Optimizing Maya performance

[hinobayashi]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a fluid simulation right now and I wanted to ask if there are ways to optimize the performance of the fluid calculation, creating caches, and rendering overall?
I'm working with Maya 2015 on a MacPro 12 core, Dual AMD FirePro D700. 

It would be nice if you could help me.

Greetings!

[3dMastermind]

Hello, are you using nParticle or Bifrost?

[hinobayashi]

I'm using Maya Fluids.

[hinobayashi]

Is there anyone who knows how to optimize Mayas performance?
I really need help!

[3dMastermind]

Hi, first I would look into adding "dissipation" without it, the particles last forever which makes the calculation alot more intense.

Perhaps look into reducing the Base resolution in "Container Properties" and "density" in "Content details", keep the "rate" as low as possible in "Basic emiter attributes".

A good graphics card is important in these situations.

Also cache before rendering.

[hinobayashi]

Hi Manny,

thank you very much for your help!!

That already helped me a lot.

Beyond that, can I tell Maya to make best use of my graphics card and cores or does that already happens automatically?

I think I have a good machine but I was hoping for more speed in Fluid calculation and rendering time.
I thought it may has to do with Maya not making best use of it...

Greetings.

[3dMastermind · Accepted solution]

Hi. It should happen automatically.

On higher end cards, you have the option to specify what Software the card will be optimized for.

The video card is only responsible for the realtime display inside the Maya viewports and has nothing to do with "Software rendering".

When we refer to "software rendering" the card has nothing to do with it really, (Except if you use "Bifrost" due to "GPU caching" perhaps)

Tips:

When you do render or "play back" inside Maya, be sure that all your cores at at work (Ctrl+Shift+Esc>Performance tab) ,

If not, that may the source of the issue-->bios perhaps?

For real time pb, be sure that only one viewport is updating in Maya, just maximise one of them.

[hinobayashi]

Hi Manny,

thank you very much for your help!
Through your tips I managed to get my fluid workflow a lot faster.
I also found out that MentalRay sometimes uses only half of the cores when its on automatic, so I swiched the automatic box (in the batchrender optionbox) off.

Again, thank you very much for your help!

[alfred]

Hi, I'm looking for an answer to which top range Graphic card in the market that is optimized for Maya simulation. I'm looking to run particle, bifrost and fluid simulation. Is there a recommended hardware setup for running simulations? 

Right now, I'm using a Novatte work station, i7, Nvidia Quadro K5200, 32G ram.

[alfred]

To add on to my question about graphic cards on rendering and simulation, how do I ultilize a render farm to speed up Maya simulation? What are the settings and software required ?