Loading...
> >

How to measure the size of a DAZ Studio scene?

contedesfeescontedesfees Posts: 271
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

I am assuming there are no stupid questions.

GPU recommendations for DAZ Studio explain that VRAM determines if DAZ Studio will use the GPU or the CPU to render a scene. Simply, if the file fits, DAZ Studio will use the GPU; if it doesn't DAZ Studio will use the CPU. The minimum recommendation for VRAM is 4GB, although more obviously won't hurt.

But how can one tell before hand whether the scene will fit or exceed the available VRAM? (For the record, I have 8GB.) I presume the file size shown in Windows Explorer is what DAZ Studio recognizes as the scene size. Is that the case?

And, secondly, is there an open-source utility that will inform a user if DAZ Studio is using the GPU or the CPU? Thanks to one and all.

Comments

  • LeanaLeana Posts: 11,782

    No, it's definitely not the disk size of the scene file, as the scene file points to a lot of other files. Like for example all the textures used in the scene, which are not part of the scene file but need to be loaded into memory in order to render (that's actually what takes most of the VRAM used). The "Size" of the scene refers to how much RAM / VRAM is used for all geometry, textures and other components that Iray needs to render.

    There's no exact way to tell beforehand how much VRAM will be used, though I suppose how much RAM DS uses when the scene is open can be an indication.

    And in order to know whether a render used GPU or CPU, you can check the log, and also monitor your GPU usage while it renders with a tool like GPU-Z.

  • contedesfeescontedesfees Posts: 271
    edited December 7

    Leana, you're a life saver! Thanks so very much for your reply. You did solve a dilemma. One .duf scene I made was literally 1/100th of a gigabyte. Naturally I wondered why it took so long to render. Now I know. And thanks for the reference to GPU-Z.

    (Incidentally, I do feel just a little stupid; some things are obvious, aren't they?)

    Post edited by contedesfees on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,408

    Remeber that the working scene potentially has lots of data that doesn't go to Iray - joints modifiers, with associated weight maps (lists of values for how much the join affects the vertices of the mesh), morphs (each with a list of changes in position for the affected vertices), dFoirms (possibly with weight maps), dForce simulations with lists of vertex positions (possibly across mutliple frames, possibly with one or more weight maps)... all of which get baked down to a final shape for Iray. On the other hand, the working scene probably isn't using full-resolution texture images while those will get passed to Iray.

  • contedesfeescontedesfees Posts: 271
    edited December 7

    Thank you, Richard. I'm a DAZ Studio neophyte. Although I certainly appreciate your comments - thank you for taking the time - I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about. Aah well. I'm in up to my knees and it's over my head.

    Incidentally, it's Saturday. Don't you ever take a break?

    Post edited by contedesfees on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,408

    Essentailly Daz studio sometimes needs a lot of basic information about how to go from the base shape to the final shape in the scene, but Iray (or any other render engine) cares only about the final shape and doesn't want and wouldn't understand any of the instructions for getting there from the base item. The different kinds of information they want means the memory used by one is not a sure indicator of the memory needed by the other.

  • contedesfeescontedesfees Posts: 271
    edited December 8

    Thanks again, Richard. I conclude that the watch-word is get as much VRAM as the budget allows and keep your fingers crossed.

    Post edited by contedesfees on
Sign In or Register to comment.