"Nekar Xenos" <nek### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> Added a block of buildings in the background. Also added windows, doors
> and grass.

Looking better and better!

> I keep running out of memory so I made less grass than I wanted to. I'm
> considering converting the walls to a heightfield, but only when the
> building is 100% right. Maybe now is the time to start.

It doesn't look like a particularly memory-hungry scene... what is it that's
using most of the memory? I would have thought that a heightfield wall would
take far more memory than the equivalent mesh bricks.

Debugging memory usage in POV-Ray scenes is a little-mentioned but very
important task! Turn off media and radiosity and see what the scene uses (render
small with no aa for a quick answer). If it's still eating loads, try
commenting-out elements of the scene and render again to see how the usage
changes. You won't need hi-res bricks unless you intend rendering a huge final
version; in fact, they should be one of the smallest scene elements (memory and
speed were the main motivations for my mesh macros). Lower mesh (and heightfield
- same thing!) resolutions until they're on the threshold of the quality you're
happy with. Make simple low-detail versions for distant objects. Can you get
away with clever normals instead of meshes/isosurfaces?

Hope this helps :)

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