Error message after 100% photon emission (error 361001)

[blank...]

Hello everyone

I'm using Max 2012, scene is quite large with over 70 sky portals. Lighting is daylight system (MR sun, physical sky... all defaults).
I fired 1 million photons, at 100% i get error message, here is what message window says:

JOB  0.3  progr:    99.9%    photon emission on PC-PC.3
JOB  0.4  progr:    99.9%    photon emission on PC-PC.4
JOB  0.3  progr:    99.9%    photon emission on PC-PC.3
JOB  0.4  progr:    99.9%    photon emission on PC-PC.4
JOB  0.3  progr:   100.0%    photon emission on PC-PC.3
RCGI 0.3  info : light #0 (mr Sky Portal067|Instance), globillum emission, emitted: 2737679, stored: 612297
RCGI 0.3  info :   globillum light #0: light photons        2737679
RCGI 0.3  info :   globillum light #0: spec. refl. photons     4463
RCGI 0.3  info :   globillum light #0: diff. refl. photons   788460
RCGI 0.3  info :   globillum light #0: spec. refr. photons        4
RCGI 0.3  info : light #1 (mr Sky Portal018|Instance), globillum emission, emitted: 183337, stored: 46369
RCGI 0.3  info :   globillum light #1: light photons         183337
RCGI 0.3  info :   globillum light #1: spec. refl. photons      755
RCGI 0.3  info :   globillum light #1: glos. refl. photons       54
RCGI 0.3  info :   globillum light #1: diff. refl. photons    54258
RCGI 0.3  info :   globillum light #1: spec. refr. photons     3218

<CUT>

RCGI 0.3  info : light #76 (mr Sky Portal072|Instance), globillum emission, emitted: 3953952, stored: 599589
RCGI 0.3  info :   globillum light #76: light photons        3953952
RCGI 0.3  info :   globillum light #76: spec. refl. photons     1772
RCGI 0.3  info :   globillum light #76: diff. refl. photons   945233
RCGI 0.3  info :   globillum light #76: spec. refr. photons        9
SCEN 0.3  info : Trying to flush 1693 megabytes.
JOB  0.3  info : Trying to flush 1693 megabytes.
MEM  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1693 megabytes.
MEM  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1693 megabytes.
MEM  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1693 megabytes.
MEM  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1693 megabytes.
MEM  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1693 megabytes.
DBN  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1693 megabytes.
DBN  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1693 megabytes.
MEM  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1693 megabytes.
MEM  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1693 megabytes.
MEM  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1693 megabytes.
DBN  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1693 megabytes.
DBN  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1693 megabytes.
DBN  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1674 megabytes.
DBN  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1674 megabytes.
DBN  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1660 megabytes.
DBN  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1660 megabytes.
DBN  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1638 megabytes.
DBN  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1638 megabytes.
DBN  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1622 megabytes.
DBN  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1622 megabytes.
DBN  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1618 megabytes.
DBN  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1618 megabytes.
DBN  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1489 megabytes.
DBN  0.1  info : Trying to flush 1489 megabytes.
MEM  0.1  progr: scene cache flushed asynchronously 1693 MB for module JOB, now: 2210 MB
RCGI 0.3  error  361001: photon emission shader returned miFALSE: aborting photon tracing
RCGI 0.3  error  361001: photon emission shader returned miFALSE: aborting photon tracing
RCGI 0.3  error  361001: photon emission shader returned miFALSE: aborting photon tracing
RCGI 0.3  error  361001: photon emission shader returned miFALSE: aborting photon tracing

<CUT>

RCGI 0.3  error  361001: photon emission shader returned miFALSE: aborting photon tracing
RCGI 0.3  error  361001: photon emission shader returned miFALSE: aborting photon tracing
INFO: Too many error/warning messages! 100 messages were ignored. Use the message window log file option to view these messages.
RCGI 0.3  info : optimizing access to globillum photon map with 76021909 photons
RCGI 0.3  info : wrote photon maps to H:\_3DS MAX\Projekti\sceneassets\renderassets\PhotonMap.pmap
RCFG 0.3  progr: scheduling precomputing final gather jobs
RC   0.3  progr: rendering finished
RC   0.3  info : wallclock  0:00:00.79 for rendering
RC   0.3  info : allocated 67 MB, max resident 3904 MB
GAPM 0.3  info : triangle count (including retessellation) :     1494757
MEM  0.2  info : total memory: 4094 Mb 
MEM  0.2  info : free memory : 2872 Mb 
MEM  0.2  info : total memory: 4094 Mb 
MEM  0.2  info : free memory : 2837 Mb 
MSG  0.0  info : Total non-render time: 267.2609 s.
MSG  0.0  info : Total geometry translation time: 0.0000 s.
MSG  0.0  info : Total object data translation time: 0.0000 s.
MSG  0.0  info : Total number of entities translated: 786.

I also get a message window that it was aborted "due to insufficient memory".
However, 1.76 GB photon map is saved to disk. So what's the deal, can i use this saved photon map or not?

Thanks in advance!

[Remydrh]

Looks like you're running out of memory. It has to load that map to memory even if it's on disk, and that plus everything else chokes it.

You have 4 GB RAM? 32-bit system?

Try merging them, preferably with Importons so that only important photons are kept and others are discarded.

And lastly, are you using displacement or large textures?

[blank...]

You have 4 GB RAM? 32-bit system?

Yes, 4GB RAM but 64-bit.

Try merging them, preferably with Importons so that only important photons are kept and others are discarded.

Unfortunately, never learned to use importons. Did try once but i couldn't even get the interface for them to show up in 2012. If i remember correctly it had to do something with some plugins.

And lastly, are you using displacement or large textures?

For displacement - yes. But i've turned off displacement for photon emission. Vector displacement maps, so they are quite big, but displacement it self is not, having it off for GI wont have any effect on the render.

Looks like you're running out of memory. It has to load that map to memory even if it's on disk, and that plus everything else chokes it.

I forgot to mention, i was just generating photon map, this was not during render time.

[Remydrh]

For displacement - yes. But i've turned off displacement for photon emission. Vector displacement maps, so they are quite big, but displacement it self is not, having it off for GI wont have any effect on the render.

As long as the displacement isn't visually significant for color bleeding or shadows, etc then that's probably best. Might introduce errors later visually.

If the crash happens immediately following the emission and saving of the file, then maybe the next phase is the straw that breaks the camels back. I see it start to generate a FG phase in your readout.

The odd part is the:

RCGI 0.3  error  361001: photon emission shader returned miFALSE: aborting photon tracing

The rest looks like the usual out of memory problem. If you're running a 64-bit OS, RAM is pretty cheap nowadays.

[blank...]

The rest looks like the usual out of memory problem.

Yes, i realized i'm talking nonsense. If it can't handle just photon generation, there is no way it will render anything once displacement and FG maps are also loaded.