vray3.4 very slow with phoenix ?

[anthonyh]

Hi,
I was trying to render a phoenix2.2 ocean and wakes with 3 small boats animation, it rendered fine with 3.30.05 about 3mins/frame. With 3.4 i noticed it was taking much longer to render eta 24hrs for 100 frames. Went back to 3.3 and it`s alright again, zips through the gi pass whereas 3.4 is slow through the gi. I`ll need to check it again at some point but anything obvious ?
Ok, I just reinstalled 3.4 and checked it again, it seems to get progressively slower rendering. first frame is ok but then starts to slow down. definitely seems like something wrong as it also slows way down just on the gi prepass on the sky which is just a background environment image. mainly it seems it`s the prepass stuff that gets very slow only seems to be using a small amount of cpu too, down to 10%. speeds up if you turn off GI.
if you restart 3dsmax it speeds up again for the first frame then starts going slower again.

thanks
anthonyh

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Hey,

Which version of Phoenix is that? There was such a problem for a couple of days in the nightlies and it's already fixed. Please check the latest Phoenix nightly.

Cheers!

[anthonyh]

version... a nightly i think. not the latest though. 26794 I think, there`s no about box in phoenix that i know of..
Ok i`ve downloaded and tried the latest phoenix nightly 26807. It`s the same issue, gradually slows down over 3 or 4 frames. 1st frames was a few minutes, 4th frame 6 minutes. you can see it clearly because on the gi prepass the sky environment background shows slowdown as well and it`s just a bitmap. cpu usage down to 16%. i also can hide all geometry and it`s still really slow on the prepass. if i reload the file and don`t restart 3dsmax then the slowdown issue remains but if i quit then restart 3dsmax then it speeds back up temporarily.
i`ve now also tested just rendering with gi on and no geometry in scene and the first frame is quick then the slowdown happens straight away on frame 2. the prepass is 1/4 the speed or less than it should be.(irradiance map and light cache btw)
thanks
anthonyh

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Hey,

The About box is at the top of the Simulation panel, next to the start/stop buttons. Would it be possible to send a scene over to support so we can track the problem down? Also, are you using Max 2017 or older?

Thank you!

[anthonyh]

3dsmax 2016.
about button. i never noticed. woops.
sure i`ll pop the scene over.
1 thing was the wake sim was generated in a previous version so i don`t know if that matters or not ?
support@chaosgroup.com i presume ?

[anthonyh]

interestingly i`ve just tried deleting all the geometry then quitting, starting 3dsmax and trying again and it`s still slow after the first frame. just a bitmap environment and no geometry.

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Yup, that's the address. I think the version should not be a factor at all, especially if changing V-Ray versions produces a difference. Will check the scene and get back to you as soon as we find anything. Thanks again

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Huh, just now saw your last post - would be a very long shot, but how about if you make the Phoenix sim not renderable or the foam shaders not renderable?

[anthonyh]

i deleted *all* geometry from the scene. no phoenix no objects only helpers and a sky bitmap in the environment slot. vray 3.4 renders ok frame 0 but slows down on next frame 1.
i`ve reinstalled vray 3.30.05 and it renders fast like it should.
i`ve sent both files to support. One has the phoenix, the other is all geometry stripped. both behave the same.

i`d also say having looked at it now the gi prepass is much slower on vray 3.4 compared to 3.3 even on the frame 0.

ta
anthonyh

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Oh, wow What about if you delete all the geometry and go to the environment dialog and delete the Phoenix atmosphere?

[anthonyh]

yes i tried deleting that too and no difference. i thought of it just as i sent the files over. very odd.
my comment about 3.4 being slow is only based on this scene, it`s the only scene i`ve tried so far. i`m not being judgmental or anything !

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Hmm, mysterious stuff. Well then, we'll see what we can find

[anthonyh]

hi,
a quick update.
i don`t know why i didn`t try it before but resetting to scanline and back seems to have fixed it. so there`s always `turn it off and on again` i guess ! i don`t know why it should fix the issue though ?
thanks
anthony

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Hey,

This will be fixed for tomorrow's V-Ray nightly.

Cheers and thanks for the report!

[anthonyh]

yay, i helped !
good to know it`s fixed.
thanks
anthonyh