Granted, it took some work-arounds due to bugs, but the link below shows a file that contains 17 Daz mil3 (okay, 1 is mil4) figures.

http://www.digreal4d.com/misc/finalcam1c.jpg

for a closer look: http://www.digreal4d.com/misc/finalcam1b.jpg

Obviously, I'm running Vue under WinXP64. And, I know there's a few folks here that love stats, so here they are:

Dual core Opteron 275 running WinXP64 with 10 GB ram
Vue6I build 289182
File size of 1.211 GB (I'm working on another that's close to 1.5 GB)
16 mil3 figures consisting of V3, S3, D3, M3
1 mil4 figure... Vicki 4, of course
Mostly Xfrog plants imported as 3ds files, along with some obvious SolidGrowth stuff.
Instancing is limited to the small, dense foliage... all else are imports or SolidGrowth
This scene is 100% 3d.... even the stuff reflected in windows... no billboards or photoshoping required!!!

Just wanted to show that once V6 is fixed, it CAN handle some heavy stuff. Something we'll all look forward to, I'm sure.

Pic looks fantastic :) 

That said who amongst us Vue users are going to have 10G of ram :blink: Which means most of will have to use billboards etc etc to achieve what you did.  Most people have 2-4G so we will be limited.  So we will still be held back, but glad you aren't!  And NO once Vue is fixed we won't be able to do what you have done unless we all have 10G of ram.  So what you are saying  is Vue requires 10G of ram to work properly?  Guess EON should update there minimum requirements.

Keep up the good work :)

Yes.  It can be done.  Great job.  Vue 6 loves the outdoors.

A year ago or so I did this image (http://renderfred.free.fr/fei_tuvinien.html) and this was with Vue 5 Infinite, a 32-bit app which cannot address more than 2 GB. There are a lot of Poser figures in it, but 2 GB was sufficient (barely).

That being said, the 64-bit version of Vue 6 is now clearly the way to go.

btw nice pic DigReal

If I were rich or rolling in all kinds of money I would go 64 bits but you know there are lots of Vue users who don't have the money to buy a new system everytime a new version of software comes out.
 With post like this it makes a lot of people back off buying thinking if they have to have these high end computers why do I need to software if I have to have them to run the application.

 I am still running Vue 6 Inf on Windows 2000 Pro with 1.5 gigs of ram and a nvidia graphic card and If some of the resource bugs were fixed I could do lots more with it.  Vue 6 is still prerlease and still got lot problems or at lest mine does.   I have reported lots of problems to tech which they say will be fixed in next update.  I am patiently waiting to see how many of my problems have been fixed so I can do more with what I got in the way of a computer and operating system. :)

~sigh~  

What I MEANT is it can't be done via HIS method with only 2-4g of ram WITHOUT using billboards/rendering in layers & compositing.  I have done quite complex images as well with what I have - BUT I use billboards & composite in layers if need be & not just in Vue either.  Simple as that.

If you only have 4g & under you will have to use these methods. And just having 64x bit OS won't make that much of a difference UNLESS you have the extra ram to go along with it :)

if the sigh was related to my post, then  :

~mega-sigh~ :)

in the image I mentioned there is no compositing, and no billboards, and it was rendered on a 2 GB PC. All the figures are in the same scene and rendered in one pass, the making of PDF describes the whole thing.

I still use Vue 5 INf if I want to work and not have to have so many work arounds as with Vue 6 as it is now.
  Vue 5 Inf did work lots better than what we have in the pre release of Vue 6.  I am hoping vue 6 will be like Vue 5 with some updates and bugs removed.
  You are right that with Vue 5 some pretty complext scenes can be made. :)

The sigh was not to meant to you or anyone specific- it was a sigh in general.  I've read your stuff on many occasions louguet & your info is very useful.

Ok, no problem, and thanks. The point was that it is possible to do complex Poser scenes with 32-bit Vue, but of course you have to work harder, optimize texture sizes, etc, etc. As for Vue 6 it is already so much better than Vue 5, in so many areas... I am confident that most of the Poser-related problems will be solved soon, but we must not forget that e-on also has to wait sometimes for e-frontier to correct bugs in the Poser SDK. What users see as Vue bugs are sometimes really Poser bugs...

I was refering to Vue bugs and not poser bugs.  I do mostly land scapes and don't use poser that much with Vue 6.
  Still bugs because I have turned in to tech support and got confirmation on them.  As I said I am waiting on a new update to see if any of these have been fixed.  I surely hope so because I as you like Vue 6 and its features.    Will like more when they all work as advertised. :)

I think my main concern(not sure if that's right word I'm looking for), is that when newbies come around & see threads with specs such as DigReal they go :blink: & think lordy, I need this much to get Vue to work :blink:  

Most of us "old-timers" know all the tips/tricks & have read various technical writings(like yours Fred) & know what we need to do.  Whereas the newbies go HOLY MOLY & might just walk away from it, those aren't technically savy so to speak.

Hope that makes sense :)  And no I'm not putting down high end systems - glad for those that have them - just in case my writing came across that way.

Ooops. My apologies everyone, I meant to include the word Infinite in the title. My main target for this post are those who have an ongoing need to load up Vue with lots of imports. Professional illustrators such as myself, for ex, who are more than willing to spend the extra cash for the Infinate flavor of Vue, along with gobs of ram.

I imagine that most Vue/Poser users are artists whose scenes usually focus on 1 or 2 figures. For you, throwing extra resources at Vue shouldn't be necessary. Again, my apologies... didn't mean to drag you guys into this discussion (unless you want to comment, that is).

Although I sense a few folks are a bit peeved by this thread (understandably), the discussion is turning out interesting. Please continue. I, too, use to manage to get 5-7 Poser figures into Vue5I without the need for work-arounds or more than 2GB of ram. I'd expect at least as much from Vue6.

For the benefit of newbies who might go "holy moly", we should point out that Poser figures are usually high density meshes with a lot of huge texture files, so some difficulty is to be expected. That stuff can be reduced, if needed, and any rendering app would have trouble with a lot of figures.

Hope no one thought I was getting peeved with your post.
  I try to be as honest with my remarks as I can be. :)   I envy you and your setup and wish I could afford the same.   Maybe later when prices fall I can do the same.   I  hope I can continue to use Vue 6 inf as I was able with Vue 5 inf and not have to many problems.:)

I may be wrong but I think there are a lot of users that still use older system who dont have the money to spend on newer systems.  I'd like to know the percentage of  older systems versus New system.    I'd take a guess and say its like 90% older versus 10% newer, me being in the older. :)

Another thing to remember when using imported objects (Poser or any other 3d object) - the texture size should match where the item is in your picture.  If the people will only be in the background, then there is no need for a 4000x4000 texture map!  Learn how to resize them or use something like SkinVue.  

If you have 2 GB and do some thinking, you can get multiple figures in your scene!  If you have 1GB, then you'll have to work harder and smarter, but don't think it's impossible.  There is more then one way to do things!

I was not peeved whatsoever.  And as Peggy said there is more than 1 way to skin the so called cat :)

I can tell you this method works fine for still renders, but try it with more than 2-3 animated millennium characters. Vue 5/6 Inf. will crash, every time, even when only using 1.5 gig RAM. My rendering machine has similar specs as yours - Dual Opteron 270, 8 gig RAM, XP64.

I don't think Vue has problems with large meshes or large textures, but it cannot handle Poser animation worth a damn, unless it is instanced. I'm sure this is related to the Poser SDK somehow, but the point remains that with 2-3 animated millennium characters (with full clothing, weapons, etc.) Vue will crash every time when it gets to 1.5 gig memory usage.

Hmmm. That sounds like a Poser limitation, nahie. Remember that Vue calls to Poser for the animation functions, and Poser is still a 32 bit app with the first 2 gig address limit. That 1.5 gig is just about the right number to be running out of allocated memory for a 32 bit app, as the OS would be eating the first half gig. Hopefully everyone who answered the EF survey marked 'the whole application' on the question of how much of Poser should go 64 bit.