Hello again guys :)
I found a terrible performance bug in Corona bitmap. I'm not sure if this is caused also by my configuration or not, so I'll list my specs:
i7 3930K@4.2GHz
2x gtx680(non_SLI)
64GB DDR3
3d connexion spacemouse PRO
Wacom Intousos pro
all the maps I use are located on Network mapped drives
The problem exists when I use multiple Forest Pack PRO objects with high poly geometry (Trees, cars with 7 million polygons +) and they have corona bitmap in their materials. When I navigate with my 3D mouse or with normal orbit mode, I have a one second lag every 1-3 seconds. It is really annoying because it slows my performance drastically. What is really weird it doesn't matter if I actually show those maps in viewport or not.
At first I wrote to IToo Software and we have tested all the possibilities. They couldn't reproduce my problem, but they didn't have the 3dconnexion mouse. They directed me to their forum where they explained that there was some problem between Forest Pack and 3d mouse (
http://forum.itoosoft.com/index.php?topic=1534.0). They told me to disable auto assign to active view in camera option option and it helped for a while. But with the next project, which uses more bitmaps, I got the same issue. And their solution didn't work. It was really weird because 10 million polygons on my hardware should't be a problem at all. Especially If most of the polygons are hidden. I had this lag even on isolation mode with only one box and no material assigned to it. It just had to be in this problematic scene.
So I started testing everything, turning all the options on and off (took me about almost a week... Like totally not working and trying to fix it... I actually reinstalled whole windows and software from scratch). Finally I tried to convert all corona bitmaps to normal bitmaps with the converter, and restarting the scene. Suddenly I got full performance with no lag. So I reverted all materials to Corona bitmap again to confirm that I found a bug, and this caused my vieport to lag again. I tested it 3 times in a row- converting/reverting and now I'm 100% sure of it: Corona bitmap kills my viewport performance when using heavy Forest Pack PRO objects. The FPS shows constant 50-60Fps but there is a lag. During the lag FPS doesn't drop so it look like max isn't even aware of the lag itself :)
I'll provide the problematic scene and some videos of how it lags when I upload them on dropbox.
Best regards.
