ShadowmapSizeLimit bug in 2016 SP1

[artgrail]

If I change NitrousGraphicsManager.ShadowmapSizeLimit default 512 to something else (1024, 2048, 4096) 3ds max starts eat memory (I have 32GB) and in a few seconds uses all available memory (25GB at the moment).

Video card: ASUS GeForce GTX 780, the drivers are the latest (355.60).

[Anonymous]

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@artgrail wrote:

If I change NitrousGraphicsManager.ShadowmapSizeLimit default 512 to something else (1024, 2048, 4096) 3ds max starts eat memory (I have 32GB) and in a few seconds uses all available memory (25GB at the moment).

Video card: ASUS GeForce GTX 780, the drivers are the latest (355.60).

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Doesn`t happen here. Must be something on your side.

3dsmax 2016 Sp1 + GF GTX680

[RGhost77]

Not so fast memory usage growing as you wrote. But 2-3 minutes of navigation in viewport and max occupies 8-10gb. So it seems memory leak.

[spacefrog_]

Just tested here ( 3ds Max 2016 SP1, GTX 780, driver 355.60 )

And it happens here too, but only in Nitrous Direct 3D 11 mode ( the default and recommended mode )

With Nitrous D3D 9 or Nitrous Software mode , it does'nt happen

There is a slight chance that it might be driver version related ( nvidia drivers from the 35x.xx branch have proven to be bug ridden, but that should have been fixed with 355.60). If it's not the driver, the cause might be some leaking OGS shader code ( on the 3ds Max side ) that is only active in the DX11 path

Anyways - someone has older, pre 35x.xx versions of nvidia drivers installed and could test/verify for the bug?

UPDATE:

Just tested in Max 2015 and i do not get the memory leak - so it seems that its really a Max 2016 SP1 ( and probably Max 2016 without SP1 ) bug. Additionally i found out that environment reflections are broken in most materials on Max 2016, in Max 2015 they work fine

Time for bug reports i guess, i'd say ...

[spacefrog_]

further investigation showed that the memory leak happens when panning the viewport. I tested with the freshly released 335.85 quadro drivers but the issue is still there, so this is indeed a 3ds Max bug

I reported it (BSPR-21562 Nitrous: MMB panning of viewport causes serious memory leak )

I strongly recommend everyone else does the same:

http://download.autodesk.com/us/support/report_a_bug.html?SelProduct=3dsMax

[lightcube]

I just tested changing NitrousGraphicsManager.ShadowmapSizeLimit to 1024 ... no runaway memory consumption happened. I also navigated/panned around a scene with thousands of objects in tests over the last few days with no issue either.

I'm using Geforce 480 with driver 353.82.

From my end it doesn't appear to be a Max issue. Or perhaps there is something else in the scenes we are testing that can cause the variant results.

[RGhost77]

Maybe problem in video card architecture... because I also tested this issue on gtx 7XX (770 4gb), driver 355.82 win7x64 (all updates).

[spacefrog_]

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@lightcube wrote:

I just tested changing NitrousGraphicsManager.ShadowmapSizeLimit to 1024 ... no runaway memory consumption happened. I also navigated/panned around a scene with thousands of objects in tests over the last few days with no issue either.

I'm using Geforce 480 with driver 353.82.

From my end it doesn't appear to be a Max issue. Or perhaps there is something else in the scenes we are testing that can cause the variant results.

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Are you using Nitrous in DX11 mode ?

As i wrote above, a simple plane+teapot + realistic viewport mode ( displaying shadows ) and panning in the viewport shows the problem. Nitrous DX9 mode did'nt show the problem though

[lightcube]

Yes... I'm using Nitrous DX11 with Realistic + Shadows + AO + Highlights and Scene Lights on. My Lighting & Shadow Quality is set to 1x (default). I tested on very complex scene, no issue. And now I tested on Plane + Teapot and no issue. My memory usage does not budge.

[lightcube]

That being said, I did get a dose of this today. My system suddenly had all 12GB used up in Max. In this case, the problem occurred while I was testing some simple grid helpers and boxes. So perhaps I'll have to change my assessment; something in Max might be going on, but my experience so far is that it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the shadowmap settings or panning in the viewport. It is possibly related to the grids having callback functions for on selected, etc.

The only anomaly I can say is that I got this occurrence after a session of Windows where my Antivirus had a startup error and I had also started Max 2016 once before the previous 2015 session had released my Max license (so 2016 failed to load once because of a License error). Those were both unusual; probably have nothing to do with the RAM issue but throwing it out there to help find a common cause.

[Anonymous]

980 Ti - 355.82, 16GB Ram, Win10 x64

Memory leaking like crazy.
It happens really fast when fullscreen on a 4K display. Max has crashed so many times, but I really like the viewport lighting, so I just restart every 5-10 minutes. I keep a Rock Solid 2014 Install just in case.

[lightcube]

Updated info from my end.

After updating to the latest nVidia drivers, this is now plaguing me. And, as @spacefrog_ mentioned, simply navigating increases the RAM usage.

So I presumed it might be directly related to the new driver. But then I had an idea: I turned off SLI in the nVidia Control Panel... and the RAM consumption seems (so far) to be back to normal.

So maybe this is related to enabling SLI. How many people seeing this issue have SLI enabled?

[lightcube]

At this point, I am certain this isn't related to the shadowmapsizelimit and am leaning towards a general bug. I may not have initially noticed the bug because I wasn't leaving Max open long enough. But the more I'm moving to Max 2016, the more I'm noticing this fatal bug; moreover, many of the people in my circles are telling me similar stories.

Time for a major influx of defect reports.

[lightcube]

Just an update: I've walked several Max users through getting 2016 up and running and this bug is more common than I presumed. I missed it for the first few weeks of moving to 2016 (as documented earlier in the thread), but now it is becoming a nightmare. After testing turning off SLI, I know that SLI isn't the answer as it persists after more testing.

I have tried uninstalling all antivirus. No help. I updated the mouse drivers (since the memory explosion seems to be linked to the mouse scrolling and panning)... but no luck.

At this point, I'm curious what AD has to say about the bug. Two of the people I've encountered who installed 2016+sp1 in the last few weeks have this same symptoms. So it's seeming more prevalents in my circles, at least. But I haven't noticed any outcry on CG society (and even the Area only has this thread and another).

Is this something related to a bug inside Max or a video driver problem that nVidia needs to address? Since I didn't pay close enough attention early on, I'm not sure at this point whether the bug was manifesting before updating my video drivers last month or not. (I'm actually leaning to thinking that it was present all along as there were a couple cases of my computer totally bogging down while launching Corel PHOTOPAINT while Max 2016 was open--and at that time I was thinking it was due to Corel software). In my case, I'd like to hear work from AD on whether it's a bug they recognize and are going to fix (soon hopefully) so that I don't waste my time obsessively trying to figure out a solution 🙂 .

Plus I want to save face to those people I preach Max to--one of which just became a new perpetual license customer this week!

[Anonymous]

Thats true. Eats memory until system hangs.

[jorisceoen]

I just bought 3DS Max 2016 and I'm also suffering from this issue. After a few minutes, just zooming in and out, my RAM skyrockets and it will never go down. If I don't navigate too much and simply model, it can work for a while, but this is simply not reliable and I would very much see this being fixed.

2015 is great, but 2016 is better. Please fix this 

[lightcube]

@Victoria.Studley posted in a response asking about this bug:

"

I looked up the issue, and it is a confirmed memory leak affecting 3ds Max 2016 with and without SP1 (but no earlier versions). It occurs when Realistic mode is enabled (including shadows displayed) and NitrousGraphicsManager.ShadowmapSizeLimit=4096​. Then, when you middle-mouse-button pan in the viewport, the memory leak occurs.

I can't confirm if it will be fixed in a service pack or update, since we don't know until they are released. However, considering the severity of the issue and the fact that it's been reported by multiple customers, it stands a greater chance of being addressed.

"

So this is confirmation of the opening comments about shadowmapsizelimit.

BUT...

I am feeling that the size listed for shadowmap is not the whole story. The reason I feel this way is that I am seeing it in Max 2016 SP1 but here is what Max is reporting for my settings in MAXScript listener:

NitrousGraphicsManager.ShadowmapSizeLimit
512

[Anonymous]

This definitely smells like a memory leak. In my case, I'm just working on a editably poly model, with the symmetry modifier, realistic shading in the viewport, and two reference images loaded onto planes. This evening, I've had to restart 3ds Max 2016 (sp1) three times. Here's what the last 30 minutes of use look like in process explorer:

[Anonymous]

I know this is an old thread, but I did some testing after having the same problem, but only on my new laptop for home....at work, I have been using 2016 with no issues for months.  It only happens when using Nitrous Direct 3D 11, so when I change to Nitrous Direct 3D 9 it stops happening.  And, the memory leak occurs with no objects in scene...and ONLY occurs with 4 viewport view...if I maximize to a single viewport the memory leak stops...glad I found a work around but I wasted like 5 hours last night I should have been modeling.  The leak is so bad that my use goes from 2gb to 16 in under a minute.  Without any action or modeling at all...just sitting there with an empty screen and 4 viewports.  Ridiculous.

[spacefrog_]

Just install SP2 - the memory leak is fixed

I know you posted on the other thread that you still got the memory leak, but check wether you really installed SP2