Digital Art Zone

It is very unwieldy and slow to work with scenes in DS 4 if there are more than 2 or 3 human figures in it. This was true of DS 3 of course, but I had hoped it would be better with DS 4 and the “lighter” Genesis figure.

Instead, it seems to have gotten even worse.

I have a fairly high-end machine and video card with plenty of RAM, so I don’t understand why DS4 is moving so slow and sucking down all my resources (processor use is at 100% when these scenes are being opened).

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas?

Do you have a firewall blocking CMS?  What does “Help > Troubleshooting > About your Video Card” say?  Is this 32-bit or 64-bit DS4?

What exact version of DS4?  Some of the early 4.x line were pretty miserable in terms of viewport performance.  There were definite fixes in 4.5.x that improved this and I’ve loaded up scenes with 7 or 8 Gen4s plus scenery, etc. and it’s at least as fast (if not better) than it was in DS3.

ETA: Also, if you’re still at 100% CPU after DS has opened the scene then it’s “tdlmake” that’s the culprit.  One of the changes made was to do the texture optimization at load time rather than prior to rendering.  This means at scene load, especially on a large scene, every texture has to be optimized.  This can use a lot of CPU.  If you watch your task manager for tdlmake.exe you’ll see several instances running.  It may be that this is your issue.

I’m not sure what “CMS” is. I know that after I had my computer repaired and upgraded a few months ago, the repair person did the settings in such a way that I have to grant “Administrator permission” for every single change - including adding new content to the Poser Runtime folder I use (doesn’t seem to be an issue when I make changes to the DAZ Runtime).

Do you think this has something to do with it?

To answer your other question:

Current OpenGL Version:
4.2.0

OpenGL Provider:
NVIDIA Corporation

Hardware:
GeForce GTS 450/PCIe/SSE2

Features:

MultiTexturing
Supported

Shadow Map
Supported

Hardware Antialiasing
Supported

OpenGL Shading Language
Supported

Pixel Buffer
Supported

Pixel Buffer Size
Not Enabled

Maximum Number of Lights
8

Number of Texture Units
4

Maximum Texture Size
16384 x 16384

DS version is 4.03.19, Advanced, 64-bit (I’m running Windows 7 with 8 GB RAM and an AMD Athnon 64X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+).

I have noticed that the CPU continues to run at 100% for several minutes after a scene has been opened.  So - that’s the “tdlmake”? How do I address this or stop it from optimizing textures at load time?

Thanks.

kayma - 06 June 2012 04:37 PM

I’m not sure what “CMS” is.

Content Management Service.

kayma - 06 June 2012 04:37 PM

I know that after I had my computer repaired and upgraded a few months ago, the repair person did the settings in such a way that I have to grant “Administrator permission” for every single change - including adding new content to the Poser Runtime folder I use (doesn’t seem to be an issue when I make changes to the DAZ Runtime).

Do you think this has something to do with it?

No, this is normal behavior for Vista and/or Windows 7.

kayma - 06 June 2012 04:37 PM

DS version is 4.03.19, Advanced, 64-bit (I’m running Windows 7 with 8 GB RAM and an AMD Athnon 64X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+).

  I’m leaning towards this being the issue.  You should at least be on version 4.0.3.47.

kayma - 06 June 2012 04:37 PM

I have noticed that the CPU continues to run at 100% for several minutes after a scene has been opened.  So - that’s the “tdlmake”? How do I address this or stop it from optimizing textures at load time?

You don’t really.  You pretty much have to let it finish.

I ran into this problem too. I got around it (to a degree) by creating and posing each characters separately and saving each scene. When I had everything, I merged them all together.

I find it useful to set the Resolution of Genesis to the base level while working on a scene.  When you are ready to reder the final image, then set it back to hires.

You can find the option on the Parameter Tab when Genesis is selected in the scene.

“I’m leaning towards this being the issue.  You should at least be on version 4.0.3.47”

How do I get this version? And if I install it, will it make it impossible to open old scenes (as has happened the last two times I upgraded)?

Try the Daz 4.5 Beta if you not rely on any external plugins like GenX or Reality right now. It is much faster even with high resolution. I did not play with it but with the DAZ 4.5 introduced instancing and geometry shell might be something for you as well. Read about in more detail here: http://greywulf.net/2012/05/three-things-to-love-about-daz-studio-4-5-rc1/

DAZ 4.5 thread (http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/64/)
3. Viewport speed dramatically increased. For many viewport interactions, speed will be 2-5x faster than DAZ Studio 4.0.

kayma - 06 June 2012 10:19 PM

“I’m leaning towards this being the issue.  You should at least be on version 4.0.3.47”

How do I get this version? And if I install it, will it make it impossible to open old scenes (as has happened the last two times I upgraded)?

Just reset your download to get 4.0.3.47.  You shouldn’t have any trouble with old scenes.  I wouldn’t try the DS4.5 RC yet—stick with the stable release for now.

adamr001 - 06 June 2012 05:42 PM

You don’t really.  You pretty much have to let it finish.

he he he, i normally go off and make a coffee or something

Try the Daz 4.5 Beta if you not rely on any external plugins like GenX

All of that with 4.5 sounds exciting - unfortunately, I do rely heavily on GenX to recreate characters in an ongoing graphic novel as well as use my massive library of legacy clothing items (on which I have spent more than I want to think about over the years).

On that last topic, EvilInnocence has a very nice little application that allows one to convert clothing items designed for one figure to fit virtually any other figure. It’s called CrossDresser, and I’ve managed to get old Poser 4 items fit to V4 and M4 very nicely - then, using the GenX Plugin, even fit these to Genesis with about 90-95% accuracy. The results are not to hard to fix in post (since I primarily do cartoon-style images, I don’t need stuff to fit perfectly).

kayma - 07 June 2012 11:39 AM

Try the Daz 4.5 Beta if you not rely on any external plugins like GenX

All of that with 4.5 sounds exciting - unfortunately, I do rely heavily on GenX to recreate characters in an ongoing graphic novel as well as use my massive library of legacy clothing items (on which I have spent more than I want to think about over the years).

On that last topic, EvilInnocence has a very nice little application that allows one to convert clothing items designed for one figure to fit virtually any other figure. It’s called CrossDresser, and I’ve managed to get old Poser 4 items fit to V4 and M4 very nicely - then, using the GenX Plugin, even fit these to Genesis with about 90-95% accuracy. The results are not to hard to fix in post (since I primarily do cartoon-style images, I don’t need stuff to fit perfectly).

 

GenX isn’t for clothes fitting, only character morphs.

Well, I run the 32bit version cause lip syncing doesn’t work in the 64bit. I have a scene I’m working on now with 2 mil horse, with saddles and reigns, 2 genesis characters, fully clothed, 3 deer, a dragon, about 60 trees, and numerous landscaping parts, a running river, and a turning skydome. Basically, the only way I can sit and animate all the figures, is by turning the visibility of everything else off. Whatever I don’t need as a reference, I turn off. Once most of the scene is off, the program is still a slight bit laggy but I am able to animate things pretty efficiently. Even just turning the visibility of the clothing can help quite a bit. I’m running a quad core, but that’s the only major difference. More cores definitely seems to help, as I see all 4 of mine being used with 2 of them jumping to 100% during the processing of each frame while creating a movie.