Scene Lag

[EvelyneB]

Hi there,

I have a big project going on and I need it to run smoothly in showcase. I am doing an entire house with alternatives, behaviors and scenes.

My problem is, when I open my project, the first time I go through my scenes, there is a big lag going on. My FPS are going from 150 to 2 FPS when the camera is moving. I go through all my scenes and the second time I run it, it's already better (between 160 and 15 FPS).

Running tests to find ou how to solve this, I found out the reflection in my stainless texture is a problem and my behaviors are too, but there's something else. I think RGB colors are a problem too but I'm not sure. 

I found a Tips and Tricks video from Showcase saying that it would run better by doing a 'Group and combine by cathegory.....' a hidden feature of showcase. Thing is, I tried it and it didn't change anything. The Groups and Geometries stayed the same.

Is there anyone that could help me with this?

Thank you

[cikho]

it is commond that the first time you run a scene it works slower.. then, after a few minutes playing it, it smooths.. my perception is that it is due to geometryes being calculated, shadows, reflections etc being loaded in your ram/vram.

may i ask:

how many polygons are present in the scene?

computer stats?

did you try to choose the option to load all models at startup?

what option did you choose at fil import for the tasselation quality?

[EvelyneB]

That is weird... When I first opened my project, I was at 7361969 polygons. Here are the scenes statitics now:

I know it's a big project, but I need it running...

Here's as much information as I can think of.

Here are my computer stats:

GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX780

I tried to look for an option that sais ''load all models at startup'' but I can't find anything anywhere. Could you give me the path to try and set it?

Thanks a lot!

[EvelyneB]

Ok, I found the option you were talking about:

I tried it. I can't say it's better, but it's definitely not worse.

Oh yeah and the number of polygons got bigger...

[cikho · Accepted solution]

that option should make visibility alts faster to display.. with the other option, object not visible *should* load only when they get visible.. not sure it work perfectly, but it *should* get things smoother.

one other thing you can try is to reduce a little bit the overall object quality (automatic quality control). you can also check the single model quality in the import window (unless you get models directly from fbx)

last but not least: shadows.
check the shadows quality under appearance -> directional light and shadows.
and if possible you could generate precalculated ambient occlusion shadows, under appearence -> ambient shadows but it only works if you have static objects, or things not disappearing, with alternatives, otherwise you could find shadows of hidden objects all around..

small final considerations:

while the total LOD is pretty high, the visible polys are not that high to justify a slow framerate. vice versa you have a LOT of objects and materials in that scene..

337 materials is really a lot, are you sure you don't have double materials etc? try to keep the number of materials, textures etc as small as possible!
7376 object si something i cannot even immagine, my most complex scene is less than 2000 objects (and 5 milion visible polys) and i work in the aereonautic field..

my doubt is that you are keeping a lot of details you don't actually need, like screws and things like that..

from what software are you getting your models from?

last small consideration: showcase is a quite demanding software for videocards.. even quadro cards struggle to get decent FPS with complex scenes, me too i'm running at 10-8 FPS when it's smooth, and i have a quadro 4000..

your gtx750 should be a quite good video card for gaming, and therefore perform well with showcase, but since it's not certified hardware, it's not sure that it works as good as it could..

curiosity, which driver version are you running? we have had major problems with ge-force cards in the past, but if you're running it i assume they got solved.. i could benefit such a news with my laptop 😄

[EvelyneB]

Wow! thank you, that seriously helps. I couldn't find any information on ''average'' scene stats. 

My 'Bake' is already done, and I don,t know if it,s because my alternative pieces don,t move too much, but I don't find the other pieces shadows impact that much.

And here are my drivers details for my GTX780

I'll make some tests to smooth all this, but you were very helpful!

Thanks a lot!

[MarionLandry]

HI,

I agree with all the suggestions mentioned by cikho! He is such a great helper!!

Concerning the "Group By material" information. This will only impact a model from a Revit scene. 

You should always save the scene as, after you run the plug in as you might need to go back to the original version. 

Be aware that this option is hidden because it is not fully tested and you are running it at your own risk. 

That being said. What I suggest all the time is to bring your model via different FBX to help with the managability of Showcase. 

From Revit, manage your visibility and export a different FBX per visibility. For example. I would send a FBX for all furniture, walls, roofing, blablabla.. you might end up with 5-6 different FBX. That way, when you "Group by material" it will be much easier to manage your file, you will get better result and it can really help accelerate the process in Showcase. 

Then you really need to ask yourself if you need EVERYTHING from the revit model.. most of the time.. you don't. For example, you might not need the electrical sytem, some of the structure and other information that make sense in Revit but not in Showcase. ONLY SEND THE OBJECTS you need for your visualization.. 

Then.. everything else Cikho said will help!

Good luck

http://youtu.be/ng1HB9bLF4Q

[cikho]

*blushes* 😄
yep, splitting a scene in several files to be imported is so usefull.. imagine to update a single file with 3000 objects just because you added 1 object..

you slowdown your work a lot! 🙂

oh and thanks marion