TurfFX scene budget

Paul_Bert

Train Enthusiast
In the Help:TurfFX Effect Layer write up there is a statement that "Using 2.5m precision everywhere will consume your scene budget very quickly".

Two questions. First where do I find the scene budget and how do I know how full it is getting? Is there some kind of warning when this scene budget is "getting filled up"? Is the "scene budget" dependent upon the amount of RAM available or is a fixed amount independent of the computer specs?

The second question is does each layer have its own scene budget, or is this an area that is shared by all the layers?

Does using 5m precision use twice as much of the scene budget as using 10m. Using one of the examples in the write up ("Grass Straight Short" - this example uses 5m precision) for example, how many baseboards could one reasonable expect to fill up before this scene budget is full: 10, 20, 100 - what is a reasonable number? When this scene budget fills up does the layer just stop adding more grass, or does the layer crash.

It seems like there needs to be some sort of meter to show how full the scene budget is getting, especially if only a few baseboards can be filled.
 
Hi Paul_Bert
I have passed your thread on to our team. They will take a look, and post a reply, when they are able to do so :)

Regards
 
First where do I find the scene budget and how do I know how full it is getting? Is there some kind of warning when this scene budget is "getting filled up"?
There is no indication available of how much of the budget has been consumed or how much is still available, other than the message when you exceed it.

Is the "scene budget" dependent upon the amount of RAM available or is a fixed amount independent of the computer specs?
It is a fixed amount.

The second question is does each layer have its own scene budget, or is this an area that is shared by all the layers?
It is shared. You may be able to make better use of the budget by reducing the requirement of one layer while increasing the requirement of another. This is where an indication of the budget usage by each layer would be really useful. It could be provided in the layer editing window.

Does using 5m precision use twice as much of the scene budget as using 10m.
It appears that the budget applies to each grid, and that there is no difference whether that grid is 5m or 10m. However, the usage is global. That is, although the limit is applied by the grid, it is the same limit across the whole route, because any grid could be painted with the full set of layers, so each grid has to have space available for the description of all layers, whether painted in that grid or not.

It seems like there needs to be some sort of meter to show how full the scene budget is getting, especially if only a few baseboards can be filled.
Once you have set up the layers the amount of area painted does not affect the budget. It does affect the rendering time, of course.
 
Does using 5m precision use twice as much of the scene budget as using 10m. Using one of the examples in the write up ("Grass Straight Short" - this example uses 5m precision) for example, how many baseboards could one reasonable expect to fill up before this scene budget is full

SailorDan's comments are on point.

"Scene Budget" is a poor term for this concept. Effect layers consume a certain amount of data per unit ground area. Exactly how much data is consumed depends on your per-effect-layer configuration. Higher numeric precision is more expensive. Higher data densities are (obviously) more expensive. The data consumption does NOT vary based on the effects of your painting tools in Surveyor, but only based on the effect layer configuration. We set a maximum budget per area for effect layers.

You will be notified if you reach that limit when configuring your effect layers. If you don't reach it then there's no real need to worry about it at all. Once you reach it, you either need to stop adding new effect layers, or you need to start reducing your data requirements per layer. There's no specific science to this - you need to try reducing the quantity of the data and see whether the results work for you in your route. Since there's no 'undo' available for effect layer configuration changes, you should save out a copy of your route first and experiment on that.

I should stress that this is purely talking about the data requirements for storing the effect layer in your route. It is not affected in any way by the complexity of the actual rendered geometry or its textures.

chris
 
Seems I used 'grid' when I should have used 'unit ground area', whatever that is. Perhaps its the same as one grid square in the default base pattern.

Sounds logical, seems to me the "spread" is closer to 10m than 5m, irrespective of the actual grid setting, presuming the default is still 10.
 
Thanks for all the feedback. Let me see if I can summarize all the comments in several non-technical terms.

When designing effect layers I am free to define the parameters as I see fit. If an effect layer accepts the parameters I am OK. If I design an additional effect layer and get the "red" warning message this is the notice that I have exceeded the "scene budget". At that point the only way of creating this additional effect layer is by reducing the numeric precision information in this and the other layers so that in total the "scene budget" is not exceeded.

Also my understanding from reading all the comments is this. If all my effect layer configurations are accepted then I am free to use them throughout the route whether the route consists of 10 baseboards or 100 or 500. In other words exceeding the "scene budget" is determined by the effect layer configuration, not by the number of baseboards to which the effects are applied. So for example if I design a tall grass effect layer using the "geometry scale" of 1 for use in fields, then it doesn't affect the "scene budget" if I use this grass to have 1 tall grass field or 100 tall grass fields spread out over many baseboards.

Is my basic understanding correct?
 
Sounds logical, seems to me the "spread" is closer to 10m than 5m, irrespective of the actual grid setting, presuming the default is still 10.

The 'spread' is determined by a number of factors, of which the precision (which is part of the budget) is one. The others, such as dispersal, are not part of the budget. Baseboard grid resolution is not considered.
 
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