Size reduction, Initialisation failed not enough memory

[mmarangione]

Hello!
I am working with detailed scan of architecture models which i combined into one E57 file. Im using V2.12.3 on mac.
I just combined 50, E57 files (around 80,000kB each) into a single E57 file comprising 340 million points and 6.4GB. I have no problems moving around and visualising the model but am not able to render over a 6 factor zoom. This then leads to "Initialisation failed not enough memory". I will need to maintain the cloud detail but have to in some manner reduce the size, or overlapping points. Any suggestions to maintain the detail?

I will then need to export this cloud as a PLY to be able to open it and navigate with a camera in Blender. Any recommendations on how to reduce the file size for this to work would be greatly appreciated!

Best,
Matteo

[daniel]

Well, I guess you've hit the limit or your graphic card / driver.

Anyway, the best (and only) way to reduce the size of the cloud in a satisfying manner would be to use the 'Edit > Subsample' tool with the 'spatial' reduction mode (and start with a small distance between points, to see how many points are removed, before slowly increasing the distance).

[mmarangione]

Hello Daniel,

Thank you for your quick feedback.
In order to assess how much to downsample the Cloud, I have segmented a small portion of the cloud (13 million points around 800mb.) and saved it as a different file. My plan is to try and render different cloud densities to see what works best.
However, even with this reduced cloud and file size, cloud compare doesn’t let me render over a 8 zoom factor. Still initialisation failed. Do you recon this has to do with the density or is it still an issue with the computer.

Best, Matteo

[daniel]

This limit is only with the graphic card / driver (probably because of a limit of its internal memory, but also maybe because of a maximum builtin resolution). Of course the higher the initial resolution is, the more challenging it will be to allocate memory for a virtual OpenGL context 8x8 = 64 times larger.

For instance full HD at scale 1 will require at least 1920*1080*64 bytes (64 = 32 bytes for RGBA + 32 bytes for depth) = 132 Mb total.

So if you try to instantiate an OpenGL context 64 times larger, you'll need 8Gb of VRAM!