*Don't you just hate when this happens?*

*Maybe someone with lots of Technical Poser know-how can answer some simple questions about the "Max Texture Size" options and what they do. *

Renders with a very low max texture size go really quick, while renders with a high max texture size take F-o-r--e-v-e-r!

I rendered the exact same image at 512 and 2000.  Now it seems to me that there is a vast difference in size between 512 and 2000, but in the renders, I can barely see any differences.  About the only really noticable difference is in her eyebrows.

So I guess my questions are, how does poser use this max texture size option?  And what size is best to use?

Bagginsbill?  Olivier?  Dr. Geep?  Anyone?

Thanks,

Luna Faye

*For whatever reason the forum wouldn't let me attach my test images here, so you can see them at:
*http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1367391

*Zoom in the see the minor differences between renders.

Luna Faye*

Luna,
Save yourself this problem and upgrade to P7.
You set everything at max and will render ok.

Altec101

Not everyone has a computer that can run Poser 7.

I get that message everytime I render!!!! 

My desktop is old and doesn't have a great deal of memory, so I set up my scene and then save it and close poser. Then I go to my texture folders for the items that I have used and save a copy of the original textures to another part of my hard drive. Then I go to my graphic program and resize all of the textures in the texture folder  that I'm using in that scene so the longest side is 1024 pixels.  I use bicubic resampling so that it doesn't get blurry.

Most of the time that works and allows me to render.  Plus I have to hide lots and lots of things in the scene and sometimes render in bits and pieces and assemble in my graphic program. However, if that doesn't do the job then in render settings I will lower the texture size from 1024 to 1000, and sometimes even to 900. 

I'm getting a new computer in a week or so, so hopefully I won't see that message everytime I render something.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

Quote - Save yourself this problem and upgrade to P7.
You set everything at max and will render ok.

 

*Altec101,

A)  I don't have $250 right now to upgrade.  (And prolly won't for a while.)
B)  I don't buy software that hasn't had most of the bugs worked out.  (Usually around service pack 2ish.)
C)  I still think it's a good idea to understand aspects of a program one is using.  (Which is why I'm asking.)

**Acadia,

Man, that sounds like a heck of a lot of trouble.  Depending on what some poser-guru-like-people say the max texture size thingy does, have you tried reducing the max texture size down to it's lowest setting and then rendering?

Luna Faye*

I've got P6 before to buy P7, I had this problems too!

If you want to render something without loose a lot of time, try to adjust the memory limit buffer
(Edit; General Preferences; Misc) to 128, 256, 512, as your graphic card memory amount, or a little more, this will limit the appearing of messages "not enough memory".

Set buclet size to16, max, set the texture limit to 1024, max, both to decrease memory request.
If you don't need close ups, don't use bump or displacement, transparency needs memory too.

Don't use more than 2 or 3 characters (dress are characters too), or mesh with a high number of poligons.

Remember that a lot of morphs, "injected", need memory too, make a character, then, spawn morphs in one full body morph.

Ambient Occlusion needs memory, raytracing too, limit shadow map size to 512, 1024 max.

Resizing the size of textures in most cases is unnecessary, don't use very high-res textures.

Hope this could be useful...
fonpaolo

It's quite easy: P5/6 firefly loads all textures before starting the render. When a texture's size is bigger than maximum texture size, the texture is downsized to maximum texture size. (Eg. a texture that's originally 1024x4096 px loaded with 512 as maximum texture size will be downsized to 128x512 px). If you have lots of high resolution textures that would not fit into memory in original size, a maximum texture size that is low enough so that all textures are downsized so they fit into memory will of course help. If you have set maximum texture size to 512 and render a close up of an object (eg. a face) at 2048x2048 then then there's obviously not enough information in the downsized 512 point image to give great detail ;-) On the other hand you won't see much difference between eg. max texture size 1024/2048 or higher when you only render that close up at 512x512px. So... there's not really a best setting. Well and it has nothing at all to do with your graphics card memory as fonpaolo seems to think...

Quote - > Quote - Save yourself this problem and upgrade to P7.

You set everything at max and will render ok.

 

*Altec101,

A)  I don't have $250 right now to upgrade.  (And prolly won't for a while.)
B)  I don't buy software that hasn't had most of the bugs worked out.  (Usually around service pack 2ish.)
C)  I still think it's a good idea to understand aspects of a program one is using.  (Which is why I'm asking.)

**Acadia,

Man, that sounds like a heck of a lot of trouble.  Depending on what some poser-guru-like-people say the max texture size thingy does, have you tried reducing the max texture size down to it's lowest setting and then rendering?

Luna Faye*

Yes, my computer is super old.  Pentium III 1 gig processor with 384MB of SDRAM. It bearly manges to use Poser.  If I manage to get one render off, I have to reboot.  It's a royal PITA.  Now my computer is breaking down so I've ordered a new one and it should be here in a week or so, so I shouldn't have the problems I'm having now, which I'm really excited about. I can't imagine being able to render without running out of memory or having to jump through hoops by having to hide 90% of the scene and render multiple parts to assemble in paint shop pro.  If I weren't so addicted to Poser I would have just given it up,  LOL

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

*I don't really have problems rendering.  I'm just one of those strange people who actually like to understand the programs I'm using.

So if I understand Dizzi correctly, let's say I have a texture map of 4000x4000 (seems to be what most vendors make textures at.) and I set the max texture size to 2000.  Then poser will automatically shrink the texture image by half?  (At the begining of the rendering prosess when it says "Loading Textures".)

So then what does Texture Filtering do when it is on/off?

Luna Faye*

Quote - So if I understand Dizzi correctly, let's say I have a texture map of 4000x4000 (seems to be what most vendors make textures at.) and I set the max texture size to 2000.  Then poser will automatically shrink the texture image by half?  (At the begining of the rendering prosess when it says "Loading Textures".)

Yes, but it'll of shrink it to a fourth (and the memory consumption will be 1/4th, too ;-)) > Quote - So then what does Texture Filtering do when it is on/off?

See manual page 339. It's got an example picture there, too. In Poser 5/6 that'll take roughly 3 times as much memory as without texture filtering. You'll also find people saying that it'll improve the look of hair textures, too - but usually reducing the resolution of the texture in an image editor also does this (and AFAIK Poser 5/6 does the same: create a bunch of lower resolution textures for texture filtering - thus the high memory use).

Quote - So... there's not really a best setting.
Well and it has nothing at all to do with your graphics card memory as fonpaolo seems to think...

 

Ehm... I don't think to set max texture like max amount of graphic memory, but after a lot of tweak,
 ...and a lot of messages, I've set max texture size as my graphic card memory amount, and then all worked fine for me.
Only this.

fonpaolo