Are files referenced in disabled nodes stored in memory?

[gregsandor]

I'm using some very high resolution textures and want to know whether I can establish a duplicate set just smaller, and switch between them for tests and final renders. 

When I turn off a node, are the models or textures referenced in it still stored in memory or are they only called in when the node is enabled?

[Matt]

If the data has already been loaded, it will not be unloaded by disabling a node. It will stay in memory until you delete the node or ask it to load another file (or a file that doesn't exist). However, if you shader or object is disabled when the project or clip file is loaded, the data should not be loaded until you first enable the node. I am not 100% sure that this desired behaviour works in all cases, however. It is up to the shader or object node to look at whether it is enabled or disabled and handle its own loading and memory management, so there may be inconsistencies in how different nodes work.

On Windows, using the Task Manager allows you to see how much memory Terragen is using. You might need to enable the "VM Size" or "Virtual Memory" tab to see all the memory it's using. Mac OS also has tools to monitor memory usage of course.

[gregsandor]

Great.  I'll set up my smaller files and keep the large ones for finals; I'll let you know what happens.  As it is I'm pushing toward 4 gigabytes when I render and still have a lot to add (though I haven't optimized a lot of it yet).

[jaf]

For windows user's that may not know about it, there's a nice set of free utilities available called Sysinternals Suite.  One of the utilities is called Process Explorer, which is or can be used as a substitute for the Task Manager.

The nice thing about Process Explorer is you can right click on a process like tgd.exe and then select "Properties" and get a performance graph that is for tgd only.  You still have the option to also display the system performance graph (both can be displayed at the same time.)

There's an option to have Process Explorer replace the Task Manager.  The suite is at:
     http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062.aspx

[leafspring]

And for the Windows 7 x64 users that actually want to replace the Task Manager with the Process Explorer like I just tried (and failed at), here is a hint that might help you. When you click on 'Replace Task Manager' within ProcExp there is a good chance that nothing will happen next time you hit Ctrl+Shift+Esc (or Ctrl+Alt+Del -> Open Task Manager). As I just had to find out, the Process Explorer seems to create a procexp64.exe at runtime and deletes it once the tool is exited. Unfortunately the executable that is set to replace the Task Manager is exactly that procexp64.exe, which obviously doesn't exist when the tool is not running. To fix this, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\taskmgr.exe in your registry and change the stored key from '.../procexp64.exe' to 'procexp.exe' and everything should be fine.

[jaf]

Rimmon, thanks for bailing me out.  I've used XP so long I forget I'm a couple upgrades behind. 

[leafspring]

Still don't feel like upgrading after 9 years?
Didn't try Windows 7 yet or don't like it?