PF Source particle's interactivity seems slow compared to older Max version

[RobH2]

I rarely use particles but I'm following a tutorial from Max 2012. I'm watching the author interactively drag settings for the wind he has set up on a plane to vary the shape of some drips. It's real time and fluid when he drags and you can watch the changes occur on the model smoothly. 

When I do the same thing, following the tutorial exactly in Max 2022 (as well as Max 2020 and 2021), it's painful. And I have a pretty powerful machine, I'm sure much more powerful than anything available in 2012. When I make a change, all viewports flash black and it takes about 5 seconds for the adjustment update to occur. Actually, I can't drag the values as that creates chaos. I have to input values or things just grind to a halt. 

Is this normal these days for PF Source work or am I having some issues? I've run benchmarks on my machine and it's performing perfectly in all the parameters tested. 

Thoughts?

[RobH2 · Accepted solution]

Ah ha, I figured it out. I've spent 3 hours on this and it's funny how once you post, you frequently figure it out. 

I have a water/glass material in my PF Event. That's being calculated. I turned it off and now I have interactivity. That material was being calculated even as I just have 'ticks' set as the display. 

I hope this helps someone else out who, like me, doesn't use Particles often or is just learning them. Just don't put a complex material on the particles until you have it ready to go if you want smooth interactivity while setting up.  

I hope this helps someone, it did me...lol...