I could use some help....

zsguerreiro · 7 Nov 2009, 22:03

hi everybody, i'm getting started with sketchup(version 6) and vray(version 1) and i'm trying to finish my first project..
My main problem is the intensity of the light as you can see in the image i'm posting, and also, i can only render images with 640x480, higher than that and sketchup will crash.
Any tips/suggestions? It's driving me crazy.
Forgive my basic english, but i'm portuguese.

my computer specs are:
cpu: intel E8500
gpu: nvidia quadro fx 570 256mb
Ram: 4Gb

thomthom · 8 Nov 2009, 10:49

Light:
Have you tried adjusting the exposure?

Crash:

What's Sketchup.exe's memory usage right before it crashes?
Does it occur in every model, or just this one?
Are you using lots of displacement? (More importantly, are you using it on very large single faces?)

zsguerreiro · 8 Nov 2009, 11:22

Hi Thomthom, thanks for the reply,
about the light, where do i find this exposure feature?

about the memory i cant say, but i found out that the ocurrs when i'm too close to displacements not so much about the output.
the file i'm working only has 2mb, so i guess it shouldn't be a problem.

i have another question to had to the previous, it's about the picture i'm posting now, the grass looks really strange:

And my OS is Windows 7(don't know if thats relevant)
Thanks very much for any help

thomthom · 8 Nov 2009, 11:29

To check the memory usage, open the Task Manager. (Ctrl+Shift+Esc)
You didn't answer to this one.
So I take it you do use displacement. But the question was: have you applied displacement to very large faces? Displacement eats up memory quickly. It builds up for each face, then it releases it - so it helps to split large faces into smaller ones.

thomthom · 8 Nov 2009, 11:34

Also, when you run into memory problems, you can try to render to VrImage http://software.asgvis.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16:vfr-tutorial-a&catid=16:v-ray-for-rino

zsguerreiro · 8 Nov 2009, 11:51

Hi again,
the use of physical memory was on 69% when the crash happened.
I have some areas with displacement but i don't think they're so big.

thanks

thomthom · 8 Nov 2009, 11:55

%? Are you sure that wasn't the CPU usage? How many MegaBytes does it use?

As for the displacement, try to disable it and see if you can render larger then.

@zsguerreiro said:

about the light, where do i find this exposure feature?

It's under the Camera setting. You adjust the image as you would with a real world photo camera.

zsguerreiro · 8 Nov 2009, 12:01

Yes, i'm sure it's the memory, i just tried it again and this time was around 65%, cpu usage was on 92%..without displacements i know everything goes ok...but this shouldn't happen should it?

thomthom · 8 Nov 2009, 12:23

But how much in Megabytes?

And did you try to disable Displacement?

zsguerreiro · 8 Nov 2009, 13:10

i've been trying some different resolutions, and for 800x600 the cpu is on 100% and MEMORY on 72%(2.91mb) and usually i get the render done.
for 1024x768 cpu is also on 100% and MEMORY on 73%(2.94GB) and it crashes
i used the exact scene for both of them
this is the error i get:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: SketchUp.exe
Application Version: 6.0.1099.0
Application Timestamp: 46ddd44e
Fault Module Name: VRayForSketchUp.so
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 46451428
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00342c62
OS Version: 6.1.7137.2.0.0.256.1

sample of the scene i was rendering:

zsguerreiro · 8 Nov 2009, 13:11

about the displacement, turning it off will get the renders done.

thomthom · 8 Nov 2009, 13:14

Ok.
Since Sketchup is a 32bit application you run into the 32bit memory limit. An 32bit application can not address a continuous chunk of memory larger than 2-3GB. When you experience that you must either reduce memory usage, or render to VrImage.
When the problem occurs with displacement, sub-divide the faces you have applied the displacement to. Start with the largest. That allow V-Ray to work on smaller chunks.

thomthom · 8 Nov 2009, 13:15

Is it the roof that's displaced in your render?

zsguerreiro · 8 Nov 2009, 13:17

in that scene i'm trying to render, yes. plus some grass, but not so much. i'm working with windows 7 64bits, so i don't know if the limit is valid here.

thomthom · 8 Nov 2009, 13:21

@zsguerreiro said:

in that scene i'm trying to render, yes. plus some grass, but not so much. i'm working with windows 7 64bits, so i don't know if the limit is valid here.

Limit is still valid because Sketchup is not 64bit. Sketchup is 32bit so it will always be restrained by 32bit limits, regardless of the host OS.

Grass, yes - that often makes you run into the limit as the areas tend to be quite large.

thomthom · 8 Nov 2009, 13:23

In regard to the grass: I recommend you add the grass in post. Photoshop the grass into the render. Looks much better than displaced grass which only consumes lots of resources.

zsguerreiro · 8 Nov 2009, 13:26

but as you can see in the image sample, it's not that much grass that is in the scene...is this normal? is there anyway i can override that memory limit?
this is a small project, i think this shouldn't happen, what happens if i'm doing a bigger one?
also i'm thinking of changing my quadro fx 570 256mb to a gfx295 1gb(1800 something), do you think will do any good?

thanks for your patience and advices

thomthom · 8 Nov 2009, 13:35

@zsguerreiro said:

but as you can see in the image sample, it's not that much grass that is in the scene...

Enough to hit the limit - as you can see since disabling Displacements let you finish the render.

@zsguerreiro said:

is there anyway i can override that memory limit?

No. 32bit will never be able to address more.

@zsguerreiro said:

also i'm thinking of changing my quadro fx 570 256mb to a gfx295 1gb(1800 something), do you think will do any good?

No - not for V-Ray. It only used the CPU. The GPU only matters for Sketchup.

Did you try to split the displaced faces into smaller faces?

As an example for doing grass in post - look at Free Agent's render. He only uses a plain green colour for the grass and adds the real stuff in post. Looks much better than displaced grass - which just looks like lots of spikes.
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=20736#p174073
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=20026#p166435
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=18928#p155159
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=17134#p136253
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=18707#p152619
Look further down in these threads to see the raw render from V-Ray.

zsguerreiro · 8 Nov 2009, 13:55

again thanks for the reply and advices, my problem is that i don't know anything about photoshop, you know any kind of tutorials regardings this line of work?

regards