DAZ Studio rendering slows down after multiple renders

IsaacNewton

Is it my imagination or does DAZ Studio's memory management get worse with every update?

I have noticed that if I render close up portraits or complex scenes, after 2 or 3 renders there is a significant slowing of the render engine. As an example, I just rendered the same image 3 times, deleting the previous image each time. The last render took about 5 mins 30 seconds to get to Iray iteration 102. I saved the file and closed DS. I then restarted DS and rendered the same image, and it took just under 3 mins 30 seconds to get to Iray iteration 102.
Am I the only one experiencing this issue. My system may not be the very latest but it is no slouch either:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700K @3.7GHz Hexacore

32 GB RAM
Dual Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080 Ti video cards (11 GB each) (not SLI linked)
Windows 64
I render with the video cards only.

Is seems to me like DS is using up memory (or CUDA cores) on a render and then not releasing all when the render finishes (even when the image is saved), so that there are less resourses available for the next render, and the effect seems to be cumulative up to a certain point. Anyone else see this?
Is this an Iray issue or a DAZ Studio issue? Or just my computer?

deepswing

Absolutely having the same issue here. I am not doing more than 2 renders without closing Daz Studio, as it is getting significantly slower afterwards. I can see in the task manager that Daz Studio continues to run 2-5 min after I closed it, still taking huge amounts of memory and disk usage (whatever it is doing there). 

I don't know the reason though, but your explanation sounds reasonable to me. I need to test this a little deeper to see if you can tweak this, for now I am just closing it frequently (which is annoying...).

My specs are similar to yours, with an nVidia RTX 2080 as the only exception. 

IsaacNewton

Hi Deepswing, Yes, DS takes ages to close down, which can be seen in task manager, as you say. I don't know if it's supposed to take that long but that also suggests memory management issues to my untrained opinion.

kenshaw011267

This is a well known issue. iRay has always had a memory leak. I don't think it is getting worse but I'm not really tracking it through each version of iRay. For maximum performance you have to shut down DS between each render. Obviously for test renders that isn't really viable but you probably shouldn't do more than a handful of even test renders before shutting down DS and restarting.

deepswing

Thanks for bringing this up, sad to hear that it is a known issue but still unsolved. So I'd better shut down Daz for every render going forward, and only smaller test renders will be done during one session. 

IsaacNewton

So, it's an Iray issue and not specific to DAZ Studio, then?

In which case, I wonder why DAZ 3d uses Iray, there are other photoreal rendering engines. And, why don't they make it better known, or fix the problem another way, such as having a "Memory Clear" button in DS, rather than having to close the program and restart it every second render?

Richard Haseltine

IsaacNewton said:

So, it's an Iray issue and not specific to DAZ Studio, then?

In which case, I wonder why DAZ 3d uses Iray, there are other photoreal rendering engines.

Were there other GPU-accelerated PBR renders available at the time that would have been willing to license their engine to Daz on acceptable terms? Did those, should it not be an empty set, have their own issues?

And, why don't they make it better known, or fix the problem another way, such as having a "Memory Clear" button in DS, rather than having to close the program and restart it every second render?

Could Daz Studio free memory?  It depends on how things are handled, information to which I at least am not privy.

IsaacNewton

Hi Richard, I'm afraid that you're asking the wrong person. I suppose only DAZ3d could properly answer those questions. And, as far as I know, "silence" is the stern reply.

Richard Haseltine

IsaacNewton said:

Hi Richard, I'm afraid that you're asking the wrong person. I suppose only DAZ3d could properly answer those questions. And, as far as I know, "silence" is the stern reply.

That was rather my point - that we don't know the facts needed to support your assertions about what Daz could have done/could do.

IsaacNewton

I'm not quite sure which assertions you are referring to Richard. I have mostly asked questions (deliberately so) and given examples of my own experience.

I started by asking if anyone else had experienced the same problems as I, and that was the case. Kenshaw, whom is surely more knowledgeable than I on the subject, indicated that this was a known problem with Iray.

In which case the question remains; what, if anything, has DAZ3d done to remedy the situation? If nothing can be done, then a clear statement of this from those most likely to know, namely DAZ3d, would be most appreciated, but as far as I know, nothing has been said by them on this topic. If this is not the case, I'd be delighted to have it pointed out.

 

Mattymanx

IsaacNewton said:

So, it's an Iray issue and not specific to DAZ Studio, then?

In which case, I wonder why DAZ 3d uses Iray, there are other photoreal rendering engines. And, why don't they make it better known, or fix the problem another way, such as having a "Memory Clear" button in DS, rather than having to close the program and restart it every second render?

adamr001 posted a free clear undo stack script years ago.  The forum thread is no longer accessable but its linked here - https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/306/adamr001s-tutorials-and-freebies-index/p1

This is the script:

// DAZ Studio version 3.1  filetype DAZ Script

clearUndoStack();
App.clearDelayedDeleteStack(true);

Save it as a DSA file and place it in the script menu.  You can then right click on it and create a custom action to place it on a tool bar for easy access.  I have used it for years and it still works in DS 4.14.1.22

I have not experianced the slow down in my renders.  Having recently done some promos of multiple options in the same scene, they each took the same amount of time to render.  Whether or not the clear undo stack had anything to do with it I cannot say but its worth a shot.  I use the clear undo stack script constantly.  Just dont use it right after deleting a genesis figure. 

IsaacNewton

Hi Mattymanx, Thanks for the info.

So for dummies like me:

1) Copy text to txt file

2) Rename and save as a .dsa file

3) Place this .dsa file in the script menu. (could you explain this step?)

Cheers

Sevrin

Richard Haseltine said:

IsaacNewton said:

Hi Richard, I'm afraid that you're asking the wrong person. I suppose only DAZ3d could properly answer those questions. And, as far as I know, "silence" is the stern reply.

That was rather my point - that we don't know the facts needed to support your assertions about what Daz could have done/could do.

This is not rocket surgery. Among the things it would be a very bad idea for Daz to do is switch preferred render engines every time a new one comes along.  PAs need to know what materials to provide, and there's no money in providing materials for every render engine under the sun.

There are other options available for folks who don't like Iray, both within DS, like Optane, and in whatever other program anyone wants to use, like Blender, via bridges, and Daz is doing a fair job of supporting users who want to avail themselves of those other options.  Whining about Iray is obviously also an option, but tends to produce inferior results.

Mattymanx

IsaacNewton said:

Hi Mattymanx, Thanks for the info.

 

3) Place this .dsa file in the script menu. (could you explain this step?)

Cheers

 Simply copy the new DSA file you saved over to your script folder in your content library.  Then is should show up in Daz Studio as a clickable item in the script folder.