I have a home network with 2 PC's running Win XP pro SP2.  I am getting constant "out of memory" error messages while trying to render my latest image.
Questions:

1     Will Bryce Lightning help overcome this??
2     If so, How do I install and set-up Bryce Lightning on my network ??

Cheers
GG

1. How much RAM Do you have?

2. Which version of Bryce do you have?

3. Bryce Lightning requires Bryce in order to work so you will still have a Memory problem.

4. You need more than 2 PC's to take advantage of Bryce Lightning.

@ Analog-X.... Have 2Gig on 1 puter and 1Gig on the other.

Image was created with B 5.1, B6.1 could'nt cope with it all, in fact won't even load the file without running out of memory.

So you are suggesting that with only 2 puters I could be wasting my time installing Lightning.

Cheers
GG

Try rendering to disk.

Won't do that either, still runs out of memory.

Cheers
GG

What is the file size of your scene? You may have to split it up and render parts individually. You can find an excellent tutorial here: http://www.3d-digital-wasteland.com/ on rendering parts of a scene and then combining them.

File size is 932Mb, would like to make it larger with another couple of figures but thats not gonna happen.  Thanks for the link dhama, will check it out.

Cheers
GG

Quote -
So you are suggesting that with only 2 puters I could be wasting my time installing Lightning.

Cheers
GG

Bryce Lightning runs like a Client/Slave for Bryce and than Bryce sends jobs to Bryce Lightning to render.

With Bryce v5.1 you can Use both machines to render because Bryce5.1 had an option to allow the main PC to render as well.

With v6.x this option is no longer available which means  Bryce only acts as the render scheduler and wont render itself but only send jobs to other PC's that have Lightning installed.

I don't know what kind of image are you working on, but usually I use photoshop to compose in layers a complex image, using in Bryce the "mask render" as alpha channal.
Also in the 3D movies (as Pixar movies and so on) they use layers composition during the postproduction in order to speed up the 3D renders. Sometimes in the movies there are more than 10 layers!

I really think that the usual "mania" of 3D artist on Renderosity,  to render all the 3D scene in one shot is really a MANIA... :) more maniacal if is a still image. ;)
The "layer render" give you more control on colors and effects (and many other things) when you postproduce the layers in Photoshop. 

Quote - I don't know what kind of image are you working on, but usually I use photoshop to compose in layers a complex image, using in Bryce the "mask render" as alpha channal.

I really think that the usual "mania" of 3D artist on Renderosity,  to render all the 3D scene in one shot is really a MANIA... :) more maniacal if is a still image. ;)

Duo,  "mask render" is an option, However some artists on rendo, like me,do not have the photoshop skills to do a lot of postwork. I do have p/shop CS 2 but can only do very basic stuff with it.

Analog-X, I understand now that network rendering with B5.1 and only 2 computers will still leave me with "memory" problems because I would need the "Bryce 5 computer to be rendering as well.

Thanks a lot for your in-put, I guess I'll have to go learn some more skills before you see this image, also must try to convince partner that she needs another computer as much as I do.

Cheers
GG     

Quote - I don't know what kind of image are you working on, but usually I use photoshop to compose in layers a complex image, using in Bryce the "mask render" as alpha channal.
Also in the 3D movies (as Pixar movies and so on) they use layers composition during the postproduction in order to speed up the 3D renders. Sometimes in the movies there are more than 10 layers!

I need to sit down one day and really try to wrap my head around Alpha Channels and Mask Renders.  They both seem to be used by many.. I just dont quite understand them right now.

What I usually found when Bryce gives me an out of memory message it's due to some object that got messed up. Either the memory message comes up during a save or a render. If I have time I will try to find that object through trial and error and either remove it or recreate it.

I would just guess that a 932 meg scene would crash a 2 gig machine.   If my scenes get near half of my free RAM, I just say 'Bye-bye'.

Splitting the scene up might be the best idea. 

Can anyone load scenes this big with that amount of memory?  Or is it just my PC's problem.

Quote - I would just guess that a 932 meg scene would crash a 2 gig machine.   If my scenes get near half of my free RAM, I just say 'Bye-bye'.

Splitting the scene up might be the best idea. 

Can anyone load scenes this big with that amount of memory?  Or is it just my PC's problem.

Sorry for not replying to this thread earlier.

2 gig of ram is fine for a file size of 932MB. I loaded large files in bryce 5.5 with 1 gig ram and only once got that out of memory error and i found out that one of the props/items in the scene was the cause of this.

If you are using anything for poser or a load of trees try to see if you can srip the poser model down to show the bare essentials EG: if you have a fully clothed figure try to hide the parts of the body that wont show in the image, if its a car or something like that try hiding anything you wont see.
If you are using a load of trees in the image try using the 2d plane and place a few trees in the render that way..

Trust me i am one for ever trying to over load bryce and find some way to fix the problem if i can..the above mentioned ways are two of the best i have found so far.

PS: also when you load or do a render in bryce close down any programs you have running in the background, such as anti-virus, anti-spyware or anything that uses up ram and load of cpu use..ask any old timer on here and they'll say the same thing.