found a good compromise to optimize storage space and performance in exchange for slower load times

[animetiddyenthusiast]

Basically my setup is vam on main drive (nvme SSD) using the var browser plugin but I created a symbolic link between my allpackages folder in vam directory and a repository on a USB hard drive but this could also work with a sata HDD. Basically this plugin caches your stuff on the main drive and loads all the requirements when you load a scene. You'll have longer load times but this way you can keep the hundreds of gb of vars on a larger, slower drive while having in-game performance on par with a clean install.

 

[AWWalker]

Ok, how does it cache? A symlink still points to the original file on the slower drive, is something caching it on the NVME? I picked up dedicated Samsung 990 2TB NVMEs for VAM, but if you can offload the old less used data at rest stuff to a larger slower drive, and have it cache back to the NVME, that would be great. We do this with VMWARE and NUTANIX, i have dedicated SSD NVME Cache drives for frequently used data, and spinning drives for data at rest. Never thought of trying to use that in a way that could benefit VAM or other things like DAZ3D libraries. The plugin does all that for you? Or is it a manual selection... i'm going to look at it, but is it really good?

 

[sfishere]

just try var browser. it will not disappoint you.
it keep the minimum vars in your game but you can view all the vars just like they are all in the game.

 

[AWWalker]

cool

 

[DJ]

If you haven't already, clear your Vam cache, then set the location to a directory on your HD. That will clear up a lot of SSD space. You wont notice any performance drop.

 

[animetiddyenthusiast]

If you haven't already, clear your Vam cache, then set the location to a directory on your HD. That will clear up a lot of SSD space. You wont notice any performance drop.

Best performance with high amount of vars was to put everything on nvme drive, use var browser with the vars actually there and no symlink, and actually disabling my cache as well as turning off memory optimization. However this crashes super easily and takes a lot of storage space. Now Im using the setup from the first post and cache is set to a second sata SSD

 

[animetiddyenthusiast]

Ok, how does it cache? A symlink still points to the original file on the slower drive, is something caching it on the NVME? I picked up dedicated Samsung 990 2TB NVMEs for VAM, but if you can offload the old less used data at rest stuff to a larger slower drive, and have it cache back to the NVME, that would be great. We do this with VMWARE and NUTANIX, i have dedicated SSD NVME Cache drives for frequently used data, and spinning drives for data at rest. Never thought of trying to use that in a way that could benefit VAM or other things like DAZ3D libraries. The plugin does all that for you? Or is it a manual selection... i'm going to look at it, but is it really good?

Yeah the symlink isn't doing anything except redirecting since the plugin doesn't allow me to specify var repo location. I could make it a junction and then it would copy the files over as I use them and my most used scenes would load quicker, but that would use more space. The var browser plugin seems to write its own cache to the C drive once it loads the files. I checked disk activity with resource monitor to confirm this

 

[sfishere]

Yeah the symlink isn't doing anything except redirecting since the plugin doesn't allow me to specify var repo location. I could make it a junction and then it would copy the files over as I use them and my most used scenes would load quicker, but that would use more space. The var browser plugin seems to write its own cache to the C drive once it loads the files. I checked disk activity with resource monitor to confirm this

var browser not write cache to C drive. if you are programmer you can check the source on github.
why var browser not using symlink because it require administrator privileges. it's not allowed.

 

[Case]

If you haven't already, clear your Vam cache, then set the location to a directory on your HD. That will clear up a lot of SSD space. You wont notice any performance drop.

Can confirm - I've moved the Vam-cache (actually, only the /textures/-folder) to an ancient 2TB HDD (linked back to my primary nvme as a junction) and haven't noticed any performance drops.

@DJ: IIRC, you had a pretty detailed & convincing explanation how the VaM cache works somewhere on the official Discord? Maybe copy it over to the Hub, too? It's pretty good advice.

@all: I highly appreciate all the excellent advice, but I'm a bit confused about some terms used - like eg what do you each mean with 'symlink'? Afaics, you can 'softlink' a folder either as a genuine symlink or as a junction - the effect is almost the same, but I think there's some slight technical difference (something about the junction being resolved on the target drive while the symlink is resolved on the origin drive?)

Same with 'cache' - Do you mean the VaM-cache, or the drive's cache or some other form of cache?

 

[kretos]

I'm using VAM and all vars from HDD but VAM's cache is set on SSD. I'm also using var browser. From time to time I have to clear cache manually from oldest files.