ZBrushCentral

System related questions, how to increase max poly-count and system Ram usage.

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi,
This is my first time on these forums.

I’m a complete beginner on Zbrush and i’ve tried to learn how to use it following several tutorials.

First off, here is my system:
Laptop Sager
i7 4810MQ 2.8Ghz (3.6Ghz in turbo)
2 Geforce GTX 880M SLI, 16GB total memory, (8 on each)
1920 x 1080 Display @120Hz
24GB Ram
500 Go SSD

I bought this Laptop on Xotic PC like 6 months ago and it’s almost top of the line.

So as i said i’m working on the absolute basics right now and under “geometry” i’m using the “divide” option to increase the polygon count. If i click too many times, Zbrush tells me: “Decrease the number of subdiv levels or increase the max poly-count in the preference palette”.
I looked everywhere in the preferences, but i cannot seem to find an option that clearly says " increase max poly-count".
I went in the “mem” tab and increased the “compact mem” from 256 to 4096 but it makes the program very slow and crash sometimes.
Zbrush also tells me that i don’t have enough memory to handle it. How can it be possible if i have 24GB Ram??

Soo, my 3 questions are:

  • Is my system good enough to actually handle Zbrush if i push it?
  • how can i increase the amount of Ram the program is allowed to use?
  • Where do i find the option to increase the max poly-count?

Thanks :slight_smile:

#2

Currently ZBrush is a 32 bit application which means…It doesn’t have access to what you have right now. Also it uses CPU rather than GPU so those cards won’t help you there. The settings would be in preferences someplace.
You can get a great model with a system having 8 GBs of RAM . The number of polys you think you need might be overestimated. Break models into subtools for better ability to work on things(each subtool can be @ or near the max).
Next version is supposed to be 64 Bit. Might work better then.
I’m using an i5 @ 3.1 with 8 GBs and a 550ti card.
2 monitors are better than one even though you can’t get the ZBrush pallettes outside the main window without perhaps scripting a plugin to do so.

#3

Your system is fine. The only things Zbrush cares about are cpu and ram. The 32 bit application can only use 4gb of ram. A 64 bit version of the program is in development, which will allow you to use all of your available ram.

You can increase the max poly per mesh in Preferences>Mem> Max Poly per mesh. Different systems will be able to handle different maximum amounts here before becoming unstable, but eventually every system will become unstable with extreme polycounts beyond the default setting, so it’s best to find more practical ways to distribute the poly burden.

Keep in mind that poly limit is on a per subtool basis, so if you are on a system that can comfortably handle 10 million poly per mesh, if you had 5 subtools, you could have a total of 50 million polys. So you want to split up parts of your model that are naturally separate objects (like a backpack on a figure) into their own subtool. Note that this doesnt work as well for meshes that are part of the same object (like the arms of a figure), which you will want to be able to work on at the same time as the rest of the body. Those are best kept in the same subtool and separated into polygroups.

You can also work with more polygons on a per subtools basis than the max limit by making use of HD Geo, which lets you subdivide virtually, but it would be better to find more practical ways of redistributing active geometry first, as HD Geo has its own set of complications.

With proper mesh distribution, the default limits in Zbrush are considerable, and usually more than adequate for most tasks even on a modest system.

#4

Hi, thanks for the answer
I actually have 2 screens. I use a Cintiq 13HD for ZBrush and Photoshop while watching those tutorials on the laptop screen.

Do you know when the 64 bits version is going to be released?

#5

With 32 bit ZBrush, on a 64 bit system, you should be able to set your Compact Mem to 4096 and MaxPolyPerMesh to no more than double the default.