Topic: 4096px textures?

[mbe]

I tried to add a 4096 texture to the model but it ended up pitch black.

It's a texture for my modeled terrain so the resolution is neccesary to have a crisp look on the ground.

I used 4k textures in other real-time apps and games before.Did I something wrong or is the limit just 2048px?

[Noire]

what GPU you have? i'm using maps 6000x12000 px without any problems.

[Morten]

Hi Michael,

Lumion enforces a texture memory limit when importing new models in order to reduce the likelihood of running out of graphics card memory. If you want to bypass this function, please click on Edit Materials followed by a click on the Palette icon for the object in question. Then press CTRL + the Reload button in order to load it again with the high resolution texture. If "Low memory mode" is on in the Settings section, Lumion will however still display high resolution textures in low resolution, so it might look like nothing is happening when you click on CTRL + Reload.

If smoke doesn't start pouring out of your PC, it (probably) means you've got enough memory left

Note to self: We really need to write a list of all those shortcuts and tips & tricks!

[mbe]

Well I have a 480GTX with 1,5GB powered by 12GB Ram with a X980. I guess it should run well.

I use GPUObserver, a small WIn7 sidebar (or is it called widget?) which shows me vram load and other goodies. I will take a look at the load while importing.

I tried to use the 4k texture as a .jpg after .dds import resulted in a black texture.  The .jpg was black too until i resized it to 2k.

 

Why does lumion support non power of two texutures like 6k x 12k ?? Sounds good but seems strange because its a realtime engine.

[Noire]

i'm using maps with 6000x12000 px easy...and have much older card 9800GT...and never have such problems. using 4 star quality....hmmm

[Morten]

Thanks Michael, you have found a bug which can be reproduced!

It does indeed turn pitch black the first time you press CTRL + Reload. However, if you delete the black object in your scene and place it again, CTRL + Reload works fine with a 4096x4096 texture (Both DDS and JPG work).

I'll make sure this is added to the bug tracker.

[Remko]

The power-2 restriction is something of the old cards. Actually we had this restriction in our engine for a very long time. Only when we started developing widgets for the Lumion GUI we changed it because it's a pain to fit all GUI elements in power 2 textures. Everyone working in real-time 3D is very much used to power 2 textures because it used to be like that for so long but with newer cards it's not needed anymore. Anyways: We'll take a look at the bug.

[mbe]

My scene got horrible slow after importing the 4k image in the material editor. Around 1-2 fps. VRam usage was around 850/1500 MB.

Maybe it's some kind of memory leak. But I'm no tech-guru.

 

I didn't try your second suggestion with the double import because it was a test how Lumion performs if I just import my whole .max file. 

 

Nice to find bugs which can be reprodued. Normally I'm the only one who experiences problems, hehe.

[Morten]

Weirdly enough I can't reproduce the 1-2 fps you're reporting. I've imported a .DAE model with 2 planes as described above. I've then added 2 Standard materials to both planes, and replaced the existing textures with a 4096x4096 jpg and a 4096x4096 dds plus a 4096x4096 normal map, but the frame rate remains perfectly fine.

Can you try this procedure in an empty scene please?

[Ferry]

If it because really slow after using a large texture that is often a sign that you are out of physical memory. Swapping memory from main mem to video mem is quite slow in our expriences.

[mbe]

I wil ltry to reproduce it the next days.

It was not possible that i ran out of physical memory. I ckecked it and usage was only 850MB Vram and 3.5GB Ram

[Ferry]

Which 3d card do you use?

[mbetke]

An Asus 480GTX - Reference Design, 1.5GB.

[Ferry]

What I did sometimes notice is that if you use Lumion and while Lumion is running use a game or other 3d app when returning to Lumion everything was slower. No idea why this happens. Restarting Lumion fixes that issue though.