Save GPU Memory - Culling Add-on in Blender

[@Phuey]

appreciate the hard work , hopefully this stays free i know it takes a lot of hard work but this one is a need for the whole community dont get greedy

[@MitkoNikov]

@Phuey Thank you so much! Everything I've done and everything I wish to do on UA-cam has to be accessible for everyone! I know how it feels to be in a position where you couldn't afford things that you need. Everything will remain free forever ❤️ Thanks for reminding me of humanity! Have a wonderful day!

[@foreverleveling]

Thank you for this; I really needed it to save memory and much more when my PC is not that good compared to today's components. Best regards and many successes!

[@MitkoNikov]

UPDATE: I fixed the bug, where a lot of modifiers were added unnecessarily. Also, as suggested updated the Margin limit to 100. I'll try to take the camera orientation into account to be able to cull objects which are behind the camera. It works in 3.0.1 as well. Just download the script, remove the old one and install the new one. Thank you guys for all of the support. ❤

[@SpencerMagnusson]

I figured someone had done some form of culling, good work! I actually made a culling addon late last year called nView (on Blender Market). I do have a mask operation similar with using a mask modifier (but doesn't update per frame, still figuring out how I want to go about that), along with some object-level keyframing options and animation support. Great demo, Mitko! Hope I can do figure out real-time culling like yours.

[@user-uu1ko7oi8z]

THIS, is what Blender needed from it's creation. And other 3D software need. Great video great addon thank you author both of video and addon

[@stealthproductionz6648]

thank you so much. Out of the blue it has started maxing out my memory for 0 reason. Just randomly started happening with 0 explanation but this has returned it back to normal. Thank you so much.

[@ryanmcgowan3061]

Works in 4.0. Great addon!!!

[@jaybryan5808]

Lmao just wanted to ask. Cheers mate

[@DarwinsGreatestHits]

I'm using Blender 3.1.2. Sometimes the camera culling doesn't work. I enable it on a mesh with no modifiers, then when I look at the vertex groups and modifiers, they're both empty. Nothing got created.

[@OfficialOGJ]

Great video and awesome channel!
🤜🤛

[@TETRINO]

Thank you for this. My only request is to enable a margin larger than 1.0 by default - I've done it directly for myself because I did find a couple cases where 1.0 wasn't enough (typically with a camera really close to a mesh surface). Edit: Also seems to render things behind the camera if close enough, which is a bit strange.

[@MitkoNikov]

UPDATE: I fixed the bug, where a lot of modifiers were added unnecessarily. Also, as suggested updated the Margin limit to 100. I'll try to take the camera orientation into account to be able to cull objects which are behind the camera. It works in 3.0.1 as well. Thank you guys for all of the support. ❤

[@TETRINO]

@@MitkoNikov You're great, thank you for updating!

[@afrosymphony8207]

what is the difference between this and turning on render region b4 rendering, plus the fact the we have to remove modifiers b4 this works is kinda bad for non destructive workflow.

[@SpencerMagnusson]

For Cycles, effectively and technically everything is rendered (even with the render region on). It does optimizations so this still goes fast. The culling he's doing merely shortens the list of geometry that could potentially be rendered (for dense scenes especially, this makes a big difference). Using modifiers does make it inconvenient, ideally this would be done within Blender (which Cycles can now do per-object!). I am working on an addon, nView, that hopefully can resolve culling problems.

[@buzzdx]

is this still in development? last update was july 2020 according to github. i think it's a nice function for some scenarios, in others it can't really be used since removing off camera geometry would also remove shadow casters, reflections and ao.

[@MitkoNikov]

I'm currently working on Nebulae Creation Guide in Blender and I hadn't had the time to work on this plugin. I haven't had any response from the Blender devs, so I thought if someone has the time, feel free to improve it, or a collab is welcomed.

[@buzzdx]

@@MitkoNikov i see, thanks for answering.

[@SpencerMagnusson]

I'm currently working on a similar addon, nView, on the Blender Market. Although it doesn't have the realtime update option, I hope to add it as an upcoming feature.

[@hanitouati]

I've tried it on my terrain and it makes a looooot of mask modifiers is that okay ... like almost 200 modifier

[@MitkoNikov]

Now, I've fixed that bug, I'm sorry that I didn't fixed it sooner, now you should try and play around with it. Please message me, if you can still replicate it.

[@atriptoreality]

Good work and useful add-on but does the camera cull consider the applied modifiers ? When I have a plane with subdivision modifier, with enabling the camera cull I get only one edge from the plane. If I apply the subdivision modifier I get the proper culling.

[@SpencerMagnusson]

I double checked the code, and yes it only checks the mesh data without applying modifiers. Part of the reason is because it makes the culling run quicker, and I believe vertex groups only contain non-modifier vertex data.

[@Stimes]

Can you make a new version with ray casting and occlusion culling ? But based on camera not on the mesh, with ray casting you got more precision, because with the v1 is like not precise :) if you know nvidia mesh shader, like this if you can x')

[@SpencerMagnusson]

I'm not the creator, but I can speak on this. Occlusion culling or raycasting is possible, however it would be slow, especially if you want something to update in real-time as you play back frames or the camera. It could definitely be done realtime if done within Blender's internal draw system and using GPU, but not as a Python addon only working with Blender API.
That being said, I'd love to figure out a faster option - I am actually developing a culling addon at the moment (nView, on the Blender Market). I have occlusion culling as an option, but the culling is to manually hide objects or parts of the mesh - not real-time playback.

[@-CornDawg]

Does this work with Blender 4.0?

[@Deezsirrer]

Doesn't work It just Slow my Blender Down 10 times when enable it Even when not using it to any Object Before Render

[@MitkoNikov]

This is due to a bug, it adds a lot of modifiers (instead of just one) for some reason. I haven't had the time to fix the bug. Blender has some weird issues when checking do modifiers exist.

[@kokoalmasry]

can i use this addon for an large environment with a lot of objects?!

[@MitkoNikov]

This addon is object-based. So, you would need to apply it on each object separately. Blender has built-in camera culling which works if the object is fully not-visible. So, you may combine both. But this addon is mainly made for single high poly objects.

[@kokoalmasry]

@@MitkoNikov how I can enable camera culling that comes with blender ?

[@_Pawelski]

The addon does nothing. I've tried with 2.9 and 2.8. No vertices are added to the group

[@MitkoNikov]

I'm well aware that there may exist some bugs, but it should work fine. On what mesh did you try it and does it generate the Mask Modifier?

[@_Pawelski]

@@MitkoNikov 2 times subdivided cube so basically sphere with only quads. All modifiers were applied. Mask is created and enabling mesh culling in fact resets viewport but thats it, no visual change in mesh and no vertices in vertex group

[@MitkoNikov]

@@_Pawelski When you say modifiers (plural) what do you mean? Try applying the subdivision modifiers, then enable the culling from the object properties. But be warned, this addon is not GPU accelerated, so the viewport may lag, that's why I said have a subdivision modifier after the mask modifier set to Adaptive is the best way. Also, what do you mean the viewport resets (this is not a feature, there shouldn't be any change to the viewport). The addon takes the main camera into account, so if you don't have set the main camera in the Scene options, or you have delete it, the plugin won't work. And finally, I would be glad if you can send me the blend file, so I can make some analysis and improvements. Thanks for letting me know!

[@_Pawelski]

@@MitkoNikov 3 times I've created new scene with either subdivided cube or sphere. I've always applied subd modifiers before activating culling. Default scene always has one main camera.
Ticking "enable" box in object properties does create mask modifier and it does update viewport so sampling is reverted (and that is desired effect because it happens every time you change some value in Blender).
Changing margin or enabling distance culling doesn't work neither.
I went into edit mode, I've tried to select vertices from mask vertex group and nothing was selected.
Same results with Blender 2.80.0 LTS as with August 17th Blender 2.90. Switching from Optix to CUDA has no effect.
Windows 10, rtx 2070, ryzen 5 2600

[@MitkoNikov]

@@_Pawelski Thank you for the comprehensive information. I will try different versions and see if I can recreate the problem. I will write to you in a day or two.

[@shubhambisht1328]

look all plugin of blender have bugs show us some blender stand alone techniques

[@MitkoNikov]

There are already videos on this topic i.e. camera culling techniques. Any help in making the plugin better is very much appreciated.