LW 8.2 8.5 - 3GB switch - anybody tried it?

[JML]

I wonder if anybody tried the 3GB switch with LW 8.2 or 8.5.
and if yes, how was it, any problem ?

after lots of memory problem with big projects, I was thinking enabling the
3gb switch on the workstations and the renderboxxes.
(computers having winXP pro and win2000)

but before doing that, I would like to know more.. and if it's worth it..


thanks

[wellsichris]

If i remember right it doesn't do anything. I have it setup at home, but the program has to be optimized to take advantage of more than 2gigs and lightwave isn't. aftereffects and fusion do. so it's worth it for that, and the newer versions of syntheyes. so once again. but as far as lightwave I don't think it does. I can check when i get home, at work I work on macs.

chris

p.s. if you do setup the 3gb switch do a dual boot option first to makes sure your system is stable. if the 3GB fails you basically have to reinstall windows to fix it. if you have a dual boot and it fails you boot without the switch and no harm done. I leave my system at home dual boot with or without switch and like 3 secs. to decided so just incase there is a conflict with new hardware i can just boot without it.

[JML]

yes dual boot is a must.

I thought an update of LW 8 recently made LW 3gb ready.. not sure now..
I will check tonight at home..

[JML]

the 3Gb switch helps.

I took one of my scene and duplicated lots of objects to reach around 6
million polys.

without the 3Gb switch, the scene open fine but when I hit render, it says
not enough memory for centering arrays

with the 3gb switch, the scene open fine and it start rendering.

(tested on winPro, with Lightwave 8.5 , and the resolution I was trying to
render was 1024*683)

[wellsichris]

well that's good to know. there must be something different about the way lightwave uses memory when it renders as opposed to just general scene setup. I was doing a test tonight and with or without the switch watching the task manager lighwave would flatline the memory usage at 2.18 gb. and give me out of memory errors. that was just with lightwave running. I haven't done any rendering tests. my tests were just loading up a lot of geometry to trying to max out the memory. I'll have to try some render tests. it would be interesting to try scremernet and see if it would help. have you tried any tests with scremernet? I need to make a scene that just goes over the limit with rendering and do some more tests.
let me know if you find anything with scremernet.
thanks

chris

[paulhart]

I have been running with the 3GB switchfor 6months plus, no problems, some benefits, as mentioned above. I have included my boot.ini for your reference. It has a timeout option at the beginning, allowing me to choose which choice I want, in case the 3GB/ fouled-up, which it doesn't, ever, but it is the safety valve that others are referencing above. Some apps definitely use it. My system is running WinXP Pro, ServicePack2, on a DualOpteron64 system with 4GB of memory which could only go in as banks of 2GB each to run in alternating fast read/writes, but oddly enough, when I boot, it only counts up 3.66GB, but it uses in for Fusion, and helps some scenes and renders in Lightwave, to actually run, which won't work otherwise. Give it a try.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional /3GB" /3GB /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Paul

[JML]

yes the switch helps, but I don't want people reading this thinking the switch
will fix all their memory problem..

I took the same scene and made it more than 7 millions polys, and then LW
would not render (even with the switch).
so it helps, I'm just saying it's not equal to LW64bit..

paulhart, glad to know you used it for some time now and that you did not have any problem,
I will switch mine and try on the workstation at work.
thanks for the info.

[JML]

I will try the 3gb switch with screamernet this week-end to see if it helps..
I'm also curious to see if it works ..

[theo]

The switch is working fine for me as well.

[Lamont]

I did this a while ago, and it worked great. I don't know about screamernet. But I would imagine it would.