Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: Mental Ray: THE fatal ERROR

  1. #1
    Member
    Join Date
    2008-07
    Posts
    13
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Mental Ray: THE fatal ERROR

    A common problem for many people rendering large scenes I'm sure: The mental ray fatal error/ can't allocate xxxxxx bytes/ not enough memory storage dilemma....(Max Design 2009)

    This error hit me recently with a large scene I'm trying to render. I know its a memory issue, but I can't solve the problem...I'm running a Xeon quad core 4gb ram xp professional 32-bit. Solutions I've tried (but have not worked) include the following:

    Render Panel: Reduced output size to smallest, Final gather on, No bounces, Draft quality

    Render Setup, Processing: Change default memory use from 650mb to at least 3046mb

    Computer Control Panel:
    -system properties, performance panel: Adjust for best performance and best memory use for software
    -virtual memory: increase initial size from 2046mb to 3046mb

    But I still get the error. Any other ideas? Anyone have this problem and solve it?

  2. #2
    Member
    Join Date
    2007-03
    Location
    Houston, TX
    Posts
    10
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: Mental Ray: THE fatal ERROR

    There is a Service Pack for 3ds max 2009 Design. Look into downloading it and installing the .exe. This may fix your problem.

  3. #3
    Member
    Join Date
    2006-10
    Posts
    4
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: Mental Ray: THE fatal ERROR

    AeroTrain,

    Try turning off the scanline option in the rendering options and see if that helps.


    Jeff

  4. #4
    Time Lord Steve_Bennett's Avatar
    Join Date
    2015-12
    Location
    far, far, far away...
    Posts
    4,730
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: Mental Ray: THE fatal ERROR

    Default Memory - you should try going smaller, not larger. I know this is counter-intuitive but this is what I was told by a contact of mine.

    Also, try enabling scanline & selecting "Use Fast Rasterizer". Also under Ray tracing acceleration try using BSP2 Method.

    Also, in Preference Settings> Rendering, turn on Bitmap pager.

    Also, try to stay with small images used for simulating materials if at all possible.

    VM should be triple your installed hard RAM, provided you have the disk space.
    Steve Bennett |BIM Manager
    Taylor Design | Adventures in BIM

  5. #5
    Member
    Join Date
    2008-09
    Posts
    7
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: Mental Ray: THE fatal ERROR

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve_Bennett View Post
    Default Memory - you should try going smaller, not larger. I know this is counter-intuitive but this is what I was told by a contact of mine.
    Hi,

    It is un-helpfully counter intuitive! Just need to keep in mind
    that this is the memory limit at which MR will start trying to
    flush things out. Setting it high will make MR wait longer to
    flush, which is generally bad.

    Regards
    Bri

  6. #6
    I could stop if I wanted to dellis's Avatar
    Join Date
    2003-12
    Location
    Windsor, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    379
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: Mental Ray: THE fatal ERROR

    I would do some investigation on your scene. Most often its something that we are doing then what are systems are not doing. There are lots of things that will make a rendering engine freakout. First try merging all the geometry into a fresh new scene. Maybe do a material override and see if everything renders okay then. 3d faces that inhabit the same 3d space can cause problems. Image sampling can also cause crashes. I've fixed a few small problems on files that would teleport me to the desktop everytime....and most are simple issues...my issues. I haven't had a file yet that simply wouldn't render....well not with vray anywaqy....but very rare with MR as well.

  7. #7
    Member
    Join Date
    2009-10
    Posts
    3
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: Mental Ray: THE fatal ERROR

    you can try the "3GB switch" (google it), it can help x32 systems, it helped alot in AutoCAD.

    Im currently trying Win 7 x64 and it was no problem rendering at higher resolution, where Vista x32 got fatal error, Win 7 x64 pulled it off.

    If you can, get a x64 version of whatever platform you are on or the FREE Win 7 RC1, dual boot it and try if it helps. You can run the beta/RC until march.

  8. #8
    Woo! Hoo! my 1st post
    Join Date
    2010-09
    Posts
    1
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: Mental Ray: THE fatal ERROR

    This is a problem caused by FINAL GATHER on the indirect illumination settings of Mental Ray.

    It is caused by having a very large sized gather map file. The solution is to delete the gather map file and let the rendered write a new one. You will notice that the amount of byte on the error message correspond to the size of the gather map. I think that if you check the read/write option, then every time you render the same scene the file keeps getting larger.
    Last edited by ellinopsychos; 2010-09-19 at 09:43 PM.

Similar Threads

  1. 2012: Revit mep: Export to dwg fatal error. Sync fatal error as well
    By Scottybill in forum Revit MEP - General
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 2012-11-30, 09:47 PM
  2. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 2006-04-10, 12:46 PM
  3. Replies: 2
    Last Post: 2005-11-04, 01:46 AM
  4. Replies: 2
    Last Post: 2005-08-16, 06:47 AM
  5. Fatal Error: Unhandled Exception" Error Message
    By jkrulicki in forum MDT - General
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 2004-07-28, 03:56 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •