100% memory usage , why?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

I recently tried out 3ds max, since i need it for my education. My first exercise went fine, low poly modelling, a few textures, all fine.
Now, I ended my 2nd exercise but after i made some changes to my model, i noticed the lag this program creates, the memory usage of 100% when i try to open this file.

information about the problem:

On start-up,"3ds max does not respond", when i try to move around in this file it has some serious lag issues: things happen 2 minutes after I tried to actually move it or sometimes even 3ds max crashes.
When i open task manager, it says memory usage is 100% mostly from 3ds max. In case you are wondering; no there are no other programs active.

Is there anybody who can help me with this situation?

kind regards

specs laptop:

Windows 10 Education Version
24gb ram

intel core i7 6700HQ CPU 2.60 GHz
NVIDIA Quadro M2000M

[CAMedeck]

It is not uncommon for 3ds Max to be a memory hog.  A few things that can make this really bad include using high resolution texture maps (including environment maps like HDRI).

Watch the RAM usage while you open Max and then load your scene.  Does it hit max usage just loading the scene, or is it after you've rendered out an image?  If you are rendering to a very large image size, the frame buffer can eat up a couple hundred MB just storing the frame.  Even after you close the frame buffer, it keeps that in memory until you clear it.

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Anonymous and welcome to the community!

This is an interesting situation and I'd like to help here.  Can you please let me know which versions of 3ds Max you are using, the current service pack you are on, and maybe attach the file or PM me a link to it so I may investigate?

Also, I'd like to verify that the RAM usage is 100% and not the CPU usage.  Is that correct?  Opening the file uses something like 21-22 GB of memory?  Thank you so much for the answers to those questions.

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

In first place, thanks for helping me.

I'm using 3ds Max 2017, service pack 3 i believe. I also attached the file this reply. I managed to take a screenshot of the moment when opening the file. I think this is useful for you. 

In the screenshot it says 35% cpu but actually the moment of opening, both CPU and Memory went to 80-85%.

If there is anything else you might need, i will be here 🙂

again , thanks for helping me.

kind regards 

Cuno De Laet

[Anonymous]

It indeed hit max opening the file. Maybe it is just my fault because i didn't optimise my file yet because i just started to learn this program.

[Alfred.DeFlaminis · Accepted solution]

Hello @Anonymous,

Well it's clear to me you have a bright future ahead of you, this tank is looking pretty darn cool!  The problems here are the following:

1) The treads aren't all instanced objects, so they are getting heavy.  Some are instanced (1 in every 4 or so)

2) The treads are something like 7 million polygons each, and there are hundreds of them.  Your total poly count for the scene is something like 250 million polygons. This is why your RAM is maxing out.  

In the end, it's the treads.  All you really need to do is set the tread counts from 200, 184, 185 to something like 2, 2, 8 and your scene should be much faster.  The problem here isn't really with 3ds Max, just aggressive modeling.  As far as I'm concerned, that's a pretty boss way to learn Max's limitations in the first place.  If you try to change those tread counts I think all your problems will go away.  

Here's how I would fix it:  (It'll be laggy probably and you may have to wait a bit during some steps)

1) Hide the center parts of the tank.  (Select, right click and hit Hide Selected)

2) Select a tread

3) Go to Edit->Select similar to select all treads

4) Press Alt Q to isolate the selected treads

5) Select nothing, then press H and select the cylinders at the bottom of your list.  (065,083,123,141)

6) Right click and Hide Selected on the cylinders, now we have only tank treads showing.  

7) Select all the tank treads (use method in step 2 and 3 if you'd like)

8) Open your listener window in the bottom left corner of the max UI.  (The white area) by right clicking on it and selecting "Open Listener Window"

9) Paste the following into the white area:  (don't press enter yet)

$.lengthsegs = 2
$.widthsegs = 2
$.heightsegs = 8

10) Select all 3 lines of text in the listener

11) Press Enter on the Numpad

12) Right click in viewport and Unhide All when done to get your hidden objects back.  

That should change all your objects at once to much lower poly setups. If it crashes in step 9, you might have to do groups of the treads at a time instead of all of them but it worked on my laptop just fine.  I believe this should help you so your memory isn't maxed out. Please let me know if it does not. 

Please hit the "Accept as Solution" button if my post fully solves your issue or answers your question. This lets me know that I was effective in helping you, and thank you for doing so.

Best Regards,

[alikasb]

I have also Huge memmory usage of 3dsmax while rendering with arnorld hair. And after render finish Memmory huge usage not gone!