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Trying to render a 40 million polys character using the "Turntable Plus" plugin.

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hello everybody

My PC characteristics:
Windows XP 64 bits
Intel COre 2 Quad CPU
Q6600 3.00 Ghz.
3.00 GHz, 8 GB RAM.
Zbrush 3.5 R3

I´m trying to render a complete turnaround of a 40 million polys character, using the Zbrush plugin “Turntable Plus”.
Just at the beginning of the render the Zbrush program shuts down.

I suppose the main reasons of the Zbrush shutdown are:

  • The big resolution of my render : 2450 x 1275 px
  • The 40 million polys of the character.

In the “Mem” section of the Preferences palette, I have changed the “Max Polys per mesh” number to 40 million. But the problem is still there, The programs shuts down.
I´ve changed the Performance settings to improve the usage of the processors; but the problem is still there.

Does anybody know what other thing could I do to be able to make the render?

Thanks.

#2

I forgot to say that I´m using the maximum 4096 Mb Ram memory of the Zbrush program too. But the program still shuts down.

#3

Does your model have subtools? The maximum polys per mesh refers to those rather than the mesh total, so don’t push the limit up high if there’s no individual subtool of that amount.

Other things to try:

  1. Can you create a regular movie turntable (without using Turntable Plus)?

  2. Can you create a Turntable Plus turntable using the same model but with a smaller document size?

Also, what options are you using with Turntable Plus? For example, are you creating an image sequence?

#4

The maximum polys per mesh refers to those rather than the mesh total, so don’t push the limit up high if there’s no individual subtool of that amount.

Thank you for this information, I thought it referred to all the subtools together.
Now that I leave the default 21.142 million MaxPolyPerMesh, the Turntable Plus Render hold on a few minutes. It´s an improvement, I think.

Yes, my model have subtools. I need to render in a big 2450 x 1275 px document size; and I´m creating an image sequence, I need to have the alphas; it´s very useful.

When I do the turntable in a small ducument size, 725x525 for example, the render goes OK and there´s no shutdown.

So I think the big issue here is the document size. And I need to make the render a big document size to avoid the annoying flickering in the many tiny details the model have.

I will look for a smaller document size the Zbrush can handle.

Anyway I thought maybe there was another technical solution improving the Zbrush performance some other way.

#5

Well we haven’t finished yet. :slight_smile: I’d like to solve this if I can.

I’ve just successfully rendered an image sequence with a model of 45 million polys at the same (2450 x 1275) document size. (I’ve Vista 64 bit with 6 MB RAM.) So let’s see if we can find anything else that could be affecting things:

  1. Are you disabling movie recording in the Turntable Plus options? If not, then you should.

  2. Are you using Best Render?

  3. Are you using any particular materials?

  4. Are you using HD Geometry or Layer Intensity?

#6

Thanks a lot. I´m very thankful of your interest in solving this problem.

I will answer all your questions:

  1. Are you disabling movie recording in the Turntable Plus options? If not, then you should.
    Yes, I´ve disabled movie recording. I only enable image and alpha.
  1. Are you using Best Render?
    Yes, of course. I have lighted, shaded and textured my model; and I want to make a complete turnaround showing the best possible image quality.
  1. Are you using any particular materials?
    I´m using aproximately 20 different materials; the most particular material I´m using is the Glow material with some different color and glow variations.
  1. Are you using HD Geometry or Layer Intensity?
    No, I´m not using HD Geometry nor Layer Intensity.
#7

Lol Marcus of OZ is rendering 45 million polygons on a 6 MB machine … go figure :D:D:D

#8

:eek:I just saw I wasn´t disabling the movie recording:eek:. Ok, I will try now.

Marcus said:

Are you disabling movie recording in the Turntable Plus options? If not, then you should.

Thanks

#9

Now the Zbrush hold on the render a few frames, then it shuts down.
So the problem is still there; a very big document with many polys to render.

#10

I think the Glow material could be causing the problem. You can change it temporarily by doing this:

  1. Select a different material in the material palette. You could use a material that gives a bright effect similar to glow, altering the Modifiers to suit.
  2. Save out the material.
  3. Select the Glow material and load the material you saved at (2).
#11

Thanks a lot for your help, Marcus !:+1:

But… :cry:
Well, I did what you said, I changed the glow material for another simple material. The Zbrush still shut down.

I´ve tried even another different way applying only one material (the bronze material) to the entire character, and the Zbrush still shut down.

I´ve made the turnaround render in a small size, 700 x 525 px, without touching any material, and the render was done without any problem. But I need a higher resolution, and it´s exactly where the problems begin and Zbrush shut down. It seems that the program can´t handle so much rendering work. So I think right now that there must be some way to improve the Zbrush performance in the right way.

Still triying…

#12

OK, don’t give up just yet.

Try rendering the Turntable at full size with just the image export. Then you can render it a second time for the alpha. You can turn off Best Render for that, as it’s not necessary.

Another thing (though this may not have any effect) set the Uni slider in the Lights>Shadows submenu to 100.

#13

I´m doing the turnaround Best render in a 1450 x 1050 px document and the render is going well, without any problem.

I´ve tried to do it with a document size 1800 x 1303 and zbrush shuts down.

Do I need to change the Preferences Performance Settings? Maybe changing the Multithreaded Steps? Right now its default number is 6.

Still trying…:confused:

#14

OK , I´ve set the Uni slider in the Lights>Shadows submenu to 100. (I had set it to default 0 :confused:)

I´ve experimented an spectacular improvement in the rendering performance!:slight_smile:

:DThe turnaround is going pretty well in 2300 px resolution:D.

It shuts down in 2500, but I think that changing some values in rendering preferences will make possible to get the 2500 px final render resolution.

THANK YOU !!! THANK YOU !!! THANK YOU !!!
THANK YOU !!! THANK YOU !!! THANK YOU !!!

You´ve taught me many important Zbrush rendering things I didn´t know.

#15

That’s great, I hope you can get something you can use.