P6 RENDERING 6000 x 6000 pixels aborts render in a machine with 2 gig of ram

my render error message is that there is a problem with memory and suggests fixes like reducing bucket size and max texture size, none of which has worked for me. 

This is a Firefly render on a laptop running XP, 2 gig ram,   3.99 GHZ hyperthreading dual processor,  ATI MObility Radeon x600 graphics card  

how can I optimize to render this size ?

Try rendering in strips & then patching them together in postwork.

Stormchaser, thanks for your response. Eye thought about that, but my first reaction to that is: NoFlippinWay! 
I really do not wanna do that, but yeah, I may have to, as a last resort. 
I'm not willing to go straight to that as an answer, not just yet. 

So, back to your suggestion,  would you use area render, just eyeballing the strips, then? Or, is there a precise way to slice up the render real estate that I don't know about?.

Post your render settings so we can see what you are actually using, we might be able to offer more appropriate advice if we know your settings!

Area rendering would be a good option. You could also hide parts of the image that are not being rendered which would then free up resources.

Firefly manual settings, cast shadows only (no ray trace nor texture filter)
max bucket 16
max texture 512
pixel sample 2
min shade rate .2

3 lights in scene, one of which is IBL without shadows or AO or image map

That's one of the things greatly improved in P7, memory management.

Did you try rendering it in a separate process?

Akhiris, I tried it in GloWorm as a normal render, not thinking that it would make a difference (because it's still Firefly based), and I was right, still had the same issue. 
What process did you have in mind?  

Max Bucket = 16 with min shading rate = 0.2 will make your tiles 1280 pixels. Changing your shading rate to 1 will reduce your tile size to 256 pixels with negligible impact on image quality (unless you need something finely traced; then you can set min shading rate on a per object basis).

Turn off raytracing. Fake your reflections using reflection maps.  Render one object at a time. Create a separte shadow pass and composite in Photoshop.

Edit: just noticed that you aren't raytracing.

Your render settings are basic, so the problem doesn't lie here. I can only presume your output is too large. When I render in Poser my FF settings are very high & I have no problems. I have never tried to render at such a large resolution though.

OP's render was approx. 144 MB in size. I could say that P6 was limited to 4096X4096, but somebody will soon say they routinely render larger than that. if so, I'd be interested in a link to anybody's render that's larger than 4096X4096, as seeing is believing.

What printed size are you going for exactly? You don't need to have 300 DPI for large prints.

Well, all the input has been good and appreciated.
Props to replicand for the best suggestion, Eye think, because I changed the min shade rate to 1 as suggested, and am now happily rendering away, tho I must confess re-dimensioning also to 6000 X 4000, still quite large.

per some of the comments:
believe it or not, I am rendering only one (or two,  when they are intiricated)  objects at a time, then exporting as png for compositing in Photoshop.
  
My printed size: I'm testing the boundaries (on the Poser side of things) for getting into small to medium poster sizes. A 20 inch length poster is not really a big poster.  I am also keeping in mind "you can always go smaller" as I build our collection of graphic assets.

You are right Akhiris, I am assuming the need for a resolution of AT LEAST 300 dpi. So, you suggest I re-think that, eh? We need fine art quality prints.  A start-up venture, we are taking delivery on a 25k USD printer next thursday.  (okay, it's a floor model and cost us half that.)

I've printed a 16x20 poster using a 150 DPI file... came out ok. I've been told that because you stand back from larger prints you don't need to make them 300 DPI.

If you are spending 25k on a printer (or even half that) what's stopping you from spending a few $$ on a decent render app ?

There is no point in sticking with poser if this is for commercial use, you will only be crippling the amount of work you can handle and its quality.

ghonma, excellent suggestion.

Like I said, I am in "testing the boundaries" mode. Who knows, I may decide we do need to render elsewhere for some things. Porting (via polytrans) to XSI is a probably a decent option,  available and familiar to us. I like Lightwave's rendering engine, also.

 What rendering app would you (all) recommend?
maybe I should start a new thread with this question.

Whatever app it is, chances are very good we already own copies :)

I use Cinema 4D because interPoser makes it easy to use Poser stuff. :biggrin:

It's a billion times faster than Poser at rendering to boot.

thanks Akhiris
what v. Poser you running? 
I'm running 6 and I have no render tab in my general preferences menu.

I have 7, sorry... I thought they were relatively the same.

I render to Vue 6 Esprit. Vue's lighting far outweighs what Poser has to offer. Global Illumination & Global Radiosity are handled brilliantly in this app.

Thanks, stormchaser. 
Yeah, I hear ya.
 I'd much rather have a more straight-forward approach than in Poser, using IBL to cover the global illum function :( 

I will check that out, not sure if we own it yet but we soon will for sure. 
It's an app i see mentioned a lot in the Poser realm. 
Does it stand alone and open poser pz3 files?    

Yes, you import your pz3 file across. You can use Poser's shader tree with import as well but this will eat into your resources.

If you post a small render of the image, and a screenshot of your render settings, I may be able to help?

What is your virtual memory set at?

What version of Poser are you using?

How big is the .PZ3; how big is a New Folder after CollectSceneInventory.py?

Mentioning the Video Card did'nt matter. :closedeyes: