Chamfer Modifier System Memory issue in 3DS Max 2018.4

[HowieEDay]

Hi! I've been a max user forever, and I lvoe the program. I've recently been finding myself dealing with something that is increasingly annoying (and actually damaging, in one case). The chamfer modifier, when it initially does its thing, or when a setting is changed is a massive memory hog. I'm talking 30+GB maxed out on a model that has 50K polys. This can take anywhere from 10-15 minutes to resolve...or potentially never, if the poly count is bigger than 80K.  This is where the file damaging part came in - I applied this to a nice 210K interior cockpit model, and waited to see the result. after 30 minutes it worked, so I saved the file, and kept working. 3 hours later, absolutely none of my backups will load - they all hard lock my system for more than 30min with memory useage pegged at 32GB or thereabouts. I had to manually go into the plugins folder and delete the .dlm to be able to open the file again. Is there *ANY* way to alter or hotfix this plugin so that it cant completely gobble down the entire systems memory for the better part of an hour? 

Thanks! 

Howie

Your post subject line has been edited by @hagen.deloss: Chamfer Modifier System Memory issue

[HowieEDay]

...Anyone? 

[companioncube]

which version of 3ds max are you using? and do you have all updates installed for that version?

[Anonymous]

I did some stress test with the latest version of 3dsmax 2019.3. and applied the chamfer modifier to a 98k mesh.

Segments where set to 1

Angle option where unchecked to make sure that it get`s all edges of the mesh.

These are my findings:

Total processing time: 4:35.

After about 1min cpu usage went up from 13% to 100% which hints at a parallelization.

Memory usage from 1805mb to 2227mb. This is to be expected since it triples the mesh size.

[HowieEDay]

2018 64bit with all updates and service packs installed.

[Anonymous]

In your case do you add the modifier to multiple scene objects at once (->instance the modifier across multiple objects that make up the cockpit) or to a single 120k mesh?

Do you have a special requirement for the cockpit to be one single mesh? Perhaps try to split the mesh in individual parts (button, monitors, switches) and apply the modifier to those parts.

[hagen.deloss]

Hi @HowieEDay

I'm curious if this slowdown is specific to a recent Max update, or if this is something you have encountered before using prior updates/versions of Max?

I would say, if this is something you have experienced before to similar affect, you could post to the Ideas forum requesting that the Chamfer modifier be improved.

If you believe this issue is within a specific version of 3DS Max, I can totally help troubleshoot this issue! I would love to see a dxdiag of your machine specs, and steps I can take to reproduce this issue (does this happen on a specific file, or just dense meshes between 50k-80k polygons?).

I look forward to hearing from you!

Don't forget, please select the Accept as Solution button if a post solves your issue or answers your question.

[HowieEDay]

So far this has been my solution to the issue - Split the meshes, add the modifier to each individually. However, that can get messy, and depending on how the meshes are split can lead to small(but very visible) holes in the mesh in-game. 

[HowieEDay]

This has been an issue as long as I've been using the chamfer modifier - and I've updated through to 2018.4. I've always worked around it, and I was just hoping for a simple solution to the problem. AFAIK, it happens on just about any mesh of sufficiently dense polygons - I've not seen any meshes it *doesn't* affect? if that makes any sense. No mysterious super speedy models - they all clunk the system.

[HowieEDay]

Did yo usee any memory *spikes* though? That's what kills my machine. 3dsMAX sucks down the entirety of my 32GB of memory *processing* the mesh. It drops back down to erxpected levels afterwards, of course - but during that 100% processing time, it's also taking 100% of the RAM, which has lead my computer to lock and require a restart. 

[Anonymous]

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@HowieEDay wrote:

Did yo usee any memory *spikes* though? That's what kills my machine. 3dsMAX sucks down the entirety of my 32GB of memory *processing* the mesh. It drops back down to erxpected levels afterwards, of course - but during that 100% processing time, it's also taking 100% of the RAM, which has lead my computer to lock and require a restart. 

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Nope, no spikes. It just growed to the expected ram usage because of the additional geometry created.

But it maxed out CPU usage (100%)  at a specific point, which i consider a good thing (->means it`s multithreaded).

[hagen.deloss · Accepted solution]

@HowieEDay

Are the holes created by ngons in the mesh before the Chamfer modifier was applied? I would check your mesh for ngons before the chamfer modifier is applied. Here is a little video from Turbosquid on that workflow.

I can make a comment to development on the performance of the tool, but would also recommend the Max Ideas board for you to suggest improving that feature as well, its the best spot for user suggested Max improvements to be considered. 

Please select the Accept as Solution button if a post solves your issue or answers your question.

[hagen.deloss]

Any ideas or questions on my previous post? It would be helpful if you had time to give an update, that way other Community Members can benefit from your process 😄

Please select the Accept as Solution button if a post solves your issue or answers your question.