#R4 Fast Preview
13 messages in this thread
Hello All,
Opinions anyone? We're in the middle of a sizeable project completely
dependent on the stability of 3DS. The only benefit I can perceive from R4
would by the "real-time preview" feature. This would give us the ability to
produce the remaining animation faster by cutting preview time. This benefit
would be lost immediately if R4 brings display driver and other problems to the
mix.
Is anyone so impressed with the fast preview that they would think I'm crazy to
delay installing R4 for a couple of months until this project is a wrap?
Thanks for the input,
Tom
FPREVIEW is faster than rendering 8-bit flics, but is slower than the old
2-color make preview. All depends on the previews you're making.
Now the redraw speeds for manipulating quantities of objects might make it just
as valuable however…..
When you have time to learn IK & Scripting or purchase some of the latest
cutting edge Plug-ins it's definately time to upgrade.
– Phil
I have found some down-sides to the FPREVIEW.
1. It doesn't show morph (morph from A to B it only shows A)
2. It doesn't show axp (Flame, Smoke Etc.)
3. It doesn't show reflection.
4. It doesn't show mapped textures.
The FPREVIEW is really great. It shows your scene with colors,shininess and
more, it's A LOT quicker than normal rendering but I work with Pentium 90
and it doesn't show REAL TIME preview. maybe 7-12 FPS. but only in Wire-frame
(but with color) But I like it!
Sus.
Fast Preview / Camera Control is cool stuff, but even on a fast PC it
has got to feel like a subliminal advertisement for SGI grade
hardware. Until R-? supports and we all get video boards with
something like open GL capable chips or an operating system for
workstation class graphics acceleration I doubt if PC's will be
capable of doing the kind of interactivity that Fast Preview / Camera
Control now only hints at. Meanwhile SGI stuff gets faster and
cheaper, while PC software gets so sophisticated and demanding that
we have to spend more and more on bigger drives, immense expanses of
RAM, etc.. The playing field is far from level yet but the bumps are
smoothing. It'll be a blast two or three years down the road when
programs like 3DS, Wavefront, Lightwave, Softimage, et. al., are all
battling it out on equal footing in the marketplace.
>>1. It doesn't show morph (morph from A to B it only shows A), etc, etc…
It also can't render instance objects in the keyframer, and
it completely chokes on anything but simple scenes. I had high hopes
for the previewer, but unfortunately I haven't found it very useful
yet. (Hopefully the new batch of 3d accelerator chips coming out will
hold some promise… IF Adesk decides to support the new cards)
Hi David,
<< IF Adesk decides to support the new cards) >>
Yes.. Autodesk wishes to be sensitive to your future needs. Nik
Grant[adesk] is collecting video card wishlist threads and is
forwarding them to management weekly.
>Nik Grant[adesk] is collecting video card wishlist threads and is forwarding
them to management weekly.<
Support for any card available that includes onboard 3D would be a great thing.
The Matrox Impression series would be a good place to start. (inluding the
latest one- Plus?) Definately any Glint based cards when they come out..
Hopefully OpenGL will be factored in there somewhere.
Keep up the good work guys.
JNJ
Hi John,
<< vibrant wishlist.. >>
Feed Nik.. See Message #136234..
We did just that, shifted from r3 to r4 in mid-production of our
CD-ROM. The only thing you have to watch is that they updated the
3DS.MLI with new settings so any materials using the default lib
settings will look different (better).
Other than that, it was seemless. Fast preview wasn't that great, but
as Phillip mentioned the editor redraws are faster and hide/unhide
flies for large scenes. The network rendering seems more solid, but
maybe that's my imagination.
>> … We're in the middle of a sizeable project completely dependent on the
stability of 3DS. … This benefit would be lost immediately if R4 brings
display driver and other problems to the mix.
Is anyone so impressed with the fast preview that they would think I'm crazy to
delay installing R4 for a couple of months until this project is a wrap?
…Tom <<
Why not upgrade one station and see how you like it? Very little of
the core code is different. A lot of bugs were fixed and some good
extras like Keyscript, FP and IK were added. I don't know of any
stability problems. The only problems I have heard about have been
people with video cards who's chipset paint is still not dry.
As for your production schedule I probably wouldn't mess with stations
that are in the midst of a hairy project, just on general principles,
unless you could see a definite benefit. Still you will probably
want to have the upgrades ready to install as soon as production lets
up. I haven't noticed any problems moving files back and forth
between r3 and r4 either. Good luck on your project.
Terry Gilbert
Forcade & Associates
If you do decide to upgrade in the middle, be sure to compare your old set
files to your new ones. We had a couple people in our facility who decided to
upgrade "unofficially" before we did it to all the machines, and some settings
in 3ds.set were different. We hosed several nights worth of rendering before we
pinned down the problem. I'd do it, but be REAL careful.
Tim Miller
Sony IMAGEWORKS
>> If you do decide to upgrade in the middle, be sure to compare your old set
files to your new ones. We had a couple people in our facility who decided to
upgrade "unofficially" before we did it to all the machines, and some settings
in 3ds.set were different. We hosed several nights worth of rendering before we
pinned down the problem. I'd do it, but be REAL careful.
Tim Miller
Sony IMAGEWORKS <<
Yeah, we had that trouble with the subtractive transparency setting.
Succesive frames had different saturation on a transparent pink object. Really
weird until we look very closely at the 3DS.SET file.
Terry Gilbert
Forcade & Associates
>> Tim Miller Sony IMAGEWORKS
Tim, nice to see you here. My complements to you for the terrific work on the
Siggraph 94 reel. I look forward to seeing more of your work.
– Dave