still a few issues with sp1

Anonymous · ‎06-23-2008

Hi all,

I have noticed that DBR now seems to work a lot more predictably - I've just done 3 consecutive DBRs and all 3 finished perfectly without crashing. Fingers crossed that this is now a usable tool.

However I still notice a few issues with 2009 SP1: (i'm on design 64 by the way)

- background system speed is still ridiculously low during rendering (and opening scenes) - typing text into this very window is taking ages.
- sometimes max doesn't want to exit (forcing "end process")
- select an object in one viewport, hit T to go to "top viewport" and suddenly you're in perspective view from the top. very irritating.
- random viewport zooms/movement (similar to above)

the main irritation is this background system speed issue. it makes my system virtually unusable during rendering, which is a real hassle when I want to jump into photoshop during a render.

i guess i posted this to see if anyone else is having these issues and can offer any help/workarounds.

cheers,

companioncube · ‎06-23-2008

yep, hoped it would help system speed too 😞
and the viewport jumps are a litte annoying.
have had no crashes since i put Sp1 in though which is nice!

still i love the mental ray proxies, composite map and spline in Unwrap modifier

Anonymous · ‎06-23-2008

rendering process taking over all resources is a good thing i think! i render with vray on very fast (dual quad) machines and can't do much else simultaneously because its using every available resource to give me a fast render!

BUT, here are a couple useful tips...

1. have a second computer (i do email/web/light pshop on my laptop and use workstation only for workstation stuff)
2. (the cheaper alternative) if you have multi processors and/or hyperthreading, you can specify which procs your applications use. go to task manager (ctrl-alt-del) and under process, right click on the max app that is rendering, click "Set Affinity..." you'll get a list of processors with check boxes. uncheck one or more and *poof* you have resources for other stuff !!!

Anonymous · ‎06-23-2008

uplink - thanks but this is not the issue. setting processor affinity (or the better alternative of setting the thread priority to "below normal") used to be the solution in max 2008 and earlier because your system would work exactly as if you were not rendering at all but you would also get full (or 99%) rendering speed. since 2009 this has no effect any more.

it's difficult to explain but it's like a memory issue. if i hit render and start typing this message, if I type it quickly (as normal) then half the words come out garbled with letters in the wrong place. it's like max (or mr?) is dominating the memory *so* much that whatever you're typing gets left behind to be dealt with later and sometimes doesn't get executed in the correct order. again, setting affinity or priority has no effect on this. neither does changing the BSP types or any of the "processing" tab settings (like memory limits or conserve memory).

to be clear, this used to work in 2008 and previous, but not since 2009. as such this is a problem with 2009, and a major one at that.

Anonymous · ‎06-23-2008

I agree with uplink, I'm glad to see both cores slamming at 100 percent in mental ray, and who does not have a second computer on a KVM switch these days... I've got an extra one you can have 1.7 Ghz,.. I' don't think this a major issue, but a minor misunderstanding.

But then I am experiencing pretty good performance with Max 2009 running right now, so perhaps it is a matter of how hot your chips are! I'm running 2.8 Core Duo & 4 (3.2) Gigs of RAM for example, and browsing, typing, & even U-toobing are quite responsive.

I've done nothing with affinity or priority, so I'll try to keep an open mind.

-Shea

Anonymous · ‎06-24-2008

Hi all,

- select an object in one viewport, hit T to go to "top viewport" and suddenly you're in perspective view from the top. very irritating.
- random viewport zooms/movement (similar to above)

cheers,

I can confirm that...

Anonymous · ‎06-24-2008

I agree with uplink, I'm glad to see both cores slamming at 100 percent in mental ray, and who does not have a second computer on a KVM switch these days... I've got an extra one you can have 1.7 Ghz,.. I' don't think this a major issue, but a minor misunderstanding.

But then I am experiencing pretty good performance with Max 2009 running right now, so perhaps it is a matter of how hot your chips are! I'm running 2.8 Core Duo & 4 (3.2) Gigs of RAM for example, and browsing, typing, & even U-toobing are quite responsive.

I've done nothing with affinity or priority, so I'll try to keep an open mind.

-Shea

It seems that only certain people have this issue with background system speed then. But be sure that it's not a minor misunderstanding. The processor thread priority trick worked in 2008 and previous but does not work now. Yes, I have several systems I use for rendering but my "main" machine is still the hub for test renders and e-mail/surfing. I now have to jump into a different machine for these quick tests, which is a major productivity loss for me. I want to be able to Photoshop at the same time as rendering, which I used to be able to do - I can't any more unless I fire up another node and KVM into it. I'f I'm using all 3 nodes for DBR or net rendering I can't work on anything else whatsoever!

It's not a matter of max (or mr) using 100% CPU - it already was in 2008, but you could also use your system for anything else you wanted at the same time. This is no longer possible in 2009 (for some people anyway). I have no idea why this only applies to certain users and not others.

Still, I have to say that I've now done something like 8 full DBR renders and none of them crashed.... yet! Frankly if that keeps working I can put up with not being able to use my system during a render. Still, at this price one should not have to put up with that.

Anonymous · ‎06-24-2008

- select an object in one viewport, hit T to go to “top viewport” and suddenly you’re in perspective view from the top. very irritating.
- random viewport zooms/movement (similar to above)

This can be repaired by renaming AutoCamMax.gup to AutoCamMax.gup.BAK, or just deleting it.

-Shea

Anonymous · ‎06-24-2008

I've tried that Shea - i also have SP1 installed which was supposed to fix all that nonsense I thought.

Thanks,

Anonymous · ‎06-24-2008

Hi. I installed the SP1 and then went and renamed the autocam.max.gup file so its dead.

Works fine without the cube taking up vital screen space.

Rick

Anonymous · ‎06-24-2008

- select an object in one viewport, hit T to go to "top viewport" and suddenly you're in perspective view from the top. very irritating.

i havent gotton the randome perpective view changing since updateing to sp1. granted, its only been a few hours, but i was gettig ever 10 seconds yesterday.

Anonymous · ‎06-24-2008

Hi all,.....
- background system speed is still ridiculously low during rendering (and opening scenes) - typing text into this very window is taking ages.
....
the main irritation is this background system speed issue. it makes my system virtually unusable during rendering, which is a real hassle when I want to jump into photoshop during a render.....
cheers,

What I usually do is just change the 3dsmax.exe process priority in Task Manager...change it to "below normal". You get a dire warning of doom to come, but I've never noticed any problems resulting from it. But it may be wise to remember to do it BEFORE you start rendering.

Anonymous · ‎06-24-2008

sorry but as i've mentioned a few times in this thread I have tried that already. that's what i used to do in 2008 and previous versions and it worked a charm - it has no effect in 2009 for me.

the really odd thing is that only certain people seem to have the issue at all in 2009.

if you do have this issue, can you post if you are on 64-bit? perhaps it's local only to 64-bit installs?

thanks,

Anonymous · ‎06-24-2008

Oops sorry Alex...that's just me having trouble reading this bloody web board...
jeez I hate this html format...I wish they would bring back NNTP access!

Anonymous · ‎06-24-2008

no worries! 🙂

Anonymous · ‎08-25-2008

sorry but as i've mentioned a few times in this thread I have tried that already. that's what i used to do in 2008 and previous versions and it worked a charm - it has no effect in 2009 for me.

the really odd thing is that only certain people seem to have the issue at all in 2009.

if you do have this issue, can you post if you are on 64-bit? perhaps it's local only to 64-bit installs?

thanks,

I have the same problem - XP64, max design 2009 sp1, dual-quad core xeon, 8GB ram....and the machine locks up nearly water-tight when rendering, regardless of 'processor priority' setting in the Task Manager. Typing emails and IM's is excruciating - one character appears per second.

We upgraded from MAX9 a week back and this is very nearly a deal-breaker for me, as max9 made very pretty pictures, and we could be productive while rendering. Sitting around and watching render buckets just isn't much fun. Thankfully we've not uninstalled already.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm more than open to them!

-Michael

Anonymous · ‎09-02-2008

I have the same problem too,

xp64, 4gb ram, 2 AMD dual cores. quadroFX gfx board.
While rendering, machine it's unusable. Even with task priority set to minimum. Very BAD.

CAMedeck · ‎09-02-2008

I can't help but laugh a little inside right now... I'm sorry.

There have been threads here complaining that Max doesn't use ENOUGH resources, that there is still memory and CPU available and people think it should use EVERYTHING to make rendering go faster.

Now we have a thread saying it uses TOO MUCH, and that there should be some left available to do other things. I hope I'm not the only one seeing the irony here...

BTW, I usually am here on the Area while rendering, so I know about slow typing. I've also learned not to type too far ahead of the computer, as it starts to garble the text.

Chris Medeck
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Anonymous · ‎09-02-2008

No Chris, that's not how it's supposed to work. For the past 8 versions of max, I've been able to have a 3dsmax.exe process rendering at low (in the NT days) or BelowNormal priority and work in another max session or do heavy photoshop work in the meantime.

I can confirm that with both Vray and Brazil2, if I turn on low thread priority in the renderer and set the process priority to belownormal, I can work the same way as I always did in max 2009-32 and -64 on WinXPx64. Furthermore, I recall in the days of max 7 that mentalray.dlz had threading issues that hurt it the other way ( see http://splutterfish.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19707 ), so more threading problems are not terribly surprising.

Besides, the people saying max doesn't use enough resources have been more or less universally misinformed, except in the above-linked case and as regards limits of the 32-bit address space.

Anonymous · ‎09-02-2008

I have the same problem - XP64, Max 2009 SP1, Dual-Quad Core Xeon, 8GB ram, QuadroFX card.
Hit render, and the machine is unusable for anything else.
The inability to multi-task does make me feel a bit nostalgic though...

still a few issues with sp1

still a few issues with sp1

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