How to utilize all cpu cores?
xpdes11_0c88471d75
Posts: 6
in The Commons
As the title says, is it possible all cpu cores to be utilized (used) not just one?
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From the research I've done and from what people have told me on here, Daz only uses single core and can't use multiple ones. That was a year ago, so maybe 4.20 changed. Not sure but when I run Daz its still only showing me using single core.
This 25 in your screenshot is a percentage. This number gives absolutely 0 information about the number of cores or threads used.
(O_O;)
Daz definitely seems to be using all cores. If only 1 core was used, CPU renders would take a week, not a few hours ?
Screenshot thereafter : I ran a Daz Viewport Iray Preview and a test render. Cuda deactivated for both Preview and render. As you can see, ALL threads/cores are used as much as Daz/Iray needs them, at least for what I can see.
@xpdes11_0c88471d75
25 just means that 1/4th of your CPU total computation power is used at the moment. Nothing more.
When Daz will need to suck more power, it will. Don't you worry about that.
Go to Render Settings > Advanced > Scheduling > CPU Load Limit : this number is set by default to the number of CPU threads available (6 cores = 12 threads). If YOU did not change that number to 1. Then there's no reason for Daz to suddenly become the only 3D application on the market running on a single core (#+_+)
Daz Studio, for most if not all of its internal opeations, is single threaded. The OS may distribute that thread across mutliple cores, as in the task manager screenshots, but it is still only a single thread - which is what people usually mean when they talk of something using onlt one core.
Why is ther a CPU load limit that sets itself to the maximum CPU threads in Render Settings then ? And why the 2 CPU monitoring tools I have installed clearly show activity on all cores when rendering ? Doesn't make sense 「(°ヘ°)
I just did a simple test render
Scheduling CPU Load Limit : 12 / Rendering time : 8 seconds.
Scheduling CPU Load Limit : 1 / Rendering time : 32 seconds.
Isn't that an obvious fact that cores ARE in fact used ?
Maybe it's a confustion on the "single-threaded" term ? This just means it'll run one thing at a time. Doesn't mean it will run that thing on 1 thread only.
Too technical for me ;) All I know is : all CPU threads in the CPU Load limit = fast renders. 1 thread only = dead slow. I'll call that multi CPU core rendering no matter what ;)
Rendering is multi-threaded, which is why I specified internal operations.
When I load more then 8-10 figures this is a big problem. In a workflow where I am using WM's Multigroup poses the whole process is stacked / not responding and the software struggles to handle that amount of loading data with utilizing only one core (yeah in my case is 4-core CPU).
While as Richard Haseltine says Rendering is multi-threaded, i.e. uses all cpu cores, but that is the final step, and while you are working all work you are doing is handled via only one cpu core, or in other words if you are using cloud-rendering you can make poses even on single core PC, or some laptop that at least have some dedicated vga.
At the end it seems that minimum system requirements that are declared by Daz are false, and are not really necessary for work with average amount of data.
If one doesn't have enough memory (RAM), the system will become sluggish as Windows starts using drive space to compensate.
Minimum system can only handle minimum scene (=one primitive ball), what are your system specs?
Actually is all about software-releated issue. But not only with the DAZ Studio itself, with the games and other software too.
There is a simple workaround that seems to work in the most cases
You can FORCE USAGE OF ALL YOUR CPU CORES by doing this:
1. Ctrl + alt + delete...Open Task Manager (while DAZStudio.exe is running)
2. Details Tab (or Processes in Win7)
3. Right-click DAZStudio.exe.
4. Click "Set affinity"
5. Uncheck Core 0
6. Click OK
7. Right-click DAZStudio.exe again.
8. Click "Set affinity" again and re-check Core 0.
9. Click OK and DAZStudio utilization will be spread over all cores.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/app/369200/discussions/0/458606248637619100/
Now in the next version of DAZ Studio developers should include some kind of an auto - re-check of the affinity of the DAZStudio.exe process.
This is only possible if a program is multithreaded. CPU rendering and maybe dforce simulation are multithreaded (if they are not used on the GPU), but the core of daz studio is monothread. Affinity just sets the "preferred" core for a program. Programmers would love that, but you definitely cannot run any program in parallel if it has not been parallelized in its design and turning a monothreaded program to multithread may require a large code rewrite.
Maybe DS 5 will be multithread, if it exists one day, but DS 4 cannot be run in parallel.
Daz Studio and Iray are two different things. This is important to understand.
When using Daz Studio, the application uses just 1 core. It doesn't matter what platform you have, it only uses 1 core.
Iray is a plugin, when you hit the render button, Daz Studio sends your scene to Iray to render. If you use the CPU for rendering, this will use any number of cores you throw at it. You can into the Iray Advanced Settings and select the CPU as a render option, not only that, you can even pick exactly how many cores you want to render! This is helpful for people who want a core free so they can still use their computer while a render is in progress. But again, the Daz Studio application itself is still running on a single core. And GPU rendering is king with Iray, if you have a even half decent Nvidia GPU you will render faster than even the biggest baddest CPUs in existence, as long as you have enough VRAM.
So single threaded performance matter for how well the application runs. You can have 100 cores, but if each core is slow by itself, you may have trouble. The brand new Intel Core i3's have only a few cores, but the single core much is faster than a Xeon CPU that has dozens or more. The Xeon might render faster, but Daz Studio itself will be less responsive when working a scene.
I used to have an i5-4690k from 2014, and that CPU was showing its age. When I built a new PC with a Ryzen 5800X, Daz Studio ran so much better. But it wasn't because the Ryzen had 8 cores, it was because its single core speed was significantly faster. The 5800X has proven itself to handle almost everything I throw at it when it comes to Daz.
Daz Studio 4.x is pretty old The nuts and bolts of the software were not built for a multicore world, and so it cannot be changed. The hope is that Daz Studio 5 will finally change this. But Daz is super secretive, and we don't really know
BTW, if you are having lag when using Daz Studio, there is a good chance that smoothing is your problem.
--Disable 'smoothing' on any item that has it. You can turn smoothing back on before rendering. Smoothing is calculated every time do anything in Daz. Move the camera...calculate smoothing. Dial a morph...calculate smoothing. Heavy breathing....calculate smoothing. If your CPU is slow, this calculation can take a moment, and that will create lag. Some CPUs can handle a little smoothing on an item or two, but it adds up fast if a bunch use it, or some have high iteration counts. A lot of Daz clothing and hair products have smoothing on by default when you load them, too, so you may not be aware of how many items are using it.
Smoothing was what hurt my performance the most when I was using my 4690k.