Out of Memory issues

Often when rendering complex scenes with Max and mental, one’s computer may run out of memory. This is mainly due to the fact that Max cannot free up enough memory necessary to process the full render. There is a quick fix for this however, it is strongly recommended to ultimately add more memory to the computer and run 64bit applications for Max and windows. The following “trick” may or may not work for 32bit applications however, it definitely works for 64bit.
On start up windows, choose the control panel option. In control panel, choose system; in the system settings, go to advanced system settings. The system properties dialog should open. In the performance group, click on the settings button. The performance options dialog should open. Click on the advanced tab, under the virtual memory group click on the change button. The virtual memory dialog should appear. Uncheck the automatically manage paging file size for all drives function, to enable the paging file for each drive settings. Choose your C drive as your volume label of choice, and check the custom size function. The initial size (mb) function should be equal to 1.5 times of your total memory (RAM) value (IE in my case I have 8GB, therefore 12GB). The maximum size (mb) should be equal to at least 3 times of your total memory size(IE 24GB).It is worth mentioning that some users that have huge amounts of free hard disk space(IE 200GB C drive space) tend to set their maximum size(mb) value to about 60GB or more. Moreover, prior to setting the maximum size, ensure that you have at least 3 times freer disk space than the maximum size value. Next, click the set button to set your parameters, followed by ok. The system properties warning should pop up, click ok to close it. Back on performance options, click ok, followed by clicking apply to close it. The windows restart warning dialog should pop up, choose the appropriate option. The changes will only take effect once the computer is restarted. Also, it is recommended to empty one’s page file from time to time.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that, the above procedure will not speed up your renderings however, it will ensure that you never run out of memory when it is needed. To speed up renders one has to ultimately add extra processors (IE 2.80 GHZ or higher) and more memory with 64bit applications.

Mental ray_Global settings for the Atrium final image

Often, when working on large interiors(IE atriums) with numerous glass materials and other reflective surfaces, it is commendable to reduce the global reflections/refractions parameters in order to improve the rendering times. Apart from the light shadows, reflections are another major contributor to “slow” renders. To access these useful global settings, simply open the mental ray render setup dialog box; on the renderer tab, pan down to the reflections/ refractions group and start by reducing its max.trace depth values to about 3.Note that, anything lower than that could result in artifacts. The max. Reflections value can be reduced down to about 1, without any artifacts. The max. Refractions value is the most sensitive one; therefore the value of 3 is the lowest recommended without causing major artifacts on the Glass (Thin Geometry)surface.
Moreover, the raytrace acceleration method would normally be changed to BSP2 for really “heavy” scenes (IE scenes with numerous objects and proxies) however, the below render did benefit a great deal from the usage of BSP2 raytrace acceleration method, although at first glance it didn’t appear so. The combination of reflections/refractions values being reduced and the raytrace acceleration method being changed to BSP2, the final render time for the 5000x5000 pixels image was reduced by about 30%. Again, the render came straight from 3Ds Max Design using Mental Ray. Photoshop was used solely to integrate the people. Please see below the final rendered image.
The whole process of lighting; texturing, rendering and fine tuning a similar atrium scene is being featured in the book.

Cheers,

Jamie

Mental ray_Atrium final image