264 MB)

Just like my 1080ti is listed, your 2060 Super should be listed if it is being used, if not, then your CPU will be listed. Directly above and below this line should be more info if something went wrong, like why the GPU is not being used. The key words here are "IRT" (Iray Real Time) and IRT:RENDER, and Iray interactive running. Lines that have these words only show up when you use the Iray Viewport. So make sure you use the Iray viewport, let it start up, and then open the help log. Otherwise this info will not be there and you would be wasting your time searching the file.

If you want to, you can copy and paste the relevant parts of the help log. 

taiuri

Unfortunately I didn't find nothing strange in the Log File, so I'll provide more information about my problem, maybe someone can figure out what it is about:

When I load the Nvidia Iray viewport and checking up my Task Manager, I can notice the CPU mode works at 100% consuming almost all my memory, causing my PC freezes for 10 or 20 minutes, but this situiation is just for the first time I load the Iray viweport, the second, third and following ones, it does it without problems, just the first time since I turn on my PC this issues appears.

The same case with my first render since I turn on my PC, my equipment freezes in the first 10 minutes and then continues working, but with the following renders I don't have more issues.

I bought my PC in September, the first month I used it, I didn't have troubles, they started since 2 weeks ago. I though maybe the problem is I had to purge something, because since I bought it, I've been rendering almost everyday. What do you think?

Does anyone have a clue about what is happening with my PC?

NylonGirl

 

taiuri said:

When I load the Nvidia Iray viewport and checking up my Task Manager, I can notice the CPU mode works at 100% consuming almost all my memory, causing my PC freezes for 10 or 20 minutes, but this situiation is just for the first time I load the Iray viweport, the second, third and following ones, it does it without problems, just the first time since I turn on my PC this issues appears.

The part about it consuming almost all of the memory. Maybe this person has the right idea.

argel1200 said:

How much memory is in use when you render? Wonder if your system is swapping out to free up memory. Doesn't sound quite like your situation, but thought I would mention it it just in case.  I know I have had scences that use 7GB of memory just for DS and then another 12GB when rendering. I just went fro 32GB to 64GB of RAM to deal with that (I often have Photoshop and other stuff also running).

 

taiuri

I applied this solution:

One possible solution is to clear the DS and DSON cache.
By default, they are located here:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D\Studio4\temp and C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D\dson\cache
If you can not see your AppData folder, type %appdata% in the Start menu and Windows will open the hidden folder.
Simply delete the files in these folders.

My problem didn't disappear, but at least it got to decrease the freeze time from 20 to 5 minutes, althought I keep with the problem. Anything else that must I purge, guys?