Multiple file nodes linked to same file

[daunish]

Let's say I have three file nodes, each one is calling the same file but linking to a different shader.

My question is does this have an impact on render times, or viewport load times? Does Maya make multiple calls to the file, or load it into memory more than once? Or does it condense the stack of three images down to one?

Please refrain from comments about pipeline efficiency. This is purely a question about Maya's handling of this situation.

Thanks!

[Stephen.Blair · Accepted solution]

For Arnold rendering, duplicate textures are loaded just once. And also, all textures go through a texture caching system. Constant color textures are also detected and optimized.

[damaggio]

Good info on the rendering side Stephan, thanks...now besides of cluttering your hypershade and increasing the file size with the same file texture I'm pretty sure slows down Maya opening and saving the scene by a few seconds... how about the Viewport handling duplicated file textures?, although not very noticeable in today's high end cards it might have an impact on frame rate. Thank you.

[daunish]

Thanks for the info guys! Sorry for the crazy long response. I always hate it when people do that, and now I'm one of those people. Thankfully somehow another person was able to mark this as solved for me?... not sure how that is possible.

Good to know about Arnold, I had assumed it did something clever like that, thanks.

I'm still curious as to how the viewport handles it. Regardless of how powerful the pc is, it all comes down to read speed. These days with working off a server, I've noticed massive delays with Maya constantly calling on files. I'm really curious if it calls on the same files more than once.

At some point, I'll set up a test and get a definitive answer. For now, thanks guys.