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mike_mike_motorbike
mike_mike_motorbike
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multi-processor rendering

Jul 19, 2012 4:16 PM

Hey guys,


I've looked and looked and posts related to this issue seem to be either people angrily complaining or telling those angry people to"shut-up," cause it "used to be EVEN WORSE!"

 

Basically, I've been using after effects professionally since version 6.  I've been paying for upgrades yearly. I think the CS6 creative cloud thingy is amazing.

 

BUT... to rendering big comps in CS6 with lots of compliacted artwork, the computer hangs for HOURS trying to multi-core render.

 

I've tried all the settings recommeneded by Todd for CS 5.5

 

I have a 2.93 12 core Mac Pro Nvidia Quadro 4000 (bought specifically to take advantage of CUDA)

32 gigs ram.

 

I really REALLY wish i'd saved my Fing money and bough 4 imacs becuase multi-core rendering seems even more broken now then it was in 5.5. 

 

Why do i have to tell after effects how to set itself to work?  Is there a fix?  Should i go back to 5.5?  At least with 5.5 i could crash a process in activity monitor to jumpstart it.  Now that just crashes the program.

 

Very frustrated.

 

Any ideas?

 

Back to single-frame rendering on my $10000 computer.

2345 Views   11 Replies   Latest reply: DivisionTen, Mar 5, 2013 1:25 AM
 
Replies
  • Dave LaRonde
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    1. Dave LaRonde,
    Jul 19, 2012 5:10 PM   in reply to mike_mike_motorbike
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    I've read that post a few times now and I don't see any mention of the amount of memory in your machine.  Most of the time, RAM trumps CUDA.

     
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  • mike_mike_motorbike
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    2. mike_mike_motorbike,
    Jul 19, 2012 5:15 PM   in reply to Dave LaRonde
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    I said 32 GB halfway down...  do you mean something else?  I have 32 gligablorgs.

     
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  • Rick Gerard
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    3. Rick Gerard,
    Jul 19, 2012 5:30 PM   in reply to mike_mike_motorbike
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    I've only found a few settings that work. It usually involves setting the memory and processor setting to very conservative values. The biggest problem you'll run into is that many plug-ins, and especially many 3rd party plug-ins are not multi core aware. Most codecs are also not compatible with MP rendering. This fouls up everything and requires you to turn off Render Multiple Frames....

     

    I'm no software engineer, but I think we're stuck with AE's basic effects, image sequence renders, and conservative settings for MP rendering until all the plug-ins and the codecs catch up.

     
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  • mike_mike_motorbike
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    4. mike_mike_motorbike,
    Jul 19, 2012 5:34 PM   in reply to Rick Gerard
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    I hear you on that Rick.  I'm trying to use no plugins at all!  (well, except for the DUik scripts)

     

    Mind sharing how yours is set?

     
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  • Rick Gerard
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    5. Rick Gerard,
    Jul 19, 2012 5:44 PM   in reply to mike_mike_motorbike
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    Depends on the machine and on the project. Most of the time I reserve half to a quarter of the CPU's for other app's, allocate 2GB per CPU for BG app's, and make sure that the Actual CPU's match the number I've assigned to AE. It's very easy to foul up one settings and end up with a big fat zero in the Actual CPU's used field.

     

    I'd say that 80% of the time I have MP turned off.

     
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  • mike_mike_motorbike
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    6. mike_mike_motorbike,
    Jul 19, 2012 6:02 PM   in reply to Rick Gerard
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    Rick, i know you typed a thoughtful response, but all  i could see with the wasted money i spent on a multi-core mac pro in a top hat, pointing and laughing at me.

     
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  • StevRo
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    7. StevRo,
    Jul 20, 2012 12:05 AM   in reply to mike_mike_motorbike
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    Hi Mike,

     

    If your comps are you using the 3d ray tracer?  if so, first make sure that the GPU is enabled in the preview mode, else the task will fall on the CPU which can take a LOT longer.  Also please note that the 3D ray tracer on GPU is single threaded so there are 3 things which make it go faster, high clockspeed on the CPU core, higher CUDA core clock speed and more CUDA cores (of which I believe the only one you have control over on the mac is the more cuda cores.)

     

    for MP settings:

     

    On your 32GB = 26GB for background CPU's and 6GB reserved for Operating System and other tasks.

     

    note:  If the amount of memory allocated per background CPU is not sufficient to render the frame then it will fail and switch back to foreground rendering.  For HD (720p/1080p) I'll start with 2GB depending on the number of effects, I may have to adjust the memory to 3GB or more/background CPU depending on the color depth and the amount of effects I use.

     

    Hope it helps,

     
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  • Rick Gerard
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    8. Rick Gerard,
    Jul 20, 2012 7:58 AM   in reply to mike_mike_motorbike
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    What you gain with your MP mac is the ability to do some fairly complex processor intensive other things while AE is rendering. The codecs and software will catch up. They usually do fairly quickly.

     

    My workflow is much better in most projects with CS6 and I get more done in less time. During the work day I try to never wait for a render. If the render is intensive I move on to another project and that's where horsepower really pays off.

     
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  • mike_mike_motorbike
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    9. mike_mike_motorbike,
    Jul 20, 2012 12:50 PM   in reply to Rick Gerard
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    agreed rick.  Just very frustrating when you have to turn many shots around quickly!

     
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  • DivisionTen
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    10. DivisionTen,
    Mar 5, 2013 12:37 AM   in reply to mike_mike_motorbike
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    I'm so glad I found this post (as I was just about to post a new one).

     

    I had a Quad Core Mac Pro (2008 3,1). Had 10 GB of memory and It ran pretty good with CS6 (and the last 5 or 6 versions for that matter). That machine finally "died" for lack of a better term.

     

    Anyway I just spent $$$ (not counting the cost of the bitter stare-downs and fiery attitude from my wife for the next couple of months) on a brand new Mac Pro 12 core maxed out with 64 GB of memory and a Quadro 4000 just for the new 3D options in After Effects! I also still have the ATI 5780 installed for the screaming Open GL benefit.

    I cannot use multicore processing AT ALL in AE CS6. I'm talking I can't even dedicate 3/4 of the resources to the system with only 1/4 for AE! I've tried at least 5 different combinations of those settings ... all with the same result.

     

    Here's the weird part. AE screams. Way faster than I was expecting actually. I almost never needed to ram preview anything even with DOF .. i'm serious. Let's just say for the sake of this conversation the multiprocessing settings were 50% AE - 50% system since changing that made no difference.

     

    The crash would occur AFTER any render from the Queue. The Comp would render fine and a couple secs/mins would pass. If i was doing something else in a different app as soon as I came back to After Effects the system would crash. Not just AE the entire system. I couldn't even force quit AE. Not the grey screen wipe but the Finder would just freeze up along with everything else and I would have to hold the power button down to shut down and restart. This happened at least 30-40 times the first day I was using it until I realized it was the multiprocessing thing.

     

    Turned that off an now everything runs smooth now.

    SLOOOOOOOW.

    Way slower than my old 2008 Mac Pro! And render times ... I can't even talk about it! Oh well, I had $10k to burn I guess.

     

    Have there been any solutions to this? Has anyone had the same specific types of crashes I've had? Anyone? Please? There's got to be something we can do? Seriously, if money were no object what would the answer be?? I just need to get work done on time.

     
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  • DivisionTen
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    11. DivisionTen,
    Mar 5, 2013 1:25 AM   in reply to DivisionTen
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    Wanted to provide solid system details for those who might might have more quesitons:) I should point out however I'm not doing anything new here. Obviously my first response was "what am I doing different to cause this". In fact I worked on this project several times on my older system. Also I did a clean install on this new machine. No copying. I fresh installed and updated everything fresh.

     

    • 64 GB memory - Crucial
    • 3 internal Crucial 50MB SSD's. 1TB Western Digital 7200 RPM with the OS on it
    • ATI 5770 & Nvidia Quadro 4000 (2 monitors plugged in to the 4000)
    • 2 x 30" cinema display's (they have a huge effect on GPU's)
    • 1920x100 Canon .mov (H.264 codec) footage
    • After Effects CS6 [11.0.2.11]
    • Plugins on the project: Trapcode LUX, Magic Bullet Looks and Plexus all of which I've been using for years
    • Mocha Pro tracking data and alpha mattes

     

    Clips are typically 10 seconds + or - a few seconds.

     

    5.jpg

    2.jpg3.jpg

     
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