After seeing a couple threads on poser and memory, I decided to run a few quick tests. System Info: Athlon 1.2Ghz, 512MB RAM, WinXP Vic2 was used for all the tests, with Daz Hi-Rez textures + bumps and no hair - No props - Just your average basic image. Image 1: No shadows - Memory usage= 221MB Image2 Single spotlight + shadow - Memory usage = 250MB Image3 I used an extreme lighting situation here with AK_Highnoon from "LightingProject" (sorry, cant remember who made it). It creates 8 shadows - Memory usage= 414MB Like I said, quick experiment. However, as you can see you need a good deal of RAM if you plan on making scenes with Vic + hair + props, etc. The basic Image1 is enough to bring Win98 with 256MB RAM to its knees. During the tests I did find the same images with 2 vics used no more memory than those with one vic. Also, there were no noticeable differences in memory usage between 800x800, 1000x1000, and 1200x1200 render sizes (.5-1MB at most). Another thing I saw was XP's memory management kick into high gear and it really impressed me. The more memory intensive the use got, the more XP kicked unneeded files out of RAM. At the start of my test, my RAM usage was 140MB. At the end of my tests, my RAM usage was only 92MB. 15 minutes after my tests were completed, my RAM usage is back up to where it was at the start. The only time the swap file was hit during this test was the extreme light situation. XP used 32MB of swap file. Highest total physical memory usage during this test was 508MB (extreme light image + Windows/Poser files). Ill try more with hair later and see if there is any major difference in mem usage between Mike and Vic. Anyone have some other good ideas on tests?

Forgot the most basic test of them all. Poser loaded with textured vic in workspace - memory usage = 58MB. :) "Start of my tests" = system in that condition.

Seeing that I'm on a PII266 with 160MB RAM I think you can understand my joy when I say I'm gonna buy/build a PIV 2Gig with 512MB next month (might go for 1024, depends on how much the Geforce4 is going to whoop me for :) Rendering is just no fun right now.... rapidely running out of swapfilespace (1Gig free ATM ;) Axe.

same images with 2 vics used no more memory than those with one vic<<< This is probably due to the fact that once the geomtry is read for the first vic in the scene, that it doesnt need to be loaded and read for the second as it already has been read. It would be interesting therefore to see results with 1 vic (nothing else), 2 vics, 3 vics and so on to see if this were true. What I would like to know though is, is this the application (poser) being clever and realising it has already read the file, or is it just the OS&RAM just storing the information for future use and quick reusage(eg like clipboard etc.).

to its knees ? i can render an image of vic + hair(casual hairstyle=intensive) and props with a pII 450 64mb ram

I meant it can bring it to its knees.. Doesnt always happen and might not happen at all depending on how you use your system. It has happened to many people however. Images of just Vic2 with Daz Hi-res textures and bumps even stalled out on me a few times under Win98 with 256MB RAM.