> My first thought would be that of course most current cards are inadequate

 

Which is exactly why there should be a CPU fallback.

 

> Looking ahead, I would check out the USBC/Thunderbolt 3 GPU expansion chassis and I would add as many cards with as much RAM as I can afford

 

In theory yes – but there is no info that AE VR tools can use eGPUs, especially multiple or SLI to resolve this issue – many apps in fact cannot make use of them yet. As far as I can tell, there is zero documentation on VRAM use and how much in fact is needed.

 

From: After Effects Mail List <AE-List@media-motion.tv>
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2018 2:43 PM

To: After Effects Mail List <AE-List@media-motion.tv>
Subject: Re: [AE] VR Tools GPU/CPU VRAM limitations

 

My first thought would be that of course most current cards are inadequate. All software overwhelms the hardware until newer hardware is made to meet the challenges of the software and then the cycle starts over.

 

Looking ahead, I would check out the USBC/Thunderbolt 3 GPU expansion chassis and I would add as many cards with as much RAM as I can afford.

 

Good Luck.

 

Benny Christensen

Producers Playhouse

Oklahoma City

 

On Thu, Jun 21, 2018 at 12:38 PM, Stephen van Vuuren <AE-List@media-motion.tv> wrote:

>I'd guess having as much memory on the Graphics card as possible would improve your >chances of being able to render, but this business of not falling back to the CPU is untenable.

Thanks for the info although it confirms that VR Tools might not be ready for primetime. That's my guess too. But without some way of calculating, do we know if 32GB is enough? And if SLI will get you there or does it have to be a single card? The lack of info on this is disconcerting.

-----Original Message-----
From: After Effects Mail List <AE-List@media-motion.tv>
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2018 1:31 PM
To: After Effects Mail List <AE-List@media-motion.tv>
Subject: Re: [AE] VR Tools GPU/CPU VRAM limitations

On Jun 21, 2018, at 9:19 AM, Stephen van Vuuren wrote:

> I can find no useful information on:
> 
>       * Is there a way to force CPU rendering?
>       * How much VRAM is required and can you use SLI to split via multiple cards as 8+ GB VRAM cards are very expensive.
>       * What frame sizes does the VR tools support? We have 5600 x 4200 and 8000 x 8000 - the weird part is simple projects are fine, but bring in lots of layers, bitmaps and the errors begin.

>


The VR tools are GPU-only, and this has been a huge problem for us.  Due to the nature of VR, the resolutions are often very big.  We were rendering 8000x4000.  We working working at quarter rez or smaller, happily rendering at half-rez to see our revisions.  Big mistake.

When it came time to render full-resoltion, most of our machines were incapable.  Among our 30 Macs we had just 4 that could do it.  Weirdly, we had other machines with the same graphics card and everything else that couldn't.  I guess we were lucky to have the 4, or else we couldn't have rendered.

I'd guess having as much memory on the Graphics card as possible would improve your chances of being able to render, but this business of not falling back to the CPU is untenable.


Brendan


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Benny Christensen

Producers Playhouse

405-401-2070