Not recognizing Multi-cores for render

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hayasidist
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Re: Not recognizing Multi-cores for render

Post by hayasidist »

I tried the msconfig fix -- no change when running the full 8k render - still only uses one core. But I ran the render at half scale (4k) and that did use all 4.

Task manager tells me I'm using 5Gb of memory for the single thread 8K render; and 1.5G for the 4-core 4K render (out of 16Gb).

So I'm getting more convinced that it will be the way the render engine uses / allocates memory... something like "if I can't do all 4 then I'll just do 1"????
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synthsin75
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Re: Not recognizing Multi-cores for render

Post by synthsin75 »

Does the length of the animation have any effect? Or is using comps or prerendered backgrounds, etc., the only solid solution?
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Greenlaw
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Re: Not recognizing Multi-cores for render

Post by Greenlaw »

hayasidist wrote:So I'm getting more convinced that it will be the way the render engine uses / allocates memory... something like "if I can't do all 4 then I'll just do 1"????
Yes, that does seem weird. I'm not a programmer but I would think it should drop down to 3 or 2 first.

Then again, going from half scale to full is not doubling but quadrupling the rendering task, plus I imagine there's a certain amount of overhead that's duplicated for each processor so there's even less RAM to go around. Looking at it this way, dropping down to 1 seems to make sense. Well, to me anyway.
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hayasidist
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Re: Not recognizing Multi-cores for render

Post by hayasidist »

synthsin75 wrote:Does the length of the animation have any effect? Or is using comps or prerendered backgrounds, etc., the only solid solution?
I'd broken the animation down into about 25 moho files with durations of around 0.5 to 4 secs -- no difference in the number of cores active between the "long" ones and the very short. All use around 40-50 high res pngs (about 50Mb each). Given that I'd designed it based on multiple layers as inputs to moho I left it that way. With hindsight I could have done more consolidation / pre-render before the images got to moho - but the trade off is the work in doing that (and managing the resulting files!) versus letting the render chug along by itself. The design was also based on compositing - but, with one exception, all done without moho layer comps as it was easy to sync stuff in the compositor give how I'd done the temporal breakdown into separate moho files.
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hayasidist
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Re: Not recognizing Multi-cores for render

Post by hayasidist »

hayasidist wrote:... I ran the render at half scale (4k) and that did use all 4.

Task manager tells me I'm using 5Gb of memory for the single thread 8K render; and 1.5G for the 4-core 4K render (out of 16Gb).
...
A postscript on this -- I had "extra smooth images" checked - which I think means render at double dimensions then shrink. I've just tried the render with that not selected and it uses 4 cores for the 8K render (and 2G memory used).
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Greenlaw
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Re: Not recognizing Multi-cores for render

Post by Greenlaw »

hayasidist wrote:A postscript on this -- I had "extra smooth images" checked - which I think means render at double dimensions then shrink. I've just tried the render with that not selected and it uses 4 cores for the 8K render (and 2G memory used).
Just confirming: yes, doubling the render size and then scaling down to the target size is exactly what Extra Smooth Images does.

Technically, Extra Smooth's internal doubling means rendering four times the pixels, so yeah, that will consume a ton of RAM.
thewalkerd
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Re: Not recognizing Multi-cores for render

Post by thewalkerd »

Cool to know all that :)


But I got unlucky today.. The issue came back, not sure why.. Tried unchecking that "Extra Smooth" option, but still renders with one core (trying 4k ...not even getting near 8k).

Doesn't matter if you're rendering 1 png or 100. Seems like if Moho overflows his standards of memory and processing usage, it just goes back to rendering with 1 core. What is super dumb.

This is exactly the thing that the Moho team should consider a priority problem to fix. Not sure if they are listening or caring, but seems important for sure.


EDIT: just tried rendering a human character at 1080p (nothing else, just this simple animation), but still goes with 1 core, what is just retarded. i7 7700k, 32GB RAM, GeForce GTX1080

What are you doing to me Moho? aahhh

EDIT 02: Based on the render speeds, seems like Moho Exporter is using all 4 cores, even with "Extra Smooth" option enabled. I don't know how to confirm this though, but definitely seems to be the case.
So, as a last tip I guess, if you tried all the things recommended in this Thread and are still getting the "1 core render" thing, don't Ctr+E to export, and go straight to Moho Exporter (I think that exporting by Command prompt may work well as well, but it's just a guess by now).

Moho, fix your stuff.
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Greenlaw
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Re: Not recognizing Multi-cores for render

Post by Greenlaw »

Ah, that's probably why I'm not seeing that. I normally use Moho Exporter to render my projects. The directory structure Moho Exporter uses is different from Export Animation, so for consistency sake, I just default to Moho Exporter. Moho Exporter also has more features and capabilities.
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hayasidist
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Re: Not recognizing Multi-cores for render

Post by hayasidist »

there is a memory-gobbler issue with Moho 12. (http://lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... ak#p179834) It's known and logged.
thewalkerd wrote:But I got unlucky today.. The issue came back, not sure why
so my guess would be that you'd been using moho without restarting it for a while???
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Greenlaw
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Re: Not recognizing Multi-cores for render

Post by Greenlaw »

FWIW, I like to restart my work computer multiple times throughout the week. Not because of Moho--I actually use a lot of different programs at work--but just in general and mostly out of habit. I typically do this after completing CPU-intensive and memory-heavy tasks, or whenever I notice odd behavior. Occasional restarts seem to keep things running more smoothly.
thewalkerd
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Re: Not recognizing Multi-cores for render

Post by thewalkerd »

hayasidist wrote:so my guess would be that you'd been using moho without restarting it for a while???
Actually, no. As weird as it may sound. It's the pc I use for work, and I restart it every day. Before reporting the issue I had restarted and cleaned the temp files even. No other software was being used during render also. Moho acts weird when rendering it seems..

At least it seems to do a better job with Moho Exporter... meh
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hayasidist
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Re: Not recognizing Multi-cores for render

Post by hayasidist »

thewalkerd wrote:It's the pc I use for work, and I restart it every day
It's the length of time moho has been active - so e.g. you do a clean start at 0900 and use moho continuously before doing a render at 1500 you could hit the memory gobble issue (which is essentially to do with how lua deletes - or rather doesn't - certain temporary local variables that scripts, including the standard tools, use). Moho still works well - but it has way more memory allocated to it than it actually needs.
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hayasidist
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Re: Not recognizing Multi-cores for render

Post by hayasidist »

Argh -- I think I've just hit the memory leak problem with the exporter.

I have a **HUGE** .moho (>1400 frames) with some heavy use of image layers and layer effects -- it exports ok if I do it in chunks of about 100-200 frames, but it won't do the whole lot.. I sit and watch task manager reporting memory usage creeping up until it hits max whereupon the exporter gives up on the line item it was working on!
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