Hi all,
I just installed 2GB of DDR2-533 SDRAM on my machine, with high hopes of being able to access higher sub division levels than 7. Unfortunately I only gained one level in the end.
Is this a normal situation? I mean, with 1GB I was able to work pretty fluidly on SDL 7. And now, with twice the amount of RAM, I can only go to level 8, which has about 2.000.000 Polys?
When trying to subdivide further, ZBrush crashes with the following error message: “Insufficient core memory”
Disappointed -> 
Did you change the amount of memory that you let zbrush use after installing the new ram? Also, your disk space is important too. If you run out of disk space zbrush can’t swap. Go under preferences->mem->compact mem and set it to something less than 2000 (for 2000 megabytes of ram which is slightly smaller than 2 gigabytes).
Also your free disk space is important. As zbrush needs to swap from RAM to disk it will require more free disk space. Having your disk defragmented will also help too.
Good luck.
Yes, I changed the compact mem value to 1792. My harddisk has more than 20 GB of free space and the last defragmentation was performed yesterday. 
I remember Alex Alvarez mention being able to sculpt 2+ Billion Polys with only 1 GB of RAM on the Gnomon ‘Head Sculpting and Texturing’-DVD. So, why doesn’t it work? I set the MaxPolyPerMesh to 9.99.
Let’s put it in perspective here.
If your current max is 2,000,000 polygons, then your previous max was 500,000 polygons. Another subdivision level would be 8,000,000 polygons – something that only the most powerful machines can reliably work with. Even if you could hit that number of polygons, you’d require a really strong processor to be able to keep up with your mesh edits.
As it stands now, you may have “only” one additional subdivision level available to you but the truth is that this is FOUR TIMES the level of detail that your machine was previously capable of. Or to put it another way, double the RAM is letting you work with four times the polygons. That’s a pretty nice boost.
In addition, you now have to wait for compacting memory less often.
As for Alex Alvarez, you heard wrong. NO computer can hit 2 billion polygons. ZBrush 2’s absolute maximum is 10 million polygons. In other words, even if you were able to hit level 9 with 8,000,000 polygons there is no way that you could go higher with ANY computer. Level 10 would be 32,000,000 polygons – over 3 times what ZBrush is capable of.
It sounds like you simply had unrealistic expectations when you upgraded your RAM. But an increase of four times the possible level of detail is nothing to sneeze at. 
PS: I strongly recommend that you read the ZBrush 2 Performance Tips found in the General section of ZBC’s FAQ. According to your most recent post, you’ve already put your settings at a point that will deliver less than optimal performance – and don’t understand what the MaxPolysPerMesh value stands for. (If you did, then you’d already know that ZBrush can’t go higher than 10 million polygons under any circumstances, since that slider is in millions of polygons and its max setting is 10.)
Hi aurick,
about the 2 billion polygons, I have to admit that I didn’t hear, but typed wrong! What I was in fact talking about was 2 million. Sorry for the confusion!
As it stands now, you may have “only” one additional subdivision level available to you but the truth is that this is FOUR TIMES the level of detail that your machine was previously capable of.
Yep! That’s what came to my mind later on. In fact it’s really a more than satifying boost! And it’s damn responsive as well.
Thanks for your contribution.
PS: I set the MaxPolysPerMesh to it’s maximum value for testing purposes. Anything not optimal in regards to the other settings?
