Smoke 2015 on mavericks 10.9.2

[truss7]

Anyone else experiencing gradual performance degradation over time. Fine on start up, running like a dog within 1/2 hour. Feels just like 2013 did under mavericks. Running 2015 on non-mavericks 10.8.5 identical imac and all is fine...

OSX 10.9.2 imac i7 3.4Ghz GTX 680MX 2GB, 32GB RAM

[truss7]

more specifically are there any known issues with imac fusion drives and mavericks and smoke 2015 that anyone has heard of at all? 

[BKM]

In theory... Smoke works on Mavericks. But the performaces is still something that Autodesk and Apple are working to improve.

[truss7]

Thanks for the heads up Brian. I have to say I find this kind of thing so frustrating. There is nothing in the release notes or anywhere to warn a user that smoke 2015 on mavericks is running badly. If there was then I wouldn't have upgraded. Lucky it's only my home station! As far as I can tell mavericks 10.9.2 is listed as supported therefore it seems fair to expect workable performance.

I'm trying to run a business not a lottery.

Truss

[snpx]

thanks brian. so i will avoid updating from osx10.8.5 to 10.9.x.

but its interesting, that autodesk tested only the new macpro as compatible with smoke 2015.

[facenorth]

Any news on a resolution to this problem? It seems to be a problem on the new MBP with 1TB solid state drive also. Have people running the new MP had the same issue?

My experience is that Smoke runs fine for a short while then gradually the UI gets more and more "sticky" until finally the whole system freezes, not even able to option+command+esc. This state can last for up to 5 minutes, then suddenly it comes back to life and the whole process starts again.

Cheers,

Angus

[Robert.Adam]

Hi Angus.

If the issue seems to go away on its own, it may be caused by the Spotlight Search indexing service trying to index the contents of your drives.

Have you added your media storage drive to Spotlight's Privacy tab? (under System Preferences > Spotlight)?

You might also try adding all drives to the Privacy tab (therefore basically turning Spotlight off) just to see if that makes the lag go away.

Regards,

Robert.

[facenorth]

Hi Robert,

This was already implemented on the media drive. I changed the DAS with all the media on board to be ignored by spotlight. No difference in the slow-down to graphics freeze issue.

Have you had many users experiencing this?

Wing and a prayer 'til the end now!

Thanks,
Angus

Angus Wilson
VFX Supervisor, Flame & Smoke Artist

Email: angus@facenorthvfx.co.uk
Web: http://facenorthvfx.co.uk
Skype: angus_powerbook
UK Mob: +447956730596

[facenorth]

I think I've found the culprit!

I have been running a 4 bay spinning HD raid with a single SSD accelerator card fitted. This wasn't a problem under 10.8.5.

I remembered some banter regarding Mavericks and the iMac Hybrid drive, so I've removed the SSD.

Stickiness and slowdown gone away and mostly realtime playback restored (considering only 180mb/s on raid 5).

Yay,

Angus

[truss7]

Glad to hear you're up and running Angus! So don't use a SSD with smoke on mavericks? Don't know how I can de-construct the hybrid drive in my imac to make that work... Robert has anyone at autodesk been able to replicate this? Is there any glimmer of a fix on the horizon? 

Thanks

Truss

[gonzalomoure]

Hi Angus I have exactly the same issue, I just reposrted to ADSK, and we are looking for a solution, but right know, the only strange it´s that are some python process on background that have no sense

[gonzalomoure]

I´m still working with the same issue, even after open a case in ADSK. It´s really unconfortable work in this conditions. It´s a shame.

I have a theory, Could be the Fusion Drive the problem? I think, that, if we reproduce the same, on an Imac without Fusion Drive, it would work ok.

What you think guys?

[facenorth]

Most definitely! The fusion drive is the issue under mavericks. In fact I would be very wary of any storage that uses hybrid drives or accelerator cards. I know quite a few people that have '1st birthday-ed' their iMacs to 10.8.5 in order to alleviate this problem. I'm surprised that Autodesk didn't flag this with you as you have an open case regarding this?!!

Cheers,

Angus

[sidewalksurfer]

Having the same problem here on a brand new imac with Flame Assist 2015... "downgrading" to 8.5 isn't an option for me as i'm in the middle of a job.  is there ANYTHING i can do?  i'm really not qualfied to open up and imac and perform surgery!  

thanks for any advice...

tim

SUSPECT

[imag4media]

This has been a problem for me as well. Is there a methodology for disabling the fusion drive?

Thx for the help.
Andy D.

[Robert.Adam]

Hi everyone.

Apologies for the lack of reply. I was on vacation.

I'll flag this issue internally and we'll investigate it.

There are tutorials on the Web about configuring Mac Os to use your fusion drive as two regular drives, but it involves formatting your drive and thus deleting all your data.

Regards,

Robert.

[A_Over_B]

Possibly OT:

I had to move a few TB of stuff from a linux box to a macbook the other day and was umming and ahhing about all kinds of nonsense.

I opted for a 500GB SSD and a 25 dollar USB3 sataIII dock.

Formatted as NTFS to make it cross platform read write (Mac required a 20 dollar driver).

The thing shuffles data at 450MB/s sustained oveer a 25 dollar interface.

Amazing.

(yes there are relatively quick RAID systems on both machines so feeding the little bugger was easy and taking stuff off was easy too)

Just three years ago the process was unbearable.

[sidewalksurfer]

Hey Robert Adam

Any updates on this at all?  nothing but pain and suffering here with these slow down / eventual freeze problems on these imacs with Flame Assist....

really disappointing you guys are shipping software that basically doesnt work.

-tim

SUSPECT

[ksirul]

I've been tortured with 2 long form projects with this system.  It is basically unuseable for 1 hour or longer sequences.  All kinds of weird things going on.  Currently struggling to get a project out.  After rendering, clips become black.  I need to deactivate and reactivate fx to get the clips back and then long renders.  Also, outputting to tape and then insert editing was a bit of a nightmare.  After every 2 insert edits or so, the 3rd would output green, as if the system was outputting dual link on 1 cable.  Restarting Smoke would usually fix this.  When I finally get my current film out, I regrettfully need to get my DS system up and running again, as Smoke w Mavericks on new Mac Pro is completely unuseable for long form.

[truss7]

Little bump... It's been 3 1/2 months since I first posed this mavericks/smoke 2015 question. Have there been any developments at all or even any hints at work arounds? 

We won't even consider buying new mac pros until there is some steer on this as mavericks seems to be such an issue still. Any news at all really would be helpful.