topic Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ? in ArcGIS CityEngine Questions

Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

IonutAlixandroae — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 09:28:40 GMT

Hi,

I`m having trouble rendering a scene in CityEngine because of a large consumption on RAM and GPU. ( I`m having like 2000 polygons that I want to apply a rule to create random 9 types of 3D buildings created in Maya) and I want to know if another GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 to be used in SLI and doubling RAM memory to 32 GB would be a solution? Does CE works,support,benefits with 2 GPUs on SLI?

Thanks,

Ionut

Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

Anonymous User — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 19:01:12 GMT

Have you adjusted the reserved java memory in the CityEngine.ini file? You see this memory shown in the lower right corner of the CityEngine GUI. If not, I'll explain.

By default this number is around 4GB.

Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

IonutAlixandroae — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 19:14:13 GMT

Hi Chris,

No I haven`t....

I`m not at work right now but as far as I remember the memory you highlighted was around 4000 mb and the one to the left of it around 12000 mb. When I start applying the rules the memory from the right( the one you have 24 gb in the picture above) starts to decrease to around 1000 mb.... I will check again for sure tomorrow morning...

The thing is that we acquired a PC with the GPU specifications from above and 16 GB RAM memory and I`m still having trouble with my scene.... I get to move in it with 2 FPS after I raise all my buildings, terrain and streets...

I want to know for sure if I should double the RAM memory and get another GPU to use in SLI with the other one..

Thanks !

Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

IonutAlixandroae — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 07:16:16 GMT

Hi Chris,

So regarding SLI, does it work ?

Thanks!

Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

BenLeslie1 — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 07:58:26 GMT

Hi Chris

Can you explain what to change - I've found the .ini file but it's not obvious to me what to change.

Do you think changing this memory help me? I've been having some small performance gripes as per this thread.

Re: CityEngine performance expectations?

Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

MatthiasBuehler — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 10:17:27 GMT

Hey ..

Regarding SLI:

See my reply here:

Re: Freeing up system memory?

Matthias Buehler

Head of 3D Technologies

twitter: @MattB3D

-----------------------------------

Garsdale Design Limited

matthias.buehler@garsdaledesign.co.uk

www.garsdaledesign.co.uk

Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

IonutAlixandroae — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 11:29:28 GMT

Hi Matt,

I understand what you say but the problem is that currently the scene that I`m working on is rendering very slow ( 2-3 FPS) because of big amount of 3D buildings generated ( mostly of them are created in SU and Maya ) ... that`s why I think I need more RAM and GPU ....

Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

MatthiasBuehler — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 12:21:07 GMT

Hi Ben,

Sadly, all the old forum entries not easily found anymore. I wrote this all down years ago.

You ONLY edit line 8, "-Xmx"

Nothing else. Watch out that the value in MegaBytes is about max. half your system memory size.

You need more precise details ?

Matt

Matthias Buehler

Head of 3D Technologies

twitter: @MattB3D

----------------------------------

Garsdale Design Limited

matthias.buehler@garsdaledesign.co.uk

www.garsdaledesign.co.uk

Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

MatthiasBuehler — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 12:24:35 GMT

Guys, please don't mix topics in a thread... !

Ionut, can you post a few a screenshot of how many polygons your rule creates ?

And the polycount.

Please let me know.

Matt

Matthias Buehler

Head of 3D Technologies

twitter: @MattB3D

---------------------------------

Garsdale Design Limited

matthias.buehler@garsdaledesign.co.uk

www.garsdaledesign.co.uk

Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

IonutAlixandroae — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 12:54:33 GMT

HI Matt,

When I enter my scene and I get the question if I want my models to be re-generated the number is 12649

I have several rules that I have applied - some of them creates 3D buildings from rule ( and also includes obj windows, chimneys and doors) and others just import some 3D buildings created in SketchUp and Maya.

The LOD is high...

Here`s a print of the scene ( it`s an entire city in a mountain area) : 25349 Objects | 71613662 Polygons

Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

MatthiasBuehler — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 15:13:32 GMT

Well,

Before buying new hardware, I'd strongly optimize what you are working with.

- Terrain Subdivisions

- Create streets with less segment precision and curb-subdivisions

- DON'T use the highLOD (there's not need to see all polys, right ?). // use smart texturing instead of geometric details!

70 million polygons for a GIS project is just way too much !

You'll be easily able to reduce that dataset to a third of the size ..

Ok ?

matt

Matthias Buehler

Head of 3D Technologies

twitter: @MattB3D

------------------------------------

Garsdale Design Limited

matthias.buehler@garsdaledesign.co.uk

www.garsdaledesign.co.uk

Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

IonutAlixandroae — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 17:42:40 GMT

HI Matt,

Well, I`ll have to ask you to , please, how to create terrain subdivisions and to create streets with less segment precision and curb-subdivisions( I`m not sure I understand what this means...)

For the building detail I could replace geometries of doors, windows etc with textures but the final result of this product I think will be integration with LumenRT and a movie/animation of the scene....( so for this purpose I need high LOD buildings - I have some key-buildings for this town that I`ve done separately in Maya)

I only need to be able to export export the terrain, buildings and roads from CE to LumenRT and the rest will be done in Lumen...

I`m open for new suggestions

Thanks!!

Ionut

Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

MatthiasBuehler — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 17:52:31 GMT

As always, please consult the help first....

Terrain‌‌

Streets‌

Additionally, in CGA, did you delete e.g. all bottom faces of extruded shapes where you do not see the bottom polygon?

Before creating such a massive dataset, did you test if LumenRT can even process 10 or 20 million polygons?

Hope this gives some pointers ..

Matt

Matthias Buehler

Head of 3D Technologies

twitter: @MattB3D

------------------------------------

Garsdale Design Limited

matthias.buehler@garsdaledesign.co.uk

www.garsdaledesign.co.uk

Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

IonutAlixandroae — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:03:06 GMT

Regarding deleting the bottom faces in cga , I didn`t ( in the rule i didn`t mentioned the bottom face - so how could I delete it?)

And in Lumen, at the moment, I have a trial for LumenRT 2015 Geodesign and I only imported the terrain with texture and the streets...I will try also tomorrow for buildings import but the first step will be to export them, if possible...

Thank you very much !

Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

MatthiasBuehler — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:08:32 GMT

again, manual:

Component Split Operation

Matthias Buehler

Head of 3D Technologies

twitter: @MattB3D

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Garsdale Design Limited

+44 (0) 15396 20875
matthias.buehler@garsdaledesign.co.uk

www.garsdaledesign.co.uk

Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

DavidBurdick — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 17:40:29 GMT

Hi Ionut,

Matt is right. LumenRT (or any real time rendering system) will not handle 70 million polys A typical large scene might be 15 - 20 million polys or less. I've don a few scene with 50 million polys but it was slow.

Re: Does CityEngine benefit from using 2 GPU Nvidia GEForce GTX 970 in SLI ?

zhongrenGu — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 03:08:48 GMT

aha，agree