Messages

31

Hardware / Re: Threadripper & Ryzen only builds (3rd Gen starts on page 50)

« on: 2022-09-29, 19:32:13 »

Even though my file opening times didn't change with SMT off it does seem like forest pack and material editor are just sliiiightly snappier.  I also noticed my 2080 Ti was plugged into an x8 slot.  I moved it into the x16.  Doubt the bus was ever maxing out with Max but can't hurt.

32

Hardware / Re: Threadripper & Ryzen only builds (3rd Gen starts on page 50)

« on: 2022-09-29, 07:10:16 »

I have it, but it will take me time to test it and review. It has surprisingly conservative power limits.. but it was me who asked for workstation and not gaming laptop. So that much more interesting.

What are the symptoms of the power limits?  Is it not able to render at 100% CPU usage?  Curious because I am thinking at some point I may get an intel 12th gen laptop if I start to hear good things.

33

Hardware / Re: Threadripper & Ryzen only builds (3rd Gen starts on page 50)

« on: 2022-09-28, 18:09:05 »

Guys, is there anyway to speed up things with 3ds max viewport, material editor, etc. on TR 3990x?
I have 3990x workstation with 128gb of RAM, GeForce GTX 1080Ti, NVMe SSD, Win10 + some HP Omen Notebook with i5-10300H, 16gb of RAM, GeForce GTX 1660Ti, Win11 and the laptop is much snappier in terms of working on the 3d model... at least when it's not too big. It's a bit frustrating that notebook which is 1/10 of workstation price works faster. The laptop CPU is 0,5GHz faster on one core but would it make such a difference?

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/3ds-Max-UI-lags-or-seems-sluggish-even-on-very-fast-multi-core-CPUs.html

This makes me even more curious how Juraj's new laptop will perform for him when he finally gets it.  Also out of curiosity, anyone ever seen any improvement by messing with the QT registry keys mentioned in the above link?  I tried this a while ago and thought it helped but I think it was a placebo effect...

34

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Chaos Corona 9 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2022-09-28, 17:16:39 »

Small bug (I think) in the build from 9-27.  If you have IR running in a viewport, and you select your camera, goto Modify tab > Tone Mapping, say 'Copy from Global' and the override check box checks itself, and you goto 'Edit', it has no effect on the exposure until you restart IR.

Hopefully that explanation is clear.  Thanks!
Daniel

35

Hardware / Re: Buying a second hand Xeon for Corona. Does it worth it?

« on: 2022-09-28, 04:40:36 »

Hey Danio,

looks like SMT OFF does make my 3dsMax experience smoother but I don't have patience to stopwatch it somewhat more scientifically :- )

Interesting!  I should have tried some CPU, single threaded modifiers rather than just file opening and max opening times.  GrowFX was way faster years ago when I tried with SMT off.

I mainly tested the concurrent use of IR and Material Editor. My main culprit of laggy workflow.

Yeah it's miserable.  I'm always like 4 clicks ahead and drumming my fingers and getting agitated.  I genuinely think my life inside and outside work would be better if I used less laggy software, but...

Anyway, I'll try SMT off again.  Thanks for the tip.

36

Hardware / Re: Buying a second hand Xeon for Corona. Does it worth it?

« on: 2022-09-27, 17:35:16 »

Hey Danio,

looks like SMT OFF does make my 3dsMax experience smoother but I don't have patience to stopwatch it somewhat more scientifically :- )

Interesting!  I should have tried some CPU, single threaded modifiers rather than just file opening and max opening times.  GrowFX was way faster years ago when I tried with SMT off.

37

[Max] Feature Requests / Re: Random map for Tiles

« on: 2022-09-27, 05:48:54 »

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I think Multitexture plugged into Bercontiles would get you what you're after.  Not that it wouldn't be great to have Corona implement this.  But in the meantime maybe it helps you?

38

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Chaos Corona 9 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2022-09-22, 17:22:47 »

I'm running the DB from September 6 and experiences way more crashes than normal.  They almost always occur when IR is running and I change a material or when assigning a material.  Everything freezes for about 30 seconds, and then the normal crash box pops up that says you can attempt save the scene but then it crashes even further (and doesn't let you save the scene) and I get a strange error about dotnetbrowser and a chromium crash.

Windows 10, Sept 6 build of Corona, Forest Pack, Max 2022 latest SP.

I'll try to get a dump file or create a duplicatable situation, but was just curious if anyone else is seeing similar behavior with any of the newer DB's.

Cheers,
Daniel

Hi,

These crashes should be fixed now in the latest daily build. Can you please try it out and let me know if you still have issues?

You can grab it here: https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=36810.msg203570#msg203570

Thanks,

Rowan

Hi Rowan - That crash is gone but has been replaced by another one that occurs when I'm moving geometry with IR running.  It blinks and hides all geometry for an instant and I only see my Corona sky for a second, and then crash to desktop.  Minidump uploaded to the same ticket #56513.

Thanks!
Daniel

EDIT:  Actually it seems to happen when I scale an object.

39

[Max] Feature Requests / Option to pause IR re-draw until viewport or camera navigation is done

« on: 2022-09-20, 21:26:09 »

It would be awesome if there was an option (maybe a toggle in the render\system settings) that gave you the option to pause IR redraw until you were done with the walkthru camera keys or mouse stroke that is moving your target, etc.  Lots of times I want to 'drive' to various locations real quick, but I only get about 1 second in and then IR grinds to a halt, especially in a heavy scene.  So I stop IR, move my camera, and restart IR. 

I'll sometimes pilot around in other viewports that aren't locked to IR as a hacky solution, but it would be SWEET to be able to tell IR to pause on re-drawing\parsing until the walkthru keys are released.

Cheers and thanks for considering,
Daniel

40

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Chaos Corona 9 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2022-09-20, 16:28:51 »

I'm running the DB from September 6 and experiences way more crashes than normal.  They almost always occur when IR is running and I change a material or when assigning a material.  Everything freezes for about 30 seconds, and then the normal crash box pops up that says you can attempt save the scene but then it crashes even further (and doesn't let you save the scene) and I get a strange error about dotnetbrowser and a chromium crash.

Windows 10, Sept 6 build of Corona, Forest Pack, Max 2022 latest SP.

I'll try to get a dump file or create a duplicatable situation, but was just curious if anyone else is seeing similar behavior with any of the newer DB's.

Cheers,
Daniel

Hi,

These crashes should be fixed now in the latest daily build. Can you please try it out and let me know if you still have issues?

You can grab it here: https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=36810.msg203570#msg203570

Thanks,

Rowan

Downloading now, thanks Rowan!

41

Hardware / Re: Buying a second hand Xeon for Corona. Does it worth it?

« on: 2022-09-19, 23:02:16 »

It may be that!  Or something else to do with they way you setup your machines…wish I knew.  There are a few threads around but this is one (see below).  My issue is solved (mine are the last two posts) except, like I said, when I close Max properly, and only sometimes:

https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=19806.0

42

Hardware / Re: Buying a second hand Xeon for Corona. Does it worth it?

« on: 2022-09-19, 19:45:12 »

I have noticed a difference with GrowFX meta mesh building being faster with SMT off long ago.  Today I decided to test again, and tried opening max, opening a max file, and starting IR and noticed essentially no difference between SMT on and off.  In one case SMT off was 2 seconds faster (out of 36 seconds.)  I don't think it's worth turning off in other words...curious if you find similar results today though.

Interesting you've never had the 'blinking windows' issue with your threadrippers.  Numerous builds have suffered from it with me.  I'd get it while Max is running if Control Flow G was enabled.  With CFG globally disabled I only get it when closing max sometimes.  If I kill the process in windows process explorer it doesn't happen, but if I exit Max properly it happens maybe every 10th time.  Takes about 3 minutes for Windows to stop flashing and me to be able to use the computer again.

43

Hardware / Re: Buying a second hand Xeon for Corona. Does it worth it?

« on: 2022-09-19, 06:21:52 »

I still don't have it :- ) Dell has months long delay, the Precision line was supposed to come out in June.. and it's end of September soon :- ).
I think my delivery is around next week... unless something happens again.

I'll test the 12th gen against my 3990X with SMT turned off. Wish I could test 7950X as well, but I am not buying anything myself I don't really need and I am no longer in hurry to upgrade anything whatsover in terms of hardware.

Thanks for the response.  Yeah I'm in the same boat...my personal modeling\texturing\coordination time is my biggest hold up, not my machines' rendering times.  That said, I'd love a snappier work environment with a faster single threaded speed.  I also always have these little memory glitches on my threadrippers where I get 'blinking windows' upon exiting 3ds max, etc. which causes me heartburn and frustration.  Even with Control Flow Gaurd disabled.  I wonder if Intel would be better in the memory regard.

BTW, do you disable SMT on your threadripper workstation?  I go back and forth but it does make sense...

44

Hardware / Re: Buying a second hand Xeon for Corona. Does it worth it?

« on: 2022-09-18, 08:03:36 »

Answer to this is complicated. There are some great deals still available on eBay for multi-threaded performance, but there was such a technological leap in single-threaded performance over past 2 years (and particularly right now with 12th-gen Intels, and 7xxx AMDs) that I would not go that route right now anymore. At least for 'workstation'. Purely rendering 'node' would be different matter.

Majority of time spent working is creating the scene not rendering a final and faster single-threaded workstation will beat everything.

Have you experienced doing workstation tasks (single threaded 3ds max etc) on a 12th gen yet?  On your new laptop, for example.  Just curious if they are leaps and bounds better than working on a 3xxx threadripper as a workstation.

Cheers,
Daniel

45

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Chaos Corona 9 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2022-09-17, 23:02:31 »

Hah crazy!  Yes, I've had issues with my viewport since the last version or two as well.  I'll start seeing 'through' elements that I shouldn't.  I have to go to 'Flat Color' to fix it, but I was in 'Flat Color' before...so basically just hit that setting again.  And yeah I'm showing some textures in viewport.

Same here - many issues with geometry display in viewports lately, that looks like viewport clipping, but it isn't. Switching between different shading modes helps, but usually only temporary.

I rolled back to the Aug-2 build due to the crashes mentioned above, but just FYI to the devs I am still experiencing the viewport issues (but not crashes) in the Aug-2 build as well.