MASH, RAM build up not flushing.

[Az305]

Hey there,

We are currently working on a project using Mash and keep running into memory crashes.

There are multiple Mash waiters in the scene, which all do a unique thing.

Over time, Maya seems like it's caching into RAM when we play a preview and keeps building up until it crashes from a memory overload. Maya doesn't seem to flush or refresh memory when we replay the scene.

Performing a batch render does the same thing, instead of mayabatch program terminating, the system freaks out and terminates every other program.

Thanks,

Zedd.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Az305 have you tried running a flush script? This command can do a decent job of clearing the memory usage.

import maya.cmds as cmds

cmds.flushUndo()

[Az305]

Hi Sean,

Do you mind explaining how to do that?
Thanks.

[sean.heasley]

 Select this button to open the script window

 Copy paste the first line and hit the play button (make sure Python tab is selected)

 Copy past the second line and hit play. This should flush the processes.

[Az305]

Oh, I was trying it in MEL.

I have run it in python and it doesn't affect the memory.

So it seems that something else is filling my RAM.

[sean.heasley]

Strange. You may also want to try taking your RAM out and set it again just to make sure there are no issues.

[Az305]

Swapped the RAM and loaded the project on different systems, they all build up RAM.

Some computers with 32GB seem to manage it fine without crashing anything, my system has only 16GB so I might need to upgrade.

[Jdraisey]

I run into a similar issue because I often open and close dozens of scenes per day. After opening a few scenes in a row, Maya 2017 fails to flush any data stored in RAM, and will hit my 64GB limit. So I have to close Maya 2017 from my Windows Task Manager (Windows 7, dual xeon workstation).

A clue might be the scene size. My scenes are usually in the 8GB+ range in ram once opened. 

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Jdraisey and welcome to the community!

    Did you try following the steps I posted above?

    Also yes large scenes may eat up a lot of RAM, could you link one here or send it to me in a message if you are still having an issue?

[Jdraisey]

Actually, it looks like an Arnold Render View (MtoA 2.0.1) issue. Unfortunately the model is NDA, so I need to delete some sensitive geometry. I'll direct message you next week. Gotta hit a deadline tonight, so I'm going to rebuild the scene in 2016 since that version (so far) has been very reliable.

[mspeer]

Hi!

Could you upload a scene-file?

[Az305]

Hey @Jdraisey,
Have tried optimizing your scene?

[Jdraisey]

I'm currently in the process of optimization. I have 520 texture files being pulled at 4096 x 4096 resolution. After careful consideration, I've dropped them to 2048 x 2048 (or lower) to save on .TX file conversion and I/O time being read from my hard drive and RAM.

But I'm rebuilding in Maya 2016 to hit my deadline first.

[Jdraisey · Accepted solution]

Just to follow up, it was actually an Arnold issue with a memory leak happening when Motion Blur was enabled. MtoA 2.0.1 fixed this issue. Sorry for the false alarm!

[sean.heasley]

Hey @Jdraisey thanks for coming back and letting us know!