16GB or 24 GB RAM for Photoscan

[Super_Saffer]

I want to use Photoscan for orthophoto and mapping purposes.  My laptop currently only has 8GB ram (4GBx2).  To speed things up, should I get another 4GBx2, or 8GBx2? 

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8278s-clevo-p170sma-p-6985.html

[Marcel]

Put in as much RAM as you can afford / fits. For larger scans the meshing stage will need a ton of memory, and even 24GB will probably not be enough.

[Super_Saffer]

OK thanks!

[igor73]

I got 64GB RAM and i do really large projects on that machine.  Dividing the the mesh in to chunks before mesh generation you can process large projects.  Align and dense stage is not that memory  demanding.  Put as much RAM as you possibly can.   Going over 64 GB tends to get expensive on desk tops though. 

[mrb]

I got 64GB RAM and i do really large projects on that machine.  Dividing the the mesh in to chunks before mesh generation you can process large projects.  Align and dense stage is not that memory  demanding.  Put as much RAM as you possibly can.   Going over 64 GB tends to get expensive on desk tops though.

+1

Even with 64gb ram I have run out of memory at mesh generation.  Good point about chunks, but it's not always feasible when you don't want gaps in the mesh, or need a single continuous mesh.  64gb is probably good for projects under 500 photos on medium quality.

[igor73]

Gaps in the mesh is a problem. It can be overcome usiing Zbrush though and merging all the chunks with dynamesh.  Its a lot of extra work and Zbrush is 900USD and takes some time to learn but the result after editing the mesh in zbrush can often be worth it. 

[mrb]

Gaps in the mesh is a problem. It can be overcome usiing Zbrush though and merging all the chunks with dynamesh.  Its a lot of extra work and Zbrush is 900USD and takes some time to learn but the result after editing the mesh in zbrush can often be worth it.

True - Zbrush is great.  The problem with dynamesh is that it automatically closes any holes in the mesh.  That's fine for sculpture or an object, but I often work with models of terrain and landscapes, and when dynamesh closes the "holes" it adds a ton of extra geometry across the bottom of the mesh and often it self-intersects.  Have you found any way around that?

[Super_Saffer]

I only want to do smaller processing on the laptop, so maybe I'll just spring for the max of 32GB. Around 20Acres at a time, at as high a quality as possible. 

I'll be needing to map larger areas this North American summer, and I'm starting to look at workstations or network processing.  My department has 3 lab areas with networked computers ranging from Core 2 Duo's with 2-4 GB ram, to i7's with 4-8GB ram.  It's a bit of a mish-mash, but we have around 30 of them.  Would it be better to use the network processing feature on photoscan (How does licensing work then?), or to spend 3000-5000 USD on a workstation?  The university gets pretty good deals from Dell.

[igor73]

Super_Saffer, i think you need one pro license for each computer so buying a fast workstation may be a better option.

MRB, there are a few work arounds for getting around the Dynamesh nasty hole filling.  One is extracting the mesh to give it thickness and the plug the holes manually with insert meshes and then  re dynamesh. There are also some other ways to get around it but don´t have the time right niw to describe them.

 Have you tried processing the mesh using extraploated (i think its called) that way you get a watertight mesh and for terrain that is mostly flat that could work out for you. 

[Super_Saffer]

Workstation it is then.

[Pixel UAV]

We do aerial surveys of 2000 photos or more at a time.  Have a 64gb machine with a 220gb Solid State Drive and a SWAP overflow.  A SWAP overflow is a part of your hard drive dedicated for the RAM to fill once it reaches capacity.
A relatively cheap way to boost your RAM, however will never be as fast as traditional RAM. Works a treat though

[igor73]

Interesting with the SWAP solid state.  How do you set this up for Agisoft?.  Everytime i ran out of RAM Agisoft crashes.   

[Super_Saffer]

We do aerial surveys of 2000 photos or more at a time.  Have a 64gb machine with a 220gb Solid State Drive and a SWAP overflow.  A SWAP overflow is a part of your hard drive dedicated for the RAM to fill once it reaches capacity.
A relatively cheap way to boost your RAM, however will never be as fast as traditional RAM. Works a treat though

Did you just increase the SWAP file size in windows?  Also, what CPU and GPU do you use?

What do you think would be the cheapest way I could process projects of 2000 or more?

i7, Nvidia 970, 32 Gigs ram, 1 TB SSD?

[Pixel UAV]

A IT support man who built the computer set up the swap, so i don't know how it is done
However our setup is:

Processor-  i7-4930k @ 3.7GHz

RAM - 64gb (not sure on speed but its over the standard 1600)

Graphics- GeForce GTX 770 (two of these)

SSD1 -220gb (dedicated only to SWAP space, however this is only 64gb full, sorry i'm not sure how this works, but you may get away with a smaller drive)

SSD2 -220gb(the "c" drive, photoscan and other programs installed here, if you want to save money i would ditch this drive in favor of a traditional hard drive)

Hard drive-1tb (used for storage of our jobs)

Motherboard - X79-UP4 (we got this one as it is capable of handling 3 graphics cards in case we want to upgrade with an extra in the future)

The whole system is liquid cooled as 10 hour runs on big jobs can produce some serious heat(our old machine would hit 75 Celsius which i'm told is not good.)

We will process 2000 photos of quarry surveys etc in under 15 hours without the need to split into chunks. Over 3000 photos i will split into chunks.  Our camera is a Nex7 24mp, photos are typically taken with a GSD of 1.5cm.
 I do not promise that you will get they same speeds with the same machine.  Iv been at this for two years and found that a lot of getting speed out of photoscan is about the settings and what you want for an end result. it is very easy to overdo the processing with way to high settings.

What kind of price are you hoping for?

[Super_Saffer]

Sho, that's still quite a beefy machine!

I would say around 2-3000 USD. 

Possible?