Softimage 2012 Experiences

General discussion about 3D DCC and other topics
Post Reply
User avatar
Maximus
Posts: 1104
Joined: 09 Jun 2009, 15:45

Re: Softimage 2012 Experiences

Post by Maximus » 15 Apr 2011, 22:38

Uhm just to clear things out, Origin you used "instance shape" node or "Set Instance Geometry" node?
i've always used instance shape, like in this last image, i never used Set instance Geometry but if now you guys saying Set Instance Geometry uses standins, isnt probably better to use this one?

User avatar
Tekano
Posts: 488
Joined: 09 Jun 2009, 14:49
Location: London, UK

Re: Softimage 2012 Experiences

Post by Tekano » 15 Apr 2011, 23:05

so... how many blades of grass DID you model? :))
Gossip is what no one claims to like, but everybody enjoys.

User avatar
Mathaeus
Posts: 1778
Joined: 08 Jun 2009, 21:11
Location: Zagreb, Croatia
Contact:

Re: Softimage 2012 Experiences

Post by Mathaeus » 15 Apr 2011, 23:07

Maximus wrote: i've always used instance shape, like in this last image, i never used Set instance Geometry but if now you guys saying Set Instance Geometry uses standins, isnt probably better to use this one?
well you can try and see... that will be interesting. A 'plain' Instance Shape, I'd believe it's the same way as with old XSI particles, or instanced models. Even with machines from times of XSI 4-5, it was possible to render some impressive polygon counts (you know that, only raytracing, large BSP, so on).

But anti-aliasing in animation with so many overlapping tiny objects, this was another story...

User avatar
origin
Posts: 619
Joined: 09 Jun 2009, 11:59
Location: warsaw

Re: Softimage 2012 Experiences

Post by origin » 15 Apr 2011, 23:23

I've used instance shape, but just tested set instance geo and memory usage was similiar.

set instance geo sets shapeinstancetime variable on particles and this forces usage of assemblies (standins)
just for a proof, turn on render debugging
this is log for Set instance geo:
// INFO : DBN 0.6 progr: loading assembly "@AssemblyCache/Frame0/grassPatch[o][a]"
// INFO : MI 0.6 progr: parsing assembly file C:\Users\leon\AppData\Local\Temp\XSI_Temp_340\grassPatch#o@0.mia
...
this is for instance shape:
// INFO : API 0.2 debug: begin instgroup groundGrassEmiter/Polygon Mesh

User avatar
origin
Posts: 619
Joined: 09 Jun 2009, 11:59
Location: warsaw

Re: Softimage 2012 Experiences

Post by origin » 15 Apr 2011, 23:28

Mathaeus wrote: But anti-aliasing in animation with so many overlapping tiny objects, this was another story...
this should be no problem with unified sampling (i hope so...DMC in vray is excellent for noflicker rendering of thin objects/tiny bevels on mesh etc)
Tekano wrote: so... how many blades of grass DID you model?
[/quote][/quote]
just this patch, it was 5 minutes job, as you can see its pretty rough. If you want your arch vis to look great, you would probably need to spend few days building your library of grass patches that are more detailed than this.
Attachments
patch.JPG
patch.JPG (90 KiB) Viewed 1185 times

User avatar
Maximus
Posts: 1104
Joined: 09 Jun 2009, 15:45

Re: Softimage 2012 Experiences

Post by Maximus » 16 Apr 2011, 00:03

uhm, there is something i dont get:)
on my scene i used 150.000 strands, and 3000 instanced objects, i have a q6600 and 8gb ram, and took 20 mins render, ram usage was like 900mb/1gb.

i used abScatter and the value of the scatter as i said was 3000.
You saying that you had a value of 3.800.000.000 instances?? with only 2gb usage?

also with abScatter sometimes i get overlapping geometry that in a long run makes a lot more useless geometry, how did you manage to do a so perfect grass field, regarding scattering? the patches seem to be really evenly spaced, how is your tree setup?

User avatar
origin
Posts: 619
Joined: 09 Jun 2009, 11:59
Location: warsaw

Re: Softimage 2012 Experiences

Post by origin » 16 Apr 2011, 00:11

300 000 instances (points in pointcloud) x 12 000 polys (grass patch) = 3 600 000 000 polys when rendering ;) and about 2gb ram used

Just noticed that great thing is with assemblies (set instance geo) is that if your instanced mesh is animated, and you randomize instance frame start (so you basically have 300 000 diffrent objects in your scene) memory impact is very low.

User avatar
Mathaeus
Posts: 1778
Joined: 08 Jun 2009, 21:11
Location: Zagreb, Croatia
Contact:

Re: Softimage 2012 Experiences

Post by Mathaeus » 16 Apr 2011, 00:49

origin wrote:
Mathaeus wrote: But anti-aliasing in animation with so many overlapping tiny objects, this was another story...
this should be no problem with unified sampling (i hope so...DMC in vray is excellent for noflicker rendering of thin objects/tiny bevels on mesh etc)
afaik DMC in VRay isn't only a way for choosing how many rays per pixel are traced. Some another feature is a distribution, DMC traces 'around' the pixel too - something like that.
Somehow, I don't believe MR has some better feature than VRay, sounds impossible :), at least in a last four-five years....

User avatar
Maximus
Posts: 1104
Joined: 09 Jun 2009, 15:45

Re: Softimage 2012 Experiences

Post by Maximus » 16 Apr 2011, 00:53

meh i cant do that amount..my pc dies.
my mesh has 30k triangles, and i tried 30.000 instances and my pc started calculating, after 10 minutes was still hanging calculating..
i gave up and killed the .exe process :/

User avatar
origin
Posts: 619
Joined: 09 Jun 2009, 11:59
Location: warsaw

Re: Softimage 2012 Experiences

Post by origin » 16 Apr 2011, 01:14

You're on 2012? heres a scene:
its using 2,5 gb of ram with 3,6 bln polys and 6,6 gb of ram with 12 bln polys

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8079325/grass3.rar

Kzin
Posts: 432
Joined: 09 Jun 2009, 11:36

Re: Softimage 2012 Experiences

Post by Kzin » 16 Apr 2011, 13:02

origin wrote:
Mathaeus wrote: But anti-aliasing in animation with so many overlapping tiny objects, this was another story...
this should be no problem with unified sampling (i hope so...DMC in vray is excellent for noflicker rendering of thin objects/tiny bevels on mesh etc)
unified does a great job on thin details. tryed it yesterday with motion blur and even with min1/max4 and treshold 0.002 the normal aa could not deliver the same quality and detail level that unified could render. rendertime with inified is about 30% longer, but you have a clean image with all the details (i stoped to go higher with normal aa, because you would end up with really high settings ;) ).

Saturn
Posts: 38
Joined: 11 Apr 2011, 12:27

Re: Softimage 2012 Experiences

Post by Saturn » 16 Apr 2011, 21:00

Maximus wrote:meh i cant do that amount..my pc dies.
my mesh has 30k triangles, and i tried 30.000 instances and my pc started calculating, after 10 minutes was still hanging calculating..
i gave up and killed the .exe process :/
Have you by any chance your primary rays set to scanline ? set it to raytrace.
How do instances your mesh ? Throught ICE?

User avatar
Hirazi Blue
Administrator
Posts: 5107
Joined: 04 Jun 2009, 12:15

Re: Softimage 2012 Experiences

Post by Hirazi Blue » 19 Apr 2011, 08:51

luceric wrote:We're investigating this rendering startup delay
In a follow-up on the Area luceric mentions the following about the time it will take
before there will be a service pack/solution to this problem:
worse case one month. The team is really waiting for more feedback on the product before sending a service pack.
(Quoted from here),
they still haven't fixed the Permlink @ the Area, but it's the tenth post in that thread)
;)
Stay safe, sane & healthy!

User avatar
Maximus
Posts: 1104
Joined: 09 Jun 2009, 15:45

Re: Softimage 2012 Experiences

Post by Maximus » 20 Apr 2011, 10:30

hm testing 2012 some more, i'm getting crashes quite always after i install some addon and then execute some drawing into viewport,
for example i've just installed an addon, went to create -> curve-> draw linear and as soon as i hit the first point on the viewport, xsi crashes.

i've found this behaviour happening quite a lot with 2012 after i install some addon, the win7 crash module report say this:


Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Fault Module Name: viewinteraction.dll

sometimes is listed "ntdll.dll" instead

it is apparently something related to view interaction..anyone happened to have this behaviour?

User avatar
Maximus
Posts: 1104
Joined: 09 Jun 2009, 15:45

Re: Softimage 2012 Experiences

Post by Maximus » 21 Apr 2011, 19:34

hi, i was rendering some scenes today with Soft 2012, i've noticed that the Final Gather phase doesnt use all cores..
Can someone confirm this? i have a q6600 and its not using all my cores, the CPU usage is at 65/75% during FG.
I've increased FG quality a lot to keep it calculating so i can monitor the CPU usage, and no matter what, it never used all cpus.

The scene was started and built in 2012, its not something i've imported from previous versions..
can someone run some quick test please? just to see if its just me..

thanks, Max

Gabba
Posts: 35
Joined: 18 Apr 2010, 14:31

Re: Softimage 2012 Experiences

Post by Gabba » 22 Apr 2011, 10:37

Maximus wrote:hi, i was rendering some scenes today with Soft 2012, i've noticed that the Final Gather phase doesnt use all cores..
Can someone confirm this? i have a q6600 and its not using all my cores, the CPU usage is at 65/75% during FG.
I've increased FG quality a lot to keep it calculating so i can monitor the CPU usage, and no matter what, it never used all cpus.

The scene was started and built in 2012, its not something i've imported from previous versions..
can someone run some quick test please? just to see if its just me..

thanks, Max
No problem here with a 2011.5 scene, i'll try with a 2012 scene.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 14 guests