Hi Guys, I am a clay sculptor who also knows Zbrush but really really prefers sculpting with my hands and in 3D. I became so entranced with the idea of sculpting in medium after an oculus touch demo at Best Buy and seeing Gio Nakpil's and Goro Fujita's medium sculptures that I completely went all in, bought a new computer (i7 6700k, 16Gb DDR4, GTX970), touch controllers and of course downloaded Medium. I am absolutely THRILLED with the concept and the level of polish that the first generation of this software has. Blocking in is like I always dreamed/wanted digital sculpting to be in Zbrush.
The problem as many of you probably have experienced is when it comes to subtlety refining and adding detail. I got a computer that was the maximum that I could afford and well over the minimum suggested requirements for processor and ram. I was hoping that it would give me a enough power to really dig in and push Medium. So far (and am very new still) I am finding that even a low to medium amount of detail at one level of upping the resolution is making my system chug. This is really a harsh reality to encounter after going so 'all-in'.
So my question to you all: How much Ram do I really need to start doing something as detailed as many of Gio's designs or Goro Fujita's? I know that power doesn't make up for sculpting experience but right now I feel very detail-limited by a program and system that I otherwise think is amazing and on such a better track than the more traditional digital packages. From my research detail seems to be primarily limited by RAM and since my processor and video card should be up to the task, do i really need 32gb or more? My new computer is limited to 32Gb by the motherboard (it's an Asus ROG G20CB so it's a laptop style motherboard in a small desktop package). Gio said his workstation has 64gb but I cannot afford that much. The most I could do is 32. Thoughts?
Hi there, I don't really have an answer for you but wanted also wondered about resolution.
Is it true that resolution is really just the size of your sculpt within the box volume? I assume the box has a fixed volume that can't be increased by the user?
I'm working on a fairly complex sculpt and didn't increase the resolution from the initial sphere and feel that the resolution is enough for now. Maybe I just created a sculpt big enough that it has high resolution anyway? I also find that the crucial smooth tool becomes useless from a certain resolution on, as it just works on the micro detail then.
Btw, I have 32GB ram and haven't run into the memory limitation message yet (saw it on my brothers 8GB PC though, not sure what the complexity was then)
I ran into one slowdown with the clay tool once maybe due to a stamp that was too complex? I wonder if that matters. It seemed like the slowdown stopped after I changed the stamp.
Another thing that may have played into that was number of layers potentially?
Anyway, good luck with your PC. I hope we'll get a little bit more information about memory and performance in this thread. Cheers!
I have 32 Gb ram and did get the windows memory warning once when increasing resolution, and the program crashed soon after. As a result I got another 32 Gb to put in this weekend. I don't think you really need it unless you push the envelope, but you do if you do. The other problem is determining the size of your initial piece, so it won't be made too large on subsequent resolution increases. I started with a random size block, and later when I went to boost it for painting, the edges went outside the box and were clipped off. Had to un-do and settle for the lower resolution. I need to experiment to see the largest starting block I can work with that allows increases of at least two steps. Max dimension should be 1/4 box size to start I guess. I also sometimes get a warning that increasing the resolution caused the borders of the sculpt to be lost, but it has no visible damage. Does anyone know what that's about?
i7-5820K @ 4.2Ghz, water cooled, Asus X99-Pro USB 3.1, 48 Gb DDR4 2400, Samsung 950 pro M.2 SSD, GTX 980 Ti SC, 750w psu
Thanks guys for the info! I'm starting to feel really down that my computer is hardware limited to 32Gb. I wish there was away around that. I will definitely have to upgrade because 16Gb is not getting me anywhere close the level that i wanted. I want to go as detailed as possible
