Memory consumption is insane in 8.2

I am not sure if I'm missing something. I use 60% of my 32 gig of RAM for caching and it's running full in just a few frames, especially with 3d stuff in the comp. Compared to nuke the same simple sequence (1 loader in the comp) takes 3 times as much memory in fusion.
And worst of all and some point when trying to play or render the timeline, the memory limit breaks filling up my whole RAM and Windows starts swapping to disc.
Also the purge cache function does not seem to work. It is impossible to render a sequence of 300 HD frames in one go from a comp with a standard complexity.

I had the budget for a studio license right here on my desk ready to throw it at Blackmagic - but after one month of switching keyboard languages back and forth, NO communication from Blackmagic with the community, an UI that breaks if you start to customize it and those memory issues I am experiencing I have my doubts that Blackmagic is capable of getting a grip on this cool piece of software any time soon.

Check the "Leave at least" setting. I think it defaults to something really small, like 200MB. Should be 4-8 GB depending on how you work. Render slaves can have less, but workstations tend to have more applications and services running.

I don't have any issues with purging manually or automatically. It just works for me. That said, I don't know if there's anything strange in your comp, or how well you manage your cache usage. There could be a buggy setup that you might see a lot but no one else does because they don't use those tools in that way.

Fusion uses a lot of RAM. Always has, even before it was 64 bit. That's part of what allows it to be so much faster than other applications. If you're using a desktop, 32GB isn't enough RAM for general purpose use. If you're using a laptop, I wouldn't expect to be doing more than very simple or very short comps. I advise users to run a minimum of 128GB for Fusion workstations. 256GB is the sweet spot. I've done stereoscopic 4K HFR shots on 32GB, but I would not recommend it, not when RAM is so cheap these days.

Having a memory hungry application is one thing, having an application with a broken memory management is another.
I have very carefully adjusted the memory settings in the general and the compositing section. The same thing still happens: If my comp uses more than the limited amount it starts auto-adjusting ignoring the limit and the "keep at least"- setting completely. I have been able to create 60 gig of swapped memory this way.

But the main problem is: I have no idea if there is something wrong with my system, my application or if I just miss something because the feedback or information about those things from BM is zero.
We get a beta to play with but there is no bug reporting system, no one knows if BM is reading the forum posts at all or what they are doing actually. That is what is bugging me. Is that different for studio license owners? Do they get communication?

Because if not, and the software fails you in the middle of a project and there is no assistance or communication other than this forum then your screwed. I can't risk that.

Because if not, and the software fails you in the middle of a project and there is no assistance or communication other than this forum then your screwed. I can't risk that.

The software works. I already told you it's fine. If you have a specific situation where it isn't working then you need to provide details. You have to provide assistance and communication from your end if you expect to have the issues you are seeing addressed.

Fusion on Windows can be a little weird with memory usage at times. I've got 96GB installed with prefs set at use 75% and Fusion will use everything it can get. Which is good of course.
What I do notice though is that after an hour or so of working I need to close Fusion and re-open to clear the memory cache. It seems to have more and more RAM "stuck" over time and even purging cache won't clear most of it. There usually ends up about 1.5GB that just won't purge and Fusion starts to get a bit "sticky" ... doesn't respond so quickly.
Also, when I close a big comp that's using 50-60GB, It can take about 15-25sec to purge memory and Fusion will come up with a "not responding" warning - though it always comes right once memory is purged.

I'm using FS8.1 - maybe 8.2 is different?

One thing to bear in mind, Fusion tries to clear up memory in chunks and usually with a delay. So if you purge, it doesn't always free up the memory right away because it would be slow to deallocate and reallocate the memory if you're just going to use it again for different frames.

If you told me Fusion 8.1 occasionally burst into flames it wouldn't surprise me. Try the latest build, it's much better.

My problem is that the memory limit is not working. What good is speed if I can't use Fusion at all?
And no, high memory consumption is not a good thing - its just bad memory management. And having no influence over it at all is even worse. I have rendered far more complex 3d scenes in Nuke without any problem and a fraction of the memory consumption with no noticeable drawback of slowdown compared to a few cards with text on in I'm not getting rendered in Fusion.
If I could turn off caching completely for the whole project I would be better off.

The software works. I already told you it's fine. If you have a specific situation where it isn't working then you need to provide details. You have to provide assistance and communication from your end if you expect to have the issues you are seeing addressed.

The software works. I already told you it's fine. If you have a specific situation where it isn't working then you need to provide details. You have to provide assistance and communication from your end if you expect to have the issues you are seeing addressed.

Here are the details: I have a scene with 20 cards with a text on it in 3d space, a matchmoved camera, and a 4 footage to merge the text over. When I render the comp my memory runs full despite the memory limit set in fusion, starts to page like mad until the pagefile is full the stops rendering. Windows pops up a system memory low message then crashes.
There is nothing in the scene I can not do with nuke for a fraction of the memory.
I can not provide the scene or the footage, you just have to take my word for it.

Works fine for me. The memory limiting, the cache recycling, everything. So yes, you need to provide the details of when and how it's failing for your unique and special circumstances because it general it works as expected.

Achim

I know it appears to be a Fusion issue for you, I can assure you it's not related to memory management. The eating up and paging is happening, but is most likely due to something within your system.


does this happen with all comps or just this one?
If you IM me your support ticket #, I can have a closer look for you.

Dear Rony

I have the same problem! And it doesn´t matter if it is a the node render client or the main application.All of them adding more and more memory while rendering, just to fill up to 40GB and more while there are only 14GB RAM installed... I reinstalled a complete new system (mac sierra) the behaviour is the same ...
I have 4 render nodes rendering and all of them are not purging any memory...
We have a big postpro coming so I need urgently a solution for that! A composting program must be able to render for at least 6-10hours without crashing the whole system because of memory consumption
kr
Martin

Are both users with problems using Macs? Chad and I are using Windoze. I have no clue how it works on the Mac, but it does work just fine on Windows, unless you have found some specific memory leak bug, which you should send to support. They *will* fix it if you can reproduce it.