Hello,
  I haven't posted before, so please bear with me. I've been using pov-ray
for several months, and I have encountered a recurring problem. When I try
to render any file larger than 6 Megabytes the renderer says 'parse error
could not allocate 256 bytes for transform' and the render aborts. The
largest file I need to render is 20MB. I am running POV-Ray 3.6 on Windows
XP pro, with 1 Gigabyte of RAM, and I increased my virtual memory to 20GB,
with no effect. Is there anything I can do or am doing wrong?
  Michael

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Mike8 nous apporta ses lumieres en ce 10/08/2006 17:42:
> Hello,
>   I haven't posted before, so please bear with me. I've been using pov-ray
> for several months, and I have encountered a recurring problem. When I try
> to render any file larger than 6 Megabytes the renderer says 'parse error
> could not allocate 256 bytes for transform' and the render aborts. The
> largest file I need to render is 20MB. I am running POV-Ray 3.6 on Windows
> XP pro, with 1 Gigabyte of RAM, and I increased my virtual memory to 20GB,
> with no effect. Is there anything I can do or am doing wrong?
>   Michael
> 
> 
> 
By larger than 6Mb, do you mean the source file?
The source file takes some memory.
Any texture will take some more and image_map can take lots more. If you need to 
apply the same image_map to several objects, it's probably better to define a 
texture with it and use that texture. This ensure that you only have 1 instance 
of the image file loaded.
Any file that you #include will also take some more memory.
Are there objects that are generated proceduraly? If so, how many? It's easy to 
have some millions of objects that way.
Try rendering with the task manager open. How much does the process 
"pvengine.exe" use? Maybe that during the parsing process you need more than the 
maximum amount of memory that windows can allocate to a single process. If I 
remember correctly, it's about 2 Gig, up to 3 with some tweaks.
Increasing your virtual memory to 20 Gb can't help, as the OS can't cope with 
more than 4 Gb, the limit imposed by the 32 bits architecture, any more than 3 
Gb is just a waste of disk space.
You can try rendering with the -d switch to suppress the render window and free 
the memory it use. Usefull if you render very large images.

-- 
Alain
-------------------------------------------------
Error in operator: add beer

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> By larger than 6Mb, do you mean the source file?
> Are there objects that are generated proceduraly? If so, how many? It's easy to have
some millions of objects that wa
y.
> Try rendering with the task manager open. How much does the process
> "pvengine.exe" use? Maybe that during the parsing process you need more than the
> maximum amount of memory that windows can allocate to a single process. If I
> remember correctly, it's about 2 Gig, up to 3 with some tweaks.
> Increasing your virtual memory to 20 Gb can't help, as the OS can't cope with
> more than 4 Gb, the limit imposed by the 32 bits architecture, any more than 3
> Gb is just a waste of disk space.
> You can try rendering with the -d switch to suppress the render window and free
> the memory it use. Usefull if you render very large images.
>
> --
> Alain
> -------------------------------------------------
> Error in operator: add beer

Hello,
  Thank you for the advice. Yes, the source file is slightly larger than
6MB. I will try disabling the render window. The povengine process uses at
peak 840,000 kilobytes for about 1 second, and then not over 80,000kb for
the rest of the operation. I tried the render twice more, and when I
stopped the render the second time, it did show me a line of offending
code, though I can't tell if it's incorrect or not. How do I make the
'tweaks' to
the system's virtual memory? And what do you mean 'objects generated
proceduraly'? Thanks for your help,
   Michael

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Mike8 nous apporta ses lumieres en ce 10/08/2006 20:27:
>> By larger than 6Mb, do you mean the source file?
>> Are there objects that are generated proceduraly? If so, how many? It's easy to
have some millions of objects that wa
> y.
>> Try rendering with the task manager open. How much does the process
>> "pvengine.exe" use? Maybe that during the parsing process you need more than the
>> maximum amount of memory that windows can allocate to a single process. If I
>> remember correctly, it's about 2 Gig, up to 3 with some tweaks.
>> Increasing your virtual memory to 20 Gb can't help, as the OS can't cope with
>> more than 4 Gb, the limit imposed by the 32 bits architecture, any more than 3
>> Gb is just a waste of disk space.
>> You can try rendering with the -d switch to suppress the render window and free
>> the memory it use. Usefull if you render very large images.
>>
>> --
>> Alain
>> -------------------------------------------------
>> Error in operator: add beer
> 
> Hello,
>   Thank you for the advice. Yes, the source file is slightly larger than
> 6MB. I will try disabling the render window. The povengine process uses at
> peak 840,000 kilobytes for about 1 second, and then not over 80,000kb for
> the rest of the operation. I tried the render twice more, and when I
> stopped the render the second time, it did show me a line of offending
> code, though I can't tell if it's incorrect or not. How do I make the
> 'tweaks' to
> the system's virtual memory?
Personaly, I don't know, other than setting it's total volume. Other peoples 
have mentioned it.

> And what do you mean 'objects generated
> proceduraly'? Thanks for your help,
>    Michael
> 
> 
> 
Objects generated in loops. Also, hight_fields from pigments or functions. CSG 
objects that are generated with some macro or having loop(s) in the deffinition. 
Those don't takes much place in the source, but can take a HUGE place in memory.

-- 
Alain
-------------------------------------------------
Darwinism: This shit was once food.

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How do I make the'tweaks' to the system's virtual memory?

> Personaly, I don't know, other than setting it's total volume. Other peoples
> have mentioned it.

I created the model in a 3D CAD program called MLCad and converted it to POV
format with another called L3P. This works very well on smaller files, but I
have hit a celing at 4.5MB. So I don't know very much about the code
contained within the file itself, only that the 4.5MB file has over 10,000
lines of code, many of which seem to repeat themselves. This would be a
mess to streamline, so fixing my memory capacity is the only practical
solution I can think of. Any more advice you may have would be greatly
appreciated!
Thanks,
  Michael

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"Mike8" <nomail@nomail> wrote in message 
news:web.44dba7fbd8ca351dbca05e450@news.povray.org...
> Hello,
>  I haven't posted before, so please bear with me. I've been using pov-ray
> for several months, and I have encountered a recurring problem. When I try
> to render any file larger than 6 Megabytes the renderer says 'parse error
> could not allocate 256 bytes for transform' and the render aborts. The
> largest file I need to render is 20MB. I am running POV-Ray 3.6 on Windows
> XP pro, with 1 Gigabyte of RAM, and I increased my virtual memory to 20GB,
> with no effect. Is there anything I can do or am doing wrong?

   Hi Michael

     I may be wrong here, (it's a long shot), so please forgive me if I am, 
but it's worth a try as I too have had problems with a 1 gig system whereby 
I can't open one of my favourite image editing programs unless I do this. 
When you go into your VM dialogue box in Control Panel, use the 'Custom 
size' option and enter in the 'Initial size' field: 2024.

   In the 'Maximum size' field, enter: 4048 and restart your comp.

   Again, not sure if it will work, but anyway, good luck.

    ~Steve~






>  Michael
>
>
>

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"St." <dot### [at] dotcom> wrote:
>
>    Hi Michael
>
>      I may be wrong here, (it's a long shot), so please forgive me if I am,
> but it's worth a try as I too have had problems with a 1 gig system whereby
> I can't open one of my favourite image editing programs unless I do this.
> When you go into your VM dialogue box in Control Panel, use the 'Custom
> size' option and enter in the 'Initial size' field: 2024.
>
>    In the 'Maximum size' field, enter: 4048 and restart your comp.
>
>    Again, not sure if it will work, but anyway, good luck.
>
>     ~Steve~

No effect. Thanks anyway, it was worth a shot. I wish to correct an
inaccurate statement that I made earlier: the file I'm having trouble with
isn't 10,000 lines of code, it's 235,225 lines. That might make a slight
difference.
Thanks again,
   Michael

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"Mike8" <nomail@nomail> wrote in message 
news:web.44df727e3fb029bebca05e450@news.povray.org...
> "St." <dot### [at] dotcom> wrote:
>>
>>    Hi Michael
>>
>>      I may be wrong here, (it's a long shot), so please forgive me if I 
>> am,
>> but it's worth a try as I too have had problems with a 1 gig system 
>> whereby
>> I can't open one of my favourite image editing programs unless I do this.
>> When you go into your VM dialogue box in Control Panel, use the 'Custom
>> size' option and enter in the 'Initial size' field: 2024.
>>
>>    In the 'Maximum size' field, enter: 4048 and restart your comp.
>>
>>    Again, not sure if it will work, but anyway, good luck.
>>
>>     ~Steve~
>
> No effect. Thanks anyway, it was worth a shot. I wish to correct an
> inaccurate statement that I made earlier: the file I'm having trouble with
> isn't 10,000 lines of code, it's 235,225 lines. That might make a slight
> difference.

      Gah, sorry. It works for me with my editing prog. but then I have to 
change it back again to play Oblivion...  :(

   As an aside, I remember asking if PoV could handle large files some 
four/five years ago, (3.1g?), and I received the answer that, yes, PoV could 
easily handle a 100Mb's file. Back then, I was using sPatch frequently, and 
a 'heavy' sPatch file (for me) could easily have been over 4.5Mb's. I think, 
(back then), that I only had 256Mb memory, and I could still render an 
image. So, I'm thinking that maybe something is wrong with the way that one 
(or maybe two), of the programs that you've used are at fault?

     Have you tried to start from the beginning again?

    I'm intrigued and fascinated at what you are trying to achieve with 
235,000 lines of code and want to see the result/s!  ;o)

     Again, good luck.

     ~Steve~

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>    As an aside, I remember asking if PoV could handle large files some
> four/five years ago, (3.1g?), and I received the answer that, yes, PoV could
> easily handle a 100Mb's file. Back then, I was using sPatch frequently, and
> a 'heavy' sPatch file (for me) could easily have been over 4.5Mb's. I think,
> (back then), that I only had 256Mb memory, and I could still render an
> image. So, I'm thinking that maybe something is wrong with the way that one
> (or maybe two), of the programs that you've used are at fault?
>
>      Have you tried to start from the beginning again?

I tried this render on three different computers with POV-Ray version 3.1
and 3.6 several times. None of them has ever managed it, though, my most
powerful computer did render a 7MB file today, barely. (4.5 MB is the
largest file I've been able to render thus far, the file I'm trying for is
about 8.5 MB.) I even stripped away some elements of the model to reduce
it's size with no effect. I think it's because the file was created by
another program from a CAD program model.

>     I'm intrigued and fascinated at what you are trying to achieve with
> 235,000 lines of code and want to see the result/s!  ;o)
>
>      Again, good luck.
>
>      ~Steve~
If I get this thing working I'd be happy to send a pic, though I doubt it's
nearly as impressive as you think.
Thanks again,
   Michael

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Mike8 <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> I wish to correct an
> inaccurate statement that I made earlier: the file I'm having trouble with
> isn't 10,000 lines of code, it's 235,225 lines. That might make a slight
> difference.

  Note that the size of the .pov (or .inc) file isn't necessarily related
to how much memory POV-Ray will need to render the scene. It isn't even
related to how much memory POV-Ray will need to parse the file.

  The only case where a big file will consume memory is if you open it
in the winpov editor (in which case the editor will consume the memory.
naturally). If you don't open it in the winpov editor then the file by
itself doesn't consume memory.

  If the file has been automatically generated by some program then it
probably contains almost as many primitives as lines of code (or at least
a number of primitives directly proportional to the lines of code), in
which case the file size is somewhat indicative of how much memory
POV-Ray will need to render the scene.

  But take into account that file size is not *always* such an indicator.
It's perfectly possible to make a 500 bytes .pov file which will require
gigabytes of memory to render, as well as a 500MB .pov file which requires
just some kilobytes of memory to render.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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