Theoretical Limits with Texture size set to 4096x2160

[pshay]

I've just upgraded our systems to Rev 9926. I like some of the new features!

Question about the internal texture size setting:

I had to change the render engine texture size setting to 4096x2160 after upgrading. I've not changed this setting before, so it was a head scratcher for a few minutes while I narrowed down what was happening.

We use live HD-SDI 1280x720p 59.94 inputs a lot during our shows as well as motion backgrounds. With this new version, I've noticed more frame stuttering in the live video inputs and I'm wondering if the systems are running out of memory more quickly than they had in prior versions. In prior versions, I was able to use 3 live inputs, add a few png files under 2000x1080 and 2 motion backgrounds (one visible and one active but opacity at 0) that was 4080x392. No fluid frame applied to the active media. All would play smoothly normally. Now with 9926, I'm having to be sure to clear content that isn't visible to ensure the live inputs don't drop frame visibly.

This could easily be some settings I need to optimize, but I'm not sure what I can do to be sure I'm not unnecessarily overworking the Quad servers. Is there a way to see the status of consumable performance things like GPU usage or graphics memory? If I could see this - I may be able to see what is causing the slow down and adjust my setup.

[pshay]

Bump - Update

I've install PB v 5.7 rev 10085 today to see if that would help our stuttering.
I found the Widget node for Engine Health, so I'm looking at FPS rendering for each of our 4 PB Quad Pro Servers.

Here is a limit that I finding:
Background: 4080x392 motion background, encoded by Manager
Live HDSDI input 1280x720p 59.94 x 2 for Key and Fill using BW Media as Mask Premul effect
Live HDSDI input for a video window

With this, I can around 55fps across the 4 engines/servers.

Normally, we'll use one look on the screens and preset the next look. Part of it preset sets loads the background looping video into a background layer. The background is not visible, but it is in memory and/or being rendered. Once, do this - the FPS drops to around 40 fps. This causes very visible stuttering in the live video window and the motion of the background video.

When I updated a few months ago to rev 9926, I found I had to increase the Render Engine Texture size to 4096x2160 in order to render our 4080x392 background videos. Today, I have tried going down to 2048x1080 Texture size and just using 1280x720 video files. But that did not change the FPS rendering - it reacted very similar to when he text was set to 4096x2160 and I was using the 4080x392 video files.

When I was using rev 9088, I was using the same media file sizes and live show workflows, but I did not see this kind of drop in FPS rendering.

I cannot afford to go back because of the amount of work I have put into the recent project files. So, is there anything someone can recommend to help me get more out of the servers? I don't understand why I can't get quite the same performance from rev 9926 or 10085 as I did with 9088. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

-=Peter Shay

[malkuth23]

Have you tried going back?
I think the project files are back compatible. Although I have not tested for those particular versions.

[Daniel Kaminski]

Hi Peter,

A few Ideas:
Are you using "Video Memory Buffers" for your Videos? If not try so. That should give you more Performance.
Are you warping or Keystoning your Output? If not put your output into "Bypass"

Also try FullScreen Anit-Aliasing" at 0.

Let us know if somethings helps.

Daniel

[pshay]

I have been dealing with other projects, but I did try one of the suggestions:

I am able to open my most current project with PB 9088. For some reason, I just "knew" I could not go backwards. Using 9088, I do not have the drop in FPS rendering that I do in 9926 and 10085. Same project file and media files and hardware.

It does seem like the last two releases handle the video textures differently than in 9088. Is it possible that the rendering engine is now processing all media at the Mac Texture Size setting, even if their are actually smaller? That may explain why we're running out of rendering "capacity" so quickly.

As soon as I am able to check the video buffer settings and aliasing, I will let you know if that helps PB 9926 or 10085 with our setup.

-=Peter Shay