Ok, i got this new rig with 12gb DDR3 and im using xp64. I set the mem limit to 4096 (max) and i could reach 15 million polygons with a mesh of mine. I could try to go further, but the compact memory is taking forever right now and id like to know if theres any way to avoid it. Why is it compacting memory with that ammount of ram? Its the only thing i`m annoyed with. Everything else is rock solid.
thanks in advance
ZBrush can use max 4GB of your memory. So with such dense mesh (60 mil polys?!) you can’t avoid it rightnow I’m affraid.
I know it cant go further ìn the settings. But because its compacting the temporary files in the hard drive (in the vmem folder) it`s taking ages with “just” 15 millions polys droping what the machine can offer just because of the hard drive lag. I was wondering if there no way to avoid using the HDD and just send the temporary files to the unused ram.
No, there’s not a way to avoid compacting memory. ZBrush only does so when it has to, so even providing the option to avoid it would create big problems.
Check the amount of free space that’s on the drive where ZBrush is installed. You might consider freeing up some more room. You should also defragment the drive regularly, as a fragmented drive can have lots of free space but all of it’s in chunks that are too small for ZBrush to use.
I keep meaning to reply to this. I am pretty sure you can effectively turn it off by going to preferences and memory compaction and setting it to the max. Since you can only use at most 4gig you will never get to the max, effectively turning it off.
The mem compaction starts the second you are idle and it doesn’t seem to be used when truly needed (which is when it would otherwise write to swap, which I am not sure it can detect anyway), but any time you are idle, if your mem usage is above that limit…but, I don’t really see if it’s of any value anyway to be honest.
Windows will swap it out anyhow so it’s sort of like zipping up all your memory at runtime. That will help if you are going into crazy polycount ranges of billion plus but on modern machine doing meshes that can be rendered fast enough to be useful it’s probably more a hindrance than a benefit.
no you can’t turn it off just as aurick said.