4R7(x64) max poly-count

[system]

I was really curious how far I can push the polycount in 4R7. My expectations were somewhere close to 200-300 mils.
My system: Win7, 64GB RAM, Samsung 850 SSD as cache drive, ZB 4R7 activated.
I loaded the default Sphere3D primitive/make Polymesh3D/Geometry-Divide to SDiv lvl 7 and when attempt to divide to lvl 8 I get the message “… Decrease the number of subdiv levels or increase the max poly-count in the preferences palette.”
I can`t pass more than 33 mils. I know 33 mils x 4 = 132 mils, which is more than 80 mils set in preferences.

I`ll be really grateful for any help I can get to allocate more memory.
Some additional questions:

1. 80 mil is max poly-count/mesh?
2. is it possible to change this 80 mil limit?
3. How can I set 4R7 to use maximum amount of memory? Does it has a similar setting like Photoshop has regarding maximum memory allocated?
   Thanks in advance for your help.
   Cheers,

Attachments

[aurick]

Just because you have sufficient RAM for hundreds of millions of polygons doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for an individual SubTool to reach those numbers!

Remember that ZBrush is still having to render those polygons in real-time. ZBrush is also having to interact with the polygons in real-time as you sculpt. That is CPU; not RAM.

Remember also that as you add layers to your SubTool you are also essentially creating a series of copies of the SubTool. So an 80 million polygon model with just 5 layers is in fact a 400 million polygon model.

The bottom line is that 64-bits and huge reserves of RAM are not a license to go crazy with your polycounts. They do allow more polygons, but not infinitely more. Instead, their benefit is that you can work with more complex models with more SubTools, more layers, etc. and ultimately larger file sizes than were possible with the 32-bit version.

Also keep in mind: What on earth are you going to do with 80 million polygons in a single SubTool? You can’t export more than 64 million polys worth of data in the form of displacement, texture or normal maps because that’s all the pixels that are in an 8K map. (In practice, about 40 million pixels are actually usable in such a map.) So if you’re going to export your work, going over 64 million is a total waste of resources and time. If you’re not going to export your work you can still break your model up into SubTools and work that way. Either way, there’s no reason to torture your CPU by pushing the polygons into the stratosphere!

[system]

Thanks for the quick reply aurick.

I understand your point of view. But with all respect, I do not agree.

I was hopping that now with the 64bit version of Zbrush Ill be able to export 16K displacements. Or even 32k. I know that working with layers and many subtools will increase the amount of RAM used by ZBrush, that is why my plan was to use just one subtool, no layers, etc. Just simple sculpting and maybe hiding parts of the mesh as a workaround. My intended workflow was to import a displacement map from World Machine and continue adding detail and export back the displacement for the manually detailed/sculpted terrain. This is not crazy in my humble opinion. I didnt expected to be limited by software. I thought that my limitations are my imagination and my hardware. And Im saying this in the most polite and humble possible way. I described you a reasonable workflow with a reasonable target. I was expecting the 4R7 will cache on the SSD like crazy, the same way Photoshop does. In an era where 4K and 8K UHD display resolutions are a reality and knowing you need higher resolutions to create content, my expectations dont seem to me as “a license to go crazy with your polycounts”.

Again, with all respect and admiration for Pixo team and I`m really grateful for more than generous upgrade/update policy you have, I find this limitation a bit disappointing. Maybe this is just the first x64 iteration and maybe with new possible versions, prior to v5, the limit will go higher. I just hope this limit will go a bit higher.

Again, thanks for the fast reply.

[elemmanuel]

You can always do UDIM and go over the 8K limitation for export and there is only hardware limit for the import ( i did load 20k map in Zbrush).

[MrWyatt]

I’m in the same boat, only that I cannot go past 16 million polygons even on a 64GB ram system. last time I checked 16 x 4 was not 80 right? yet even when I set the mem settings to 80 million polys per mesh, with 16 million I cannot subdivide another time. Is my math that bad or is this a bug?

[elemmanuel]

Did you check that your mem didn’t get back to the minimum . Cranking up the mem to 80 million don’t get save by the store config, Zbrush reset it everytime you close it.
And if you try to subdivide the 3D plan it will not let you go to 16 million *4 polygone … but with others tool it should be OK. You should be able to reach the 80M!