Difference in reliability and performance between VFB IR and Viewport IR

[danio1011]

Has anyone else noticed a difference in performance and buginess between Viewport IR and VFB IR?  Both myself and one of my staff have noticed this independently in different scenes and different computers.  Here's what we've noticed:

Viewport IR:
- Faster to update when scene changes, less lag when selecting items in other viewports, max GUI stays responsive, orbiting and panning in other viewports stays fast
- Copy to clipboard never freezes the computer

VFB IR:
- Quite a bit slower.  The only time I've found it to be as responsive as the viewport is if I don't resize it, so it's still not filling the window.  There seems to be something about resizing the VFB that causes it to slow down.  Note: this is not because it's 'bigger' than the viewport IR.  It just seems to be something about resizing it.
- Randomly geometry will not appear (objects, walls missing, etc) and I have to restart IR to get the geometry to show up.  A little nervewracking :)
- Goes into an infinite pause when copying contents to clipboard sometimes

I believe the last VFB item (crash when copying to clipboard) started with the bloom & glare progress bar was integrated a while ago.  I and others reported it and I think it was fixed for a while but it's back in the latest builds.

Just curious if anyone else has had a similar set of experiences or if it's something to do with my builds.

3ds Max 2021
Corona RC5
Windows 10 latest updates
RTX 2080 Ti 462.59
3990x and 3970x, depending
128gb ram or 64gb ram, depending

[Juraj]

Viewport IR:
- Faster to update when scene changes, less lag when selecting items in other viewports, max GUI stays responsive, orbiting and panning in other viewports stays fast

OK, now you got my curiosity ! I never actually used this feature but this sounds promising.

We have basically identical computers, best on market you can buy and I am constantly amazed how extremely shitty is 3dsMax during IR. I have no idea where the fault is, is it 3dsMax or Corona? Or both?

But basically during IR doing anything is like on Pentium II during swapping.

[danio1011]

I hadn't used it either, but then my intern was using it so scenes set up by him had the viewports setup that way.  I always found it irritating until I tried it and then I thought 'wow, this runs way faster than vfb!'  I mentioned it to him and he said 'oh yeah, the VFB is slower and sometimes geometry doesn't show up for some reason.'  *shrug*

I'll be super curious if you find the same thing, should only take 5 minutes to test.  It could be why some people think IR is amazing and some people think it's super slow.  Or maybe it's just my specific computer and you won't see any difference...

[aaouviz]

I've used Viewport IR exclusively for 2-3 years and haven't ever experienced a major 3DSMax slow-down during Interactive rendering.

I have noticed, however, is how slow it runs in IR VFB. Is this what you mean? I always figured it was because I'm rendering at higher res (I usually set the IR VFB to full-screen, whereas the Viewport IR is only 1/4 of my 3DS max work-space...)

I also basically never get issues of objects not appearing in Viewport IR.

[danio1011]

I have noticed, however, is how slow it runs in IR VFB. Is this what you mean? I always figured it was because I'm rendering at higher res (I usually set the IR VFB to full-screen, whereas the Viewport IR is only 1/4 of my 3DS max work-space...)

Yep!  That's exactly what I mean.  Doesn't seem to be size dependent to me...just VFB = slower, viewport = faster.  But perhaps there's happening behind the scenes to VFB with 4k monitors or something.  Either way, big break through for me now that IR is actually responsive in the viewport!

[aaouviz]

Interesting!

I've always wondered if it's possible/sensible to put the IR in a floating Viewport? Might be a nice balance between the two options...and it might solve your issue?

[Juraj]

"Objects not appearing" is imho another issue that was I believe fixed recently, a month or two ago. It was due to displacement and VFB resizing. Just my guess.

I have massive 3dsMax GUI slow-down (re-draw issue and lag) regardless of VFB size. 1/4 of screen or 2/3 of screen (of 4K monitor).

I've had plenty of people suggest and guess it could be due to multi-monitor and HiDPI scaling issue. I use 3x 4K monitors at 150perc. scaling. But like, what am I supposed to do with that :- ), that's reality of workstation today.

I just tested this and my conclusion is inconclusive, heh. It does appear to make less of a GUI slow-down indeed, but, not eliminate it. Maybe I had too much expectations :- ). Will continue to test.

If only viewport IR still had buttons and side-panel.

[maru]

I tried this and I do not see any difference. I won't believe it until someone records a similar video where the difference can be clearly observed :P
Check out my recording:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q2n9exfx7w9wdld/viewport-vs-vfb.mp4?dl=0

Also, if you are experiencing issues with UI drawing speed, try adjusting your power management profiles. Using high performance will probably make most sense. Here is a quick comparison:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zcvj9hw4x44yqq7/power-plans.mp4?dl=0

[Juraj]

Power profile indeed does make difference, but I am on already Ultimate Power profile which is higher than high, heh.

Still damn molasses. Biggest offender is Slate, that thing crawls with IR VFB.

[danio1011]

Yes, already on ultimate over here as well.  The differences I'm talking are just a second or two of lag, additional churn, etc...but it's noticeable to me.  And the disappearing geometry and freezing during copy to clipboard are happening to me with RC5 in VFB.

Does anyone have any free good screen recording software (that maybe has the capacity to show mouse clicks visually) to recommend?  The last one I used years ago had spyware :)  I'd at least try to replicate and prove...maybe I'll fail utterly and it'll show that I'm nuts :)

If only some people notice it it makes me wonder if it's windows build specific, graphics drivers, 4k issue, etc...is there anything different about the VFB UI than the max UI?  Does it use QT whereas most of Max (2021 in this case) doesn't, for example?  Excuse my ignorance on this.

[romullus]

Does anyone have any free good screen recording software (that maybe has the capacity to show mouse clicks visually) to recommend?  The last one I used years ago had spyware :)  I'd at least try to replicate and prove...maybe I'll fail utterly and it'll show that I'm nuts :)

https://obsproject.com/download Not sure about mouse clicks, but OBS studio became pretty much the one and only screen recorder lately.