Adobe AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL User Manual page 42

create an image buffer. Like a hard disk, your address space can become fragmented; if you have Maximum RAM
Cache Size set too high, the memory may become too fragmented to store the next rendered frame. By lowering the
cache percentage, you reduce the chance of fragmentation. Set this value above 60% only if necessary. You should
not set this value above 90%.
When you have enabled multiprocessing, the amount of RAM available to background processes is affected by the
amount of RAM reserved for the foreground process. Decreasing Maximum RAM Cache Size can free memory for
background processes. (See "Render multiple frames simultaneously" on page 36.)
Moves rendered frames to your hard disk when the RAM cache is full. After Effects will only use
Enable Disk Cache
the disk cache to store a frame if it's faster to retrieve a frame from the cache than to re-render the frame. Select a
folder to contain your cache, and click OK (Windows) or Choose (Mac OS). For the best performance, select a folder
that's on a different physical hard disk than your source footage. If possible, the folder should be on a hard disk that
uses a different drive controller than the disk that contains your source footage. The disk cache folder can't be the
hard disk's root folder.
Maximum Disk Cache Size
gigabytes (GB).
Prevent DLL Address Space Fragmentation
memory on a computer with a large amount of RAM. This option may be incompatible with some OpenGL drivers,
which can cause a crash when the application starts. If a crash occurs, the option will become unchecked automati-
cally to prevent further crashes when you start After Effects.
Render multiple frames simultaneously
After Effects can start additional processes of the After Effects application to run in the background to assist the main
application with the rendering of frames for RAM previews or final output. These background processes have the
name AfterFX.exe (Windows) or aeselflink (Mac OS).
Each background process renders its own frame and runs on a separate processor core (CPU). The number of
processes used to render multiple frames simultaneously is never more than the number of processors. The number
of background processes that can run on your computer also depends on the total amount of system RAM and the
amount of RAM that is assigned to the main application (Maximum RAM Cache Size). The amount of RAM
required for each background process varies depending on your system configuration; at least 1GB per process is
recommended.
Note: You can check the current value for Maximum RAM Cache Size by choosing Edit > Preferences > Memory &
Cache (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > Memory & Cache (Mac OS).
If background processes are used for rendering, then the main foreground application is not also used for rendering.
This means that creating background processes only adds to the total number of processes used for rendering if there
are enough resources for at least two background processes to run.
1 Choose Edit > Preferences > Multiprocessing (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > Multiprocessing (Mac OS).
Select Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously.
2
The bottom of the Preferences dialog box shows how many additional processors (in addition to the worst-case
scenario of one processor) will be used at the current settings. To increase the number of background processes that
can run, decrease Maximum RAM Cache Size or install more RAM.
Important: You may experience a small delay when the background processes start for the first time, when the first
render operation occurs. Deselecting Render Multiple Frame Simultaneously stops the background processes; reselecting
the option causes the same delay when the next render operation begins.
Specifies the number of megabytes of hard disk space to use. This should be at least 2
Select this option to give After Effects access to more contiguous
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 36
User Guide