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View Full Version : Potential Studio User...Advice

Leebre
12-01-2004, 11:13 PM
Well, I've been exploring the animate demo trying to decide if it is a "fit" for me. Even though I can't demo Studio I know how amazing the rendering portion is. However, after spending time with Animate I have a few concerns/critiques and I was hoping I could get some comments on them:




Very Sluggish Response - This is my biggest problem. The interface is slow to update when I make changes and even the most basic of animations in the viewer are choppy from dropped frames (i.e. - the tutorial with the box). If I load up the tutorial with the T-Rex...well, fahgedaboutit. My machine runs every other 3d app without problem. I've got a Radeon 9800 Pro, which from searches, has been shown to have problems.
Antiquated Interface - I realize this is more of a "you gotta get used to it"/personal preference thing but it would be nice to at least be able to tear off the panels and move them over to my other monitor. Constantly flipping back and forth on tabs feels very slow coming from previous apps.
That's it. Pretty short, but both of them are concerns on my part. Does anyone have any comments/advice? I really, really want to like this software but those are big stumbling blocks for me despite all the other outstanding features. The API is awesome, the renderer is awesome, the shader tree is awesome, the animation capabilities are awesome! Help me out here!

Thanks.
Wegg
12-02-2004, 02:20 AM
All of the provided tutorial scenes run silky smooth on my machine. I know that ATI is not the most "OpenGL friendly" graphics company. You might want to try it out on a friends machine with an Nvidia card in it before you give it up. . .
Leebre
12-02-2004, 05:49 AM
I upgraded to the latest Catalyst drivers and things runch MUCH better now. But now the text in the entry fields are invisible again...and the previous fix (force 16-bit buffer) isn't available anymore. 24-bit is an option, but it doesn't work. :sad:
ThomasHelzle
12-02-2004, 02:04 PM
All the example scenes run flawless realtime if your card is up to it (even the dino with Metanurbs on). Messiah must be one of the fastest OpenGL apps available, so it is definitely your card. The problems with ATIs OpenGL are annoying but it seems that there is no easy fix from pmGs side, so you may consider buying/testing a Nvidia card as someone else already suggested. The only problem is - the newest 6800 cards also have those refresh problems... LOL But if you don't need the newest, a 5600/5800 or something alike should run flawless. Quadros should also be cool.
I use a rather old 4800SE with 128 mb ram and no problems.

Hm. Yes the interface should be modular and able to be teared of in pieces, but it still is the only app interface that doesn't drive me crazy on one monitor (LW on one monitor ARGH@%$§&). The tabs are available with shortcuts and I wrote a little script that sets the F3 mode and jumps to Render/Materials since I need that very often.
I am sure that time will bring new options here but it wouldn't be my main concern. I actually love the interface with only some very minor flaws.

I hope this will not keep you away from the other goodies :)

Cheers!
Leebre
12-02-2004, 03:07 PM
I consider the text display problem to be ATI's and I submitted a trouble ticket for it but my expectations of anything fruitfull coming out of it are close to nil. So yes, I'll have to find someone with an NVidia card to test it out with. But the interface is no longer sluggish and playback is quite smooth now (as good as I expected with my processor).

As far as the interface goes...I'm assuming I can just hotkey the hell out of it. And like I said, it's just a matter of getting used to a new workflow.
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