Problem Description

A scene fails to render and the “Luxology Rendering Engine Failed” error appears at the bottom of the Luxology Rendering Dialog.

Reasons

• Issue with MS_LUXOLOGY_HISTORY

• Running out of memory

• Issue with a material

Steps to Resolve

Issue with Luxology Rendering History Folder

• Determine the Luxology Rendering History Folder being used.

Method 1:

• Go to, Tools > Visualization > Render > Render

• Select "Set Luxology Rendering History Folder"

Method 2:

• Go to: Workspace > Configuration > Locate MS_LUXOLOGY_HISTORY

• If MS_LUXOLOGY_HISTORY is not listed then create the following definition to list all variables:

_USTN_DISPLAYALLCFGVARS = 1

• Make sure you have write access to the folder defined for MS_LUXOLOGY_HISTORY.

• If the folder is on a network drive, try changing this to a folder on your local drive (that you have write access to).

Running Out of Memory

• To determine if this is the cause, monitor your CPU and memory usage with Windows Task Manager while      rendering.
• Methods of improving available rendering resources and reducing rendering demand on resources are outlined below.

Improve Available Rendering Resources

Minimize Unnecessary Demand on Resources

• Close unnecessary applications.

• Set all MicroStation views to display with wireframe > save settings > reopen file.

Hardware Recommendations

• MicroStation V8i System Requirements and Hardware Recommendations [TN]

MicroStation Graphics Benchmark

• MicroStation SELECTseries 3 Benchmark (Beta)

Memory

• Luxology Geometry Cache Size

• Sets the cache size for geometry created by the Material Fur Settings in the Advanced Mode settings of the Material Editor dialog.

• Set to about 80% of available physical RAM

See: Marc Thomas' Blog > Visualization - Luxology Geometry Cache

• MicroStation Memory Management

• Enabling Lock Pages In Memory Under Windows 7 and Vista

32-bit vs. 64-bit

• Running a 32-bit system prevents using more than 4 GB of memory.

• 64-bit MicroStation

Reduce Rendering Demand on Resources

Displacement Mapping

Displacement Ratio:

• Controls the amount of subdivision in areas of the scene that are not visible to the camera.

• Low values will create more polygons and vice-versa.

• This setting works in tandem with the Displacement Rate setting, letting you balance the amount of micropolygon displacement in a scene so that memory usage can be kept to a minimum.

• Increasing this value will improve rendering speed. Try setting this to 8.

Displacement Rate (Pixels):

• Controls the number of polygons created during Micropolygon Displacement rendering of displacement maps.

• Increasing this value decreases the number of polygons.

• Decreasing this value increases the number of polygons.

• The default value of 1.0 means that any micropolygon that has an edge longer than 1 pixel will be further tessellated.

• The default value of 1.0 may be more than what is needed for the render. Try setting this to 2.0.

See:

• Jerry Flynn's Blog > Displacement Mapping Memory Conservation

• MicroStation Help > Luxology Render Settings Dialog, Advanced Tab

• MicroStation Help > Surface Material Definitions

Fur

Adaptive Sampling:

• Enable this to reduce the fur density based on the distance from the camera.

• Increasing the Rate reduces the fur density with distance from the camera.

• Try using 5 or greater.

Segments:

• Controls the maximum number of polygonal sections creating a fur strand.

• Larger values will result in smoother fur at the expense of more memory usage.

• Try setting this to 4 or less.

Fur Spacing:

• Increasing this will reduce fur density and improve rendering speed.

Geometry Cache Size:

• Sets the cache size for geometry created by the Material Fur Settings.

• Increase the Geometry Cache size in Luxology Render Preferences. Try setting this to 4096 MB.

Image Size

• Try rendering at a lower resolution.

Store Texture Redisplay Info

• Disable this in the Luxology Render Preferences dialog.

• If on, when rendering an image or using Fast Preview, stores extra information about the scene being rendered. This information makes it possible to see the results in either a redisplay rendering or Fast Preview of adjustments to material map parameters like size, units, and mapping mode. Storing this extra information is memory intensive, so turn off this option unless you are making explicit use of it.

Issue with a Material

• Create a copy of the file, remove all materials and try rendering again. If render is successful, create another copy of the file and remove one at a time to determine which material is responsible.

Still Receiving the Error?

• Create a new thread in the MicroStation Visualization forum and provide as much of the following information as you can:

Environment:

• MicroStation Version (xx.xx.xx.xxx)

• Operating System

• 32-bit or 64-bit system

• CPU

• Memory

Reproducibility:

• Computer Specific: How many computers are experiencing this issue?

• Workspace Specific: Do you have this issue when using a delivered workspace that is not stored on a network?

• File Specific: If the issue does not happen with all files, provide a file that is having this issue.

• Include a saved view of the scene being rendered.

• Compress files necessary to reproduce and upload to Be Communities.

• Confidential files can be provided using Secure File Upload.

• When does it fail? (i.e. What text is displayed before the "Luxology Rendering Engine Failed" error appears)

• When does it fail? (i.e. What text is displayed before the "Luxology Rendering Engine Failed" error appears)